Forester

Mixed bag of results but reasons to be cheerful: - Leeds and Leicester lose - Forest and Wolves both drop two points in winnable game - Podence likely to be banned for spitting and Neves banned for two games for yellow cards - Fulham, who we have at home, look like prime “on the beach” candidates

Fair point re Crouch and Phillips, albeit the latter had his mind well gone in that second half of the year. But Oakley was crocked, and JWP, Lavia and Alcatraz are far more effective than Delap and a soon to retire Jamie’s Redknapp. The entire back line now is stronger, as Le Saux’s legs had gone

I think this squad is much better than the one that finished in relegation. Remember Beattie was sold in January, and effectively replaced by Karama. Probably the one position that was stronger was Niemmi in goal.

Good post

If we go down I would certainly offer him a year extension. Would be excellent in championship, and if he keeps this form up could be difference in keeping us up

On the contrary. I would love us to win, but also crucial that if we cannot then Wet Spam don’t stretch a points league

Am sat close to Selles. He shouted to JWP, motioned a circle waving his arm around and that prompted the huddle.

Good post. While me may well go down, anyone writing it off now is just not looking at the facts. As you say the last fortnight has seen us move from six points off 12th to four points off 12th. So not a single team in the bottom nine has broken away. I also don’t agree that we have “lost all the six pointers” as some have said. We have done the double over Leicester, beaten Everton away, won our only game so far against Bournemouth and in the cup won away at Palace. It seems to me likely that half of the bottom nine will not get more than a point per game and so I think 36 gives us a great chance. We can still lose half our remaining matches and do that. Before yesterday I said route to staying up was draw against Spurs and Brighton, beat Bournemouth, Fulham, Palace, Wet Spam and Forest and lose to City, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool. Got the first one right! That would give us 39 which surely would do it. So I think we can afford to move one of my “must wins” out of the winning line and finish with four wins and a draw and have a strong chance. Hence saying we can lose half our remaining games and still potentially do it.

Given the circumstances, playing a top four team, losing two centre backs in first 30 mins, coming back from 3-1 down, it is an excellent point. Eight points from six points under Selles, if we keep that ratio going we have a chance of staying up. Best performances for some time from Moi, Theo and good cameos from Mara and Kamaldeen. Moi is much better in a 442 as opposed to a 4231 when he is required to get beyond Adams. What nerve shown by JWP, that really was a pressure penalty!

Good post. I think in addition a couple of general points: - January is an awful window to bring in five players, you tend to have limited targets that are realistic and there is no pre-season to develop and prepare. We all know why this happened, namely gross mismanagement last summer - it is really difficult bedding in players new to the Premier League. It takes time for almost all new signings. But if you rock up to a team that is bottom of the league and really under pressure it’s even harder

Sorry, yes I had a malfunction! And you are right, Bournemouth a great opportunity for three points

In terms of creativity and attacking verve, compare current talent with the last decade in the Premier League, from the first season up to now. This has seen, for example: Adkins/Poch era: Jay Rod (pre injury), Lallana, Lambert, Davis Koeman: Tadic, Pelle, Mane, Davis Puel/Pellegrino/Hughes era: Redmond, Tadic, Gabbiadini, Davis Ralph early years: Ings, Adams, Redmond, a fit Stuart Armstrong The current forward line is genuinely a drop in quality, irrespective of how good the coaching is. This is why, if we go down, Sport Republic are accountable for allowing the season to start so devoid of quality in front line

It’s looking unlikely, but because of how tight things are and the many “six pointers” around us I haven’t yet written it off. But no doubt at all last night made it harder. There are always shock results, but a realistic route that may see us stay up (not certain that it would) is as follows: Beat Wet Spam, Palace, Forest and Fulham Draw with Spurs and Brighton Lose to City, Newcastle, Arsenal, Manure and Liverpool That would get us to 36 points, which most seasons is not enough but maybe this year. I would go as far as to say that if one of the “draw or lose” matches could be flipped to a win I would be confident that 38 or 39 points would do it this year.

No a long car drive, but worth it! Gavin and back four superb, JWP and Lavia very good and I thought a decent performance from Adams. One goal conceded in four PL games is excellent, and continuing to defend that way will give us a real chance. Bigger picture is that we started the weekend six points off 12th placed Palace and we end it just five points. It’s going to be a hell of a relegation dog fight but we finally look like we have the character for it, and fans, players and manager all on the same page which is not the case at Wet Spam and Leicester.

We have won twice and drawn twice since our return to the Premier League up there. I have been there three times in that period and am yet to see us lose!

Without question our goals conceded ratio is helping us to catch up the other strugglers. Interestingly though this improvement from an awful 2022 defensively actually pre-dates Selles, although he has further improved this. It may surprise people that in 2023 (so including the Forest game) our record is nine conceded from eight Premier League games (there is a three in Brentford game within that), or 16 from 14 in all competitions. I was banging on week after week under Ralph that we were always doomed to struggle until we could get our goals conceded down to say 1.2 per game, which if you look back to our four seasons in the top eight under Poch, Koeman and Puel is what really drove the success. An obvious statement but you are always in the game and can take points from scoring no more than one goal. That is what is helping right now

Encouraging that we showed more creativity first half than of late, and equally concerning at how our performance dropped second half. Credit to our back four who look a good unit. It seems bizarre to criticise the keeper after conceding one goal in three league games, but he really doesn’t inspire confidence. Fully appreciate he is young and it is his first season, but his selection is stretching loyalty and patience to the limit. Six points separate the bottom nine teams!

Massive game today. Win, and we could be one point from safety, off the bottom and Selles having won two of three Premier League games in charge. And a positive feeling ahead of many more home games to come. Lose and we could be cut adrift, six points from safety, with three consecutive defeats in all competitions.

Would like to see 433 or 41221 out of possession as follows Bazanu AMN, Bednarek, ABK, KWP Lavia JWP, Stuart Walcott, Kamaldeen Tall Paul

I estimate we had some players out there tonight on over £60K per week being beaten by others on £3K per week. What an absolute disgrace

A long journey to see such a dispiriting performance, particularly after the hope of last week. A few thoughts which are different to the pile on of Bazanu and Bednarek that occupied much of this thread: - Completely agree it was a lame goal to concede with multiple players at fault. But of far bigger concern to me was the total absence of creativity or any discernible pattern of attacking play yesterday (having been encouraging against Chelsea in the first half last week in particular) - while everyone will scrutinise the goal, and rightly, Bednarek made one error first half with a careless back pass, but that apart actually defended very well yesterday, as he did last week. To be clear, I would not have selected him at Chelsea, or recalled him from Villa, but I am not pig headed enough to then ignore what we see. And Bazanu has started to command his area a little more these last couple of games. - if you stand back from the frustration, we have conceded a total of one goal in two away games. That is good by any definition. And should yield four or six points. So while those reliant on two mins Twitter clips will focus on the goal, and I get that, we are not looking defensively shambolic right now. - so the problem is creativity, which is not the same as earlier in the season under Ralph where the problems were defending and finishing chances. Don’t forget last week took a JWP free kick, as did Everton away, to win. So this has been going on for some weeks, - yesterday I thought there were shockingly poor performances from Moi, Armstrong and Kamaldeen. Additionally we saw almost no overlapping from full backs, with some fleeting moments from Perraud. AMN has defended well but isn’t either confident, capable or allowed to bomb on - if we are going to start with Tall Paul we have to give him service, which means crosses in the box. Next to nothing is coming in from wide positions. And if we are going to play long ball (which Selles said in interview he doesn’t like) then we have to get runners close to and beyond him or there is no point. Bizarrely I still haven’t given up hope because there are other poor teams near us, but we aren’t going to win games creating nothing. I would like to see Grimsby game used to develop attacking patterns rather than just resting everyone to see more of the same against Leicester

In the situation we face, a sensible appointment. We have poor track record of promoting assistants (Wigley, Gray) but this is a particular short term challenge

Bazanu KWP, Bednarek, ABK, Perraud AMN, Lavia JWP, Stuart Tall Paul, Kamaldeen

An obvious comment, but wins against rivals are much more valuable than us beating top half teams. Still have Palace, Leicester, Forest, Wet Spam, Leeds and Bournemouth to play. Win four of those and we have a great chance

I am not sure everyone is grasping what an absolute clusterfuck this is from the club, whether you wanted Marsch or not. Think of it like this….. - If you wanted him, offering him just six months reeks of lack of confidence, disrespectful, why would you accept that if you were Marsch? Why not offer 18 months and pay him off in summer (only one year) after sacking him? So now everyone else knows that they are not really wanted by the club and will only be interviewed or, in the case of Selles, given interim role because we have been turned down by our first choice. - if you don’t want him, then why have club allowed it publicly to be known he was preferred choice? You may be pleased he isn’t coming, but whoever we get will be appointed with everyone knowing, including the players, that they were not wanted. What a mess, and that is after Jones was offered a multi year deal as recently as November! It is great that they spend money on players but I am rapidly losing confidence in judgement of Sports Republic who seem themselves woefully out of their depth