verlaine1979

Think you might be mixing up Mane's first game with Mane's first season.

This should make a few people feel old - that's Neil Danns' kid who just put 2 past us. Feels like only a year or two ago that people were saying we should sign his dad...

Especially not a loan player.

Rothwell and Manning abject, and the rest not much better.

Got no answer to their press at the moment, and our only out ball is KWP running the length of the pitch. Should make changes now, this is fucking shit.

Mara was much better against WBA than Adam A. Front three of Brooks, Mara and Fraser and the only person who could complain would be Edozie, who has also looked sharp and played with real awareness in his last couple of cameos.

Cork and Morgan was a Rolls Royce midfield for this level. Absurd that we actually managed to upgrade the pairing by swapping in Wanyama when we went up.

Not a good sign that with a 10m+ price tag, Charles can't come in and run a Championship midfield.

Passing has been dreadful all over the pitch.

Just a small thing, but loved how calmly Edozie moved the ball clear of the block before hitting it. Would've been so easy to snatch at the chance. Quick thinking as well as quick feet.

Stu was useless today. Wouldn't call him an automatic pick.

No way Bazunu should be getting beaten there. But in keeping with the game. Adams and Stu not involved at all.

Dibling's run for the second reminded me of Tino - not particularly tricky, but very close control and surprising strength to hold off whoever is trying to keep up.

The first assist he clearly didn't intend and the second one was just shuffling the ball across to someone who belted it in from more than 20 yards. And Mara would've had 2 goals and an excellent (intentional) assist if Che could finish reliably from 5 yards.

Heh heh.

Great finish for his second, absolutely rifled into a postage stamp, top corner near post.

Seems like he's fit and ready based on that Swansea showing. On the basis, you're not getting a better loan deal to the Championship than this - fantastic addition.

(I was kidding, he's shit. The minutes per goal thing was the justification for some as to why he was a hidden gem at Monaco)

How many of those 127 games were starts though, eh? More important to count goals per minute. 19 goals in 127 minutes of football would paint a very different picture...

He's had a good journeyman pro career. I just thought he was a bit dull and predictable on the ball, often not quite as committed defensively as his work-rate boosters would have you believe, and wildly over-praised on here. Hope he enjoys his retirement.

Plus, it's hard to ignore that he's the same age as Lavia, cost basically the same amount, but just isn't close to being as good (yet).

Looks like he's got a similar build to Broja. Is he quick?

Lol he's one of the least mobile/anticipatory strikers we've had in decades. If the ball comes in from wide, you can guarantee 9 times out of 10 that Che will be on his heels wondering what happened.

Assuming he's fit, he can do a lot better than the Championship.

The way you can tell that our possession football is mostly tedious propaganda is that it doesn't often result in a similar imbalance in chances. We had 72% of the ball, but Coventry had 11 shots to our 12, and 4 on target to our 3. Occasionally we do convert dominance of possession into dominance of chances, but most of the time we have double the amount of the ball but only a handful more chances if we're lucky. All the movement has been coached out of the side in favor of ensuring that there are always open players to pass to (not that we had a lot of movement to begin with - watched Bournemouth's game against United last weekend, and it's years since I've seen a Saints side play with that kind of pace, fluidity and confidence even in a one off).