S-Clarke

He's doing a pretty good job of being hated by opposition fans too, so could end up being the most disliked player in PL history if he carries on. Another record we can close in on I guess.

They've beaten our record signing a few times now. We cannot compete with them or Brighton.

21 games without a PL win. Looks an absolute carthorse. What a miserable player he is. He's miserable to watch and looks miserable when he plays. He's got all the hallmarks of being someone who will end up being quite quickly derided by the fanbase if he doesn't sort his shit out.

I know we were part of the 'so called' magnificent 4 last season, but we were the worst of the 4 IMO. Everything we saw at the start of the season and end of the season were our issues laid bear. I think we underachieved with what we had last season, we got the points and goals because of individual quality and moments. I don't remember enough clear and comfortable wins, lots of last min winners, scrappy 2-1's or 1-0's. Very few comfortable wins. Everyone we played last season was in the game, the way we play always allows the opposition. At this level it's pretty much guaranteeing a defeat every week. We were trashed 5-1 and 4-0 by Leicester, good promoted teams don't lose like that. Never really been convinced by Martin, too much focus on a philosophy. Our best teams just won with the best players on the pitch, it's similar to how Ralph's tenure ended - too much focus on a style and drifting away from what actually wins you games at a basic level. That's what we need to get back to.

How do you even analyse that? I thought, out of hope rather than anything, we may get a result tonight. We look absolutley light years away from Bournemouth, not even in the same universe. For us to say that it equates to absolutley disgraceful management of this club for many years. Bournemouth, with their stadium, size and resources should not be a universe better than us - but here we are. No match to their quality. Onto the next one? Whatever. I don't even bother reading much into that 2nd half, I know the narrative from the club will be that we 'fought' in the 2nd half and that we were better etc etc etc - but bullshit to that, it was better because Bournemouth stepped off it slightly as the game was done and dusted. Not even a contest, so I don't want to hear any bollocks about us being better in the 2nd half. The fact is that we've been absolutley trounced by Bournemouth, fair and square - light years better than us, it's not even close. I don't know where we go from here, but it looks pretty inevitable that we are embarking on the worst season we're ever going to experience in our lives. How we recover from this season will be the story.

What worries me is that Ipswich and Leicester look poor, some good spells, but ultimately they are lacking quality - but they still manage to look much more competitive than us. Not sure where that leaves us really. Ipswich remind me of Luton from last season. As it stands, we look like Sheffield United - but worse. (I guess that's to be expected when we sign their strike force)

Surely we have to win at some stage? I often find that when everyone is accepting of the fate and defeatist, the opposite happens. No logic to it, but based on that I fancy us. I remember people thinking we'd get pummelled by Leeds at home last September, after a similar run. It's hard to be positive though I'll give you that, just 2 goals scored and 9 let in for the first five games is as bad as it gets really. If it doesn't get better from this point then we might as well pause our club for 10 months and start again in August.

He was on the back foot from day 1 due to his Forest connections, he needed to have them Top half/top 6 at this stage to appease them. He won't last, but he's on a hiding to nothing there. Poor pick by Leicester and a poor call by him to go there. Suddenly they look more attractive due to no points deductions. Be interesting to see if the board have to act as it was toxic last night.

As a fan, I wouldn't even say we're lovely to watch. Frustrating and dull as dishwater at best. Horrendous and naive at worst.

Credit where it's due, that was a great bit of scouting and pickup by the club - obviously in anticipation of KWP leaving in the summer, so it leaves us with a little bit of an overload at RB...but better than having none I guess. I can see KWP leaving in January, our last chance to get some $$ for him. It'll still be a loss on what we paid, but better than nothing.

I'd argue that even if Ramsdale did start giving up goals because he's playing like that, he'd still prevent a hell of a lot more than Bazunu did. Simply any shot on target was a goal with Bazunu. It's nice to have a GK who can save shots again. That's why having Alex back in the side was so refreshing at the back end of last season, he's not the greatest by any means, but still a better option than Bazunu ever was.

That was shocking, it must be on instruction as I've seen some screengrabs of literally all 11 players inside our own box. Of course Ipswich are going to leave players free on the edge, get a header wrong or head it the wrong way and it's done. It was deflected, sure, but that goal was as bad as any goal you can concede at any level of football. Amateur hour. Fully preventable, just needed some brains. It's another tactic we employ which is an absolute freebie for the opposition manager to use. 1) Use our passes back a press activation (Free goal number 1) 2) Sit off and allow us to paly it in between our CB's and close the space in front (Stop us scoring, easy peasy) 3) Leave players on the edge of the box when you have a corner (Free goal number 2) We're just giving up free goals every game because of that and find it hard to score because of that, opposition managers will love playing us as they have obvious routes to goals before they've even stepped on the pitch. Such an easy-peasy team to score against and prevent, nothing to it at all.

He'd be a cracking pickup for a mid-table, high bottom half team (Palace/Fulham/WHU/Bournemouth). I assume that's what these sides are waiting for, a solid freebie. We're absolutley lightyears away from anyone mid-table in this league it pains me to say, so even a move to Bournemouth for one of our players is an enormous step up in aspirations and level right now.

I don't think it's a worry as such, more of an acceptance. They're here for this season tops, no more than that. It's a shame we didn't get ourselves a Fernandes or Dibling as a CF, it all seems a bit pointless without one. (how many years have we said that for)

That's a 'looking for a reaction post' if I've ever seen one.

A few years ago we'd be able to enjoy one of 'our own' at this level for at least a season, but I reckon we'll find it hard to ignore big bids in January if he carries on like this. Especially as we're likely to be well adrift and all but gone by that point.

I thought we needed to turn up today, and we didn't to be frank. I thought Ipswich deserved at least a point, this is an Ipswich team who are on par with us and one of our rivals, but for big portions of that game they were much better than us. If we cannot compete to be better than Ipswich then I struggle to see how we can compete against anyone in this league. We simply don't create enough openings, we are incredibly easy to defend against and even easier to attack. Bright spots obviously Dibling and Fernandes, but it really wasn't great. BBD continues his impression of a carthorse it has to be said, he looks naff as hell. You don't go 19 games without a win in the PL if you're a good player, period. Onto the next one I guess. I just have a feeling that this season is going to be the worst in our history by some distance, and we've already finished bottom in this league twice before.

Live pictures from the scene -

I don't think anyone disagrees with that first 30 mins, but a good 30 mins gets you nowhere in the PL. If all we can muster is a good 30 mins, with the mental strength of an ant, then we will lose 38 out of 38. We do have to build on that 30 mins, but we also had to build on that 60 mins or whatever it was at Newcastle and we didn't. At the moment it's propaganda football at it's finest.

I know there is a lot of hysteria from playing out from the back, but in isolation that isn't what's causing the issues. Yesterdays goals weren't down to that. I actually noticed much better use of passing the ball from the back, the CB's were wider and providing better angles and Ramsdale wasn't afraid to go long if required - so that wasn't an issue yesterday. We will still play from the back, but we need to stop being so close to each other when we attempt it. That caused all of our problems at Brentford with a lack of passing options, that then caused us to keep going back, back and back and invite the press. We just need to spread the CB's a bit wider, and a 4 at the back allows that. 3 just makes it too condensed.

I think the difference with Adkins start is that we were able to compete. We went toe-to-toe with Man City in the first game and won a lot of admirers. We also did the same with Man Utd in the home game, gave them much more of a game than we did this time. We did have Wigan and Arsenal nestled in the middle which was pretty crap, but we at least scored goals and looked like causing teams issues. We took until November to really settle down last time - but you could still see the ingredients were there ability wise, not sure I can say the same the same this time. We still have a squad full of lower league players really.

But he was a success in that side because they played a target man, he made runs off of the target man through the middle. They were a route 1 side in many ways and he suited that. We are the total opposite and he is required to retain the ball and make recovery runs down the flank. He is completely ill-suited to this as he's not technical enough nor dynamic enough.

I mean, Calderwood signing did coincide with us keeping a couple of clean sheets last season, but we still conceded 60 odd goals. So he's not some sort of defensive master coach by any means. We'll concede 70 odd goals this year without sweat. The problem is that Martin and his lot cannot coach defensive organisation, all the focus is on passing and playing through the lines, but being able to remain organised when we are on the ball to defend against turnovers is our achilles heal. It was the same last season against any decent side with power and pace on the break. This year every team has power and pace on the break. It's hard to see how we survive, as this pattern hasn't changed in over a year. It's food and drink for PL sides really. We have two ways teams can get us - let us have the ball in the middle thirds/back 4 and tempt us out, then win the ball back and run at Stephens and Bednarek. Job done. Pretty easy for opposition managers. Or use our passing back to the CB's as a trigger to press hard and tie up Stephens and Bednarek in all sorts of knots, and get a few free shots on goal. Another job done.

Looks a bit of a carthorse from the left, can understand why he was subbed by Chlie. Maybe he'd be better through the middle? Doesn't look dynamic enough to me, would fit better in a gung-ho playing off a target man/route 1 style team. Looks lost in a passing team as I don't think he's technically good enough.