Shroppie

And Bednarek RB, or is it Djenepo with 3xCB?

Surprised at that. Mccarthy fir me is generally still more assured. At least he'll come for crosses

That's a decent call too. But with Djenepo on the right to support Bednarek

With no confidence whatsoever, I'm guessing: Mccarthy Ramsey Bednarek Salisu Vestergaard Bertrand Jankewitz JWP Redmond Armstrong Ings

This. Embarrassing lack of knowledge by the commentators

This, absolutely. There may have been doubt over the timing of ours last week, but this was clear. He blew the whistle before the ball was kicked. The idea that he could unblow it by blowing again is ridiculous.

Ancient history doesn't count. I think our recent records match fairly well, except we've probably had more cup finals and Euro campaigns recently.

"Subject to the proviso that the duration of a Standard Loan must be the time between two Transfer Windows, Standard Loans can be for half a Season or a full Season. Any recall clause requiring the early termination of a Standard Loan can only be included in a full Season Standard Loan and this can only be activated during the second (January) Transfer Window. Any other early termination of a Standard Loan must be by way of a mutual agreement in writing (including by way of a recall clause within the Standard Loan Agreement) between both Clubs and the Player but can only be completed after the expiry of 28 days and only during a Transfer Window." So, no.

No. I'd rather Salisu or Stephens

That was the Leeds pitch. And just as he was having his best game in a long time.

I have. Still annoying though.

It wasn't clear. A fraction of a second and the whistle was certainly in his lips as the kick was taken. The point is, it was so close he could have let it go and would have done in any other circumstances.

Like your thinking. Not a bad shout at all if we don't want to risk Jankewitz. Stephens is another option but I'd say not as good. I'd probably choose Djenepo ahead of Minamino but otherwise agree.

You've perfectly demonstrated meltdown. Thank you. Yes we have problems. Yes, we're on a bad run. No, I'm not happy. But I trust the club and Ralph far more than the opinions on this forum when it comes to solutions.

The ref admitted he blew as the kick was taken but then changed his mind and blew again as he decided he wasn't ready. That really is wrong.

Not according to Ralph. It was 4222 with Djenepo sometimes dropping back to support at RB. And Romeu will definitely be out.

It's a close call but Bednarek and Vestergaard did have a good understanding going and I think Salisu breaks that up.

I can. It's this forum in meltdown. Don't confuse it with reality.

I can't believe anyone would seriously consider any of those.

Corrected it for you. No way is Hughton better than Ralph. Yes, there were things last night, and in other games, that didn't go right. But to suggest we're in meltdown and need to throw out bathwater, baby and all is definitely over the top.

Not really. Valery has had decent games for us. Instead we have nothing. A problem with our players going out on loan is they have been schooled in our style of play which won't necessarily be wanted by the loan club. And if they do play, it's not in the way we want when they come back. Valery is missing the opportunity to play in our way.

Mccarthy Ramsey Bednarek Vestergaard Bertrand Diallo/Jankewitz JWP Armstrong Djenepo Ings Tella

I agree that wasn't his finest moment. Not sure if he thought it was going wide or the McCarthy was right behind it but he should have got his head to it, not that it would gave made any difference vto the result. And I'm not judging him on one mistake. You've got an agenda and you've permanently defined him as "soft" and a "bottle job" He's neither.

Thought that, in the cold light of day, I’d risk trying a balanced assessment of what’s wrong. We have gone from a confident, top six team to a fragile, nervous bunch with no confidence over the course of about 10 weeks. I include Ralph in that. To start with injuries: of course they are the major problem. In November the team picked itself: Mccarthy KWP Vestergaard Bednarek Bertrand JWP Romeu Redmond Armstrong Ings Adams Since then seven of that team have had time out through injury and suspension, in almost every position. Add in likely deputies of Smallbone, Obafemi, Walcott, Diallo (injured) and Valery, Long, Vokins (rashly sent out) and the squad simply couldn’t cope. Ralph has had the options of square pegs in round holes or inexperience, usually both at once. The bench has vanished as a Plan B. That’s bad enough but we’ve also suffered from more than a few bad decisions that have hurt us. Handballs, offsides, penalties, ref blowing/not blowing his whistle have impacted results and, more importantly, confidence. Once a sense of injustice sets in it becomes an underlying draining emotion. I can understand how the normally philosophical Ralph has shown signs of this but he has to lead in positivity, but he’s looking down, understandably. Another factor in the background is just how unsettled Danny and Ryan are over contracts. It can’t help and it’s a Catch 22. When things are going well and they’re having good games there is the conflict between being happy as part of a successful team and coping with the pressure if a greedy agent encouraging a greedy move. When things start to go wrong, they start to think they’d be better off elsewhere. I still think the team.are one of two good wins away from picking up, but at the moment that’s easier said than done. But it can be done because we are still playing good football, at least in patches. We really need a bit of luck! My biggest worry is Ralph keeping his focus, staying confident and positive and not sinking into the blame game, but he’s taking a lot of knocks. Take last night as an example. He was frustrated that we didn’t capitalise on good chances in the first half. We could have been two or three up. And he saw silly defensive lapses put us on the back foot. And for those he will be inclined to blame players, but it’s a delicate balance. Then there were the decisions. The VAR pen was probably right, but it still gives the feeling of “here we go again”. If it’s approached as asking if a “clear and obvious error” was made, do you get the same result? Plenty of recent very quick VAR checks deciding the ref may have been wrong, but not clear and obvious. Not happening for us, though. And the non whistle blowing was very questionable. Add to that a disgusting pitch which clearly gave Ralph and the players worries over injuries (definitely the cause of Romeu’s injury) and affected our ability to play our game and it’s easy to complain that everything is against us. But having a persecution complex won’t solve anything. Even with injuries we can put out a team which, on a level playing field (both figuratively and in actuality) can give anyone a game. How badly we need Nigel’s blue line. Move on. Stay positive.

I'm not an unthinking fan. I base my views on observation. And Romeu was probably our best player tonight until his injury.