TWar

Adams is such a good second striker, excellent hold up, work rate and passing. He needs a quality finisher next to him though to make the most of it. Gunna be a big question for the summer.

Nah, one of the reasons Fulham barely played him is because he is a target-man style forward and no one really plays with them anymore, including us. His play round the box and passing are apparently dreadful. Wouldn't suit our playstyle at all tbh.

If Ings is back then I think we have a very good chance. Want to see Ings and Adams start together from now on. Tella and Armstrong in behind them and get Salisu in the backline somewhere, quality player who needs a chance now to learn the league so he can be a regular starter next season.

If we do that and lose Vest, Ings, and Bertrand I think we'll really struggle next season. If we can retain two or three of them then maybe that would be alright but I still think that is a relegation threatened squad with a couple of injuries.

I'm not haha, just hopeful. I think 8 seems to be about right though as we apparently want 2 players in every position. That means three fullbacks if RB leaves, a CB if Vest leaves, another CM, An attacking mid, and a striker (two if Danny leaves). I also suspect we will try and sell one keeper and bring in a new one. I think that adds up to 7-9 players. £20m striker does seem unlikely though I'd say if we are signing that many.

We're gunna sign like 8 players most likely. Not all of them need to be ambition moves. I don't like Theo either but maybe signing Theo plus a £20m striker will do us better than signing a £10m striker and £10m attacking mid. Maybe not though, depends what's available at what price. Alright option to have though.

An excellent point. Everyone sees lack of progress as a negative, and lack of big progress as a neutral. Unfortunately by definition there must be as many teams going backwards as forwards and big progress is rare. Expectation management is a big part of following any sport, and sometimes a couple of good seasons way overperforming are in the long term bad for fan happiness as anything less than that is seen as regression. It's a hard game really. Another thing which this gets across well is that success is relative. Supporting the team that does the best won't make you the happiest, you will just expect more and get annoyed at 2nd. You have to enjoy the little victories, like good games, good players, good football, and not always sweat it over the big picture as for 99% of teams in England winning something is a couple of times in a lifetime experience and for the remaining 1% winning doesn't feel anywhere near as sweet and not doing so will feel bad. A Chelsea fan doesn't even have the opportunity to feel the way Leicester fans did that one season, it is impossible for them.

I think we very much have the first team to play it. I don't think we have the squad for it with injuries, but then again I don't think we have the squad for anything really if we get injured, zero back up fullbacks and weak back up attacking players sees to that.

Evidently not.

Good player, average finisher, had a decent game getting in good positions but didn't quite do it. One of the top keepers in the world to be fair. Che is fine, he's a 10 goal a season striker with good hold up play and creates chances. I think he's fine.

100% agreed. I think even those who think it's time to move on from him like myself will say he has been one of our best players in the last decade. Excellent servant, phenomenal player in his prime. Honestly during 2015/16 was one of the best left backs in the league. I hope whatever he does now he succeeds in (as long as it's not at our expense).

It's not that no other team has faced adversity, it's that we have had the third most injuries in the league (missed matches) only less than Liverpool and Sheffield united, and look how much they have fallen off since last season. I know people don't like "excuses" but sometimes there is a reasonable explanation for a team going from europe quality to relegation quality in under a month other than "we've been found out" or "the manager has lost his mind". In our case we have a thin squad and haven't been injury-free for our first choice 11 since early December and had 7-10 first team players out for a lot of January and February. We have most people back now but they are obviously a bit rusty having been out for a while. If you'd like Ralph to tell you "well I don't know what to say, we became shit overnight and I completely forgot what I was doing after a few too many drinks on new years day" then I guess he could, but it wouldn't be honest. The injury thing plus the poor ref decisions feeding into a lack of confidence is far more accurate which is what they said.

Players in his position drop off fast, unless they are a very defensive fullback. Aside from central midfield, fullback probably covers the most distance and carries out the most sprints per game. His pace is doing OK but stamina will start to go and it is showing with him being much less impactful up the pitch.

He is not at a level to start for a team aiming 7th-12th which is, apparently, our aim imo. So either he steps up and sits on a bench for a team like Everton, West Ham or Arsenal or he steps down and starts for a newly promoted side or a Burnley/Brighton who are even more skint than we are. I do think him being at an awkward spot for us where he is probably too good to be on our bench but not good enough to start is part of the reason we are struggling to reach an agreement as those roles command different wage and priority. So to answer your question, I don't think he wants that, I think he'll leave for one of the the previous two suggested options. If he does stay it'll either be because he is settled and can't be bothered moving or because we have given him some kind of post-playing career assurances as he knows the team well and might do well coaching or behind the scenes.

We need two left backs imo. Would be great if Bertrand could be our back up as he could help guide the new lad and would save on a transfer fee. On the other hand I'm not too worried, he shouldn't be a regular starter next season and we have bigger fish to fry than worrying about LB backup when the likes of Salisu can play there if all else fails.

I think technically speaking the week of the 20th of September 2020 as we lost our first two games with a goal difference of -4. Last time we were properly after a decent period of games was winter of 2019 I think.

Most uncomfortable season?! Are you nuts? We've been basically safe since December. Three years ago we were one dodgy goal mouth scramble goal by Gabbiadini away from going down. This season we were 500/1 odds to go down in January and never really dropped below 50/1. It's certainly been one of the more disappointing endings, and quite anticlimactic, but this is our most boring end to a season in ages.

I suspect a reasonable explanation as to why our bad form is dropping through the teams is because it is injury motivated. When the first team gets a bunch of injuries as we have in the second half of this season we call up the best 5-10 youth team players to fill the void. They then can't play for the U21s so they have to call up the best 5-10 U18s to fill the void and so on. The youth teams have had significant periods this season with most of their quality players up with the big boys, coming back for a week maybe and then going back again when we have our next injury. No wonder they have struggled. At the end of the day Tella has stepped up and looked good, Obafemi similarly last season and Smallbone before injury. If the youth team is providing players who can compete at a premier league level it is doing it's job.

Yeah as I said I think he has preferences and I would be very surprised if he didn't get listened to. I was more saying that if we don't manage to sign someone it is unlikely the buck stops at him. When it comes to negotiating and pursuing it very much is not him haggling most likely. It was in response to someone listing as one of his negatives that we didn't sign a fullback which seems unfair.

I doubt he has much say over the transfer decisions beyond making his desires known. He gets what the club buy for him and it's no secret that he asked for fullback cover, they just couldn't secure it.

I'd have Dwight McNeil, Tarkowski and Pope. Combined team something like: Pope KWP Tark Vest Bertrand JWP Romeu Armstrong McNeil Ings Adams I suppose there is an argument for Wood/Barnes over Adams but honestly Burnley's 442 "chuck it in the box to the big lads" play style is not something we should employ and outside of that I'd have Che over both, plus he's like 5-7 years younger. Similarly I only like McNeil cause he is younger, his end product is on par with Redmond/Djenepo/Walcott.

We do play a very similar formation to the 4231. The 4222 is basically the same but with the 10 pushed up higher next to the striker. Either way, I don't rate Che as a loan centerforward, if anything he wants the 10 role. Taki as a 10 behind ings could work but imo Che and Redmond both offer more. As for Taki himself. I don't rate him. Hes shit against the ball, really sloppy, and goes completely anonymous when we need him. Good finisher so probably could go to a worse league like Italy and tear it up but he is not at all good enough for me. Spend the money on Danjuma if bournemouth don't come up as he is quality.

Quality quality, best player on the pitch save maybe KWP. Starts every game now for me, rest Bednarek. Get him a 1 year contract extension at least, he will tear it up next season imo and iirc his contract is very short.

Caught high on the ankle with the follow through. Not a red for dangerous foul play, the challenge got the ball so not denial of a chance, the chance was gone by the time the follow through happened.

Half time pundits, rightly, pointing out that is never a red