egg

Gown

Pecked

Stag

Then we agree that he's not been good enough.

No idea, and no interest. Do you not agree that Adams misses far too many chances? Are you happy with his conversion rate?

Can't disagree with that mate

Good question. I doubt Lumley knows the answer. Ditto RM.

His last sentence was ridiculous, but what was wrong with the rest of it?

Easy to look for excuses.

Probably a term of his loan that we pay less of his wages the more he's used. Not unusual.

As bad as he is, he's not even our worst signing from City.

I've got a feeling we'll see Smallbone sitting with Charles, and Brooks a bit ahead of them, and the two wide boys tucking in a wee bit. I reckon that midfield will do better than people think. A spirited defeat today.

I think it's pretty clear that those who support/favour ongoing Israeli military action are very much in the minority.

Yep. RM's style lends itself to 3 at the back for me, especially when we're short of a holding midfielder. That would give scope for 2 up top, and I reckon Adams and AA would have been a cracking partnership at this level.

I get that he's a good man, but what's the basis saying he's a good man manager? Good managers, man and generally, make tough decisions, correct ones, and at the right times. RM seems not to do that. His team selections, and game management, often feel like he's trying to keep everyone happy, and can be baffling. Also, I think that the players could give him more and some of his recent comments have alluded to that. Having your players give less than they should, and having to call that out publicly, alongside his selections etc, suggests to me that his actual management is not great.

The Adams issue is not how many he's scored, it's how many he's missed that he should have buried.

Let's assume for the sake of discussion that you're right on this. If the managers way of playing isn't being implemented properly is it not the case that: a) it's possibly because the manager/coaches isn't adequately coaching the players adequately to do so? B) it's possibly because the manager isn't picking the correct players to implement it adequately? C) it's possible that the manager isn't reacting adequately (or isn't capable of doing so) to it not being implemented adequately? D) the manager is too stubborn or inadequate to change to a way of playing that his players can adequately implement to improve results?

Absolutely - that was a great expression from Strachan and describes our football perfectly.

Style over substance / wanting to be seen to do it well rather than actually doing it well / good theory over good reality / good intentions over good actions. Basically, what we've been seeing this season.

January

Powder

I'd like to see Brooks 1 of the 3 in midfield, and Fraser starting out wide. SAA and Edozie as back up. Rothwell won't be missed for me.

Sorry...that he wasn't good enough...that we weren't good enough...that he knows the issues and that he and the players will work hard at sorting them... That all needs insigh and humility though.

I'd rather that we got promoted with the squad that we have. I'd rather that we shut up shop when we were winning. I'd rather we didn't play suicidal football that anyone bar RM can see isn't working. Football is not about scoring lots of goals. It's about scoring more than you concede, and our single biggest issue is that we concede too many cos RM can't set teams up to defend. That much was known before his first game (me and others got shot down for mentioning it) and the only thing he's exceeded my expectations on is how inept he is at coaching a back 4.

He won't stay if we go up, but we won't go up. He needs to go whatever happens this season, but he's absolutely fucked what was a golden opportunity at promotion. Completely fucked it. We need an experienced director of football who isn't a hipster, and a manager with a proven track record of promotion, not a proven track record of passing in stupid fucking triangles and wanting his keeper to be Franz Beckenbauer. The blokes an absolute fucking idiot.