Hodgey

Blinded by the City tag, I’d understand if we thought he’d had amazing coaching at city, but the fact is he hadn’t really been at city for 2 years spending the first at Shrewsbury then Portsmouth. Even going by the logic that in a year he’d stepped up from league 2 to league 1 successfully, championship is the next step. let me put it this way - would we have thought a rookie Pompey owned keeper who’d had one previous year at Shrewsbury was ready for 1st team Prem ? As that is what we did. Shocking decision in a critical area, and one that may still cost the owners millions. I will say though that I thought he played ok against Toon (with terrible distribution), it’s the other games I’ve seen that have worried me in terms of saving goals.

So yes people were underwhelmed and a fair few immediately suggested he won’t be good enough. Now to date they were spot on - his job is to keep us up / do better than Ralf. Factually he’s done neither - even with tailwinds of a full month with most of the squad and favourable fixtures. He’s now been further boosted by another 5 ‘first team ready’ players, including the height, power and pace he has gone on about. There can be no more excuses. Should fans get behind him more in matches ? Of course, but that goes 2 ways, if Jones has any sense he needs to ensure we start fast and positively at home, the fans have had almost 2 years of utter tripe served up to them (inc under Jones) so patience is wafer thin, his sniping in post match is also completely unhelpful. Do I think he’ll keep us up ?, I think it’ll be close but just have a feeling we will fall short. That said the irony is I think we need to keep Jones if we go down, and replace him if we stay up - when we all know the reverse will happen.

Wierd delayed youth player swap given we picked up their left back Meghoma last window….this was always on the cards as you can’t have 3 young left backs at the same time (Larios). Whether we’ve picked the right 2 is another question. We’ve been here before with Gazzaniga who actually was ok for them.

I got 30 I think - but here’s the thing, can’t spot Kelvin here at all (and looked about 10 times)

My understanding is that Bree has played in a 3 - I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Bree and KWP full backs with Bree making the 3 when needed. It’s unlikely Jones isn’t going to use someone regularly who knows his system inside and out and who he alone wanted to buy, I genuinely don’t think he’s been bought for back up only purpose

This is the thing, if we do this right we should be in a good position. JWP / KWP / ABK / Lavia / Salisu will all have suitors - £120m min for that lot or we’ve had a shocker. Let’s say we pocket £80m to pay off loans that leaves £40m to re-invest - big budget for that level. Also assume we’re not mad enough to give Walcott/Willy/AMN a contract. That’s 8 high earners off the wage bill Then the squad: Gk: Bazuna, McCarthy, other bloke we bought RB: Livramento, Bree, Paine LB: Perraud, Larios, Small CB: Stephens, Bednerak, Lyanco, CC, Simeu Mid: Diallo, Smallbone, Alvarez, Moi (new contract), Finegan A Mid: S Armstrong, Edozie, Aribo, Djenepo, Osric, Tella, Dibbling, Pearce FW: Adams, Armstrong, Mara, Ballard Thats a squad of 30 I would argue should be minimum play offs - you have 3 players who have scored a decent amount in that division, a few who have shined in the SPL which is equivalent, and a fair few youngsters who have already done ok in the Prem, a right back many are saying is one of the best in that division and of course a manager proven at that level. it’s missing a bit of muscle and nastiness at cb and dm which you need in that division, but with £40m he could easily raid Luton to get that with change. Momentum would be the key and getting over the losing habit. But I’m not seeing a team that would struggle there.

This - nothing has changed under Jones, same issues in defence and upfront, he’s just injected a bit more aggression and lost a bit more possession. He can’t get a tune out of those players anymore than Ralf could, but he’s been given a few more players to play with. They fixed the wrong problem…unless they wanted a manager who knew the championship as mitigation for next season

So I get the cb at full back - Jones is right, if you are going to be more aggressive, you’ll give more free kicks away so you need height. Plus Arsenal and City regularly play cbs at full back so we know it can work. Ironically though we’ve still conceded a load from set pieces. As an aside buying so many small players is another scouting issue. What struck me was his post match. He talked about silly mistakes at the back and needed more quality up top - does that sound familiar ?. Maybe it wasn’t Ralf that was the issue, Jones has not improved us at all - his style is slightly different, but we are still on the wrong side of narrow defeats. As I think deep down we all knew, it’s a player quality issue in key areas, and whilst I do get that finding a centre forward is very difficult, why is it we have about 10 wingers who are all sub-standard ?. Let’s hope Osric just had a bad game.

This might just be me, or the quality of our team overall that half, but I actually thought Diallo was one of our better players, much worse than him on the pitch.

It is easier to stay up in this position, than go up from the championship. SR must realise that (they even bang on about it being the 6th best league in the world). So even if they have to pay over the odds for players to improve our team, it’s something they should do. Window not over yet, and I’m not that bothered about Jackson but Rasmussen needs to pull something out of the bag, and if a striker is impossible / how about a top class keeper. It’s not just scoring goals that makes the differentials

The key question is how we are strengthening versus our rivals, not just are we strengthening . So Wolves have just got Dawson in, we are going for Bednerak. Now there is a half decent player somewhere in Bednerak but he is painfully slow and not great in the air. If Jones could make him more aggressive that might work, but I just don’t see that ever being part of Bednerak game. It’s not like when he was playing he would head out all and sundry - I recall an equal amount of free headers as now.

It infuriates me when people buy the clubs nonsense around ‘we can’t compete’ and ‘we can’t find someone better than out championship standard players’. We’re the 30th richest club in the world, we play in a division 90pc of players aspire to, we pay well, it’s a decent place to live, we’ve produced or helped world class players like Bale, Van Dijk, Mane. And if anyone still wants to argue - can I suggest they take a look at Brighton who seem to be able to spot and get the next superstar with regularity, without having to spend 30m plus. Someone should be asking big questions about our scouting network and not making excuses for them.

Ings will get the goals to keep West Ham up , whether he would suit what Jones wants to play is a fair question. Wood probably does - Jones keeps talking how small a side we are and has favoured a big striker to play off, plus last year he landed at a relegation threatened side and helped pull them out of it, so him going to Forest, who I suspect we need to finish above to stay up is a concern. Wolves will be fine as they have a strong squad and class manager, Leicester similar so I’m looking at Bompey, Leeds, Everton, Forest as the teams we need to finish above. We need them all to have bad windows !!

But we didn’t know about Semenyo enquiry unless I missed it. I know a few City fans who really rate him, but they don’t think he’d make the step up to Prem immediately (which is what we need)

Just listened to Jones post match and he said he was poor, also reminded that he’s 20, just off a plane from Argentina and with 1 day training. Could question why play him at all, but Jones seems keen to get minutes quickly in both him and Osric so they can make a quicker impact. Risky, but if we truly believe in their quality then makes sense.

Worse - JWP scores lowest at 5.97 - I’m assuming something went wrong there !!

For me it’s really simple - I can tell that Che Adams is a poor finisher as he cannot use his left foot, he also tends to just hit the ball as hard as he can with his right. Whatever his xG are according to stats, I know this by watching the game, so whilst his poor xG stat could tell me he isn’t a great finisher, by watching the games I know that anyway, and more I know why.

They are both comfortable public speakers so came across well, directly answered questions talking about long term strategy etc. apparently Carlos is like a Frank Lampard or Tim Cahill, and Ankerson basically took credit for this window (so I actually expect him to throw the kitchen sink at it). They did accept this window is about players who can make an immediate impact. Politicians answers about ‘adjusting the squad’ in Jan and strangely no questions or answers about the lack of striker. The Man City game was amazing timing for them, they mentioned it about 50 times. If we do go down and Ankerson and Semmens back up financial support and long term planning words with actions we’ll be OK. There was one classic Ankerson line on Jones ‘we got the best manager in the 6th biggest league’ when talking about risk. Hmmmm

That’s fair - and he is decent with his feet, but his performances so far suggest at best a slim upgrade on McCarthy and not as good as Forster. Again not his fault - it’s ours, player of the season for a league 1 team does not mean you are capable in the toughest league in the world. So far you would be very hard pushed to name more than 1 keeper worse than him and I’ve seen at least 3 goals I thought should be standard saves at that level.

I’d play 4-3-3. Back 4 pick themselves (esp if Tino fit), I’d get an experienced gk on loan - maybe guy from Newcastle, if we can’t find another mid, post Fulham and based on Norway games I’d be tempted to put Moi there alongside JWP and Lavia, then 3 upfront with Osric, Edozie and a new striker which if we don’t get we will go down no matter what. If Jones wants to play hoofball I’d get rid of him immediately as it doesn’t suit our squad / club setup and won’t get us out of the championship. Plenty of options out there as others have mentioned. We also have some really talented youngsters coming through who may not be Prem ready next year but will be Champs ready. At the point it’s clear we are going down lets have a bit of planning on a pathway and 1st team experience so we can hit the ground running next year.

Some good points here, but I would disagree about luck. Individual errors are not luck as it’s players who continuously make them - that’s ability or coaching. Gackpo wasn’t luck either - even if he was going to leave to a smaller Prem team it would have been Leeds. Injuries are not really luck either - every team will face injuries, if you have a suitable plan b it’s not an issue. Also I wouldn’t say we have been particularly unlucky with injuries this season - it just happens to be the one player we have no reserve for (as we sold him). There is absolutely no bad luck involved in aimlessly hoofing the ball 75 times at home to a relegation rival and having no shots on target. That’s simply terrible tactics / coaching good point on Jan - can they make amends ?. 2 clear things they need to do - bring in players who can make an immediate difference, especially a striker (I like Osric move), work out quickly if Jones can ever succeed at this club and if they think he can support him.

Surely even we wouldn’t sell our main striker to a relegation rival ?. Especially one proven in the league below where we may be heading. That said can see him going there end of season if we go down as Leeds are clearly interested and feel like Che would want to go.

I suspect he is playing Moi alongside JWP and 5 at the back (AMN right back). He’s got two def mid on the bench in Lavia / Finnegan. I can only think that Moi (and Lyanco) have impressed him most / onboard / follow instructions and he has seen something in Moi that makes him think he is better as a cm. He’s then trying to support Adams with Aribo and Fandab. It’s a big risk…

Fair enough re Larios, I’ve not seen enough of him but if he isn’t quick and is that small he’ll never make it. Maybe we have another issue at LB then, as I don’t think Perraud can do a wing back job. Hopefully Tino recovers quickly and we can put KWP there, or even AMN at wing back. I’m hoping Jones is making clear to the board that we don’t need more ‘potential to improve’ players, we need 3 experienced leaders with a bit of the devil in them, even if they have negative sell on potential.

I remember when Koeman was on a horrific run, he changed to 5 at the back to stop leaking goals and we rebuilt from there. From what I’ve read Jones likes 5 at the back, if so he should be implementing that and not pandering to others. We absolutely have to become harder to beat as stage one, and if we can’t take easy chances we need to get the single points until we can. 5 at the back should work for us, our ‘wingers’ are all dreadful, we have 3 highly competent cbs, and in Larios and KWP two quick attacking full backs (plus Tino and Perraud). Let’s be honest, 4 at the back hasn’t worked either so we need to do something new. I’m concerned that Jones has tried to implement this, and got cold feet after friendly losses and Lincoln performance. He now seems to be in no man’s land with a system he dislikes, the players prefer, but still losing games of football. Even Brighton we’re confused we didn’t play 5 at the back, and any element of surprise didn’t work.