James

Wellington was an absolute liability there but all 3 CBs should take a look at themselves.

Eugh that was god awful.

Fraser right wing back? Otherwise like that team bar Armstrong through the middle but away from home I mind it less.

Agree about positioning. I thought that contributed to him not saving the penalty. Did the hard part and guessed right and seemed to be a full stretch but didn’t really cover that side of the goal. Struck me that his starting position was too far over.

Fuck me Arma. Useless.

Would add Quarshie to that. He’s decent. Stephens and Edwards by contrast have been very bad.

Too busy selling our best players, nowhere near enough in terms of incoming. Just recycling the same old guff and expecting a different result. Definition of madness.

Ref is letting them away with an awful lot.

100% agree. We are so naive. These guys are just not good enough, new manager isn’t going to change that.

Shocking pass from Armstrong that.

We are all over the place here. This is as bad as last season so far.

Edwards is very naive defending Moore here.

Agreed. Way too much complacency this summer. This attack can’t even lay a glove on fucking Wrexham.

Weird dive. Went full length the right way but still didn’t really cover more than the middle of the goal. Did he start too far over?

Was a mile offside but utterly idiotic defending from Edwards.

I mean that was a stonewall penalty. Two handed shove to the back. What an idiot. Brainless defending.

What an idiot.

Pretty happy with that. Would have liked Fernandes to start, bench is ominous. If Stewart had started in place of Fraser with Arma on the wing I’d be much more confident. Don’t fancy Arma as a lone striker.

The keeper situation reminds me of what we did when we got promoted the first time and signed Boruc. Didn’t come in straight away as we gave Kelvin and Gazzaniga a fair shake but eventually Boruc became obvious choice. If it’s Matt Ryan that comes in then I suspect we will get a similar outcome.

Great summary. Just about sums up how I feel. Weaknesses last time are still weaknesses this season and, if anything, strengths from last time are less strong. We are very likely to have Bree and Stephens as 2/4 in defence and Shea Charles as the lynch pin in midfield. Let’s be honest, none of those three were in our best 11 last time and some of them didn’t even make the subs bench in some games. Up front we definitely have a more diverse group of threats and Archer should really score a shed load if given the right service but at this point in time It’s hard to see who is going to make the chances.

Every keeper makes the occasional howler. Whilst annoying that’s not really the problem, it’s the number of times you sit there and think “should he have done better with that?” - I asked myself that question a lot more than half a dozen times that season. By contrast, I’m having trouble thinking of many (or any) matches where a Bazunu save won us any points.

Exactly. I don’t get how folks can really think we are in the conversation for Top 2 right now. We were a mile off last time and, assuming Dibling and Fernandes leave, we are going into the season with a much weaker first XI. Maybe we’ve got a deeper squad this time round but in terms of pure talent in the first XI we were much better off last time.

I’m curious, do those that disparage the stats which point to Bazunu being a very poor goalkeeper at this level think he looks any good when they watch him? Stats or no stats, I just see a goalkeeper that makes the net look big and lets in a good number of shots I think a better keeper would save. Every time a shot is on target it’s sharp intake of breath time. Almost the entire fan base was overjoyed when Ramsdale signed, to be back to square one this season with a keeper that most of us don’t think is good enough is disappointing.

Any recommendations for Championship focused podcasts other than the Second Tier pod? I listen Ed to that last time we were in the Champ but not sure I can do another season of it..!

Baz is not mid table quality, not even close.