joey_big_nose

Toth is a very good keeper. The one positive.

Southampton do look pretty dodgy at the back. If only we had any decent strikers.

TGH looks very similar to Travis for me in capabilities and style of play, but Travis had a lot of experience and in his peak. TGH is much rawer. TGH would be a very useful player to have on the bench to provide support for Travis and Tronstad. But we are utterly dependent on him.

The overloads philosophy - JDT used it a lot. Beat the opposition full back by having two or three round him. Great when it works. But if it doesn't suddenly the middle of the pitch is empty as your centre mids are on the wing and you are very vulnerable to the counter. But I guess the point is if your strikers cant do anything on their own you have to make these risky moves just to create something.

Cant really see anything we can do to change things. We've actually been a lot worse going forward than Coventry or Sheff Utd. Really struggled to fashion anything. Feels like we will commit more and more forward to try and create something then get done by two easy goals on the break. The theme is very much the stars need to align with lots of successful passes and overloads for us to create a scoring chance, while conversely we will give away an easy goal to a straight ball down the middle.

Well based on performances we have a core of Toth, Alebiouso, Tronstad, Cantwell, Ohashi who will play every game when available. Wharton and Carter too when they are fit. Beyond that no one has really staked a claim. As for Hedges being dropped - I can see the logic. De Neve has done well and has the engine to make the system work. What concerns me is after 60 mins we will need more legs to come on - particularly midfield and up front - we just get rolled over in the last third of games as we're shattered. I don't think we have anyone who can do it. Honestly think we would be better to try and start with Gueye - build the attacking approach around him - then bring ohashi or Gudjonsen to help press in the last 30 to keep the pressure up. As it is Mak comes on and we lose all our shape. Also we really need another cm to show some capability to close out games. We are running Tronstad and TGH ragged.

Yeah not technically brilliant but seems up to it physically. Morishita brings more quality but I think he gets a bit bullied. That said first time Morishita gets a proper number 10 role with 2 strikers ahead of him, so if there is any setup that will give him space this is it.

I dont think Rudy would be able to sack him. Would be Pashas / Venkys call.

Fantastic!!! Great to get the ball rolling.

Gordon Taylor was quite a powerful person. Any idea what he was doing back at Rovers on a Tuesday night game?

Is there any way we can get the new football regulator involved in investigating us? Would help put more pressure on.

I think what has been said is - Pasha brought in Broughton who then brought in JDT - When that went off the rails Waggott stepped in and brought in Eustace - Pasha reasserted his authority and brought in Gestede, forced out Waggott, and brought in Ismael. Might be wrong, but that's the way I understand it.

Tbh I'm pretty comfortable we have found our best shape. The 352 suits us. What worries me is we can't finish chances, give away soft goals that have nothing to do with shape (just basic marking/closing down), after an hour we run out of steam with nothing on the bench to sustain us, and once we are behind we give up. None of that is tactical really. The way Ismael treats the players seems very demotivating, we have lost all the experienced players who could lead on the pitch, and recruitment in attacking positions seems poor.

Given everything about the club at the moment is saving money can we actually fire him? On a 3.5 year contract that is millions more than we have. With JDT we didn't actually fire him, we came to a compromise agreement once he was offered the Sweden job. So we may be in a similar situation where we wait for Ismael to find a new job so we don't have to pay much compensation. Though I imagine Ismael will have a lot less interest than JDT.

I think they'll be enjoying not having Eustace (and JDT) calling out the absolute madness every time they meet with him. But as disengaged as Venkys are I cant see them wanting us relegated and destroy even more of their cash, so at some point Pasha will be questioned. I am not of a conspiratorial mindset. Whats happened here imo is Venkys turned off the cash due to the court case and complete loss of interest in the club, Pasha thought he could have a competitive team on a much smaller budget (no doubt looking at teams like Barnsley, Luton, even the quality of squad we have managed to finish 7th with), and took a gamble on making that happen by forcing out more experienced heads who were blocking him (JDT, Eustace, Wagott) and bringing in people who wouldnt oppose him (Gestede, Ismael). That massive gamble has completely come off the rails and that is where we are. It all flows from the ownership - venkys know nothing about football, so have appointed someone who knows nothing about football (Pasha), who is now applying his lack of knowledge to the club without intermediaries. We really need engaged, committed owners with either a good knowledge of football or willing to out their trust in good football people. Everything downstream of that is irrelevant in the longer term.

Well... Always want to give a fair shake to a manager, and hes basically had an entire team sold from under him. That said, seen enough for him to go now. Pros - does seem to be able to setup a team to play well for the first hour or so Cons - cant bring on subs or change the system mid game without everything falling apart, poor defending free kick and set pieces, doesnt seem to care

I thought he had their full back on toast all game. Needs to work on his final ball but De Neve is the least of our issues.

Yeah really agree with this. We on the whole have quite a good shape until the subs then it goes to pieces. That and the giving away soft goals that should be easily coached out has moved me to the "sack" camp. Its not a great squad but I think there will be managers out there who can do more with it.

I think personally the first X isnt too bad across defence and midfield. The issue is the strikers who get so little change out of a centre back, missing easy chances week after week, and we have nothing to bring on from the bench. My recipe for survival would be 1) sack ismael and get a manager who does not give away soft goals 2) sign a striker in January with a championship scoring record 3) sign a few experienced mids and defenders who you can bring on to close out games. Still given the complete rotten setup behind the scenes I think it will be a very tough job to stop the heads going down.

Well I would say thats bad defending from us. The way Id characterise the game is we were pretty good for 60 mins, i cant see a big difference in the quality of the players between us and them, on balance of play Id say we should have still been ahead. We looked competitive, limited their opportunities, created our own. But.. 1) we give away goals very very easily, that's entirely on the manager just not organising us. 2) we dont have strikers who can be depended onto score. Thats on Gestedes and Pashas recruitment. 3) we have very little on the bench to change a game, again on Gestede and Pasha 4) as soon as we go behind we're done. Id say this is really on Pasha and Gestede and letting so many senior players leave.

We have to work so hard to get a goal and give them away for nothing. To serially play well but lose only shows there is something fundamentally wrong.

Watched the Coventry game back. System does seem to suit us. Particularly like how we work down the sides (getting loads more crosses in) and having two up front. Interested to see how we continue with it. I would say lets give Gueye a chance up top with Ohashi. Gudjonsen is getting nothing out of defenders, and I think Ohashi could suit Gueye more as a partner than Kargbo.

I think I might be going mad - but I just saw while on the internet just now pop up in my google shopping recommends an all white kit with the new/old cross emblem for the badge instead of the rose. Looked very good. Went to find it again to take a screenshot to post here, but it has disappeared! Can't find it anywhere. Not sure if I was Hallucinating It was one of those concept kits It was made available briefly by mistake and taken down It's been available already and everyone knows that but I don't

Great news if true. I guess we go the same as the XI that played well for an hour. There really are not many other options anywhere on the pitch. What happens when we start having half a dozen players out at a time in November/December I do not know?

Not feeling confident.... Interested to see 352 though. Henricksson and Gudjonsen not really looked up to much so far. Would be a great game for them to make an impression. 1 full back on the bench and no centre backs feels like a problem destined to happen.