James

FF saves! Unbelievable.

Another loss as no way we'll score here.

So having a different opinion is being a t*at? Got it. For what it’s worth, your assertion that he had no service is wrong. He missed a header in the second half which went miles off target (quelle surprise) and there was one moment that sticks in my mind when Cedric got he ball over and Long was nowhere near it as he hadn’t anticipated it. Had Austin or Gabbi been on then it’s one one. Bluster and call names all you want, it won’t turn Long into a better striker. There’s a reason he rarely gets over ten goals a season, it’s because he can’t finish and doesn’t have a goal scorers instinct. You strike me as the kind of fan that just loves players who run around a lot and get “stuck in”. Long has that in spades but goals win games and in a lone striker system you need a reliable player who can actually score. Long isn’t that man unfortunately. If we want a front man who runs around, wins a few headers and wins the ball back then we may as well play Yoshida or Van Dijk up front. There’s a case for Long being on the pitch (hence the earlier comment that, if he were a midfielder, it would have been a decent performance) but in a team that struggles for goals you can’t have a non scoring striker as your main man, no matter how good they are at “hassling”.

Yet he never looked like actually putting the ball in the back of the net which is the primary job of a lone striker. He’s pretty “pony” at the job he’s primarily paid to do, scoring goals.

I remember going to OT in 1999 and the same thing happened. Didn’t delay kick off and we arrived at half time.

Dripping Gabbi just shows me that MP has fundamentally misunderstood why we are struggling to score. If it works, hats off but I bet it won't.

Absolute madness. Replacing Gabbi with a striker even less likely to score when we can't score is just ridiculous.

Absolutely bizarre selection. If VVD is fit enough for the bench he should be playing and Gabbi on the bench is just ridiculous. It's as if he's been ordered to play this formation and never change it. Very unhappy. All fans in the pub outside the ground utterly baffled by that.

That side shows MP can't change it. Long up top on his own cannot and will not work. Dropping Gabbiadini is just ridiculous. If we lose I'll start losing confidence.

Will be interesting to see if there's any press reaction re MP if we lose tomorrow. Given FDB came under pressure after three games it wouldn't surprise me to see a few stories...

You make a good point here re style and approach. After the Swansea game I came away feeling positive and saw some good pressing to win the ball high up the pitch. Was disappointed by the result but we battered them and should have won comfortably. Same against West Ham, UNTIL we let them back in. Since then, against Wolves, Hudds and Watford we've been all over the place. What worries me is that our "positive" performances have come against teams that are quite clearly absolute ****e and we couldn't even take maximum points from those. MP needs to roll us back to how we started off against Swansea and stick to it for a while. The most worrying thing for me is that MP hasn't yet shown he can change a game for the better during play. Against Watford it was clear we needed more muscle in midfield as we were getting overrun. So what does he do? Bring on Tadic... Also, he appears to be hell bent on subbing Gabbi in every game, in a similar vein to Puel, unless there's an underlying fitness issue I don't understand that at all.

De Boer sacked so they'll likely have the new manager bounce and beat us. It's inevitable, feels like it always happens to us!

You really are one of the most patronising, boring posters on here. I'd recommend learning to read before criticising other posters for things they haven't written.

That is shocking from Forster. If he can't get to a shot like that what chance have we got? Awful.

I didn't claim that Silva was rejected by the entire fan base (only a portion of it), nor that he would have been received without fault and I certainly didn't claim that I was the only one that was concerned about MP. Why is it that every time anyone says anything on this board they are picked apart and insulted by irritating keyboard warrior know it alls like you? It's seriously tiresome.

What I'd give to have Pelle back....to think we sold him for £12m is so infuriating. We've had a good quality target man during all of our recent success and we are suffering for not having one now. We played so many long balls forward today but they just came straight back.

Agreed - when Forster came back from injury we were given a lift, didn't concede a goal for something like 11 hours and went on our supreme run to sixth.

Exactly. The club reportedly asking him to change his style and he wouldn't. Fair play to him sticking to his principles but the club made the change. As things haven't changed under MP, it stands to reason they aren't happy with what they are seeing at the moment. I do worry that the board and club believe this squad to be better than it is though.

The crossing thing is bizarre. Our fullbacks are probably our biggest attacking threat but to make use of their crosses we either need a big target man (we had a good one but Reed sold him) or we need to play low crosses like we did against United in the final. These constant high crosses that sail over everyone (if there is anyone in the box) are just a waste of possession.

It was a reference to posters on here dismissing him rather than a comment as to why the club didn't appoint him.

Yes, as I said in my post above, I also think Les Reed is responsible for constructing a deficient squad and for selling off our best attacking talent. However, I've seen managers produce better football than we currently are with much more limited players so it at least has something to do with the manager.

Well said. Most wanted us to go for Silva but he was dismissed for being relegated with Hull. Was always concerned at the thought of MP as his goal record with Alaves was dreadful. I was encouraged by some of the comments about him but as yet he's not changed anything.

Of course it's my opinion, it's a forum. If he was so brilliant then why was our football so dull to watch, why did we fail to score in six consecutive home games and why did the board, ultimately, decide to part ways with him? If you think the board actually sacked Puel because the fans didn't like his interviews then you are kidding yourself. If they responded to the fans clamouring then they'd have signed an attacker in the window.

Your "I told you so" style posts really are incredibly tiresome. However, I agree he wasn't very good today but at least there's a chance he might beat a man or do something to get a move going as opposed to Davis who can only pass sideways or backwards.

Are you going to bang on about Puel all season? He was ****e, if MP turns out to also be ****e then it won't make Puel any better. Reed is at fault here. We could have gone for Silva but we dithered and we should have freshened up our attack but instead we've been stockpiling centre halves (which, ironically, was what we should have been doing last January). Fact is, the rot had set in during RK's second season where we played some awful stuff until we went on a one of a kind Mane/Long inspired run to sixth. Continuing to flog our Crown Jewels, replacing them with average, cheap players (compared to the current going rate) and leaving glaring holes in the squad every window was always going to catch up with us and I do worry we will be dragged in at the bottom this year. Even Brighton have started scoring.