We've got 40 points like... I would anticipate a collapse now after yesterday. The players are human being and there's no words anyone can say to them.... it'll have taken their souls for a time.
In some respects, playing Man City on Sat is probably a bonus; absolutely no pressure on the team to get a result - still a bit of a free hit for us
I think Wilson is fine for at least one more season, Schar and Longstaff are the 2 than need upgrading as a priority.
Man U are clearly a much stronger team than us, I don't think yesterday's game is going to signal much. With Bruno, Willock, Gordon and Pope all coming into the team now, I can see an upturn in performances. Would be massively surprised if we get anything from the City game though.
Agree, and add Burn. Hope Targett comes back in, but we probably still need an upgrade. Maddision in at 10, shift to 4-2-3-1, bring in a top CB, improve LB and hten add youth.
Targett's gone off the radar a bit, not a good sign if he can't get past Burn, who isn't even really a full back. Would be tempted to bring Targett back in for the City game instead of Burn, we just need to change things around right now.
You've been in denial all year so far mate.. they've won 1 game in months, lost a cup final and now face Man City away . These players confidence is completely shot to bits and they'll struggle to make top 6 if this continues. I'm fine with that tbh , but hopefully howe can fix what are now damaged goods.
Maddison I think we can forget... FFP is now going to start making things difficult. They need a proper striker that scores 20 plus a season... Burn was fine yesterday once again.
Targetts been injured for ages, Wembley was his first bench appearance. I think there's a huge onus on the leadership team to get players off the books - Lewis, Targett, Dummett, Lascelles, Ritchie, Krafth, Manquillo etc.
Reality is reality - we're in 5th place with games in hand on 4th and a very real possibility of a top 4 finish. The fact is its a very weak Premiership this year, with Chelsea and Liverpool turning dogshit, and there's plenty of opportunity for us to take advantage of that.
6th is very much the best we can do. 4th is gone, L'pool will easily catch us. I'm optimistic that Fulham, Chelsea, Brentford and Brighton won't offer enough to push us even further down.
Very, very weak Premier League this year, yes. We have an absolutely golden opportunity. We lose against City, that's guaranteed. But if we can actually start you know, scoring a goal, perhaps we can upgrade to TWO goals a month, we have a chance of winning a second game in the league this calendar year.
Ah ok. Well Targett's over ever been good for us, and with the team going stale, it needs to be changed, and that's the most obvious one. Also Willock back in for Longstaff, and maybe Gordon for ASM (despite ASM being actually one of our best players yesterday).
The chance for top 4 is going to be almost gone after we lose to City. It was never really once they failed to win games for the last month . The players are human beings they're currently low on confidence and just had their collective soul removed. The aim was always top half.
I agree and I think 6th would be a great achievement.. yesterday came too soon....we were not equipped and unfortunately met Man United at the exact time they are becoming man united again .
Top 4 isnt gone if we lose to City, we have 2 games in hand on Spurs and if we win the other one, we're 1 point off 4th with far better GD than them. The aim was improvement on last year, which top half would be, but aims are obviously adjusted as the season progresses. "Just had their collective soul removed" is somewhat exaggerating and rather melodramatic.
Not that convinced re Liverpool - if they were going to kick on, they should have beaten Palace, they are still not the team they were - we just made them look better than they are ....
7th would have been the ultimate aim, and a decent cup run. We're on course, so just to be clear any frustration i have is really down to how many times will Chelsea & Liverpool be this bad? Spurs as well. Man U were even 17th in September, who thought they'd suddenly become unbeatable. We had a good opportunity but didn't take it. One player through the door in Jan wasn't clever. Bit like playing Pope in the semi-final....
Hope you're right - I forgot they were playing Saturday! 5th just seems like scant consolation, given the seasons conditions and what we could've won. Who knows, maybe it will all click again and we finish strongly.
