Are we moving forward?

I mean 2-3 years ago our starting XI was:
Pope
Trippier - Schar - Botman - Burn
Bruno - Joelinton - Willock?
Murphy - Isak - Gordon


Pope - definitely hasnt improved since.

Defense - Now, I do think that Tino and Hall are exciting players, right age - tick all the boxes. Thiaw looks good. May be we are one world class CB away from being all set on back four.
But with injuries, atm I dont think we are better now.

Midfield - Bruno and Big Joe were immense couple years ago. Now with Tonali i think we are on the same level. I dont know if Joelinton gonna return to his best. I believe that Howe should find a way to play Bruno - Miley - Tonali as a way forward.
If only it wasnt for PSR…

Attack - here we are. Is it downgrade on all three? Is it where our problem is?
We still have Gordon and Murphy, but are they the same players quality wise? Murphy is getting older, Gordon is a shadow of himself. Even the rat himself just managed 1-2 goals in half a year,
The club had an excellent opportunity to upgrade RW position, Murphy would accept back up role. And they kinda tried doing it at discount shop, but it hasnt worked.
As I said in another thread - CF replacement was a panic buy, but its hard to blame the club - everyone knew we need a striker and we paid through the nose for these two.


We had 3-4 transfer seasons without a major signing and Howe managed to get Cup win and CL out of these players. But it cant work forever. May be Isak saga hasnt happened if we’d bought 3-4 first team players these past two seasons.

I recon wingers is the most under invested part of the pitch right now.

Murphy has a decent cross, but if you take that away there isnt much left. Cant really shoot, cant dribble or beat defenders on pace.

Gordon can beat people with his pace, and puts in the odd good cross. However hes shooting and finishing is poor. Only good on the left side.

Barnes dont really beat people with hes dribbling. Hes pace isnt the best either. Not the best crosser. Has a very good shot, but he only seem to work on the left.

Elanga is miles behind all of them.

No.

So no.

We havent signed a player that has improved the starting WI since Tonali, in 2023.

Barring ballbag's departure I actually thought we made amazing signings in the summer and the answer is yes if our current players play to their potential along with the new ones.

That hasn't happened. The added players haven't translated into progress.....so far.

Maybe in the lab behind the scenes they are being quietly Howed and honed and will burst out soon and start ripping it up.

Unfortunately the answer IMO for now is "no"....but it could be a "yes" at some point in the future.

If that makes sense

the simple answer is no.

We look like we are ok on the surface but we are regressing and the ****ing constant

positive excuses are starting to plss the fan base off.

Look at today, Villa losing to Chelsea, came from behind to win, they also have more than 1 game a week,

their manager is tactically astute and they do not have a better squad than us but they manage to be in a title challenge.

Our mentality has changed since Bunce came in, now Eddie sets us up to play in a way that minimises fatigue

and injuries, just so happens it has killed our game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TANYA_

Our mentality has changed since Bunce came in, now Eddie sets us up to play in a way that minimises fatigue

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That is a really good point actually.

Look at Aston Villa and other similar clubs. They score goals. How many seasons is it were we struggle to score! It does not matter how many competitions we are in we cannot generally score most of the time. Wissa, well unless he plays him we will never know. 30 minutes here or there is daft! Eddie needs to give his head a wobble.

Who is Bunce? Our mentality all season has been poor. If I am going to be kind I think that one of our guys got it right; the Isak affair screwed the club, it impacted on both the team and manager. rant over...I could go on but so disappointed.

Hard to say. Progress in football is seldom linear and mainly 2 steps forward, one step back. We ll know next season IMO.

I started to work on the KPIs of 'Project NUFC since 2021.

However, I deleted the post and I will just say.

Yes, there is considerable progress.

Eddie Howe is being judged by the very high standards HE HIMSELF has brought to this absolute shower of Sh!te of a club pre-take over.

11th in the Champions League looking comfortable to qualify for the KOs.
3rd semi-final of the Carabao in 4 yrs
Won 8 and drawn 1 of the last 9 at home.

Away from home it's unacceptable. Clearly there is some major issues.

However, to say that the club and team haven't progressed is disingenuous.

What we are all feeling as a fan base is the disappointment at the lack of creativity.

Not just in the team but also in terms of substitutions and tactics.

Away to the filth. When the red scum went into their shell it was the ideal opportunity to play Wissa & Woltemade up top with Nick as a withdrawn 2nd striker.

With the 6 at the back cowardly tactics from Ruben 'Scam-a-rim-job' as sections of the scum patrol call him, the idea that they would be punting the ball long for a break away counter, it would have been a better idea to send the CBs up to play along side Nick as strikers and bring Gordon & Murphy to play as a back 3 with Hall as sweepers.

It was clear that the filth has shut up shop. 46 crosses went into the manc box with no one there to target.

Remember that progress is never linear. It's never gonna be up, up and up.

One question - Do people think that No.14 would have changed the game for NUFC at the swamp?

I don't think so.

What is clear is that there needs to be more creativity on the pitch.