Match Day Thread Today's Games

It was like watching a match in the 70s

 

I forget the year, but my dad remembers fans cheering whilst Man Utd thugs fell off one of the stadium roofs at Carrow Road

 

I think this is the game 1977

 

I was one of them cheering as they fell. They were tearing the tiles off the roof at the Barclay end.

 

Think it might have been 74/5...in view of the video probably not. I may be confusing it with the West Ham game when McDougall scored the winner near the end.

 

In other news Burnley 3 Everton 2.

 

yes a point apiece would be better, but now it is clear the almost impossible task is to be eight points better than the three teams above us over the final games left. i expect the best of them to get eight/nine points, which means we need 17 points from 8 games… five wins two draws

Well, must stay optimistic!

 

I find letting yourself down gently earlier in the season is easier on your mental health and and general disappointment levels.

 

If Everton lose at the weekend and we beat Burnley on Sunday, that slither of hope is back again and we can't quite resign ourselves to the inevitable. This season is sadistic.

 

Burnley are going to come to town in high spirits. I can only see one outcome there.

 

My 'slither' of hope slipped away after the Brentford and Leeds results. It's now about whether we can surpass our abysmal total last time around.

 

I see what you did there.

 

Yep, I began preparations way back in November, now I simply don't care

 

If anyone was eyeing a win tomorrow in the belief that might offer a very faint glimmer of hope, the Everton result has put paid to that idea.

It’s telling that we have played the big clubs in rotten form and not got anything. You need to pick up points in those sorts of games, the odd shock result, to stand a chance of survival.

 

Not a single Giant scalp this season at least we beat Man City and knocked Spurs out of the cup last time around.

This is one of the worst seasons in decades for me .

 

I agree. And what's worse, I can't see much hope for next season. I genuinely believe we are more or less back to square one on the pitch, although financially and infrastructurally we are much better off.

 

I would be more hopeful of bouncing back under Farke next season .

Smith hasn't really impressed me much so far .


Something had to change though and we have to get behind the current man in the dug out

 

Where exactly is "square one" Gozo? When were we last on it?

 

Where we were before Farke arrived. I stress again 'on the pitch'.

EDIT: There's no point us arguing about this, Robbie. You clearly think Smith is a serious manager who is capable of at least equalling, and probably surpassing, what Farke achieved. I don't.

Time will tell which one of us is right.

 

I think Smith’s capable of surpassing what Farke achieved. He’s a very capable manager, plus Farke underachieved his potential with us because we had such rotten luck with him in the Premier League.

If Smith goes on to get us promoted and then keeps us up, it won’t mean he is a better manager than Farke. He will owe a lot to the foundations Farke built up and the results on the pitch enabling us to invest in the club long term under Farke. The same is true in terms of what, eg, Frank owes Smith for the stability and improvement he provided to Brentford.

I think the timing of sacking Farke was a big mistake. He should have been given until early December or even January given that we must have known we had no funds to invest, so the new manager “bounce” would have been much more useful later on in the season. It would also mean that Smith would have been less sullied by the really ugly performances, far worse than under Farke, in the grim December run. Smith had more than his fair share of bad luck then too and Burnley’s behaviour manipulating Covid is the unwritten scandal of the season.

I agree with Dunc though that I would be more positive with Farke as manager in the Championship. I think he’s a special manager with a unique and attractive vision about how to play the game, and so the romantic in me wishes he would be the one to keep us up. Smith obviously can get teams playing nice football, but it’s still more agricultural. And in terms of risk/reward his style probably has a higher chance of success on a pure stylistic level (excluding players).

We do need to avoid the Hughton era thing though - I supported Hughton, but the lack of connection between fans and Hughton’s playing style vision got us relegated when we ought to have been Premier League mid-table safety.

So I don’t think it’s really about proving anyone right or wrong over the passage of time. It’s about supporting our club while stomaching (or hopefully enjoying) the manager’s style.