Chez

So everything bad is down to the head coach, everything good is down to the players. Gotcha.

Their press was excellent and we didn't know what to do. We looked terrible. Still seemed to sort it at half time though and we dominated. Shouldn't Still get a little credit for the changes he made at the break?

Maybe the whole midfield needed to work harder to find space. There wasn't a lot of it though, so the next option was to go longer and play off the striker, at least until the space opened up, but not sure Archer can do that. Tough for any striker. We need a way of countering the press

Evidently.

When the side doesn't play well is it simply the coach's fault? I thought he managed the game pretty well. He changed the formation before the game, which most wanted, he seemed to reinvigorate the side at half time after a poor first half and his subs in the second made sense. i thought it was always going to be hard changing formation during an international break and for this game, but I feel more confident than when we plated five at the back.

thats a foul. ref fucking killed us there.

nah, we'll get a winner.

their sub keeper looks a bit of a liability.

Still thinks the same by the looks of it.

they have tired ad the extra space has helped us. Can we take advantage?

Still going for it. like the subs.

not sure. Roerslev has been pretty good.

he's been really poor. Not sure Azaz has done much either.

we are on top and have been most of the second half. not done enough with it.

fair point, but n his pace allowed him to nip past the keeper only to fuck his shot up from a tight angle. Our best chance. he has looked a threat in the second half.

bad yellow to get for roerslev. murphy had enough to keep quiet.

archer providing good threat with his pace though. can't have both, sadly

Manning's marking of Poole there is criminal, pathetic.

We are simply unable to pass the ball through the lines - leading to us passing across the back line. Azaz needs to work much much harder to be available, as do the two wingers. Might open up second half a little as they tire. Hopefully. Got to stop the ball to Murphy. He's the stand out player.

Took a while before Martin found a role for him, but from December onwards he played a pretty major (central midfield) role in our promotion side. He has his limitations, but he is what Strachan would call brave - getting on the ball and keeping up despite pressure from an opponent, allowing player time to move into space. I guess there is time for him to move to Turkey, but he and Edozie training seems a good indication that no one is getting close to a deal.

I am wondering if the club's valuation was not met by those clubs? The bags packed/empty house instagram images was only a week ago, which suggested he was about to depart for somewhere.

Depends what you call concrete. In April he was linked by African press with a move to Goztepe. Back in June Turkish media reported that he'd been made an offer by Trabzonspor. In August it was reported in a Nigerian football website he was closing in on a deal with Samsunspor and then later in the month that Besiktas were interested, but Aribo wasn't.

I wouldn't be dropping Downes either. Charles looks improved and very capable, but he could be better defensively...so we don't have a lot of choices. When the club mentioned at the fans forum that they were negotiating several other contracts I think it was widely assumed it was for Baz and Charles - as there weren't many others it could be (Dibling apart). There has been talk on here of SFC possibly extending ABK's contract to protect their investment. The same might apply to Smallbone, abut less likely for Manning, Armstrong and Edozie.

I guess the thinking might be that the longer the buying clubs wait the more desperate we become.

The needless fouls thing can be taken in a positive way in that at least he isn't being a "choirboy", but as much as you want your centre mid to be spiky and physical, he has been pretty reckless and blatant at times. Hacking someone down on purpose isn't professional and prevents you 'taking a yellow for the team' at a later point. I can't imagine the manager would play him if his 'head was elsewhere', but I can't explain these acts. Maybe he always did it and I didn't notice? The problem with dropping him is Charles is often the wrong side of the ball, which is not what you want from a DM, and we don't really know what Jander is like without the ball.