Chewy

Choosing who’s I’d prefer out of those two is like trying to decide who I prefer out of Everton or Liverpool.

Sorry to hear FS

And/or forage for wild mushrooms?

He has the hair and beard for it for sure

It’ll be way north of £40m. Not a criticism (can’t help where you live) but watch him live and you’ll understand. Kind of like the first time you saw VVD. Within 45 minutes you just know. If we go down he’ll leave this summer and there’ll be a bidding war; if we stay up we might squeeze another season but we need to enjoy him while we can. Unless they change the P&S rules by then, £50+m of pure profit means we don’t have a choice but to sell him at some stage I’m afraid. Bat sh1t mental rules but the unfortunate reality

I can’t see KWP struggling for focus to be fair. He and his agent will know the hand they’re playing and probably have done for a while. I think yesterday was a tactical decision made somewhat easier with the contract situation as an excuse. In a back 4, having both full backs bomb forward at the same time is too risky, especially if your no. 6 can’t tackle. It was exciting at times v United but left us exposed. Playing Taylor gives us more defensive balance, plus useful dead ball delivery. It also provides a left foot - two right footers on the left flank cuts off the entire left touchline as an attacking threat making us easier to defend against. So the options are Play a left footed left winger AND ask one of KWP or Suga to sit Play Taylor and choose between Suga and KWP Play 3 centre backs … and still have no left foot on the left flank Find another way to accommodate both Suga and KWP. RM went with option 2 yesterday, I get why but KWP is pretty much our best player. Trouble is I’m not sure what the best solution is. Possibly option 1 but not with Lallana as your 6 (or Downes if I’m honest). I’d probably be tempted at some point (maybe Arsenal) to try option 4 and shove KWP on the left wing. He’s quick, tricky, would help with additional defensive cover and quite frankly couldn’t be any less effective than Fraser yesterday or BBD. Quite possibly a terrible idea, but Suga doesn’t deserve dropping and is the future given the contract situation and I’m not comfortable with any of the other solutions

Almost as mad as people thinking he would stay with us in the championship. When he’d already put his house on the market and told various people he was off. And yet there were still people idiotic enough to tell a forum ad infinitum how he was staying. Properly mad, that was.

In all seriousness, did you watch today? Because that’s not what I saw happening out there today. FWIW I haven’t read this thread, been busy since leaving st Mary’s, my view is that we played pretty well, deserved a win (thanks especially to Ramsdale), BBD was the wrong sub but otherwise I wouldn’t question any of the other subs. Starting 11 gave us a better balance; Amazing assist and top quality finish, dreadful ref (not biased just inept), Archer a tad unlucky, Taylor, Fraser and Downes probably our least effective players but probably still 6/10s, Dibling and Fernandes continue to impress. Not sure I’d lay much at RM today. We went through a sticky patch during the 1st half and he tweaked things and thereafter we were largely in control until the final stages IMHO. So frustrating to drop 2 points so late on, but no major whinges from me about the team chosen, application and attitude of the players or substitutions (save BBD … I’d have gone ArmA, but it wasn’t the reason we let in the late goal). Things to build on but f*cking annoying

No I don’t because no I didn’t. I said we created plenty of chances last season, I did not say we scored plenty of goals. If we’d had a competent striker last year we’d have comfortably been promoted automatically. Our conversion of chances is the issue, as it has been for 3/4 seasons. My point is that 4231 v 433 as a way of arranging players will do little to change this fact. A change in intent or style of play might to an extent, but our lack of a decent striker will probably cost us this season as it nearly did last year and as it did the previous year. This is an issue of personnel and to an extent tactics (in style of play), not the formation in itself.

We created plenty of chances last year playing 433. Man City and Liverpool have spent the last decade creating plenty of chances playing 433. Tweaking the midfield 3 into a 4231 will not solve the fact we don’t have a competent striker to lead the line. You could argue how we play (I.e. attacking intent, more frequent and faster passes forward) will influence the frequency and quality of chances created. But pinning it on the formation itself is simply incorrect. But even with better chances, we’ll still struggle to score because we don’t have a competent striker

That’s not the problem. The problem is that we don’t have anyone that can score goals.

Not many selection decisions; gk, back 4 and Dibling pick themselves Decision 1 - which 3 of Les, Lallana, Downes and Fernandes (I’d personally go Les, Lallana and Fernandes) Decision 2 who plays left wing. As it’s right-footed KWP at left back they need a left foot. Id personally go Cornet to start, perfectly happy if it’s Fraser. I don’t see how BBD deserves to play here. Decision 3 who plays up front. Guessing Stewart isn’t ready for a start so that leaves Archer.

Pretty sure whatever we want, RM will go second string. Assuming a back 4 I think he’ll pick McCarthy Bree ? Edwards ? Smallbone ? Aribo SAA ? ArmA His decisions will be THB or ABK at cb, Manning, Taylor or Larios at lb, Lallana or Lesley in midfield and any one of Stewart, Cornet, Fraser, Tall Paul, BBD or Archer in the front 3 although Im guessing Stewart will be a sub and get another 30 minutes. Whoever doesn’t feature will be in the picture for next Saturday.

I’m in shock. I need a good lie down. You’ll never guess how long for …

His comments apply to any of KWP, THB, Bednarek, Stephens, Will, Aribo and ArmA so no guarantee it’ll be Jack he has in mind. I suspect the midfield two are most at risk (for Fernandes and Lesley), and possibly ArmA too. And if we change formation we’ll lose a cb. Though to be fair RMs comment about where players are at “right now” could just as well be aimed at THB as Jack. We all know who is potentially a far superior player, but he’s not started the season well. I think there’s at least three changes there with a move to 433, and possibly a 4th with ArmA.

He played golf last week so he’s obviously fit for something

Right him off, or write him off? Can’t stand poor english.

I think part of RMs trouble is that he’s arrogant and prickly so not particularly likeable to the fan base. It didn’t take long last season for people to turn and it took two and a bit games this year. If he turns things around quickly he will temporarily get fans back onside but I sense the majority of fans don’t like him as a person and are waiting to pounce. Which is odd seeing as the players do seem to genuinely like and respect him. That won’t last long if he chucks them under the bus of course. He doesn’t have the self awareness to sense his underlying unpopularity; add his arrogance and intransigence regarding his football style and it’s a recipe for getting turned on pretty quickly. I think he’s a good coach and would appear to be a very good man-manager. And as the manager of my team I’d love him to be a success. But his tactical awareness is either dreadful or simply sacrificed in favour of his philosophy; he doesn’t seem to understand his players’ level (they’re simply not good enough to do what he wants); and he’s got an arrogant public image (which he’s created all on his own). I don’t see it ending well. I don’t think it should end just yet (or that we’re especially close). He’s earned the right to prove he can adapt- I’m just pretty sure he won’t be able or prepared to. Shame as we have some talented footballers on our books right now and could be having a fun season.

So many factors 1) we had a load to do and we did most of it 2) we had two critical positions we haven’t sorted for years, we were late sorting one (gk) and haven’t sorted the other (no. 9). Finding that type of striker is really hard so I sympathize a bit, but we failed. Keeper, although late, is a really really good one 3) we needed to convert Downes which we did and very quickly 4) We needed to add quality all over and I’d argue we did that. That said, despite the numbers I’m concerned about the quality of our wide players. 5) we needed to add some experience and I’d argue we did that a bit 6) we needed to future proof with the incomings, knowing we’ve a fair chance of being in the championship next season. Won’t know until next summer if it happens but I’m imagine most of this squad will be here next season whatever league we’re in - successful 7) we needed to avoid letting players enter the final year of contracts and risk losing for free next year. Did that a bit, failed with KWP and Jan 8 ) we needed to retain the squad unity and cohesiveness RM has created (it was a shambles last EPL season) - I’d argue the squad is too big to achieve that. We have 12 defenders for a start, a full 3 teams worth of a defence. 9) (related) we needed to shift a lot of unwanted and loan out some kids, we’ve done a fair amount of that but failed notably with ABK, Tall Paul, Kamaldeen, Edozie. I think it’s obvious we tried here 10) we needed SR to financially support their asset - over £100m spend indicates they have Overall the above is more positive than negative. I’m not going to get carried away by the size and number of cheques written and declare this a ten, but equally I understand we’ve made efforts to address all of the above and largely succeeded. Where we haven’t it’s been a bit unlucky (like point 9) or just bl00dy difficult (point 2). Hand on heart, given our status as a newly promoted team, and our PSL impacted finances I can’t think how we could realistically have done much better. But it isn’t perfect and to go into yet another campaign without any attacking focal point is hugely frustrating. I’ve gone for 8 out of 10, but the missing 2 might be critical.

@Over land and sea just a couple of things I’ve noticed ahead of your post-deadline day clean-up Nathan Wood appears to be Nathan Wood-Gordon (at least on the BBC … and we don’t have enough players with double barreled surnames 😉) Mateusz Lis needs adding to the list of exiting players Stu Armstrong still says on trial at Brentford on that list The following players were allocated squad numbers for the EFL cup game Akachukwu 54, Moore 57, O’Brien-Whitmarsh 60, Robinson 46. And at the risk of achieving MLG levels of pedantry, Shea Charles doesn’t need to say U21 in the U21 loan list. Thanking you in advance of all of the other updates, and extremely grateful as ever for the work you do here.

The Ramsdale signing really is excellent- one of our best signings in years. Excited to see who else appears before 11, but equally intrigued as to who we see leave. Clearly won’t be all of the them, but I could see any of the following go on transfer or loan yet: KWP, Bree, Larios, Manning, ABK, Bednarek, Aribo, Kamaldeen, Edozie and Tall Paul. Depending on that we could yet see a couple more in.

This is where I’m at with it. We’re desperate for a striker and in significant need of a winger I think. Midfield just isn’t a priority. However, to me he’s undeniably an upgrade on Smallbone, Aribo and an aging Lallana, and the as yet unproven (but very exciting) Dibling and Fernandes. He has experience and most importantly a goal threat which we are desperately in need of. I think he was top/joint top scorer in our last two EPL seasons. To me he’s a nice to have, and if we can genuinely afford him then I’m in favour, but not at the expense of attackers. We could currently field 6 or 7 midfielders you’d be happy enough with, but probably only one or two forwards you could say the same about.

This thread being derailed by a woke debate is as tedious as MLG derailing it with correcting punctuation or the COT. All for you guys having your “fun” (each to their own …) but can you take it to another thread?

Very good assist stats. Unfortunately these teams probably played with a striker so not relevant 😉

For the love of god, stop. If you’re going to unleash your pedantry on correcting sentence structure and grammar we may as well close the site.