saintant

It works as well as the comparison between Onuachu and Cornet unless their number of starts are identical which they aren't.

Has he started the same number of Premier League games and matches at St Marys as Onuachu? If not it's not a fair comparison so not relevant.

Why Cornet out of interest or is this a facetious comment based on him not having started many games? If so it's not relevant because he has no track record as a goal scorer.

The major point you continually choose to ignore is the fact that Onuachu has never been given a decent run of consecutive starts in the side to get match fit and sharp. You cannot deny this because the stats prove it. He is now likely to get that run of games so I prefer to judge him on these rather than the sporadic starts and minutes as a sub he's had up until now. If he fails to score or contribute much to the team then fair enough but he deserves this chance which has been denied to him so far. Many top strikers made slow starts to their careers eg Henry scored just one goal (against us of course) in his first 12 games for Arsenal yet, for some reason, Onuachu is expected by some to start banging in goals the first time he's selected. Others I could mention who struggled at first include Ian Rush, Luis Suarez, Diego Forlan, Jamie Vardie who was hopeless the season before Leicester won the Premier league title and Dennis Bergkamp. If TP has a run of games and doesn't score then he's probably not what we need but the guy should at least be given a chance same as every other striker.

Under Selles he was given 3 starts in 16 games - the point I'm making is that you can't judge a player if he is not starting games. You can wriggle all you like but I've given you the numbers of games he started under the 2 previous managers so I ask you how you manage to make the judgement he wasn't very good from a total of 4 starts in 18 games? Cheers.

You just did. Nathan Jones signed Onuachu on 1st Feb 2023 and he was then sacked 11 days later. During this period we played 2 games and TP came on as sub in the first against Brentford and played for 74 minutes against Wolves so how can you possibly claim as fact that TP wasn't very good under Nathan Jones? - only by rewriting history that's how.

TP has hardly played up until now. Let's judge him on a run in a side that wants to get forward and score goals rather than claim he hasn't been very good under RM who rarely picked him and employed dreadful tactics as most agree other than a few who continue to defend the indefensible.

Narrow escape for them.

Only clever Rasmus and his football genius pals at SR.

Presume he's still sifting through the pile of job offers he's received from elite clubs all over the world keen to indulge in his vanity project.

Russell would have given them 3 weeks in Barbados.

When a manager of a Premier league side decides it's a good idea to give his players Sunday and Monday off after a Saturday game (particularly during a long run of very poor results) and also gives them Xmas day off when they have a Boxing Day fixture it should give you a fairly clear indication that said manager is either lazy and fancies days off himself or just doesn't understand how elite footballers achieve and maintain fitness levels. Take your pick, it's one or the other unless you are going to suggest that RM had it right and 99.99% of other managers had it wrong.

I expect individual players to improve with time under IJ and his coaches. Ok, we lost yesterday but a vast improvement compared with RMs last 2 home matches when we shipped 10 goals and were lucky it wasn't more.

Well maybe we will now that training is being taken more professionally.

Pretty sure IJ will have been pleased with a lot. Today will have reinforced the fact that he's taken charge of players who are clearly well below the elite fitness levels needed to compete on an even playing field. This is a sad indictment of those previously tasked with coaching our players. Some of the stories emerging about the laxness such as 2 days off after Saturday matches and no plan to train on Xmas day are a disgrace. IJ will obviously be trying to rectify this but it will take time. SR should have been all over this.

The 3 centre backs performed pretty well at Fulham watched by IJ so I would think Stephens will have to sit it out until that changes and, meanwhile, try to impress him in training

If he saves us from relegation he can call the league whatever he likes 🙂

The 'battering ram' scored 6 goals in 14 Premier league games for a very poor Sheff Utd team - averaged over a season that's a highly respectable 16 goals. Of course, no guarantee he'd have maintained that average for a full season but, never-the-less, some proof that he can score goals at this level however you describe his style of play.

Agree, we are crying out for some real physicality up front. As you say BBD has been poor but he's more of a battering ram through the centre than someone you put out wide expecting him to play like prime Thierry Henry.

Brazilian left back who is jono-quick and has a wand of a left foot.

Footballers are a pretty egotistical lot and often not blessed with the ability to make rational decisions. I'm hoping IJ will be able to talk him round and get him playing but clearly it will not be easy. I guess we need every man jack giving 100% and that may or may not include ABK but certainly worth trying.

And, for further context, a Fulham who'd scored in every home match up to yesterday and whose manager chose to start with the forward you berate against a side, under the guidance of an U21 manager trying something different after taking 5 points from 15 games and being everybody's whipping boys. Very good point in my book.

Agree with much of what you say. It's not likely we'll improve dramatically overnight because the players are still ingrained to play Russball and it can't be easy to just stop doing that like turning off a switch - the thought to play out from the back will still be lurking at the back of minds. However, I'm confident Juric will get them drilled into playing his way and we'll not lump as many balls forward as we did yesterday but rather pick the times when playing out is a good option and a relatively safe one. If we mix it up it keeps the opposition guessing as opposed to Russball where we constantly got penned in around our own penalty area because he'd told the world and his wife that was what we were going to do - madness.

It may well close in the way you suggest but I think Ivan Juric is shrewd enough to want to make his own judgement before approving transfer of ABK in Jan - we'll see.

Rather that than fannying around with the ball near our penalty area and conceding stupid goals for fun.