Ashley17

Neither team were good, but it was fairly obvious we were trying to draw them on to us so we could counter. MOTD didn’t show a pretty good Gordon chance where he shimmied past two of them and dragged a shot wide. There was also a couple of Isak miscontrols aftee being played in

Always thought of him as just a harmless enthusiast but now he just seems like a fully grown daft cunt

It's simple for me really. Do we have the 4th best squad in the league? 6th? 8th? Emphasis on the word squad there too. We are about where we should be given what we have, where we've been and what we've had to deal with. When Howe had one game a week and more or less a full squad he could drill the tactics into the players and made some of the less talented ones look a lot better than they are. Obviously we've had many weeks this year where we've probably trained once or twice in between games and it shows. Then remove key pieces of the team such as Pope, Joelinton, a fully fit striker for many weeks, so on and so forth, I think 6th-8th is about right for this group of players. If you look at Spurs in their current guise, it'll be interesting to see how they perform next season if they make the Champions League. Similar high intensity (to us last season) and they'll play something ridiculous like 41 games all of this season. We've already played that many. He's more than earned the right to have another go at things next season. Obviously there are some things I hope he has learned from but he's got his way of playing and would rather the players get adjusted to that rather than changing for their sake. He's been that way since the day he arrived, we took some hidings (Leicester, Man City and Spurs away in his first season spring to mind) but he never changed his philosophy.

Isn't that the point though? Nobody stopped us spending, we chose not to so as not to breach the rules. Everton thought they could get around it with some window dressing.

Can certainly believe we were in for him last summer, I'm sure most of the local hacks had him nailed on to be signing.

I dunno, he clearly doesn't have that much faith in Hall as a left back and we were 1-0 up. He probably sees Krafth as a safe pair of hands (so to speak) who hasn't done a lot wrong when called upon during Eddie's time with us, even if he was horrific under Bruce (and obviously missed about a year under Howe). Either way, Krafth was hopeless when he came on and Hall was introduced at a time when all he had to do was attack as West Ham withdrew Antonio and more or less declared at 3 until the final minutes. It's obviously unsustainable to keep needing to score at least three to win a game but if we're capable of doing it then it's far better than watching us cling on for dear death with 10 behind the ball.

I just keep thinking back to that stat during Covid-Bruceball (the grimmest of times) where it was mistakes leading to goals and he was on about 8 for the season or something. He's obviously declined even further since then and it shows. Looking forward to having Pope back at some point and I presume we'll get another second choice in - maybe Fraser Forster if we want to cheat the home grown game? I know there's talk about that Valencia keeper but unless Pope is broken beyond repair we surely wouldn't waste precious budget on a backup at this stage.

I hate to say it but Bland's info is routinely spot on, whoever the fuck he is.

When it was JDT in charge I thought this was the perfect match for us. They were very open and if it was attack vs attack, I'd fancy us to win. Eustace seems to have made them more conservative and the results haven't come yet. Take it seriously and we should win.

I think that’s fair. It’s frustrating because he obviously got us to “stage 2” ahead of schedule and now it’s probably conceivable that we are back in stage 1. You have to believe things would have turned out differently were it not for injuries but how much of that was down to the workload and way we play is probably a debate for another day. He’s been the same since arriving in that we are going to play his way regardless of who is available. We took some hidings in the first few months and some of the recent spell has reminded me of that.-I think that’s commendable to a point but he needs to show some flexibility for a plan B. Crazy that we have beaten Man Utd home and away, Villa home and away, Man City, Arsenal, PSG, the mackems…yet it’s been a pretty average season for end results.

Hate to say it but he looks fucking knackered. Probably wearing on his face how we feel inside, so many ups and downs this season often in the same game. Agree with the points about Joelinton and Willock exposing Burn's weaknesses, that side of the pitch has been our biggest weapon but it's also now our weakest area. Hopefully we can get through the rest of the season without too many "fucking hell" results and rebuild because although the optimist in me thinks we're still 7th, we can't go on shipping goals like this or there's going to be some horror show results.

Strange game. Bournemouth are a bit like what we used to be but with lesser players. They pressed us really well knowing that if they turn over possession we haven't got the legs to get back in. Solanke would be an incredible fit in our system, he just runs and runs all day and obviously got his reward with Dubravka's slip. Obviously all the rhetoric was about what a huge mistake that was but it's not like he misplaced a pass, he just slipped on a greasy surface which happened constantly in the second half for both teams. I actually thought he should have saved the second goal, which seemed to be quite close to him. To me, it's obvious Semenyo is going to shoot across the keeper and a good keeper should anticipate that. Positives? Lewis Miley is brilliant, put himself about today too and won some important tackles. Bruno is obviously class but he's trying to do too much with it at times. Our insistence on not just clearing it is commendable but also heart stopping, especially when Bruno plays a little nutmeg on the edge of his own box in stoppage time. Burn is obviously a liability when the ball is played beyond him, which is often. Longstaff was absolutely invisible in the second half, I don't see any reason for him to start over Miley if Willock is ever available again. The front 3 tried hard but it was obvious how much we were lacking a focal point. Barnes is always looking to get a shot off which is no bad thing whereas Almiron has possibly the worst technique of any player in the league. Again I'd like to see it back but Gordon going through one on one with the keeper about 10 yards off his line and somehow not even getting a shot off was a key moment, not least because they scored their second shortly thereafter. I don't really know where we go for the rest of the season. We are very likely to concede 4+ next weekend, we are conceding lots of goals to average teams so a good team will, in theory, fill their boots. I'd absolutely be looking at the possibility of 5 at the back as we finished at Villa and Forest because we need to do something different to try and shore us up a bit, we are very easy to play against.

Thought we really missed Joelinton today. Some fairly meek tackles in the middle of the park, obviously Bruno is trying to avoid getting booked but Longstaff is just too nice. Burn was targeted from minute one, thought he was great at Villa until Bailey came on but very apparent in this current lineup that he’s unsuitable for the role. Not so bad away from home when we are a bit deeper but if there’s space to run in behind him he’s done for.

Two wins from Wembley. No replays now either. I do wish the semis were literally anywhere else. Massively takes the shine off making the final

Not sure where else to put this, but is NUFC.com covered in adverts now for anybody else? Looks like the bloody Chronicle website for me now, trying to decide if something isn't working like it used to in terms of adblocking or whether they've just had to take on adverts to cover costs.