I'll be pleasantly surprised if we can beat Wolves. I'd put money on a 1-0 defeat. If we do capitulate from here, going to be really interesting seeing what happens with Howe. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't his obstinance and lack of flexibility/ideas the reason why Bournemouth ran out of steam? Let's not forget whilst it was "only" Bournemouth, Howe spent £150m+ in the two seasons leading to relegation, recouping about £50m (half of which was Mings). Not saying he didn't do a great job there, but just interesting. I hope he turns it around, personally, I like the guy and I like the thought of being a powerhouse with an Englishman in charge. Not sure it'll happen.
We've only lost to City and Liverpool in the league all season. We beat Fulham who are better. Don't worry. Liverpool was a nightmare, but we weren't bad the last two games, we just got beat by superior teams. I think a 1/2-0 win tbh.
Gordon------------Isak-------------Almiron ----Longstaff----Bruno-----Willock------- Burn-------Botman---Lascelles----Trippier ----------------------Pope----------------------
Oh man I ****ing hope so. Really feels like a turning point game, we've really got to banish the scoring issues. I mean this is a team relying on Matt Dawson ffs. What we need is a better selection, and for it to just click. I'd go for 4-3-3, but I'd have Gordon right, ASM left and Isak in the middle but dropping deeper. Bruno, Longstaff and Willock in the middle. Think Almiron needs a break, those three deserve a chance. Murphy unlucky but just not as threatening as the others. Midfield is a concern, so I might be termpted to go 4-2-3-1 instead, we have options and the striker won't be as isolated through the middle which I think has been a massive problem.
This has been the biggest issue recently, we were fine when Wilson was firing properly and holding the ball up etc, but since Jan for whatever reason, he's been hopeless. Isak has already demonstrated he can't (currently) fulfil that role, so a change of formation would definitely help him and the team in general. Was also interesting to see the benefit of playing someone on the wing on his "correct" foot - crosses in nice and early instead of having to wait for someone to cut back inside ...
Results going so much our way at the weekend will be a big boost going into this one. 2-0 win for us which begins the start of a run.
I just think we need a few tweaks for now, Isak will drop deeper anyway which gives us better than Wilson, but the wide attackers have to then understand their roles better. Then again the players are getting into positions but the finishing is diabolical. Enough for me would be to play ASM, Gordon and Isak across the front on Sunday and to hope Bruno properly shakes off the ankle problem.
All we need is the goal. Everything else has been very good, Start Isak, ASM and Gordon and I reckon things will change. We looked good against Liverpool, Man U and City. With our shooting boots, we could have won at least two of those matches. I think we will win this 2-0. If we get back to before the world cup, we could hammer them. Regardless, we just need to start scoring and dropping players like Almiron and Burn. I'd consider keeping Lascelles in after his display on Saturday
It's a nice time to recalibrate right now tbh - we've had a bit of a bad patch and lost to City like we thought, but played far better than we expected and it was a huge improvement from the league cup final. With results going out way at the weekend, and us having games in hand on 4th and 5th, it's a great opportunity to finish the season strongly now.
I agree. I am encouraged by our performances but discouraged by our potency up front. We have gotten the difficult patch out the way and I would like to think we can now kick on and get some results. We are, if we win our games in hand, a net 4th. which, despite everything, is amazing.
We need a striker to score at least 15 We need 3 more players to score 10 Bruno should be scoring more ASM should be scoring more
Players that regularly get 30 a season are few and far between - Shearer managed it once with us in 10 years, and everyone's raving about Rashford now and he's never even got close to that, and Rooney did it twice in 13 years at Man U. Who regularly scored 30 goals a season in the Prem? Henry, Aguero, Kane and Salah....can't think of many more. Plus plenty of renouned strikers in Europe fail in the Prem - Lukaku and Shevchenko at Chelsea, Di Maria at Man U, Luuk De Jong with us etc.
We can, we just have tended not too lately..... Isak x 2, Gordon, ASM and Bruno. 5-0 thumping, season back on track.
We haven't scored for a few matches. This means we can score goals. We've lost a couple of matches recently. This means we can't defend. Our keeper let in goals for those lost matches. This means our keeper can't save shots. Dunno what that says about the midfield. But still let's just say they're rubbish too. We're gonna win this one.
