Jack

Been watching Downs as much as I can, he’s soooo shit. Positioning awful, doesn’t want the ball, clumsy challenges to give away FKs, not even playing on the shoulder of their CBs to give them an issue. Pointless signing

Refereee better defensively than any of our lot

Will never happen

Ok I take it back. Give Eckhert an 8 year deal

You’re fucking high if you don’t think Baz has been at fault for any of the goals since coming back in

Aside from Bragg it’s a fairly obvious formation and starting XI from Eckhert, and exactly why we should’ve prioritised employing a proper manager. That midfield is going to get completely overrun, exposing our shaky defence with wing backs out of position. Made even better by going with our shitter of 2 shit keepers. Bazunu’s gloves are slippery enough without the rain as well. Hope I’m wrong but reckon that’s a comfortable home win.

Not exactly a safe bet to appoint such a young manager, who’s only ever managed smaller clubs in France and Belgium, especially after such a disaster of a season and a huge rebuild job with a big budget. They took another punt, a gamble, and it’s backfired again. Like it does with just about everything they do. It felt experimental to me. It was a shame, I liked how Still talked but he’d say one thing and do another, and it was a failure from the start. I just think in a crisis like this you need to appoint someone who’s been there and done it, can command respect and whip a clearly talented squad for this level into shape. This squad clearly needs some leadership and experience, not another kid.

Feels like it’s going that way doesn’t it. Fans were so up for it at the start of the season but that’s really quickly died on its arse with the Still experiment gone wrong and such obvious mismanagement from the top. Fucking depressing

They absolutely can. They can expect the board to have a proper plan to appoint a proper football manager, after their latest experiment failed. If they go with Eckhert, that’ll be another disaster. 2 wins against shit opposition doesn’t mean they’ve unearthed some gem, as much as they’d love to take credit for that. I think as a fanbase the ‘SR out’ noise has to increase week on week, as they keep doubling down on their own incompetence. The Romeu signing had everyone on board, if they’d followed that up with a sensible managerial appointment then maybe they could’ve really turned a corner with the fans. But the silence is deafening and it’s clear they’re just blagging it.

You’d hope they’d read the room better than that, but probably not. They’re on thin ice with the fans. Another bad performance or 2, without fortunate wins to put a gloss on it, the fans will be after the board again. The majority expect them to be taking a new manager search very seriously after what they’ve served up in recent times. Appointing an unknown kid who’s never managed at senior level before would be an extremely stupid move and clearly not what this club needs in a time of crisis.

Disagree with this, I think it’s imperative that we find a new permanent manager ASAP before the fixture congestion from the end of the month. I don’t think we’re just as likely to beat Charlton with Eckhert. He’s doubled down on implementing Will Still’s flawed approach, and made things even more difficult by throwing Baz back in, and has been very fortunate to come away with 2 wins. Saying the Sheff Wednesday game is as good as we’ve been is just as useful as Still saying how good our xG was against Swansea. We’re lucky we came up against the worst team in the league, you can’t really credit Eckhert for 2 of the league’s best players in Fellows and Azaz having decent games? If anything it just highlights how poorly they’ve been utilised up until this point, played out of position or not at all. IMO we need someone to come in and get our best players in their obvious positions as soon as possible, a win against Charlton feels far more likely in that scenario than just carrying on with what hasn’t been working all season.

Back to back wins despite Bazunu being back in the side. You really can’t give Bazunu any praise for those wins, he made them harder work than they needed to be

Which goals would you directly blame on McCarthy? Other than the one at Liverpool, I’m struggling. He’s not to blame for us being defensively all over the place this season. He’s far more commanding, will come for a cross, and I’m sure he’d have done far better with the 2 shockers that Bazunu had in the last week. It’s baffling to me that some people don’t think he’s a better keeper than Bazunu.

Ridiculously, we have one sitting on the bench

I didn’t say the players picked the team, you plum, I’m questioning whether the stand in manager is heavily influenced by the clique of uncommitted, shit players who’ve been here too long and clearly have too much influence around the place. The manager certainly didn’t pick a team to play that way based on it being any good.

We were talking about this yesterday. If Jack Stephens was to pick his starting XI, I think it’d have looked very much like what we saw on Wednesday. Wouldn’t shock me if Eckert is just appeasing a popularity contest with his selections, because it’s clearly shit in a tactical sense. It’s why we need a no shit, respected manager to come in and break up what’s left of Martin’s sideways/backwards banter club, so we can progress as a football club.

Basically doubling down on Bazunu and a back 5. Fucking great

Macca Mads THB Wood Manning Jander Downes Fellows Azaz Scienza/Robinson Armstrong Not ideal but IMO the best we’ve got available. Can’t continue playing so defensively against poor sides

They’ll take their sweet time and still get it completely wrong IMO. I’m sure they’re having lots of clever high level meetings, spreadsheets, data, the reinvention of football.

He can be great at this level, he has been before. I don’t think the system helps any of them, they get in each others way and leave responsibility to each other. We should have really healthy competition for a partnership with Wood in a back 4

This for me when everyone available. My uninjured XI for Saturday would be: Macca Mads THB Wood Manning Downes Jander Fellows Azaz Scienza Armstrong

If by that you mean we’re more capable of fucking about at the back until we don’t beat the press, and concede shit goals, then yeah maybe. I thought the appetite for that left with Russell Martin, but we saw a fair bit of that creeping in last night and wayyyy too much slow knocking it about between the back 5 and Flynn Downes, going nowhere, last night. We know too well what happens when a half decent team identifies that and has a plan to take advantage.

Bazunu is horrendous. I don’t see what he’s done to deserve a start, or what McCarthy has done to get dropped. McCarthy is a far better goalkeeper, he commands his area and sometimes stops shots. We’ve been proving every week that 5 at the back is a load of shit, we have no control in midfield. Playing Manning at LWB is worse than as a traditional LB, as he’s got no pace in either direction. Playing Fellows as a RWB is no good because he isn’t one. Roerslev is nothing special but is fine as a RB. Playing Stephens is no good because he’s shit. We’ve persevered with a shit formation using players out of position and who are not suited to it. These are professional footballers who will be no strangers to playing as a back 4, Still even reverted to it a few times recently after we threw games playing with a 5 and being awful. I just wanted to see round pegs in round holes and not playing an extra rubbish defender, just to fit him into a system that doesn’t work, just because the last failed manager played it sometimes. Agreed, Armstrong can’t do it up there on his own. It’s why I’d much prefer to see a sensible formation where you can get 4 attacking players up the pitch in their normal positions - Armstrong, Scienza, Fellows, Azaz/Robinson.

It needs to be McCarthy

I’ll write off any manager that starts Bazunu, our new winger at right back, and a back 5 including Stephens and Manning, even if it produces a lucky win.