woodsaint1

Hard to argue against that. What a team

Mid table Championship?

Juninho Pernambucano was probably the best ever. Think he scored over 70 free kicks in his career

He really cant. They're both shite

Not sure how reliable he is but says we're favourites

The names you've listed highlights the issue. None of those players are 'number 10s'. They're all wingers who at times have been shoe horned into a more central number 10 role to limited effect. We need a Tadic-type player who plays between the lines and is used as a link man between the midfield and the striker(s). Our interest in Carvalho shows that this is a position we're looking to fill. In creating the necessary squad space I would certainly look to move Moussa and Walcott on, while keeping Moi and Redmond.

I've no issue with him calling the players out and he was right to do so - it also seems to be players who arent good enough for us anyways so fine by me

Sell him in the summer and reinvest in a better CB

I played at a pretty decent level here in NI. Useful to know that this now elevates my opinion above 90% of posters on here 🙃🤯

I would honestly prioritise a goalkeeper over both of those positions. If we continue to have to rely on Foster and/or McCarthy on a regular basis then we will continue to see the same mistakes, poor distribution etc. They're capable of a few solid games, but mistakes are always round the corner. Happy to keep one as backup but we need a new no.1

Simple really. For all our endeavour we cant afford to have defensive lapses against sides like City and not expect to get punished. Stephens should do much better to clear his lines for the first, Salisu with an absolute brain fart for the penalty and Salisu again for the third needs to do better than head it straight to Foden on the edge of his own box (although the finish was top class). Sadly its been a common occurence in recent games and our defensive weakness has coincided with Salisu's drop in form.

We're really 7 points ahead as they're GD is hoŕrendous (like most clubs at the bottom), and they've also played a game more. Not overly surprising to see them winning two on the bounce when they both played Norwich (Brentford also played Burnley at home). Tbh when you see the jekyll and hyde nature of our last 6/7 games you can see why we're very unlikely to finish top half and why 12th-14th is a more realistic final position

Why the love for dirty Leeds? We do play them next and they will be riding high following back to back last minute wins. We'll likely be coming off the back of 4 straight defeats

They werent great against us either tbh, we were just feeble in our attack and defence

Evertons run of fixtures is horrible so they've still plenty to do

As lovely as that would be, a win for Newcastle puts them a point behind us. Potenially finishing below Newcastle after the dismal first half of the season they had would be pretty crap. Draw please

So so bad. Forster's initial pass to KWP was poor and nearly intercepted, then Salisu gave them another go. Whats even worse is that Forster could have forced the striker further wide if he imposed himself a bit more, all the while Salisu just stood and watched instead of immediately getting back to the line where he could have cut it out. Second goal was poor too. Just like Newcastle during the week, no pressure on the ball to try to block the cross. Dont know what went on between Salisu and Bednarek in terms of picking up because Perraud had to tuck in on the spare man and in doing so gave up space to the player at the back post to slot home. Whilst we were poor against Villa, they scored some very good goals which sometimes you cant do anything about. But the goals in the Newcastle game and today were all easily preventable. Thats the annoying bit

We'll almost certainly pick up another few wins in the run-in, but even if we lost every single game, 3 of the current bottom 5 are not reaching 35 points (likely have to be 36 with their GD). Norwich will not reach that total and would mean Burnley needing to win 5 of their last 11, Watford winning 5 of their last 9 and Everton/Leeds winning at least 4/5 of their remaining games. Still think 34 points will likely be enough for survival

Bednarek is a better option than Stephens, but not by much imo. However we're likely to pick up a much better offer for Bednarek (international caps, age, 3 years still on contract etc). I'd be inclined to shift him and keep Stephens and Lyanco to compete for 3rd/4th choice* *on the basis that we look to bring in a quality CB to partner Salisu. As others have suggested, a CB with CL or EL experience similar to how we targeted VVD, Alderweireld etc

You actually think we played Smallbone up front? Go give your head a shower

Wasnt at the game but it looked that way on the TV. He deserved the boos, his usual lack of urgency (particularly when 2-1 down in the 90th minute) and took too long pondering what to do with the ball and gave his usual pass back to Forster

What a fucking shite week. Need to be looking 5-6 points, we ended it with zero 😂 Villa was bad, Newcastle was pathetic and today somehow managed to be the worst of the lot Nobody was even semi decent today. Absolutely embarassing performances from Salisu, Bednarek, Forster, Romeu, Moi and Armstrong. The run of good form looks a distant memory now, and so does the top half ambitions. Lucky we've enough points on the board already

Its ok, Edward will be out of a job in 12-18 months when progression under him stalls and isnt matching the expectations of the owners, particularly after throwing aload of cash around in the next few windows

Tbh Salisu wasnt much better tonight. Yes for Wood's goal there needed to be more pressure on Shelvey and it was a super ball, but Salisu was caught flat footed and allowed Wood to drift in behind him. Also gave a few silly passes away trying to play out from the back. Obviously I'm biased and want him to stay here long term, but honestly think another few years at us would be best for Salisu's development. If he was to move to a bigger club this summer he may struggle with the bigger expectations as he still has quite a few flaws in his game (compared with the likes of VVD and Alderweireld who you just knew would cope with the demands easily). But you just know his agent will be pushing for the move while his stock is high