Jack

That’d be pretty grim watching

Tonda said in the press conference when asked about 4/5 at the back that it’s about numbers between the posts and physicality of the team. The second bit I can understand, but numbers wise if they’re all leaving responsibility to each other when it comes to marking players and dealing with crosses then we’ll keep on conceding shit goals. Especially when the wing backs don’t know much about defending and let the opposition put crosses in as they please. Maybe with a proper centre forward, a proper LB and a fit RB we might see some changes but it sounds like we’re sticking to what we’ve seen so far for now.

I’d take that bet. His touch is shit and that puts him under pressure, and his range of passing is shit which puts the team under pressure, as it’s almost always going to be an obvious pass to either Manning, Wood or Bazunu

He was clearly talking about speed of decision making and passing ability, not how fast he can run. Quarshie takes about 5 minutes to control a ball and think about where he’s going to pass it, and it’s a big issue with his game.

I stuck a tenner on him to be the Championship top scorer after his great goal against Español in pre season. What a disappointment he’s been since then

Outs can happen as well as ins. We may be looking to ship out a CB to make room to bring in a better one. Sadly I feel like the LB position won’t be looked at, but it’s only a wish list anyway. You could say we’ve got 4 goalkeepers on the books so that won’t get looked at, but they’d be negligent not to

Was saying this earlier. We’re on target to concede as many goals as we did in the last promotion season and he seems to be involved in fuck ups leading to a hell of a lot of them. He’s fine when either we’re camped in the opposition half or chasing a game and desperate for a goal, but a huge problem overall. Get him back on the bench asap

My Xmas wish list: 1. Goalkeeper 2. Left back 3. Centre forward 4. Centre back Sorting out our calamitous back line would somewhat solve the CF situation, but we’re miles off keeping a clean sheet as it stands

Ok defensively yeah, but really not suited to our possession game at the back. I don’t think it’s his fault, the manager likes to play another CB next to him whose passing isn’t great, and a defensive liability to his left. Would be interested to see how he looks in a 4 with THB, with a competent left back next to him.

Really? Quarshie is a massive weak link for me. If you want to play a system where the back 3 have loads of possession to draw a press and make space, you need those players to be able to pass. You know where Quarshie’s passes are going 3 working days before he makes them - almost exclusively wide to Manning or square to Wood. Wood isn’t much better, so it’s a massive flaw in our system IMO. Quarshie’s touch is also shit so he’s a trigger for the opposition press and not really good enough for us to play through it. Manning is a horrible footballer, absolutely thick as mince. He only gets away with it as he’s occasionally handy going forward. That Cov goal was on him, fucking about at the back then clearing it blindly to a Cov player just beyond the edge of our box. Cov looked a far more competent side 11 vs 11

This is still my favourite away game. Early train up, between the 5 of us we decided to chuck £25 on a long shot bet - picked a Lambert hat trick at 25/1. Right behind the goal for the penalties. Absolute chaos afterwards.

Such a frustrating situation. All the good work Spors/SR did in getting some decent players further up the pitch, gets undone by thinking Bazunu was going to be good enough. I get that we couldn’t improve every position, but if you’ve got a number of defenders who aren’t very good, and play a system that exposes them a lot, you need a quality goalkeeper. We thought we’d be fine with the worst one in the league, crazy.

I don’t think Tonda cares much about being weak at set pieces or we wouldn’t see Bazunu in goal. The back 5 we play is just an open invitation for crosses into the box, would be nice to see less of them coming in but no chance of that with Manning and Fraser. I honestly think we’d be better with someone out of position at RB in a 4 than with Fraser there, and Manning in no man’s land the other side. With Fellows fit, the 5 does work until the opposition work it out and close down the out ball into midfield. But then it stops working, and we’re just knocking it around the back 5 and keeper, and that’s a load of shit. GK and defence aside, we’ve got one of the best squads in the league, we need more than 1 way of getting our best players on the ball.

Tonda at least flirted with a back 4 for a little while on Saturday, I hope he’s seriously considering it. The fact that our defence and goalkeeping department are fucking rubbish should be a reason to have less of them on the pitch, not more. And give them some proper protection from the extra man in midfield. Then it’s just a case of replacing the goalkeeping department, Manning, Stephens, Quarshie, probably Wood, Mads, Jelert if he can’t get fit

I highly doubt that, seeing as we hardly win a header in our box, and concede loads of golden chances from the opposition crossing into our box. Bazunu is just shit at commanding his area and claiming crosses so stays on his line and hopes for the best from our CBs

Manning comes close

The last couple of away games have massively exposed a couple of the club’s biggest blind spots. Our goalkeeper and defence are absolute garbage, and we’ve got another manager whose tactical preference is for the goalkeeper and defence to have as much possession as possible. It’s absolutely bonkers

What’s Che Adams up to these days? The ball just doesn’t stick up top when we’re under pressure, and the less said about our back 5/6 the better. Bazunu, Stephens, Manning, Fraser all absolutely miles off being good enough for a promotion push

With Manning and Fraser in a back 5, that was always going to be happen. Fucking sick of Manning, yes he’s got a decent shot but can’t defend for shit, shocking in possession today and too slow to ever get back into shape defensively.

Yep. We need to work on another system and try to dominate the midfield more. 90% of our possession today was fucking about at the back and we just jet putting ourselves in the shit

We’ve done loads of that today. Russell Martin would approve

Determined to get the ball back to the back 5 at every opportunity. So shit when chasing the game. Get the extra man in midfield FFS and make the mistakes in their half

Can’t stop a cross, can’t win a header, don’t have a goalkeeper capable of helping out. Shite

Couple of bits on Matsuki in the media this week but Aribo still getting into the squad ahead of him. Hope that changes very soon, pretty sick of him lumbering around the pitch doing very little

Imagine it’ll be Fraser for Fellows and otherwise unchanged. I don’t like it but can’t see Eckhert changing formation and we haven’t got a fit RB anyway. Can’t see it being a 4, especially with either Edwards or Captain shoehorn having to play there