Chez

Not sure why their is such a clamour for Stuart Armstrong to play. It's not like Branford leaving Le Tiss on the bench. If it's simply because he is regarded as being better than Ely, then fair enough, but in reality he's done fuck all for quite a long time...and that's from someone that loves his bursting runs.

Guly?

I didn't think it was either - more a case of fans seeing long balls more because the manager has a reputation for long ball football - but CBs playing angled long balls out wide happened quite a lot on the Forest game. We still passed it short too, but Lavia was pretty poor (pus space was tight for him) and other midfielders didn't seem to find space to receive balls from defenders, so perhaps options became limited. I find it hard to believe the manager is telling these Prem players to smash it long, all the time, and even harder to believe they are saying yeah, OK, lets do that. I wonder if our stats guys can tell us if there has been a change in the percentage of long balls since NJ arrived.

yes. Hence he was on the list, but maybe we are not finnished

You are right, and I missed Henri Camara too, although technically they were signed from Marseilles and wolves. I think there are still players worth looking at from Scotland, but both the national side and league is weak, so quality is thin on the ground.

I wonder what the record number of consecutive defeats is for a new manager.

Lets hope we wont have to find out. After a bright start, Weghorst was poor for Burnley, which might partly explain why he isn't there right now. In the end it will come down to whether another high profile club will match the wages.

Whatever it is, it's going to hurt if we have to pay him off five minutes after paying off Ralph.

Fair point. They did take 3rd place in the 2018 world cup. In 2020 Euros they lost to winners Italy in the quarter final. Maybe they were past their best by 2022. If you follow Doswell's line, then its all about levels. And managing Saints might be his level.

completing the set: Forster, Hooiveld, Stephen Crainey, McCann, Nieimi, Kanchelskis, Scott Marshall, Derek Allen, Colin Cramb, Paul McDonald, Paul Sheerin, Terry Hurlock, Ian Andrews, Ken Armstrong, Jim Steele, Alley McLeod, Gerry O'Brien, Eric Martin, Campbell Forsyth, Dave Paton and Ian Black.

I guess with Bazunu (20), Lavia (19), Mara (20), Larios (18), Livramento (20) and Bella-Kotchap (21) all getting plenty of games, it' not as though we aren't giving youngsters a chance, but it will be nice to see a `home grown' player get a chance soon. Ballard and Jimmy J have been absolutely flying. I thought one of them would make the bench again this weekend.

Payne, Ballard and Jimmy J all played. I know there was some frustration from the youngsters at not getting some minutes for the first team under Ralph. I guess with the pressure on it was highly unlikely than NJ would play any of them.

Good theory that. Impossible to turn down the massive wage we are no doubt paying. It will be several times what he was on and will set him up nicely. We are from an ideal destination in terms of league position, but money is king.

No one at the club has given up, it's just us weatherworn fans that have. I think its easier for us to see just how bad we are, because we just see the 90 minutes. Equally, the players and manager will believe that things could quickly click into place.

Maybe there is no wage cut if we go down, thus not needing a relegation clause.

Yeah, good ones.

If you are going to call out a player like that - its a pretty damning accusation - firstly you had better have some justification, some evidence to support it and finally you need to be pretty certain. Unless he's a very good actor, the grimace on his face as he tried to walk it off, tells me he was in a fair bit of pain.

Where do you get that figure from? He was on approximately £350,000 a year at Luton. Why would SR pay him ten times that?

Our defence is made for him. Still have him here though. Always liked the way he comes across when interviewed and the way he wants to play the game. Hoping he would be another Strachan - learning from his mistakes - and turn us around.

Agreed. As soon as I heard him say that I switched off. I've seen a couple of similar mentions. Perhaps the same person or maybe just parroting what he said. Either way, I question how they came to that conclusion. I saw what happened and it was a nasty slip. He should have been stronger, then when he got a nudge he slipped awkwardly and it looked bad. He looked in real trouble.

Agree with him. I'm not excited.

Body language reading returns to the forum. It was a nasty slip, possibly caused by the astroturf where the managers stand, and at the time I thought he may have done his cruciate. He tried to walk it off, but was in trouble.

I'm not a fan and have said that from day 1, but all CBs make mistakes. Stephens, Bednarek, Salisu... they have all made similar errors to this one at some point. DCC did it in the second half, but got lucky. Go through the side though and they pretty much all made mistakes, some more costly than others. The first touch of Edozie for example was not up to standard. Aribo just allowing his man to overlap and not track him...the list could on forever.

He's played on the left of a three, so not a striker. Jackson appears in the UK press a lot for a guy that has hardly played. It wouldn't surprise me if his agent creates these links to Prem clubs. I'd happily have him though. You can't have too many options in attacking areas.

from what I saw of Lyanco and DCC yesterday, I might be forced to agree. Those two were woeful. Every man and his dog has been saying `why isn't NJ starting DCC', and I could not have agreed more, but he had an absolute mare. I've not seen a CB pass the ball to his CB partner so badly, so many times, in one game ever. But for a couple of desperate last challenges those passes could easily have led to a second `gifted' goal. I hope it was a one off, otherwise we have signed a complete donkey. Everyone has said CB is our strength, but if ABK is injured, is it really a strength?