James

Get Trent off at half time. He isn’t a midfielder and it’s completely killing us. Positionally he is all over the place.

If Adams is injured then Stewart needs to play. Mara is a non-entity.

Will take that in the circumstances.

He’s been absolutely awful. To think we upended the balance of a decent defence to fit him in.

Jack Stephens has been absolutely terrible. What the hell is he doing?

Is that really a question?!

Can instantly see why we bought him. Now needs to stay fit.

Back up now thankfully.

Didn’t see a step into his path. Fair enough if so.

What is THB meant to do there? Step out of his way?

This passing out from the back is killing us. Giving it away almost every time.

Aribo and Smallbone look half asleep.

Christ this is terrible.

But what if Adams was the defining reason the system was so successful? His performance last week made it work IMO. Mara won’t give us even 50% of Che’s running or hold up play so to assume the system will still work with Mara is a huge leap of faith.

This is where we disagree. If the replacement for Adams wasn’t as poor as Mara I would agree 100% but the guy has shown literally nothing in terms of technical ability, attitude, commitment etc.

Im struggling to see how playing Arma down the middle and one of Fraser, Brooks or Kamaldeen on the wing in his place is a shoehorn. it comes down to whether you’d prefer to play 352 and have to play Mara (I agree that, absent risking Stewart, we don’t have another choice) or go back to 433 and not have to play Mara. Whilst neither option is ideal, I would prefer to do the latter.

There are but Che was pivotal to the success of the system against Leeds. Given Mara has been phoning it in every time he’s been given a chance I think fans are rightly nervous. It’s a huge call to start him given the importance of the game.

Agree, partly why I made the flippant comment about Fraser. He was also very good last time we played them so on that criteria should have been shoe horned into the starting XI.

I didn’t criticise Russ for tinkering. I’d rather we reverted to a system that would have better utilised the players that are fit rather than being forced to start Sekou f’ing Mara in a playoff semifinal.

In your opinion, my opinion is that having Mara on the pitch effectively means playing with ten men.

My concern is that the system we played last week against Leeds was effective in large part due to Che’s performance. Rather than replace like for like and bring in a far inferior player it’s worth questioning whether it’s better to have changed formation to best use the players that are fit.

Assuming we are now wedded to playing 2 strikers. Other than last week we have played the entire season with one through the middle…

Fraser, in particular, must be wondering what he has to do. If the criteria for starting Mara is “he played 82 minutes last time we played them” then Fraser has a more decent shout.

On what basis have you drawn that conclusion?

He could have changed back to another formation, played Armstrong through the middle and brought in Fraser or Brooks. Not as if bringing in Mara was his only chance option….