Lighthouse

With strikers who can't hit a barn door and the three worst goalkeepers to ever play football? I think you need more realistic expectations. The playoffs were the minimum I expected this season and he's delivered that with room to spare. It's been a decent season, just not quite the one we were hoping for.

As opposed to what? Some mythical manager who can manage more than 85-90 points in a season, with the likes of Che and Brooks spanking it into the car park every weekend. A lot of these players are nowhere near as good as a lot of people (including themselves) think they are.

Not exactly a glittering start to Orr's Hants career so far. In other news, spare a thought for Delhi Capitals, who've just been whacked for 130 off 6 overs.

4 overthrows trying to run out Mousley when he was already comfortably back in his crease.

Better yet, bring back Angus Gunn, who has a better save percentage.

Wandered over to watch the morning session, wish I hadn't bothered really. Cold, windy, overcast and not a single wicket taken. Just looking at the other scores, Lancs are currently 71-6, having seen off our bowlers quite comfortably last week. I fear it's going to be a long season in the CC.

The CL used to be two group stages until some time around 2000-2002, they changed it to its current format because it was too many matches, so if anything it's gone the other way. The UL chnaged it's format to match this because it seems to be a popular standard for most knockout tournaments. Without the group you end up with half the teams knocked out after one round, like we were in 2003. As for pre-season games in Asia, nobody cares if anyone complains about that because it's a choice. Besides, they're exhibition matches with plenty of squad rotation, I can't recall any club every saying their players were exhausted from their own pre-season.

But you get an extra game if you win, plus the prize money of being in the next round. Then the team you get in the next round is more likely to be better and have a large stadium. In the vast majority of circumstances a team will be better off financially by winning the tie on penalties and going through to the next round. Everyone keeps imagining some League 2 side getting a draw at home to Man Utd and going back to OT for a big cash bonanza but how often does that actually happen? What if you’re the chairman of Leyton Orient; you draw 1-1 at home to QPR in round 3 and the winner goes to OT in round 4 - would you prefer a penalty shootout or a replay?

But it greatly increases the chance of those clubs actually winning the tie and then also getting the prize money and revenue from being in the next round. Let’s say Leyton Orient manage a 1-1 draw in the third round at OT. Are they more likely to win a penalty shoot out or a replay?

How many replays have there actually been in the last, let’s say 20 years, which could actually be classified as ‘smaller clubs cashing in’? Most of the fans of those teams listed DON’T want a replay for their own team though, that’s the thing. Who can honestly say they were happy to play Watford twice and were glad it didn’t just go straight to penalties the first time?

More than happy to see the back of replays, 99% of the time nobody gives the tiniest crap about them. All of this talk about minnows getting a big pay day is once in a blue moon stuff. For a start, the minnow involved is almost never good enough to earn a draw. Secondly, the original tie should be a big enough pay day anyway, saying you need to play it twice is just greedy. Thirdly, the smaller team has a much better chance of going through in a single game that goes to penalties, than in a replay. These were the third round games replayed this year. Who actually cares about any of these games? Bolton vs Luton Blackpool vs Nottingham Forest Wolves vs Brentford Bristol Rovers vs Norwich Birmingham vs Hull Bristol City vs West Ham Everton vs Crystal Palace

Jews invented spark plugs to control global traffic.

It’s part of how we play. I’m sure one of the ‘taters a while back said we were in double figures with goals scored which started with Baz playing it out. We play it around the back because it draws teams in to pressing us, which we then play through. Those spaces created are a large part of why we’ve created so many decent goal scoring chances this season. Actually sticking them in the net has been a different issue but we’ve made the clear cut chances; that double Armstrong goal at Ipswich was a classic example of doing it right. If we spend 20 passes playing it around the edge of their third, that space isn’t there and we become predictable and easy to play against.

No, one stat, his saves as a percentage of shots on target. I explain that the exact same way as I’d explain Papis Cissé being better than Messi when the reverse stat was analysed a few years ago. If you want to cling to that, you’re going to have to agree that Angus Gunn, who I know we all love on here, is better than the Rotherham keeper everyone has been raving about. https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/keepers/Championship-Stats

Nothing is being ignored. We adjusted our game plan so that the defenders and Downes at various times dropped much deeper to take the ball off him and move it forward. He was never put under any pressure by Preston and was only ever asked to play very straight forward passes out that I could have made. In short we did well, as a team, to mitigate the area in which McC is clearly inferior to Bazunu. If that exact scenario with Manning had played out with Baz in goal, you’d be saying, "oh look, he’s made an absolute flap of the only thing he’s not terrible at." It was the one time McC’s major weakness was actually exposed and it showed why we will have to adjust the way we play for the remainder of the season.