saintant

Hopefully, rather than gambling on no injury to Larin, we are working in training sessions to utilise Mubama to his strengths. Clearly it is pointless knocking long balls around his head because that is not his style of centre forward play. I see him as an alternative to Larin rather than a like for like so presumably Tonda is working on drills at Staplewood. Assuming that is the case he's going to have to start him in a match sooner rather than later to see how it goes. Otherwise Mubama just becomes a sub for 20 minutes with us lumping balls to him which will achieve very little.

In his two games alongside Schlott I think Wood has been pretty good so stick with that and hope the partnership grows.

The difference between them is that Steve Moran stepped up to the first team at a young age 18/19 and immediately showed that he had something special. I think he scored with his first touch on his debut and, soon after, was the PFA Young Player of the Year. Straight away you could tell he was a real talent. Ballard has had some injuries and now, at age 21, he is starting to blossom.

Yeah agree, he's one we'll need to keep an eye on for sure.

4 points a game would be some going 🙂

Would be a huge mistake imo. Leo was well marshalled by the Brum full back but he tends to get the better of most opponents and also provided the assist for our goal.

If Ramsdale stays my guess is we will only ever see Long off the bench if Peretz gets injured during a match. If Peretz is injured then I would think Ramsdale will start in his place.

Mubama has played around 80 minutes league football and scored one goal. That's a decent record considering he's only getting 20 minutes per game. As others have said we need to adapt how we play when he is on the pitch. He's more of an Ollie Watkins (not suggesting he's on the same level) than a battering ram so requires the ball played on the deck into the channels and down the flanks to get the best out of him. Plus he needs more game time as 20 minutes doesn't give him enough time to hone his game or for his team mates to learn to play with him.

So just the two then.

Who replaces Leo?

Great football that, good movement, touch and accurate passing. At our best we can play like that but currently we look just a wee bit clunky rather than like a well oiled machine. Despite that results have been decent and I think we'll sharpen up on our passing and first touch as the season progresses

Some good points well made but we football fans tend to always expect the worst case scenarios 🙂

Still he won't be needing to save supermarket coupons on £78k a week 🙂 and must have a fair chunk of money invested and making a healthy return.

I agree but my slight issue is how we work him into the team on a regular basis. It's a chicken and egg situation in that he needs games but is not really showing anything to suggest he'll make the team better in any position. I assume he was signed to start plenty of games or to come on from the bench and make a difference.

Yeah, I have him on speed dial 🙂