joey_big_nose

Loving the half time music... Seems a but unusual?

Yeah it looks a real late 80s Arsenal approach... Just hold onto the 1-0. Long time since I can remember us going so defensive against a similarly resourced team at home.

Yeah weve obviously gone very counter attacking. We had a back six for a while there... Not convinced we've really got the pace for that approach...

Really poor game quality wise. Both sides struggling to do anything. Lots of simple passes given away. Not one for a neutral...just as well Im not one!

Ever since he got sent off Gueye's looked really poor... real shame as he looked fantastic up until that Burnley game. Hope he will come back into it today and show the promise from when he first turned out in August. Like the team. A bit surprised we have gone from having no attacking full backs to two... And picking JRC ahead of Brittain is interesting...

I think most successful teams (including England under Southgate) have had longer term managers. Not many have got much out of short term coaches. Obviously not an iron rule, but it makes sense that it takes a long time with the infrequency of matches to build out an effective style of play. France, Spain, Argentina, Germany all have had their success with longer term managers. But if he's the best option I am not against it.

He's only managed to stay in a role for longer than 2 years once in a career of six jobs.... Feels like it will end in tears!

I think ultimately good teams are balanced sides who work together as a unit. Its as important as individual quality. Whoever manages is going to have to leave top players on the bench as we have too many similar types (very like 2002 to 2006 in that regard) and choose more suited ones in certain roles. It doesnt mean being as conservative as Southgate was with Kalvin Phillips etc. You can be balanced and robust but also have a lot of flair like Spain had at the euros. The big winners out of this should be Mainoo and Wharton - that role alongside Rice is absolutely key. Wonder what Lineker, Shearer et al will say - they were advocating all out attack...

Annoying older supporter comment but tbh when we play two away games in a week like this we usally struggle to pick up points. Compared to recent seasons actually getting the game back to level pegging is quite a significant improvement. Usually we are dead as soon as we concede the first.... Frustrating but as long as we put a good performance next game at home we can just move on.

Wonder if we'll see radical changes.... Really surprised after mid week that Wieman started.

More I think about this game the less confident I am... Just feels like we will be up against it after a long journey and they've won their last two at home against decent sides.

We need to convert Palmer to an out and out striker... we've got too many attacking mids / number 10s and he is so good he can play anywhere. Want to see him play up alongside Kane and running in behind. We don't want him getting into the same congested number 10 area of the pitch we have Kane, Foden, Bellingham, Grealish etc all looking to get into.

He seems less ideological than JDT definitely who was fully invested in his style. Mowbray tried a number of different ways of playing under him to be fair. I never thought he was particularly wedded to a set system. Apart from his absolute love of playing strikers as wingers, which really really annoyed me.

Tough side to predict... got absolutely hammered against Cov, everyone was very poor. A long long trip to the South Coast. I'd say if Brittain is fit he should come in as Pickering and Carter at full back really slows down us coming out from the back. Guyue should get a crack as Yuki really struggled on Tuesday, though I am beginning to get the sense Eustace doesn't rate him... Probably Hedges to come back in too. He gets pelters but we look a lot more robust with him in the middle of the park. I'd be incredibly surprised if Pears gets dropped for Toth. He's broadly been good until Cov, and if we were itching to bring Toth in it would have happened by now. I would give Toth a go personally but I can't see Eustace going for it. Not sure if Cantwell starting is the right call but now he's into the side I would be surprised if he was dropped. Reckon the team will be : Pears Brittain Carter Hyam PIckering Travis Tronstad Dolan Cantwell Hedges Gueye.

Yeah with the horrendous conditions it looked to me like we should have started Gueye and Hedges to be a bit more direct. Wasn't really a game for Cantwell or Wieman imo. Feels like the team was picked without reference to the very heavy rain.

Im not convinced... He will not be looking at anyone who came on as having earned a start. Gueye will probably start ahead of Ohashi. But apart from that could be much the same team. The ballsy move would be to start JRC at RB, but away from home I think Eustace will stick with Carter.

Did we try anything different? Just swapped Hedges for Cantwell. Otherwise much the same setup.

I tend to agree but like the Blackpool game if anything we looked worse after the changes.

On one hand I am hoping that it was just the terrible conditions... But the issue is we will play twice a week most weeks from November to January where a lot of games will be in these sorts of conditions. You never really know what sort of season you are going to have till start of December in the Championship... Its a different race once the games come thick and fast. Biggest problem for me is that the subs made zero impact. You really need them as the squad gets stretched.

The subs have been as bad as the starters... Really really poor performance. Was hoping to see more of fight, but very reminiscent of a JDT type game when we went behind. Never looked anywhere near getting back in.

I know hes a big guy so tempting to play it hugh, but think Gueyes pace could make a big impact here. Theres a lot of space all over the pitch and he can get in behind.

Id bring JRC on at right back, Gueye up front, and Buckley into midfield to get his foot on the ball.

Really horrendous performance... Lets see if Eustace can turn it around. Its very open and lots of room, just the passing has been horrendous. Total absence of quality.

You can see he can beat a full back straightaway... it's rare to get that straight out of a new signing. Last new winger who came in and could obviously beat a full back is a while ago. Probably Khadra? So while he hasn't pulled up any trees I am optimistic about him. Do agree that it would be good though if we saw him go outside the full back as much as inside. Part of why Saka is so brilliant as he can do both so well, so I hope mini Saka has the same approach.

I know arbitro is a referee so you will be far more interested in his opinion than mine (as you should be!) but it seemed to me that it was a red. He was fully lunging studs up into the top of the ankle. Really really dangerous one. The QPR players had very few complaints.