Galway saint

you can take all this tactical crap and set fire to it. what will get us through will be bravery and not just any old bravery but bravery on the ball. the sort of bravery that means you refuse to hit the acres of space behind the opposition as they press us high in our own half but instead pass it sideways and backwards to your teammate putting the team under enormous pressure until we inevitably concede. if we are brave enough we will win the play offs and if we aren’t brave enough we won’t but whatever happens, I’m sure RM will be ready go again next season to make sure we are even braver. all this bravery crap reminds of peter cooke on clive anderson impersonating graham taylor talking about ‘motivation, motivation, motivation, the three Ms’.

Obviously we are conceding far too many goals so it’s up to RM to make us far more difficult to score against. A settled back four or KWP, THB, JB and Bree would be a good start so let’s get it bedded in time for the play offs and fingers crossed fraser is back and firing

We will need to beat one of Leicester, Leeds or Ipswich to go up via play offs. Not impossible by any stretch but we can’t continue to play the same way we have been as teams have worked us out.

I just can’t see he’s been ‘very good’. His distribution is decent but as a goalkeeper he remains very ordinary. I’d say he’s league one or two level. All that’s changed from last season is that we are now a big fish in a small pond and therefore he is less exposed. He’s still got the same problems, shot stopping down to his left, poor positioning and the fact he just doesn’t make enough saves.

He made the point that when sunderland were pressing us in numbers high up the pitch at the beginning of the second half we didn’t exploit the space in behind and go long but instead continue to pass sideways and backwards inviting the pressure and playing in no man’s land between the 18 yard box and half way.

If we go up he will be No 1 and if we don’t go up he will be No 1. No one will sign him from the premier league because he’s not good enough and he’s not so bad we would buy somebody else to replace him particularly given how much we spent on him and how much time has been invested in him. he will probably be here for years to come which will please some and not others !

all personal opinions are inevitably subjective but yes you’re quite clear in that you don’t think this sort of analysis tells us anything worthwhile. i think the fact he regularly appears towards the bottom of this type of table reflects the fact he simply doesn’t make enough saves, but I agree it’s not the whole story. perhaps Bazanu can be a really good keeper and still appear regularly at the bottom of this sort of table but when I look at that table it just reinforces my opinion that he doesn’t make enough saves and rarely wins points for us. to be clear he couldn’t do anything about the goals yesterday.

but so do other teams and who concede more goals so that’s no answer to why he appears at the bottom of this particular table

i like the podcast - they have developed a good rapport between them and have views worth listening to. I enjoyed the episode about rotherham and the hotel stay. didnt realise blackmore is a villa fan

5 goals conceded against two poor sides tells us its own story. we’re not beating the better sides if we continue like this. I’m losing a bit of faith in RM. We win these games because we have much better players and the team is clearly less than the sum of its parts. I wish he’d ditch the aimless passing crap in our own half but he’s not going to

he’s grown on me he was laying into the aimless passing around at the back. you can sense the frustration is building with RM and the fact that the team is clearly less than the sum of its parts

tessem laying into russball

jesus !

come on!

i wonder what he sees that others don’t because it’s seems pretty obvious we are vulnerable down that flank yet still he persists

to be fair ipswich don’t often keep it tight at the back but they can change gear if they need to

our best spell was with JB and THB at back - since that was disturbed we have not been the same yet we continue to keep them apart seems odd that having had such a poor game last week defensively we play the same defence

predictable stuff - just do enough to win even when not playing well think that will be 7 or 8 on the bounce

Teams who transition quickly and at pace down the wings cause us all sorts of issues and this is compounded by manning tucking in. I think RM needs to be more pragmatic and adapt his style as that’s ultimately what good managers do - have a plan b or c. We did that successfully against West Brom and it worked a treat but all this ‘brave’ crap is now being used to excuse a lack of nouse in how we set up defensively. It will be interesting to see how he sets up when we play Ipswich at Portman Road in the league.

let’s get the defence sorted, fraser fit and keep downes in cotton wool and we have a good chance in the play offs. not sure i’d fancy us against ipswich though - strike me as the sort of team that could run through us and they use the wings very effectively which is our achilles heel playing a 4-3-3

true regarding ipswich. they seem to play with a greater intensity that gets them out of holes. we need to look at why we conceded lots of goals in September and February

we concede too many shit goals is about the long and short of it maybe we are too ‘brave’ or not ‘brave’ enough it’s very frustrating to be this far off at this stage with the players we have in the squad

they are quick and direct not sure if i’d rather them or leeds in the playoffs

great stuff !

play bree, THB, bednarek and KWP (when fit) in a conventional back four with no full back in midfield crap and that should be more than adequate for this league.