DE.

For anyone interested in generative AI for music, Suno AI has taken pretty huge steps since I last used it a few months back. If you download it on your phone it lets you use the new v4 model for a while, although eventually you have to revert to the 3.5 model (both are pretty good though). I'm honestly amazed at how far the technology has come since I last used it. Granted it's better at some genres than others. It seems to do a really good job with rap/hip hop. Pretty good with pop, although it's obvious the training data has a lot of autotuned vocals and that can be annoying. I like the rock/metal songs it creates, but the production and mixing is a bit off. An example of a couple of songs I created below - I provided the lyrics and general song direction (verses, bridges, solos, etc) whilst the AI produced the music, vocals and vocal melodies. On the first one the autotune issue is present at times, whilst on the second one the production/mixing issues are evident. Nonetheless, I imagine someone with a lot more time and software could improve both significantly. I imagine at this early stage most of what it produces is ultimately still pretty formulaic and much like ChatGPT would be increasingly easy to spot if mass produced, I haven't really listened to enough AI generated music to know for sure. I sent some of the stuff I'd made to a friend in the music business, and he was both impressed and horrified by what was possible now with AI. Obviously from the perspective of me - as an individual creating music for personal enjoyment that I'd never pay anybody to create - it doesn't harm anyone, but you could see this kind of AI being used in ways which really gut the industry of various professionals involved in the process. It's especially scary when you consider we're still in the embryonic stages of generative AI as a whole.

In fairness to Big Mak, it's not like he looked wildly out of place pre-Burnley. He seemed to have good attributes as a bit of a bruiser up front, and had some excellent touches, movement and passes, a couple of which led directly to goals. The Burnley sending off seemed to totally derail all of his early momentum, unfortunately, and since then he's really struggled. I don't expect he'll ever be a prolific goalscorer as his shooting technique isn't at the level it needs to be, but he has a lot of other attributes which can help us be effective. If he chips in with the odd goal here or there then great, although it does mean we need to try again when it comes to bringing in someone who can realistically get into double figures on the goalscoring chart. I don't think we have that at the moment and as amazing as the current run of clean sheets has been, we aren't going to be able to win 1-0 every game.

Eustace is the type of manager we've needed for years. Someone who knows how to build from the back and grind out wins. This is what I was hoping for when he joined us - cheers to Big Club - a monumentally stupid decision to sack him, but their loss was our gain.

Eustace is working miracles considering the lack of support given to him by the owners. Fair play. I can't imagine many, if any, other managers could have gotten more at this stage out of the current squad. I like that his focus is, clearly, on building from the back. Granted he basically has no choice, considering our options up top, but nonetheless - if you've got a solid defence you don't need a 25 goal a season striker. Have to admit I didn't think the current backline could maintain form like this, but good on them. They're obviously buying into what Eustace is doing and that's great for them and for us.

Should have put some money on that. If any team was going to give Town their first win of the season, now ETH has left United, it was going to be Spurs. At home, no less!

Sounds good to me. Excellent idea boys, get him in and let the good times roll.

I don't really think the Ipswich loan has anything to do with Travis' current performances. He's had good runs of form in the past as well - just very rarely under JDT. The two just didn't work well together. The whole reason Ipswich wanted him was because it's clear to most (outside of portions of the Rovers bubble, anyway) that he's a perfectly decent Championship level performer who can reliably step in and have a solid, generally predictable game. He suffered under JDT simply because the system JDT played didn't suit Travis at all, which happens sometimes. Eustace's way of playing is something Trav can work with, and so he's back to being largely dependable in his role.

Three points closer to 50, first away win, back in the goals, only conceded one and that was due to a stupid penalty being given away. A lot of the same concerns remain but for this weekend at least I'll take this, bank the positives mentally and continue praying to wake up to the news Venky's are finally selling the club.

Perhaps one too many injuries for JRC. With that said he had something similar a couple of seasons back when he didn't even look like a professional footballer for a few months, then suddenly got going and looked great, before the usual injuries started up again. For all the talk of JRC needing to be a key member of the team, I doubt he'll ever be reliable enough to fulfil that role. Injuries and inconsistency are too common to ignore at this point. It's a shame as the natural talent is there, but it is what it is. At best a utility player, but when he's off form he's even a liability in that regard, so I'd probably look to move him on soonish if we could get a decent fee.

I could understand calling it bad luck if we'd drawn 0-0 whilst missing a hatful of chances... but we lost 2-0 - to a team that I believe hadn't scored away in the league since August? - so clearly the manager did something wrong, whether we missed a bunch of sitters or not. The sign of a team in trouble is when you're playing OK but still losing (and even worse if you're not scoring either). One night fluffing your lines you can put down to bad luck. 3 goals in 7 matches is more down to poor management and coaching (these players are capable of directing the ball into the net, they've done so earlier in the season and in the past, Gueye aside it isn't beyond any of them). Eustace's tactics have never worked away from home this season. Now they aren't working at home either. He needs to adapt or he's going to take us down. Venky's will still be 100% to blame, but nonetheless, we're only heading in one direction at the moment.

I think we're going to be in a relegation scrap sooner than people think - although scrap would imply fighting for survival, and since we have apparently forgotten how to put round object into the vicinity of the net... well, it ain't going to be much of a fight. Venky's have once again destroyed the club, roughly a decade on from the first time they took a wrecking ball to the squad. Once we go down this time I don't think we come back as easily as 2017/18, though.

Said before the international break if our home form goes to pot then we are going to spiral rapidly. Didn't think it'd happen quite this quickly, nor did I think we'd literally not be able to score at all. We are going backwards at a rate of knots.

At some point we'll need to spend more than a kitkat and a packet of monster munch on the attack. At this rate we're heading towards a pathetic 2 goals in 6 matches. Sadly all of the quality has been sold and we've been left with the water carriers who can, at best, do a job.

Gallagher probably wouldn't have been fit for Yuki or Mak to benefit from tbf, so I don't think it matters much. Losing Szmodics was definitely the major blow we suffered, and I imagine we'll be increasingly feeling that loss as the season goes on. The thing is Mak looked the part in his first few matches. He was getting into good positions, was making defenders uncomfortable and created some good chances. Still didn't really look like scoring, but didn't look out of his depth either. Since the red card, though, he's been struggling massively. The last thing we need is yet another player who can only contribute when he's feeling confident. We need players who, even when things aren't going their way, can give us a 7/10 performance in most matches. I feel that Yuki is capable of this, but Mak is becoming an increasing concern.

I watched MOTD last night and it was pretty pathetic how Guardiola and the pundits were lavishing praise upon Martin as some kind of visionary. Southampton are bottom and haven't won a match ffs.

I'm not sure about Mak. He's a striker by trade but he's not very good at scoring, which isn't ideal. 3 assists so far is OK, but he'd need to contribute a lot of those to negate the lack of goalscoring. He started off well but the red card really seemed to derail his momentum. There is talent there, but a non-scoring striker is rarely a good thing in the long run. Yuki is a solid, hard-worker. He'll chip in over the course of the season, but he's not a regular game-changer in the way Szmods, Arma or BBD, for example, could be when they were on form. When we lost that in Arma, BBD unexpectedly stepped up (for half a season per season anyway). When BBD left, Szmods unexpectedly stepped up in a massive way. We're finally at a point where the unexpected hero just isn't there anymore, so, as you say, we need to adapt - and that means everyone has to contribute more and we need to remain defensively resolute. Eustace seems to have, for the most part, got the defensive part nailed down. We aren't conceding many as of late. Unfortunately, offensively, we aren't getting the 'everyone contributing more' part of the equation - instead we have people missing chances they should be taking, and at best playing at their level rather than above what we're accustomed to. The only person who's scored more than 2 goals so far is Yuki, with 4. In terms of assists Mak leads the way with 3, but Cantwell and Brittain are more impressive with 2 from 7 and 6 appearances respectively - Mak's had 11 apps and his 3 assists all came before his red card - he's also never completed a full game for us, with 65 mins the longest he's been on the pitch for. If we're relying on Yuki as our main scoring threat then we will probably struggle unless we keep a very, very tight defence for the rest of the season. It feels like Cantwell, Brittain and Dolan will be the main source of assists. Cantwell is still an unknown quantity at the moment whilst Brittain and Dolan have not exactly been consistent performers over the course of their careers here. I think we've overachieved based on the team we have thus far, and will need to continue doing so to be comfortable. Eustace seems to have found a working formula, at the moment, for our matches at Ewood. The issue will be if teams find a way to compromise that formula - and in that case we will need to make sure we've found something that works on the road too in the event we need to readjust what we're doing at home. There's nothing to panic about at the moment, but I think the warning signs are there and there's work to be done to ensure we stay stable. Eustace has a lot to think about and it'll be a real test of his abilities as a manager. If he places us in mid-table by the end of the season I think he'll have done a very good job. I don't consider playoffs realistic, regardless of our start, so I'm not going to judge him based on us being in the top six. I appreciate the limitations he's working with, and hope that he can find ways to get the absolute best out of what he has to keep us safe for this season. For the record, I don't like that this is my level of expectation, but... Venky's.

To be honest I can understand wanting to upgrade on Hladky as I'm not sure he's PL quality... the problem is that neither is Muric and it was indeed looks like an egregious waste of money. It seems to be a case of relying too much on whatever data model they have. If they'd sent anyone to do some serious scouting on him I can't believe anyone with working eyesight would have recommended signing him. With that said I don't think they've necessarily wasted the £100m they've spent - if the goal is to yoyo between divisions and come back stronger next time. They've signed some players with potential that could come good for them over time, assuming they keep them if they go down. If the idea was to stay in the PL then their transfer strategy was probably not the right one. Depends on what the wage structure looks like really. Assuming Palace lose tomorrow against Spurs then somehow despite not winning any matches in their first 9, Ipswich will remain outside the relegation zone, as the three teams below them have also failed to register a single victory thus far. They can't rely on all of the teams below them being this bad for the entire season though.

Can't see any of our players getting double figures. Would be nice for Gueye to get at least one league goal, but he can't shoot properly so it'll have to go in off his arse or elbow. Won't be through any kind of technique or skill. Yuki is decent but he'll never be a Szmodics, an Arma or even a BBD. This is probably the season where our improbable luck with a player randomly having a storming season in front of goal runs out.

It does seem that way unfortunately. Awful afternoon again for Ipswich. Let a 2-0 lead slip, at 3-2 go down to 10 men. Have the fortitude to keep going and draw it back to 3-3... then throw it away in the 96th minute. Deary me. Burnley have absolutely robbed them when it comes to Muric. Terrible keeper. Walton would be an upgrade.

Think the club may see the season as a free hit to a degree, but from a fan perspective never winning will wear thin quickly.

As Eustace said recently, 50 points is the goal. With this squad it's the only realistic ambition, as sad as that is to say. Venky's Out

Szmodics and Hirst putting Ipswich 2-0 up against Brentford. Hirst with an assist as well.

2 goals in 5 games is a very worrying stat. We've stopped scoring and will go into November winless away from home. Better hope our home form stays strong or, much like last season, we're going to go tumbling.

You can generally always tell purely AI generated prose. It has a very specific kind of structure to it that's recognisable immediately if you've used AI enough in the past. Just that uncanny valley sensation of almost being real, but not quite. What I have enjoyed doing recently is letting AI generate insights into things that I've written. It digs out themes and observations that I hadn't even considered, and helped me refine my focus when adding to that narrative in future. For the analysis side of things, AI is very good. Also for repairing or reconstructing things. From a generative perspective, mostly derivative at this point in time. Fun, but kind of soulless and loses its appeal quite quickly.

Problem is he's had his chance plenty of times before and rarely shows up when he's a regular starter. Not too dissimilar to Dolan in this regard, except Dolan will actually chase and harry even if he's having a poor game. Siggy is a total luxury player and we aren't strong enough as a team to afford playing with 10 men for 80 minutes of each match, on the off chance every so often Siggy might actually do something useful (appreciate you didn't mention starting him, but I've certainly seen it suggested elsewhere). When he leaves at the end of the season (or January), frankly, little of value will be lost and we'll continue just fine without him. It's a shame as I had high hopes for Siggy, but the work ethic isn't there and it's the one thing you arguably need most in this league to be truly effective. In regards to the game, OK result, little more to say. Performances are still a concern but if we keep picking up points then I won't complain. Our sudden lack of goal threat should be flagged as a real worry though - we've only scored 2 goals in our last 4 matches. Fortunately in the last two we've kept the back door shut, and two clean sheets is great, but it's worrying how our goals have dried up so rapidly.