Chez

you are missing the `best' one, or at least the one that annoys my brother in law Forest fan, David McGoldrich, whose £1.2m fee helped us afford Sir Rickie.

We obviously have a scout in Brazil and Portugal, so should we be buying for both this season and next, which is hard to imagine, this lad Igor Jesus they are talking about looks like he has something about him. Sadly, that fact alone means he ain't signing for an all but relegated side.

Ferguson at Brighton needs regular games.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24867208.brereton-diaz-sheffield-united-ahead-southampton-exit/ The move seems to have taken awhile to complete, so I wonder of that is an indication that it is more than just a loan and also involves a transfer/fee, perhaps if they go up?

Point accepted. £22m might not be big by today's standards, but it was a lot for us and I think every fan will have hoped for more of both.

In the championship under RM it was often us pressing hard at the death. In the Prem it's hard to say, as towards the end of the 90 minutes the game was usually long over!

The workrate (and amount of pacey running) in the first half must have been pretty high as we went man for man and were at the heals of every single United player when they had the ball. We forced them to lose possession so many times because of this. The press was first class and they couldn't deal with it. I'd say we suffered because of that. At about half way through the second half we weren't getting close enough at all to impact their passing and the subs didn't help revive the press. Not sure why, perhaps they dropped too deep and got caught between two stalls or maybe the players that weren't subbed undermined the team press? It certainly did remind me of a lot of Ralph games where we got murdered in the latter stages as the space opened and double team defenses etc. weren't possible. United did to us what we had been doing to them. The lack of intensity later on invited United to keep the ball and attack and they did it well.

Leylands will always breaking down, so maybe is this Stewart related?

Rich house poor house. That's a new one on me. Is it a Channel 5 show?

It's nitpicking, I know, and I don't want to create the next Gaston, but he's had more than two decent games hasn't he? He did pretty well in the 45 minutes in his very first game against Brentford for example. Certainly not MOTM material mind you. He was good against Chelsea that season and Spurs I think. The Liverpool game of course. To be honest I am not sure about the other games in 2023 - I try to blank that season out of my memory. There were a lot of defeats, so I am sure he wasn't all that in most, but he played 80 minutes in the 1-0 win against Leicester, so maybe did OK then? Last season he was good against Leeds and Birmingham. Think he was pretty dangerous in the Millwall away game too, but I might be mistaken. After the initial injury he started the season quite well, but then was injured and did absolutely jack in the run in. Swansea and United this season...yeah, not terribly impressive.

Got it now. To keep up with the times, you have expanded the CoT to cover the women's game too and we are signing Liv Cooke, the freestyle (keepyupper in old man's language) footballer from Leyland, in Lancashire. I'm right, right?

My brother in law supports them. I always refer to them as Notts Forest. He loves it, although right now, nothing can take the bloody smile off his face. Despite the success of our press and incisive attacks, I suggest we park the bus, give Elanga and Odoi no space behind and try to bore them to death, like we did Fulham.

Despite the reports in the summer, Trabzonspor must have offered absolutely peanuts for him - probably spread over four years and with us paying him a massive lump sum to make up the difference in wages they could afford. It must have been such a poor deal that we were almost better off, from a FFP perspective or whatever, by keeping him. That's the only way I can explain him not going in the summer.

It was around about the time I watched this clip for the 23rd time that I was "out". Fair play to him for attempting the stepovers though.

He met the Jones specification, which was probably as simple as `a front footed, tall target man that has scores goals'. `Technique and ability to score at prem level' must have been written on other side of the fag packet. Disliked the signing it at the time and bloody hate it now.

Yeah, I'd be very pleasantly surprised if he managed to be effective against Forest. They look far better organised than United. Gakpo got very little change out of Aina the other night.

Onuachu to Besiktas talk in the press started up again. No doubt another`massive' offer on it's way.

A hunk of junk. if what's gone before is anything to go by, it's going to be pretty easy to apply that clue to the next signing.

We were strong in the wide positions last year. In relative terms, we have been very weak and last night showed it. When we turned to the bench, there wasn't anyone to replace Dibling or Sulemena (who was knackered at about 75 minutes). I'd of gone with Armstrong as he works hard and is quick enough to press opponents, but obviously in terms of attacking/dribbling he isn't the same kind of threat. Not sure what other choice there was really. I have to say that it wasn't just Smallbone that was to blame. The whole side was no longer getting as tight as they had been and applying as much pressure. Players got tired and the ones replacing them did not apply the press well either. With the press gone, united dominated possession and the pressure told. What needs to happen going forward is the same starting players need to be a little fitter so they can keep pressing longer and then the players coming on need to carry the baton and do the same.

We signed Downes and Fernandes and Les, so it's not as though the club haven't looked at the midfield area and thought we needed to improve it. Martin rated him. Not sure the `club' could sell him from under him. Besides, he has hardly played, so our poor results aren't really down to him. Armstrong was absolutely flying towards the end of last season. Everything he hit was going in. Everyone knows he `failed' the last time, but many including myself did wonder if with confidence restored he might make a better stab at it this time around. Obviously not. Again, the club signed Archer and BBD, who I realise haven't worked out, but these were attempts to add PL firepower.

I hope that's true, but maybe let's see how we go against against a side going for CL on Sunday. Since RM departed, we have seen a solid draw by parking the bus against Fulham (sure Juric was not at the helm at that point), a decent front-foot-no-nonsense-get-the-ball crossed-into-the-box first half (nothing in the second) against West Ham. A bright opening 15 minutes but then quite frankly piss poor performance against Palace, a dreadful showing all game against Brentford, a solid performance against a weakened Championship side and then last night's great showing for about 75 minutes until we ran out of steam.

He has played well in the last two games. Not sure Juric has improved him as a player, more encouraged him to do the things he can like take players on. Good decision making may take years to evolve...

No one is high-fiving about what a great player we have. A few, including myself, have said in the past that we like the player and therefore are pleased to see him have a good game. Past displays are down to him. Past managers may not have helped, but in the end it's him that has to make it happen on the pitch.

I'll give you an example why it can work that you will be all too familiar with "just give the ball to Le Tiss". OK, `do it almost every single time'. The point is, the game is largely played between the ears and managers need to build the confidence of players and get the best out of them. If what they have is pace and skills you want them utilising and showing them as often as possible not passing it backwards or to someone else who is less qualified to create

Fair enough. I am perhaps being too positive. Like you say, in the end we still got beaten, but the performance from the side and Sulemana was just light year better than it has been recently, so having had all hope knocked out of me (I've openly said we are down and should not spend a penny in this window) it was nice to see us dominate a game AND create guilt edge chances. I'll take any positive I can get at the moment.