WALK DMC

I agree with much of what you say, my main criticism being that he should have gone 4-2-3-1 in the 2nd half when it was obvious that we'd stopped creating. For me, Azaz is best in that formation and he does have the ability to unlock a defence, so worth a try for 25 minutes. I also thought that THB was ok and his passing decent at times - although it was noticeable that playing as LCB meant his passing deteriorated when he was forced to play with his left foot. I'm not sure that Swansea are quite as bad as some people are saying, we actually played really well (at least in first half) and are progressively improving. Swansea's away form is reasonable; they've lost twice 1-0 (away at Boro and Birmingham) and won twice (Blackburn & Sheff W). Plus, they haven't been dominated all season as they were yesterday, so we should take some positives from the game. Of course, we need to start winning. Fingers crossed for Bristol City.

Smallbone was a regular in the Saints team that came 4th in 23-24. He is now a regular in a team that is currently 5th in the Championship. He isn't as awful as you imply. I'll give you Bazunu though....

My optimism hasn't been totally extinguished. Clearly the season so far has been poor, yet we're still only 4 points behind a play off place and 7 points off automatic promotion. If we can put a decent run together (e.g. win 3 games on the bounce), we will start to close that gap significantly. However I agree with many here that Still has been a disappointment and yet to introduce a real style to our play. However I thought that there were phases in our last few games when we started to look better, although the loss of Stewart clearly stunted that improvement. I look at England where Thomas Tuchel didn't seem to improve anything when he first arrived, but suddenly in the last 3 games they look a different team and playing to their true potential. I'm hoping but not necessarily hopeful that things could still change, if Will Still suddenly finds the ingredient that he is searching for and getting this team playing to their true abilities. Fingers crossed.

According to Transfermarkt he is 1.75m tall. In old money that is 5ft 9in, so we can add him to our list of short forwards along with Archer and Armstrong.

I see that Tyler had his first start in the Premier league for Everton today. It didn't seem to go brilliantly and he was replaced at HT. Already some grumbling on the Everton forum about him. I was never totally convinced that he was a £40m player, but at his age it's very difficult to judge. Will be interesting to see how he gets on this season & beyond.

Play two up top ?

It could also mean that we are playing 4 at the back and we already have a centre half on the bench, so Quarsshie is isn't needed .....

I think that all of the players that you have listed with the exception of Ramsdale have 40 games to stake a claim for a place in the Premier league (if we return). Only Mads & THB have any real experience of playing there and Mads was more of a backup for Brentford. There may be a good reason why Azaz and Fellows weren't picked up by a Premier league team in this window and why Scienza was only picked for around half of the games in the Bundesliga last season in a relegation threatened team. I'm really excited about the signings and they clearly give us a shot at promotion, but until we've seen them in action over the course of the season, we may have a different view on whether they are Premier league ready, or otherwise.

Really exciting that we now have Azaz, Fellows & Scienza in the building or close to joining. Each of them brings the creativity and goal scoring that we have missed. The other thing to note is that if each of them has a fault it is their defensive work, all of them have been highlighted as weak in that area. It is going to put a lot of pressure on Charles, Downes or Jander and our defence when we don't have the ball. I wouldn't be surprised to see Frazer keep his place for a little while yet as he is probably more disciplined and defensive minded than the other three. Exciting time ahead.

You make a fair point, but it should be remembered that Jelert has been playing for Galatasaray so is pretty familiar with high pressure atmospheres. I think that key will be if Still wants to go 4 at the back - he might consider Jelert better suited than Manning in that formation.

It's difficult to disagree that Moore would not be somebody we'd want to sign. However, I do think our approach will change once we have the new signings integrated and what you describe above about using width and crossing into the box is exactly what Tom Fellows brings to the party. My concern is that we don't the have the "right" centre forward to take advantage of those sort of crosses, as I can't see Archer scoring too many with his head. Stewart would be the obvious choice of our 4, but I get the impression that Still only plays him towards the end of the league games. So, while I agree Moore wouldn't be the answer, it's going to be interesting to see how we leverage the approach that Tom Fellows will give us.

I watched a few clips of Jelert, his dribbling skills reminded me very much of KWP, which can only be a good thing. The clips also showed him playing on the left quite a few times, so I took it as meaning he plays there more than as an occasional cover. I also read a few scouting reports, and they were very positive. At only 22 he looks very promising. Fingers crossed.

Wiki reads "George Hologram Long (born 5 November 1993) is an English professional blind footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for EFL Championship club Norwich City". I guess it is more difficult being a goalkeeper if you are blind ......... Still, we probably get a discount on his contract for that. I have a suspicion that his middle name probably isn't "hologram" either 🙂

I've no particular insight into Scienza other than Wiki and videos, but his pedigree doesn't look top level to me. He will be 27 years old next month. He has spent most of his career in the lower divisions, and we're talking 3rd and 6th tier. It was only last year that he made it to the Bundesliga and his stats are ok for 24-25. Videos are ok too. Maybe he is a late developer, but certainly there is limited evidence that he is an upgrade on Edozie (who I don't particularly rate). Fingers crossed that Spors has seen something that can fit our promotion push.

Judging by this video they are clearly considering him as a replacement for Che. Two headers and every other goal a right foot shot. Looks like he hasn't realised that he has a left foot.