Dman

Finn Azaz - 12 goals 11 assists last season Tom Fellows - 4 goals 14 assists last season Adam Armstrong - 21 goals 13 assists last time in the championship. You've got the players, its your system (or lack of) that is holding us back, Will.

Is that true, I'm not sure it is. First game he played was Espanyol pre-season and he came on, looked lively and scored a decent, well taken goal. Since then, all of our forwards have looked poor, alal be it Downs the worst of them. I personally think the issue is deep rooted with the system

Must be getting close to a must win for Still. Not convinced a draw will be acceptable at this stage. Fresh start after the internation break. Lets go 4231 and give it a right go on the front foot. McCarthy Jehert THB Wood Manning Jander Charles Fellows Azaz Scienza Armstrong

In the current system, correct. If we can somehow find a way to get the ball into the feet of Scienza, Azaz, Fellows - that gives us an opportunity for players like Archer or Armstrong to play on the shoulder.

He's not injured. He played against Liverpool and has been in the past few squads. Just not fancied.

McCarthy Jelert THB Wood Manning or Wellington (when fit) Jander Charles Fellows Azaz Scienza Armstronf / Archer would be my go to. On current form, Armstrong has to start. I don't like him through the middle but I also think Fellows and Scienza also need to start. we need to find a way to get the ball into the 3 behind them more often, so that we can play through balls rather than expecting him to hold the cball up.

We seem reluctant to play him on either. Very strange.

Exactly. Its an easy link, a bit like Rohl is to us. I'll be surprised if Mannging lasts much longer, he's out of a job and feels like the kind of appointment they'd make.

Maybe. However, to date, we've not really seen Downs given the right service to judge that one. FWIW, i'm not really defending him - the start has been poor, his confidence is clearly lower than a snakes belly and from the small cameo's we've seen, he looks like he's won a competition to play professional football. He needs to sharpen up with his back to goal and offer us more. That being said, I would like to see him in a side who are free-flowing and full of confidence.

A championship side will 100% snap him up. Probably Norwich. He has the desierable promotion on his CV to shout about and he clearly can talk a good game. His problem, he will never in the near future, get a side who (in theory) just need to turn up to be one of the top sides, like he did with us then Rangers.

He's another striker who can't play with his back to goal imo. He's essentially Cameron Archer, just a bit bigger.

Can you imagine this place if we had signed Carlton Morris ffs. Still came in with a view that we'd play front foot press, attacking football. Key to that is getting runners inbehind. Morris, is absolutley not suited to how we want to play. We've kind of stumbled across that hitting it long to a big man because his orginal system / intention didn't work. Downs, whilst has been disappointing, in the espanyol pre-season game, he showed what he can do when we play to his strengths.

This is what I really don't understand. We were promised, high intensty pressing, direct attacking football. 9 (leauge games) in and we look more like a russel martin side (just somehow worse) than we do something that would resemble what we were told we'd get. We have players like Fellows and Scienza look like they could beat anyone 1vs1 in this leauge. Azaz who is proven quality in the 10, playing between the defence and midfield and archer / amstrong who are best playing off the shoulder in the channels. In theory, if teams sit deep, we have the quality to unpick them by getting our wingers 1vs1 or getting Azaz some space. If they play a high-line, we have people like Archer or Armstrong who can play inbehind. Our problem is that our plan is clearly to get down the wings and get balls into the box, the problem is that we have no clear pattern of how we will do that, so have resorted to hit a big man and play off him. You can't even blame the players / Russell Martin legacy, as almost all of our midfield who've started the past few games didn't play under him.

Downes was obviously a risk, which hasn’t worked so far… however, Armstrong, Archer, Scienza, Azaz, Fellows are comfortably some of - if not the best - options in this league.

FWIW, I’d give him until the next international window, in November. It’s not been that poor we have no choice but to change, but it’s also not been good enough either. Limping on is the right word for IT. November gives Still enough time to turn the tide and enough time for us to properly weigh up options + an international window to work on the training ground for the new man. The problem is, there are no signs it’ll get better. Absolutely nothing to grip hold of to give hope. At least under Martin, you thought if we could get the balance and defence right we have a chance.