Chez

absolutely no service, but when it does come their way they have lost the ball far far too easy. Armstrong has had two shit dribbles and lost the ball both times simply through a woeful touch. Che had a couple of opportunities to hold the ball up, but failed. I dont think either put any real pressure on opponents. Its just jogging between players. Not easy, I know, but they just dont do anything at all. Nothing.

I share your feelings about him.

do we? To me we Look like a team trying their best, but are simply not good enough. Look like a team desperately needing its forwards to do something, to keep the ball, take pressure of defence. Che and Armstrong have been useless. They do nothing.

Bazuna's kicking is fucking shit.

service is non existent, but our strikers may as well not be playing. Che hasn't won anything in the air and is failing to hold the ball up. Got to do more. ball keeps coming back...ah fuck, its two.

Perraud shit touch, ball turned over. He's just not good enough at the top level.

decent first ten, but a goal has seemed inevitable since. Our strikers have done absolutely nothing. Cancelo took the piss out of JWP

That would be marvellous. Just not sure how we will manoeuvre into goalscoring positions. What is the plan, how will we `hurt' them?

Not having many top quality players is also an issue. We have players like Bazanu, Perraud, Djenpo, Ely, Armstrong, Armstrong, Diallo and Adam all playing regularly. It feels like the manager is constantly trying to hide weaknesses and find ways of balancing a poor defence and the need for attack. Getting a tune out of them will take some doing for whoever is in charge.

not seen ha'p'orth used in a while. Nicely done.

Yeah, tip-top, you?

lets hope they don't have the luxury of subbing him at half time against us. Wouldn't be surprised if they did. If they start with Álvarez I'll still be worried.

Managers didn't have to sign a NDA if they don't want to. He'll sign a NDA if its financially beneficial to him, but if his contract entitles him to full payment of the remaining years, we will have to pay that to him with or without a NDA.

what a fucking wanker. Where did those 9 minutes come from in the Oldham game? Still annoyed.

I fucking hate all that `Pulis-style' shouting and gesturing all game. It's a load of old bollocks IMO. Clough didn't do it, nor did Wenger. Did you see Fergie standing up on the touchline all game telling Neville which inch of grass to be on the entire 90 minutes? Its just a load of shite for the cameras that has helped managers get back financial parity with the players. Sit down and your not showing passion? Fuck off. Football is everything to do these guys. Management is about creating a positive and productive atmosphere at the club, bringing in and selecting the right players and choosing the right tactics for those players and the match situations...waving arms and shouting non stop does fuck all.

we seem to be in much the same place as when he started. We've gone nowhere. Not sure it will easy for the next one to take us anywhere either. We shall see.

Rather than him being the first and only, maybe he was the last of long list of targets, none of which we managed to snag. Is it better to aim high and try to get a top notch striker(but obviously with more chance of failure) or aim lower and be much more assured of getting your man? The latter got us Adams and Armstrong.

If you are going to make statements like: " I more strongly believe that the manner in which we play (i.e, style) does not match the strengths of any of our forward line. " then I think its pretty reasonable for me to ask what our current style is (I'm genuinely interested) and what style you think would work better (I'm also genuinely interested). Yes, I watch all the games, but I don't know what style/tactic would work for Armstrong/Che. You were the one convinced a change was required, but maybe its not the style/tactic that is the problem. Maybe they are the problem?

So, basically you are saying we should bring in McCarthy for this thankless task? Maybe not the worst idea in the world.

can you be a but more specific about what that playing style would look like? Not sure what our style actually is now, so if you can sum that up too that would be good. You might be right, but I struggle to know what would suit both players best.

I agree with this. I don't see any amount of coaching converting them into something else. However, confidence is the key thing for strikers. Armstrong. was clearly on a roll at Blackburn. Maybe we can get him back in that groove, although in the end it will be down to him to just start striking the ball as he did in the championship. He's had a few chances. its getting to the now or never stage.

going to five at the back at the start of the season seemed bizarre to me. In general, players seem to struggle with that formation, with CBs pulled out wide and lots of players back, but no one actually getting tight. I guess we were leaking goals right left and centre, so something had to be done, but the obvious thing seemed to be to add the extra player in the middle to ensure there was more protection for CBs. I still think that is the way to go, especially with B-K looking OK.

you can play well, but if you don't take chances, you draw and lose games. Play pretty shit, but Ings scores with his one shot of the game and you win games you have no right to. Until we put a side out that is top notch, dominates and creates loads of chances (I wonder which decade that will be), we will be reliant on strikers to get us out of jail (do their job). Armstrong, Che and Mara are going to have to hit a purple patch or we are in trouble,

I think he was mismanaged at Saints. Apart from the team failing to feed him, despite him offering some great movement, I felt that he was left on the bench far too often. He scored twice at Newcastle, didn't score in next three and was dropped, not getting a start for another 7 or 8 games. The manager just didn't seem to rate him. For me, there was a proper player in there, but we failed miserably to take advantage of it. Too late now.

Decent shout, but even if he isn't starting games, Villa will want to keep him in reserve so wont let him come to us. Do teams near the bottom ever pick up quality players in the January window? I know there are some great signings by the big clubs, but they are not in danger of going down.