Holmes_and_Watson

Trousers

Sniff

That JWP has stayed through multiple contracts! Abject failure! 🙂

I hope he does really well in Turkey, and I'm interested to see how he does in a different set up. He's been through a few managers here but until this season has always played over 25 games a season and often over 30. I'd seen him a fair bit at Norwich. I thought 11odd million was quite a lot for him. He might not have been one of the players who has moved on for a big profit. But his appearances show he's been an important part of the squad since his arrival, and we've not lost out with his contributions. Partly due to where he plays, it can be a frustrating watch. Taking on players is always going to lead to some lost possession. Holding the ball up, waiting for others, where someone could have been taken on, can be seen as negative. More than others, I've always felt that he's followed the instructions from the bench. Both when being told to attack defenses and certainly in the more risk averse tactics, where he's stopped himself pushing forward. I guess that's led to some criticism and some inconsistency. But he's always seemed to diligently get on with the knocks and come back into the team. Even Pep grabbed him out of frustration at one point. Nathan said "He commented on my qualities as a young English player and how he wanted me to attack his team more during the game in a similar way to last season. "I told him I was doing what my manager asked me to do in the game. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less." He's been pretty versatile in where he's been asked to play for us too. He's scored some really good goals for us too. Hopefully he'll do well in a team looking at the top of a table.

Nice. Thanks for the link.

IIRC Oriol dropped a hint about new pastures last season. Possibly contract extensions were being discussed. No doubt the club were keen to lower the wage bill. We've seen a number of players flit in and out of the team. Along with form, and in the back end of last season desperation, I think part of that has been down to off field things such as the contracts. Lavia has started very brightly, and I think the club has made it clear that not only would there not be a new contract at equal or better terms, but that minutes would now be limited. Romeu's form also dipped a little towards the end of last season. I think that it had a wider impact on the team, due to his importance. Injury, a season up to that point of pressing, general loss of form in a constantly beaten team could well be factors, and even all the factors. And possibly just that little loss of an edge from talks not going anywhere as well. I'd not expect either Ralph or Oriel to say anything publically. They are both professionals. It's not an uncommon situation in football either, where every player has an move on date. It's not uncommon for contract talks not to work out either. I think SR and Ralph have seen how hard it can be to move players on decent Premier League wages on. Also how that impacts improving the squad and the resources to bring others in. Romeu's probably the most regular starter of that group of players with contracts running down. At least Oriel got dropped for his replacement. Che got dropped for the attacker who never even joined us, as an extra motivation towards a move. No doubt Romeu could still do a good job for us. With Lavia now injured, I think we were, not for the first time, all too keen to move people on in favour of the next, bright young player coming through. It's a long, tough season and the youngsters are all going to need breaks at some point. I'd have hoped that we'd have seen the sense of keeping both, even prior to Lavia's injury for what's a key position for us. That is second guessing what Romeu wanted in any talks though. Hopefully the versatility of AMN will help us out here. That's how I've seen it anyway. Hopefully, it's not a sign I'm going to think tin foil hats are fashionable tomorrow. 🙂

Screw

Oh no, it will have been McCarthy's fault. But Redmond gets an assist. 🙂 Redmond's the one I think of trying to walk the lines of RalphBall. I think at the end of last season, he just said stuff it and thumped one into the net. 🙂

Bazunu's reaction was one of knowing he had a good chance of stopping it , had it been a clean hit, and frustration that it was the bounce of a mishit that took it past him. Much more important was us getting caught with such a large gap down that side. We'd either overcommitted, or someone had gone missing. As we were on the attack when it happened - KWP forward and Mo on his rear after trying to slide a pass through to set up a good chance -I'm thinking the former. That's a difficult balance. Too over cautious and you end up with a Redmond being told to pass it across or back all the time. Too forward thinking, and you have a Redmond taking on players, losing the ball and the team trying to hurry back: The Redmond Dilemma. 🙂

It's a statement of our defensive confidence.

Stock

Che's header into his arm didn't make the 2 min Sky match highlights I just watched. Can't have been that important. 🙂

I imagine Everton will pretend their FFP issues will go on for ages, to stop Harry having any more influence on transfers. 🙂

Clearly it was the latest cunning disguise of my arch nemesis! The old leaping into a film career in a different genre trick, isn't going to fool me! 🙂

Wow! instant pathway return! But madness to sell with no replacement in place, and when pushing Romeu out the door. You'd hope the player would prefer first team football here, rather than a squad berth at Chelsea. But perhaps the size of fee & wage increase, Euro Ball football would make quite a difference. It would be interesting to see if City wanted to exercise their £40 million option, to keep Chelsea away at £50m. Kind of derails their deals with us, in one way, if they have to make such a big outlay 5 mins after selling him.

> interupts monograph writing on 4-2-3-1 vs 4-1-3-2 by stripey or plain shirt< Who?! Quickly Mrs Hudson, call a cab! We must get to the crime scene before that bumbling Ralph Le Strade clutters it up with his youthful new police signings. They're no Baker Street Irregulars (Inter-London Winners 1888, 1891,1892)!

I went with a 7. Just about. That's purely down to everyone having identified the need for a striker as a priority. The club continued to ackowledge this throughout, but in the end we are hoping that it's Mara who will be making the difference. He'll certainly be getting minutes to prove himself, so I hope it works. Ralph is a bit more defensive minded this season, so chances will be fewer. We're going to have to hope that we've enough clinical finishers to make those chances count. The lack of a more experiences striker dragged the score down. Everywhere else got a refresh. I'm a bit wary of pushing players out the door due, less to skill and experience, than an attempt to lower the wage bill; with that impacting contract negotiations. But it looks as though there were other factors going on as well (Bednerak supposedly having his mind more on a world cup game than on the club that pays his wages etc.) I did like Forster. While not having that physical presence, Bazunu is a lot more agile. So far he's done just fine. Salisu and Bella Kotchap look like a super pairing. We kept KWP and JWP so have held onto our best. Lavia looks excellent, although I do think we're going to miss the eperience, attitude and skill of Romeu in the squad. Ralph has a deeper squad to select from, and we've already seen him being able to come back from going behind. I've a concern that due to the way he's set it up, we're going to be going behind a fair bit, and may not quite be clinical enough to pull ourselves back. Adams has already got some goals though, so here's hoping.

We are set up to contain a lot these days (I get it, even if it's not great to see), so we invite a bit of pressure. Although Bazuniu bailed us out with a couple of runs out of his area, that was when we were trying to equalise. Wolves weren't peppering our goal. Their goal came from someone who went missing allowing a runner to have loads of space. It was in KWP's area. As Woves moved up the park reasonably quickly for the goal, he was probably miles away, and we hadn't got anyone in to cover that space. Wolves exploited that space behind KWP a couple of times. That's something Ralph is going to have to sort. Perraud got caught a bit for pace and positioning today, and has done a lot better previously. Diallo had some good passes, but the team really missed a Romeo/ Lavia figure today. I know the club were keen to move him on, lowering that wage bill. But Romeu had a lot of attributes that would have helped us out today. Being a bit more compact, means we're not initially going to create loads of chances outselves. We have to be clinical with what we get. Adams missed a sitter by striker standards, as the ball hit his arm from his head. He could have done better with a second effort too. But the formation would have been Adams or our new striker, and his hold up play is decent. Ralph does seem to have plenty of attacking options available, if not outright strikers. So when Edozie made a great run into the box, there was no one to take advantage of it. There are any number of teams similarly placed in the bottom half this season. Saints plan is to hope that the mostly youth signings can fire often enough to keep us safe. I was hoping for a point here today. Had it not been for acres of space given away for their goal, we'd have probably have got it, judging by the rest of the game.

NOw why wasn;t there someone in the box to take advantage of all the good work Edozie did there. wasted.

Great return header form Mara back to adams to win that corner >cough<

Commentator saying that no defence will want to see Traore come on in the circumstances. Our two are phsycially his match, so it's not something that's going to bother me this season.

Traore has been keeping up his weight lifting I see.

new guy hacked down.

Nice skill from Edouzie there to keep that in.

Wolves couldn;t stop KWP, so the ref makes sure by brining play back.