santolijador

A lot of people calling for a change of shape (which I would probably back) - but - in several interviews, Still has expressed a desire to be sound defensively and not concede - something we have really struggled with in the last 3-4 years. Stoke are pumping in the crosses, Mubama is a handful and the wide players Is the thinking here to defend our box with 3 larger lads and get forward on the transition (hence playing Armstrong) - granted the latter hasn't worked, but we haven't looked like conceding from crosses, and I thought our defending of the box was solid in fairness. Just offering an alternate opinion, if I was in charge I'd be playing the 4 back, but I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to start by keeping clean sheets and build from there.

Downs on at HT

Unbeaten so far though 👀 I agree though, not ideal but I think we are still improvising a bit till transfer window closes. My suspicion is Armstrong has some credit in the bank with his champ scoring record, and I thought he pressed well last week against Ipswich. I think Still will change things up in the second half, but we should be able to be a bit more aggressive in the press today and I hope that plays into Arma's hands.

Feels unrealistic and unlikely, but wild if we end up with both him and Azaz. Surely would spell the end for Smallbone at least and you would expect Matsuki out on loan if that happens

I mean, he is 27, so not sure how much potential there is to be unlocked. But I'm not sure it matters - as you say, solid signing, good track record in Germany, 90 under his belt for Lens this season already, and in a position where we currently have very little depth. If this signing allows Still to play his preferred shape and improves squad depth, I'm all for it.

He's just come off, and 0 waves, a muted applause to the stands and thats that. Im not confident.

2 goals and an assist so far, 15 mins to go. On xW watch. Edit - just done an excellent tracking back recovery tackle

He's scored a second, an excellent free kick....

Our esteemed Armenian colleague has just scored a well taken goal against Sochi

Just seen something else on twitter linking him with Lens again, I guess despite Still having gone, they like him. If true, he will go there.

and in English; I just learned that an offer from another European club could arrive on Krasnodar's desk 🇷🇺 soon.

In fairness, last 10 minutes we've taken a bit of control. If only we had the fire power to use it...

They seem happy with it for today. Philogene can also cause problems. Not much in the way of a bench though, asides from Cajuste

One potential answer is that Stewart and Downs are out with illness per Alfie

Thanks for the insight. For the above, I was thinking of this dev update: https://www.footballmanager.com/news/development-update-football-manager-25 I think a lot of the FM community were particularly concerned with getting rid of the 'inbox' and making the game less heavy on things like the Data Hub and how they present data and information points in general. Certainly in those screenshots shared at the time, it felt more console/mobile game friendly. I should caveat this with the fact that I have, for my sins, a crazy amount of hours on FM and am terrified of drastic changes to the UI (though I welcome game engine and AI changes). I also understand that they have to open the game to more people, make it more accessible and this probably affects UI and so on from a business standpoint, even more so after the missed edition last year. In any case, I will inevitably get a skin for it that suits my style and that, but still... Appreciate it will still be a data driven game, I just hope that they don't dumb things down too much over the coming years.

How much do the researchers know about the dev process? Were you aware before others of the shambles that was supposed to be FM25? Did they give you the silent treatment as well as the rest of the fanbase? (Particularly annoyingly after having promised to be more transparent etc.) - were you at all concerned about the franchise dying with the FM25 failures and Unity and all that? I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years. Edit - dev update will have been before that I'm sure actually - referring to the one before the cancelation

Yes exactly, so are we are a bit hamstrung in terms of incoming transfers? Not sure of current PSR projections and so on, but this would explain a lack of incomings, and until something happens with Dibling, I am not confident we will be able to bring in those midfielders we so desperately need.

Does this latest news regarding our counter offer not imply that we have to make a big sale in order to fund other potential transfers (Spertsyan, Rudoni etc.)?

Just had a quick look at Northampton this season - beat Birmingham in pre-season 3-0, but slow start to the season with 1 draw and 1 loss (Bradford and Wigan) Looking at their forum, from what I can work out, they have very few players available (16 senior players) so even if they wanted to rotate a bit, they won't be able to tonight. They are pessimistic given the strength of our squad and some worry it might get ugly for them. You'd really hope we go a few goals up and get some players some minutes from 60. I'd like to see Matsuki get some game time as remain intrigued by him after a solid preseason, and I personally hope Downs starts and bangs in a couple to get him up and running.

Several

Unchanged.

Think that move isn't happening in the end - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cp94yvx2vg3o interesting timing 👀 edit: further research looks like Leicester are the favourites now? He liked a post on social media and some accounts on twitter seem to think he is going there.

Our fitness levels showed in the end there. Nice feeling to be the fittest team on the pitch for once. Thought we didn't look bad at all in the end, and a lot of fuss about the first half against prem opposition, with a team which hopefully doesn't necessarily reflect who starts next week. I feel as though I should point out, from what I can work out, Wrexham have had a pretty dire pre-season too - beaten twice down under and lost today 1-0 to Groningen. Even their very own club website notes that Danny Ward was quite busy in goal for them... All that whilst we finally show a bit of bottle and fitness and come back to give a spirited go against 8th in the Prem last year... A lot of people getting wound up about an objectively awkward situation for Will Still, Spors and the coaching team in general, but I would rather play Wrexham next week than in 4 months time for example, and see what the squad is looking like by the end of the transfer window. I remain cautiously hopeful.