roversfan99

When we failed to score and then went on to lose by 2 goals?

Sorry, you are right. Although that feels like a long time ago and crucially we had Hyam in the team and Hull's squad had been struck down by illness. Either way, there seems very little to suggest that we will go to Leicester and win comfortably.

What have you seen to suggest we could win this "fairly comfortably?" None of our wins have been comfortable.

He cannot claim to be hard done by. The squad he seemingly had a big say in wasnt designed for this formation. Carter has been a total write off due to injuries for a couple of years. We came into the season without sufficient cover and quality at centre back even if we were playing a back 4. Baradji we signed with them knowing he was going to be out for months. Garrett wasnt part of the first team, he wouldnt be playing anyway. Tavares presumably was signed to play and is shit. Up front, we came into the season with Ohashi, we signed Gudjohnsen and Gueye was not seen as a serious option. 2 strikers for 2 positions isnt enough.

Fans are as disengaged as ever after having the piss out of us by the owners and board, struggling, dinner time kick off on sky. Our fanbase doesnt deserve stick for a potentially lower than usual turn out away at Leicesrer.

Miller 2nd and Wharton 6th above Toth down in 8th. Yeah, pointless.

Why do you always use whether Ismael rates someone or not as an argument? People are giving their own opinions. In this case I agree with you that Gueye shouldnt play, he is awful. But just because the manager (one with a pitiful record) does something or believes something doesnt nullify the opinion.

Dont let the silly antics fool you. Gueye doesn't display any passion when he comes on in a huff and cant be bothered putting in 100%.

Gueye does not warrant a run of games. Had plenty last season and was shit. I think that relationship has somewhat faded now people have realised how bad he is and how when he comes on he doesnt even give his all.

He did do a very good job last season to be fair after the mess of Gary O'Neil.

Recruitment was crap full stop but it certainly wasnt part of the plan to build it for the current formation. If you play 3 centre backs, you really need 6 in total. We have Wharton and McLoughlin, 2 who are not great and both left footed. Carter is a waste of time. Miller isnt the best. And that is literally all we have, so not only is there not enough quality but absolutely no depth. 1 injury and we have to change formation. Up front, we have 2 strikers, one comes off and we have to change or stick midfielders up front.

The crowds have been terrible because its half term is a new one.

Im specifically telling you that I am not writing him off. He wasnt close to the first team before he went out, hes getting experience as a younger player at a lower league club, might be good for the future, not the answer to essentially replace Hyam now. Even you were fuming when Hyam was sold without replacement, now you are advocating O'Riordan as his replacement. Talk about standards. You clearly have a far greater opinion of the squad Gestede has built compared to everyone else. Yet, dont seem to think that Ismael needs to go for underachieving.

No, I am clearly not writing him off. Our defence is massively worse than it was last season, obviously with the losses in the summer especially flogging Hyam without replacing him. Merely recalling someone who was nowhere near the first team from a loan in League 1 will not rectify those defensive issues. I think we are 2 short, especially if we play a back 5. We need proper Championship quality defenders. We are struggling to keep clean sheets with our current sub par, IMO imbalanced back line. Do you think the current squad is of a quality that should be higher than 21st?

I did acknowledge the very good ball Gudjohnsen put across for the goal midweek. I actually said it was his only positive contribution of the night. Youve just made that up because rather than seeing my opinion as just different to yours, youve boxed it off as me just refusing to veer away from a pre conceived idea of him. If we are going to play 2 strikers going forward then we need 4. I dont think that Gudjohnsen was good for all of the second half. He definitely seemed boosted for the remaining minutes after his goal and did a couple of good things after that, but up until then, it was his usual performance of not really putting his body in, struggling to hold the ball up, half arsing battles with defenders etc. The squad is lacking in a number of areas because recruitment was so poor in the summer. We shouldnt need wholesale changes but we do because a number of the summer signings have failed to meet the standards. Dont let one win fool you after a few days unable to post, we are still bang in trouble, 4th bottom and with lots of issues. Merely bringing back a young lad on loan in League 1 will not suffice in fixing our defensive issues. We are lacking in both quality and quantity there.

Are the minutes likely to follow soon or are there disputes similar to last time?

The squad needs a lot more than that, especially if we are playing this formation long term, dont let one win against another out of sorts team fool you. We dont have enough centre backs to play a back 4, never mind a back 5. We knew this in the summer, merely loaning back someone in League 1 wont solve it. I dont rate Miller, I think like the majority of our summer recruitment, he probably isnt up to the standard of the league. He is rash, clumsy and has a mistake in him. Wharton is too. We cant keep clean sheets at the moment. We only have 2 strikers plus Gueye. If you play 2, you need 4. Gudjohnsen should have been full of confidence after scoring v France. He too often is very passive, doesnt stick his body in, almost appears lazy. Lets hope he can kick on but either way, if we want to play 2 strikers, we need 2 more. We wont get what we need either way.

Alebiosu is very promising. Hes not perfect, technically he will do the odd loose touch, and sometimes you are just thinking run at your man a bit more and really believe, but hes become the most important attacking player in our team from right back and has been consistently very good. De Neve, I dont share similar encouragement yet. I dont recall these excellent crosses.

Is he definitely English and not a mathematical equation?

He is so one dimensional and lacks intelligence. He grafts, hes up and down and is fairly quick. But he just runs in a straight line and if he cant cross the ball doing so, he runs out of ideas, and when he does cross it invariably doesnt lead to chances.

We need more than one attacker and more than one defender to continue to play this way, well we need more than that anyway. Up top, we only have 2 and the 2 we have are really, really average. One stands on 2 goals, the other on 1. I thought Gudjohnsen was poor again until his goal, he frustratingly doesnt put himself about half as much as he should, or use his body. But we cant have 2 strikers for 2 positions. We also are devoid of pace in attack. Defensively, we have gone from being solid to being unable to keep clean sheets. McLoughlin is average, Wharton error prone and I am not having Miller. The balance of them with Wharton in the middle doesnt look right. And again, we have only those 3, Carter is a right off. So we would need 2 more there. The squad is so thin its untrue due to terrible recruitment. Where do you stand on Ismael now?

He wasnt as bad as Suhail. Your second paragraph is just you taking your own conclusions. He has been with Venkys throughout and I believe worked his way up from driver. Essentially an extension of the source of 15 years of hell.

It cant have been. There was a power struggle between one idiot and an evil and incompetent bell end far, far more destructive than him, and the latter clearly won.

It hasnt given him a stay of execution because he would have stayed regardless of todays result sadly. He seemingly played a big role in bringing/endorsing the signing of all of the dross on cheap wages that have come through the door this summer. Morishita was a player he flagged when he nearly got the Legia job, he scored on his first start and has been really poor since and he doesnt know what to do with him. I dont think its a failing of Ismael to get a tune out of Gueye though. Hes just particularly useless. He was for Eustace who tended to opt for Ohashi. But his record even with todays win is still terrible, but it doesnt matter here. Safe as houses.

Always satisfying to (finally) win a game and a desperately needed 3 points. Wasnt a very good performance but it doesnt matter. My fears over relegation havent been alleviated in any way or my concerns over the quality of the manager and players but its 3 points on the board. The 2 forwards I thought again were poor, especially Gudjohnsen but if he bags the winner then he can be as poor as he wants. The thing is, we have no reasonable alternative. The defence is also a bombscare, we wont keep many clean sheets this season. Happiness for Wharton personally that he is over his injury and also that one performance at Watford I think perhaps convinced people that he is better than he is. Has always been poor on the ball and has a mistake in him. Im not having Miller either, not a good defender. I dont think playing the back 3 helps them though. He is limited but I thought man of the match was probably Gardner Hickman who did well, either him or Toth. The game swung on those 2 poor misses by Armstrong but Toth did really well on both occasions. Hes such an upgrade on Pears. Alebiosu has had better games but is still our main threat. Fortunate with his goal (how bad is McCarthy for Southampton) but deserves it for his performances this season.