Chez

Bazunu's having a bizaare game. Some wonderful saves, some nightmare stuff. Overall though we look extremely vulnerable. Ball not sticking up front anymore...we are holding on.

Stu absolutely kills us with that under hit pass. Three defenders against four or five barely prevent a goal.

Fucking hell. A bit of Liverpool pressure and we are done.

Excellent start by us. Much the better side, so to go behind was gutting. Great to equaliser so soon after. Well deserved, Liverpool starting to get a foothold though. Brilliant save by Bazunu with Salah seemingly sure to score because Perraud was too slow.

All of them? Not sure all the transfers were down to him. He certainly was responsible for Lavia, Edozie and Larios. He also brought in Jaydon Meghoma and Sam Amo-Ameyaw. Bazunu was signed a while before Shields joined. As did Aribo. Those and Mateusz Liz, Carleta Car and Maintland-Niles were all on our radar long before Shields entered the fray. Not sure about Mara and Bela-Kachup, who signed three weeks after Shields arrived. Feels like that deal may have been in the works prior to Shields joining, although who is to say he didn't set wheels in motion before he officially joined us.

Speaking of Midtjylland, Gustav Isaksen looks a decent player.

He certainly scores a shed load of goals. Did he pay against us when us was at Midtjylland? I don't remember him.

Will that concern Jones?

Do you think he has the quality to play in the Prem? The AA idea is not crazy, but we'd have to give him a massive payoff to balance the different wage bills. Those moves never happen. Have to say that I am not terribly fussed about how greedy a striker is. I want him to shoot on site if he is on form, not pass. Armstrong is completely selfless and that has not helped us at all. When strikers are passing rather than shooting its because they have lost confidence in themselves and are taking the easy way out. OK, yes there will be the odd occasion when a square pass rather than a shot would have meant a goal, but in general strikers shoot better than they pass - and with the game as fast as it is the passing window is often very small anyway - so just take on yourself.

Someone on here with more knowledge than me about ACL injuries pointed to the fact that running in straight lines is a very different from being fit enough to handle the rigours and movement of playing football, so he may still be a while before we see him. He started extremely well and was fantastic going forward initially, but IMO he was pretty average to poor for a while before he got injured. KWP should have replaced long before he did. His defending is not the greatest at times. He ball watches badly. Obviously I want to see him back and pushing for a starting place, but I am not confident he will solve all our ills. Creatively certainly is one of those, so maybe I am wrong.

You make some very fair pojnts. There are some parallels with our own situation. As is often the case when a new guy comes in, he inherits a losing side and needs to turn the ship around, which is tough task. An ability to see the problem and solve it is very important. Can he see our problem(s) - beyond the 'we need to score more goals' - and find a way of solving that? One thing I agree with you on is him inheriting a decent academy (assuming we continue to invest heavily in scholars) and good young players. If he is relatively successful - i.e. keeps us up - there are some players there, like Edozie, Ballard and Jimmy Jay, that could form the basis of a very exciting side. I believe that a managers success at a club can often be determined by the situation they land in. Arriving just as an amazing batch of young talent is coming through has nothing to do with that manager and everything to do with their timing. Lets hope Jones' timing is perfect! As I have said in other posts, I am looking forward to see how he does. I'm hoping he emulates Potter at Brighton and we are patting the board on the back for seeing his talent.

They had some good players and a very tidy side. We never beat them once at their place in the 80s. We are often absolutely "garbage" (Chris Nicholls words I think) on the plastic. They stuffed us by 6 and 7. I think they only beat us a couple of times at the Dell though.

I wonder if Wolves and Leeds might also be considering him. He'd be another player I suggested we sign when he was a nipper only for us to recruit many years later. With Redmond and Aribo not exactly working out, I am wondering if we should pass on Diaz.

Right back is therefore an issue. If not Wan, then maybe Djed Spence.

Thanks for post. Some great insights. I don't think his time at Stoke should be completely ignored. Sure, Stoke was a nightmare job, but ours isn't a bed of roses too. We have been on the slide for some time. His failure to turn that oil liner around is a concern. Like them, scoring goals is an issue for us. The question I have, is how is he going to change that? Buying a big target man and hitting diagonal balls seems to be the answer. That big lad is gonna have to be bloody good.

Gonna be flippin tough, but I'm looking forward to the next chapter. Hopefully its a long successful one. Obviously there is some trepidation, there is with all new managers, but compared to the appointment of Wigley this seems a smart move. How smart we will have to wait and see. At least he seems bloody happy to be here which is more than you can say for saggy.

are we going to win this right here right now

pretty sure everyone will know he is the manager, but we will want to announce it tomorrow. The club is always keen to spread out its big news/events.

I'm not defending Ralph, I simply stated what I was told. Edozie has not impressed in training. I'd of given him a lot more time on the pitch. Not sure I'd of started hm, but he'd of been on at half time in several games.

him being in the stand watching the game was a bit of giveaway.

My understanding is he simply hasn't shown it in training. That is why he hasn't been picked by Ralph.

Great to see Jimmy Jay in the squad. He scored goaLs while away on England duty and is brimming with confidence. This next batch of kids may actually be the real deal.

Stoke were terrible. They won, but they were terrible. Luton dominated. They played a lot of longish stuff, but did pass it too. A decent mix. Their problem was they just didn't have any quality in the final third. Just like us. They had a couple of golden chances but the strikers fluffed them. No matter the level, if you can't score, you are fucked.

63% possession. Total domination, but they don't loo like scoring. Smallbone a total non entity in midfield. No change there.

That certainly wasn't my assessment, but we are where we are. All that matters is what we do from here.