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Would you be happy with Batth and Weimann here this season? You saw yesterday (and last year) that Weimann's legs have gone. I suspect Batth's have too if he's on the bench at Derby behind the cloggers we saw yesterday.

Let's wait until the end of the season until we start writing our obituary, eh?

Our best formation is clearly 3 at the back with 3 in midfield and 2 upfront. For all of the criticism Ismael has received for playing Hedges at CB yesterday, he didn't let us down - and you just have to look at my post history to know that I'm one of the biggest Hedges haters on the planet. We don't have any good wingers, nor do we have a striker good enough to play in a lone role - so 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 just simply doesn't work for this squad.

You’ve forgotten to mention DeNeve , understandable I suppose. I agree with you regarding Alebioso, he’s a better all round player than Brittain.

No chance of relegation - barring another rash of injuries. This is a lower mid-table side on paper - and one that could flirt around the playoffs if things start to click. If our spine is out long-term however - Toth / Carter / Wharton / Tronstad / Cantwell - then like pretty much every team in this division we'll struggle.

Occasionally you might get a 'surprise' relegation - if Sheff Utd, Norwich or Southampton stay down there they would be huge surprises based on their squads, investment and expectations. In reality - and it seems Southampton have already turned a corner now that Still has gone - all three are likely to get themselves out of trouble because they shouldn't be going down. I am still struggling to work out who the minimum two other clubs are going to be that we need to finish above to survive this season. On paper you'd think Oxford and Portsmouth maybe, but both seem to have the ability to pick up results, particularly at home, when they need to. Swansea were my pre-season prediction to struggle and it looks like some rot has set in there, but I don't think they'll just sit back and leave it to chance - they'll sack their inexperienced manager and replace before too long. I suppose maybe QPR another but they seem to be competitive. It is going to be a close run thing in my view. You can't lose 5/7 at home and win 1 and expect anything other than a struggle. One thing is for sure - we aren't going to be anywhere near 7th this season so perhaps the chuckle brothers running the show could explain why we've clearly regressed by 10+ places in the table under their management.

The jury is still out for me. I need to see more of them - realistically they should all be slowly being introduced into the side, rather than thrown in at the deep end. I've seen flashes from Henriksson, Gudjohnsen and Morishita, but we've also seen three players overwhelmed with the pace and physicality of the league. I think Alebiosu is better than Brittain - mostly because he's just a much better athlete and he's asked to patrol an entire flank on his own. Brittain couldn't get up and down like that and was often caught out for pace. I don't see much difference between Gardner-Hickman and Travis - both limited, but dogged footballers. Selling Hyam I'm ok with - I don't think McLoughlin is a worse player (and I think Miller is a better player) - but selling him and then shifting to 3 at the back is suicide long term. Not unless you recall O'Riordan or you really fancy Pratt / one of the U21 CBs (which they clearly don't). Tavares seems to be the only 'dud', but he also might just need time. Who knows what Schrodinger's Baradji will bring to the party, if he even ever plays for us.

Derby were dirty as hell yesterday. Pushing, pulling and obstructing (their no.6 twice made a beeline for Ohashi on a break and blocked him like they were playing American Football) their way through the game. Their #32 pussied out of a 50/50 with Miller then disgustingly swiped at Miller's feet once he'd got the ball under control - he got a yellow, but there was zero intent to play the ball and it was an incredibly cowardly act designed purely to hurt our player.

No, we didn’t, that’s right. I’d say all the replacements are inferior. Whilst I like Alebiosu, he’s not as good as the Callum Brittain that left. Rank bad management to lose Hyam so late without a replacement and rely on Carter and Wharton to remain fit, when they’ve demonstrated an inability to do so for as long as they’ve been in the picture.

As always with this board - quick to pounce on any negatives. Three wins on the bounce brushed away in an instant. It's clearly somewhere in-between. There was too much turnover in the summer (due to cost cutting / selling assets / a new 'project' - however you / they want to define it), but at the end of the day the quality of the squad hasn't changed much. Much like last year, we still lack depth. If four (or five - depending on what you think of Carter / Wharton) starting players were missing last year under Eustace we'd have struggled to get results too. We didn't lose any world beaters in the summer and we evidently didn't replace them with any either.

The BRFCS POTM is… MOTM template.mp4

Speaking of shoving - it was going on throughout the game as was the new fashion for shirt pulling at every opportunity.

Football fans are far too reactionary from one result to the next. Played Southampton and Leicester at perfect times, although Bristol City was a good win. If we had played Southampton yesterday we would have lost. I predicted bottom 6 or so with a chance of going down at the start of the season, and have seen nothing to change my mind otherwise.

Absolutely, but i think we all had that idea about him anyway when he got the job.

He will be banking on Carter staying fit and Tronstad not going in January. Given Carter's injury record I can't see it which could well put us in a situation where a winger will have to play centre half. Just on Carter was there any elaboration from Ismael with regard to his cryptic interview recently where he questioned aspects of Carter's lifestyle?

He’s better than the two who played there yesterday though and he’d be a first pick for us at the moment.

I’m yet to see any good performances IMO. Turns like the titanic, terrible with the ball at his feet, easily turned by anyone half decent. Still cannot get over a back 3 of him, Miller and Hedges.

McLoughlin is just ass. Has some good performances but other than that he’s terrible and I can see why hull didn’t really start him as much. Only God can help us now…

The fan base is there - you saw it yesterday and you've seen it for the Burnley game. The quality of the game isn't really a problem (losing it though), it's the fact that there's just no direction and no connection to this club anymore. I go because it's a social event with my parents. I've no real love for what this club has turned into.

I don't think they intended on playing with three at the back - look at the makeup of the squad: Ribeiro and Pickering have no place in that formation (neither will be cheap, relative to the rest of the squad) We only have three CFs for two positions (and he basically refuses to play Gueye) We only have one RWB in the squad We only have four senior CBs for three starting CB positions It's pretty clear he's stumbled upon this formation (or perhaps reverted to it as I know he's played it before) and we're trying to make do with the players we have. I actually think it suits most of our players, we just don't have the required depth to play it when injuries inevitably hit. If I was in charge of January recruitment I'd be looking at a RWB, a CB, a CM and a CF as an absolute minimum. I'd also be looking to shift Pickering and Ribeiro on.

Speaking of shoves, did anybody register McLoughlin giving Andri a proper push after the goal? To me, it looked like a push you would give the opponent after a bad tackle, etc. Although I can understand the frustration, I found it a bit strange from our "captain".

How many will be back for the next home game ? The first half was terrible and the second half wasn’t a lot better.

I don’t blame him, I just think it says something about him.

Rumours are he was one of the clique that Gestede wanted out.

I'm surprised at our inability to defend high crosses / set pieces given our recruitment plan was to get tall, physical players into the team who wouldn't be 'bullied' so easily. 1st goal: Gudjohnsen completely misses to mark Morris for the corner. Gets a shove from Pears to shift focus from Sanderson to Morris right before the corner was taken and didn't manage to block Morris' run into the space. There's 10(!) vs 6 outfield players inside the box yet we can't defend properly. Man-marking is pretty much non-existent here; Alebiosu is zonal-marking near post and then you have Miller, McLoughlin and Hedges zonal-marking near, central and back post. Absolute garbage. Maybe not commit all your tall players to do zonal marking next time or tell the other players to better screen/block runs into space? 2nd goal: This is where the problem with playing two strikers comes in when you have a back three. Morishita (the only attacking midfielder) doesn't pick up Ward who has all the time in the world to make a pin-point cross to Agyemang. De Neve (wing-back) is helping Hedges out to double up against Morris on the wing which is completely fine but then there's a huge gap between wing-back and central/attacking midfielders when Ward receives the ball. In the second situation, Alebiosu either doesn't check his back or decides not to seek up Agyemang before the cross comes in which is poor defending.