sfc4prem

Also, let's see this year as a Brucey bonus. Keep RM at the helm and maybe he'll develop into an excellent manager one day - he's very young indeed and seems to be learning if yesterday's line up and opening performance is anything to go by. We all knew our squad wasn't prepared for the PL and that we'd have to do Nottingham Forest levels of business to compete.

Agreed that the squad isn't up to it. I'm not sure a stint in the Championship would help, though. How could we improve the squad down there?

Well that was a fucking waste of my time 😅 In all seriousness, some excellent play before the penalty. Afterwards, not so much. Simple errors- lots of instances of one player playing the Man Utd attack offside. Stephens, Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis all guilty of it.

Nah, his time here will be fleeting.

When Jupiter, Saturn and Mars align perfectly during the summer equinox on the thirteenth moon of June in the year 2028, Ross Stewart will be 2 weeks away from making the match day squad.

1-1 currently

Apologies, it's been a long day!

To be comparing Sulemana and Mane is laughable. Sulemana made little to no impact against Championship defenders and showed no discernable skill, footballing intelligence, or end product.

I was always interested in whether he spoke to Tyler Dibling about the move at all. Certainly Tyler is chuffed he came back.

It's just a lack of footballing nous and intelligence of when and where to give and receive the ball.

Let's put it this way, Liam Delap has had more impact in one game for Ipswich than BBD has had across 3 games for us.

Been really poor so far, doesn't seem to have the touch or skill to be able to beat a player. Hasn't had the composure to finish the odd chance he's had either - his header at St James's, for example.

He unfortunately was mentioned heavily on TV, with the commentators already suggesting Chelsea should bring him back to Stamford Bridge.

There was a similar situation against Brentford on MOTD where Downes played it straight back to Bednarek who was in the box with Wissa close by, despite having ample space to turn and drive forward. It makes it so easy for teams to focus and intensify their press on the defenders and goalkeeper.

I can see that. I can also see that the club seem to have bought into his vision and will stick with him. I'm not sure the club properly bought into either Ralph or Nathan Jones' visions.

Agreed, it does bemuse me to see people so relaxed about the prospect of relegation. We surely would lose a lot of players if we did, and would be back to square fucking one. Weirdly, I would love to see Martin stay if we did get relegated, as I believe he does learn from errors and mistakes and is evolving. He inspires his players and creates a real togetherness, something we haven't had for a long time.

I mean, isn't every poster here relying on hindsight to make their comments about games that have just happened?

I always find your posts insightful and bang on the money. The bit in bold is a brilliant bit of analysis and a really important way of looking at the way we play: from the opposing team's perspective. That they're actively awaiting a pass backwards as a trigger for a quick and aggressive press. I saw it too many times today where we, rather than look for alternatives, were quite happy to play it backwards or sideways to a player quite clearly marked or targeted by an opposing player who was ready to pounce. Man City's players can do that, of course. Our players, however, can't.

The fans turned decisively on Mad Nate, so it's certainly possible if we see more intransigence from Russ whilst we sit on nil point.

I forgot of the man's upbringing! So he'd rinse the Welsh Wonder then. 3 rounds?

Russ would keep up appearances and land jabs regularly to limited effect, but would leave himself wide open too often and lose on points. He'd stand there expecting his hand to be raised and become absolutely incensed when Mad Nate's hand was hoist aloft.

Just imagine having the talent that this bloke does and being hung out to dry. It must rankle.

It often only just makes it to its recipient. Especially between the defenders. It's like one of those dreams where every punch you land is a feeble cloud, despite you putting all of your effort into it 😅

Didn't they get promoted in an unlikely manner through the playoffs, too?

The problem is he asks them to play in this way knowing they only just had the capability of doing so in the Championship. How Russ thinks they'll be able to play this way with the aggressive and relentless pressing of PL players is baffling. To throw them under the bus then is a bit cheap.