You don't get points to finish top 7 vs Birmingham. Brighton just do look better now and so do Fulham and Bournemouth, so why even argue about it.
We were insipid today, and did vs Fulham. Feels to me like a lot see the cup final as the big hurrah and that a lot of change is on the near horizon.
Random question, but does anyone else wonder if Howe would be better off playing some youth players with a bit of mobility on days like today. I understand people will say Howe sees everything in training, but it's not like the so called reliable ones don't prove unreliable.
Possibly, but Pope is so crap with his feet I can understand why he didn’t. Cbs and a GK are desperately required
Not really. You have a keeper who can do the main job first. The distribution is a bonus. Hence our need for a new keeper but at the moment Pope should be no1
Keeping the ball means less efforts on our goal though. I've noticed this season Pope makes some excellent saves after giving the ball away. You're probably right, but there's a major flaw to both keepers to the point I'd like to see the Greek. Ultimately none of them are good enough if he's not. Would you agree a new gk is essential?
I thought Howe got his tactics all wrong Sit deep and tight then hit us on the counter,its our achilles heel and has been all season Our new players have helped get some energy and legs back in the side but Newcastle just gifted us that game
That’s a fair comment and I agree. City looked sharper all over the pitch. It was men v boys. Or girls by some accounts.
I wouldn't say essential. I would say a center back and right winger are essential. Then the GK. Dubs is not top half quality and Pope, we have the worries over his shoulder.
Not sure why people are calling for Pope, we are so much better without him - even today, getting our pants taken down, we are at least able to play football from the back and not just hoof everything forwards. None of those goals were Dubz fault imo, literally had nothing in front of him today, CM’s weren’t closing the passing lanes or picking up players. Defenders were shocking to a man. Thought Gordon looked lazy and Murphy was anonymous. Isak made the wrong choice on a few occasions but was trying to do it himself. think Tino, Joelinton and Botman would have made a huge difference today as well btw! Shows clearly why we need another CB, another winger and a top quality keeper.
Trippier blaming team mates for the second and third goals even though he was at fault for the first and arguably second. Blokes attitude stinks tbh.
Don’t see it anywhere near enough tbh. How he looks at Trippier and thinks “yeah, he’s the thing we need” is ****ing bizarre.
He brought the last 2 on as subs, and Pope has been second choice for a long while. If he had put Miley in the starting line up it would have been incredibly weird.
The solutions people offer are fickle..its drop Livramento one week and then drop Trippier the next. I'm now seen asking if youth would work? No it wouldn't. I would make a case that nothing Howe tried today would've made any difference to the result. If we beat a side 4-0 and all people did was make out they had their worst performance in years we'd say they weren't giving us enough credit. Having watched the game today, I've decided to conclude that Manchester City had better footballers in possibly every single position on the pitch, and that's the real reason we lost.
