Lord Duckhunter

No, it’s the right thread. Remember there were nods telling us it wasn’t Lego’s fault, no team could stay in the premier league, particularly those that came up via play offs. Every single year, other sides show us that those 12 points were absolutely pathetic and Lego head set this club back far more than Nathan Jones, Ivan or the other assorted numpties which followed him.

Some of the players are well below the standards they set the last half of previous season. Bree, the keeper, Jack, Manning. Some have had good spells, but ultimately haven’t looked any better, Azaz, Leo, Larin, Matsuki. Only one has really kicked on & got better and that’s Downes.

Wonder if Jug Ears still feels the same…..

I'm disappointed we don't win,because we deserved to. It was the best performance we've had. The only thing we're missing is 5 goals and if we scored 5 , I think everyone goes away thinking it's an amazingperformance.

If Larin was never doing 90, In some ways we’d of been better off starting with Mubama & bringing Larin on. We didn’t particularly need an outlet or someone to hold it up in the first 60 mins, but did in the last quarter. Latin didn’t exactly do much, so chances are we’d have been 1 up anyway (especially after Prowse magical assist for Wellington’s tap in). We’ve got a bloke who can not hold the ball up, & doesn’t seem to have the physicality to battle away alone, and chuck him on to play that role. Look at the goal he did score, Azaz plays him in with a cute ball, he shows decent movement & bang, it’s in the net. Fuck me, we’re playing him in a role totally unsuited for him, and then the supply lines come from Dobbin, and fucking Edozy. How would Dom Ballard or others on the forum wish list have played in those circumstances….Horses for courses, surely we don’t need a big man up top to relieve pressure and get us up the pitch as we hang in against fucking Lincoln. We should have passed them to death & kept the ball that way, or left Larkin on.

Course we can. You have to want to though. Working hard & standing up to the physical battle is a skill, sadly some of our “stars” don’t possess it. They’d rather fall over and hope a foul is given, then stand up and compete.

We got what we deserved today. It wasn’t just about the subs, as bad as they were. We had a 20 min spell before any were made where we should have put the game to bed. We were so wasteful on the ball, so careless. Azaz, Matski, larin, Bree, just making the wrong choices or giving it away needlessly. We had 2 or 3 transitions, where we just didn’t show enough positivity or desire to get a second goal. That’s what cost us, before the drop off in quality occurred. Apart from Millwall, it’s be a real lackadaisical start to the season. Last seasons run, when we turned up and just rolled over sides, is gone, its history. We need to roll up our sleeves, do the basics and work as hard as other sides, we’re not doing that and we’re underperforming. Instead of turning up to right a wrong, we’re turning up like billy big bollocks just going to out play everyone. That’s 2 points dropped, plus 1 at Watford when you’re on a minus 4 start, you just can’t afford that.

Larin was pretty fucking poor today.

Wood was absolutely pathetic for their goal. 6ft fucking 4, yet another one where it’s dropped over his head and he’s hardly jumped. If that was Stephen’s you’d be moaning like fuck. That’s the 2nd pathetic flat footed jump has cost us goals this season.

Not playing him & freezing him out isn’t just about saving match squad bonus’ it’s also about forcing him out the door in the Jan window. Once he’s spent 4 months sat in the stands every match day, any offer in Jan will be better than another 4 more months of that. If he was number 2, involved match days, helping Peretz prepare, on the pitch, in the dressing room, there maybe moves/loans he considers a worse option than that, especially if he’s interested in coaching eventually. I imagine we told him to find another club otherwise he’ll be frozen out, so we need to stick to that. I’ve no doubt he’ll play if Peretz is out long term. But we’re forcing him out otherwise .

People are rewriting Archers value to the squad, he was fucking pony apart from a couple of games when he was ok. In fact, one game under Tonda (can’t remember which one) he turned in one of the most inept performances I’ve ever seen. For me, the window has been pretty decent. We re signed 3 important players, only lost 2 better players (for good money), & cleared out a load of deadwood like Baz. The only one that looks a bit weird to me is Dobbin, he looks as bad as Archer. 9mil!!! from what I’ve seen so far, we’ve well overpaid. The cynic in me can’t help wondering if over paying by £5mil is linked to the same side matching our valuation on THB. There’s certainly a few dodgy valuations doing the rounds at the moment. It will be interesting what Villa’s obligation to buy Garnacho is, from the club which spent shit loads on a villa player. Clearly our financial position is worse than last year, so it’s no surprise on paper the squad looks slightly worse. However, we’re judging Stewart & THB on the last 4 months, the 4 months before that they were injured or playing pretty pony. With clever use of the squad & more consistency across the whole season, there’s no reason this bunch can’t finish even higher than last year.

It’s not at all. Even if Maguire had smashed it straight into the net it would have been a goal for most of the past 100 years.

What’s he going to find easiest to sort out, the team or his barnet?

I think you’re underestimating the ego of players. How many times have we wondered why players sign for clubs when they clearly won’t get much game time. They don’t see it like that, any potential signing won’t be thinking “I’ll play second fiddle to Larin”, they think they are good enough to replace him. I've no idea whether they’ll look at another option up top. I imagine it’ll depend on Archer leaving and whether they’ll think the young City lad could potentially fit in wider on the odd occasion. Personally, I’d prefer another central striker, but it’s not a priority or the end of the world if we don’t get one. Whilst we may not need a Larin clone, our fingers will be crossed he doesn’t get injured anytime before dec window.

That’s more like it, but there’s still a couple of worries. The first goal was poor & after the Downes/Bragg fuck up they should have gone in 2-2 at HT. The penalty seemed to change everything as before that they had a decent spell of possession at the start of the second half. They seemed to fall apart a bit after that, and our confidence just grew & grew. Leo looked back to last seasons form, Larin on fire, & decent start for the centre half. Wood also seemed a bit more aggressive & Bree had his best game of the season. Perfect scenario for Prowse to slot into the Downes role and he kept us ticking over well. I’m still not convinced by Bragg, gave it away cheaply a couple of times, but I guess he’s not going to be first choice much this season.