Holmes_and_Watson

AA does start ahead of Archer. He offers more to the team than Archer. But I think Archer is the better finisher from a central position. So, when putting the basic labels on them, I put AA more as one of a front three, than in the middle. Suga was one of the ones I could see moving on. If, so I'd prefer a replacement than seeing Fraser there all season.

A fair bit of time left, but a busy couple of weeks for everyone. No doubt offers for Suga, Wood, Taylor, ABK, Smallbone, Aribo, Edozie, BBD would all be considered. Dibling and Fernandez still our marquee players gaining interest. If no on meets the marquee prices, still leaves us with... GK - Baz, McCarthy DR- Bree (Fraser providing cover here now) DL - Welington, Manning DC - THB, Stephens, Quarshie, Edwards, Sanda MC - Charles, Downes AMC - Fernandes, Matsuki AM - Armstrong, Fraser, Dibling, Robinson FC - Archer, Downs, Stewart (Armstrong as cover here) An upper championship squad. Which, considering SR have had a very long time to build for a promotion, looks a bit underwhelming. It's certainly not near the team that managed 15th when they took over. It desperately needs a creative attacking midfielder as well as physical power down at least one flank (that Tella replacement) We've settled on our forwards really, but that Romeu replacement is still sorely needed. If Suga goes, then a new right sided defender would definitely be needed. Keeping either Taylor or Wood would give us a bit more experience at the back. No doubt a new squad 'keeper will come in. It needs a bit of quality in a few positions to boost us from being in the mix to bring a front runner.

Everton and West Ham will be pleased at the discount. 🙂 Thanks very much for the update as always. Some common sense from him regarding Quarshie. Everyone out there could have made lots of better decisions, and they realised that, including him. Very early for him yet.

What's the rule for when a plane lands on your ball?

Having sale prices on the back of the shirts, instead of squad numbers was also a clue to SR's approach. 🙂

Gadget

There was a point late on, where he got impeded. But still had enough presence in there to punch it clear with a bit of quick thinking. Not the biggest of sample sizes there, but worth a shout out for him. On the other hand, I thought he was less scowly today. Scowling is a massive part of his game, and I'd hate to think of him slacking off here.

Which is funnily enough how Juric ended up in a fight with his Torino sporting director. 🙂

Sorry to hear about your premature plums, Farmer. Edit:The Beeb have just been in touch to say I'm no longer required for Farming Today. Outrage!

I'm so sure he's not going to say anything useful, that I can just shut out his noise. So, in a weird way, I don't mind him, as I'd have to learn to ignore any replacement. 🙂

I believe an alien formation, is what keeps MLT up at nights in a tin foil hat. 🙂

An away point against a promotion rival, who were better than us in the last 2 league campaigns is realistically decent (even if we did better in our head to head last season). Still will have taken lots of lessons about his team from that. Our defence were ridiculously error prone. All of them in the first half, and Quarshie in particular. Most of them in the second, with Stephens being bailed out by Baz, but making a strong covering block later on. Baz looked quick, with his usual cool ess and distribution. Fraser has a high work rate, but really is an emergency right wing back. You can see Suga clearly knows he's not first choice, and could be moving. Quarshie struggled all through the game, and needs support to get past that. He can join the support group the rest of them are in. At least he's not alone. We're in another season without a proper DM. Downes, wearing his I love Russell, T-shirt is now the closest we have. Incapable of playing a forward pass, but the most likely to harry back. Charles and Fernandes did fine, but with little impact. Robinson got his goal, which is more than anyone else looked likely to do. Dibling back with a welcome cameo at the end. But we really offer nothing up front. AA is wasted there. Archer did little and Manning had no targets. Still is rapidly going through his squad and finding flaws in quite a few of them. Ipswich were the better side today, carrying more threat. We've still got lots of resources and talent compared to lots of other teams. But we're quite a way off where we could easily be, with some decent recruitment in the next couple of weeks.

We made that difficult for ourselves. Our defence sharing in collective responsibility, by sharing our the errors. Quarshie having a poor time of it in particular. Still learnt that a back 3 isn't great, as we lack cover for it, even if it does get Cap'n Jack into the side. At least Fernandes grew into it more, and good to see Robinson off the mark. As others have said, AA wasted in the middle. Some of the line up feels like Still is pointing out to Sports where the quality is needed.

I caught the last bit of the Liverpool / Bournemouth game and, like Russell Martin emerging, blinking, into the bright lights of the PL, was surprised by what seemed like even higher levels of pace and power. I've said before I pretty much turn on and off for the match. So, I only catch the odd minute of punditry, as I'm shutting it off. In that game, the alleged racist certainly seems to identified himself while doing it. So, good it was isolated, easily picked up, if true we won't be seeing him again at a match, and there was lots of support from players and staff. One guy doing it is one too many. But I get why the minutes of presenter-with-serious-media-trained-face and her incoherent comedy pundit side-kicks seemed disproportionate in length. They had a Jota tribute to get to and, at 2-2, we're lining up, like the Beeb, a "This new guy really isn't like the Messiah Klopp, and look how much they've spent!" story. My understanding is, and not from anything they said, is that the match was stopped and the racism protocols initiated. And, although Neville and Carragher offered nothing of interest, and the tone had been delivered direct from a media workshop, there was a solid feeling of zero tolerance that came across. A strong message, well worth the focus. The rest of what I caught, other than Salah's touching tribute with the fans, which they wisely shut up over, offered no insight into anything I'd just watched. So, no change there.

Rento was sharp, quick and a finisher. He made the difference. There were few chances, in a game that wasn't slow, just lacking in final delivery. My heart sank when VA conceded such a poor equaliser, right after taking the lead. Very static defending for their corner. Let Puy had a couple of glimpses of skill, that got past the VA flanks. But they came to nothing, and VA were happy to keep them to 25 heads, defending that space and preventing Le Pay from breaking through. Rento wasn't a target man and is clearly raw talent. But nice to have an actual striker with clinical shots. A first win, of hopefully many.

Crystal

...and left. 🙂

TB's flight was quarantined, possibly impacting the flight plans of TD. 🙂

There is that section Lawrie Mcmenemy's diary of a season where he looks to the future, willing to trade in all his forwards for players with the physical centre forward presence of Adam Armstrong, the clinical poaching from 6 inches of Downs or the inspirational work rate of a BBD. 🙂

Excellent article. Thanks for linking.

People

Great news. Looking forward to it.

Duck

Yeah, could be a very late loan move, if no one's interested. Such a waste of potential.

And that's it working as intended. With the help of the opposition, whose system allows them to get moved about. Controlled, risk managed possession with a quick transition when it was right to do so. We've seen Saints knock it back and forth across the back three or four times, to get this and it can work. Martin's issue is that it's a lot tougher to move teams around who are setting themselves up to defend. In that clip you had 6, going to 5 as the ball is played forward, in the Rangers half, with the front three central and bypassed. Perfect for Martin's side to exploit, and credit to them. Against sides that aren't chasing a game, are solidly defending and won't budge moving it about doesn't work so well. It allows them to set more, and his side lose momentum and you can hear that from the fans.