OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Yes that's really quiet. Maybe the singers are too spread out, but there hasn't been a lot to sing about so far.

I've seen us play a lot worse than that. The team selection was positively greeted by most on this site and with good reason. We started off well and for over 1/3rd of the game we were competitive. Suguwara and Dibling have a good rapport, Downes is tenacious, Ramsdale was allowed to do what he wanted to do with the ball and KWP was ok. Yes we've lost four games in a row but I'm still pretty upbeat. The lack of a striker is our biggest concern but let's the comments in a month's time.

Quite like this, though am expecting Cornet to start and Dibling to come on from the bench. Would prefer BBD to Armstrong...and you haven't shoehorned Jack Stephens in to the team!

So would I and I genuinely think with KWP/Suguwara (if he plays) and Fraser bombing down the wing and putting in telling crosses, we can do this and it'll be the 'Dutch Steptoe's' last game in charge of Man U.

Agreed. Ankersen did initially try the Brentford approach here. And it could be argued Selles was also in that mould. Always felt another time another situation, RS could have worked out for us but the dross he inherited and the atmosphere at the club at the time worked against him. Reading fans love him and given the constraints there, he's working wonders. But like you said, Ankersen was under pressure to find a new style and manager and along comes Wilcox and RM. Personally, I don't like it but it's trendy. Why managers and teams can't mix up styles of play, I don't understand. Anyway, Wilcox has gone and Man Utd seem to be freewheeling backwards so it'll be interesting to see how they fare in their next game!!

You're right. Mix it up. Not being as tactically astute as a lot of people, I still think there's a lot of common sense behind the saying that they won't score if the ball is in their half. And when you have a good distributor like Ramsdale who can see a quick break, sometimes play the long ball out. RM will make changes. He might be arrogant, he might want to stick to his principles but he's not stupid. He knows he has to adapt. Expect to see Fernandes start, Dibling and Big Les play a big part and Cornet and Archer also heavily involved. And it was noticeable that even at his age, how much of an impact Lallana had when he came on at Brentford.

Normally I get annoyed by these international breaks and one just three games in to the season is frustrating - but on this occasion it couldn't come at a better time for RM to analyse what's gone right and wrong so far and make the necessary changes. The next game, Man U, can be moved out of the free hit category. They're not playing well and there's a real chance of a massive confidence boost if we can topple them.

Agree. Haven't seen enough of Lesley but I'd be surprised if Fernandes doesn't start from now on. We're saying RM needs to change but SR brought him in because they believe in possession football and needed a similar thinking manager. So they also need to change their ethos. It was interesting how Ramsdale went for a couple of long punts half way through the first half. They came to nothing, so did he go back to passing out from the back because firing a ball to AA/BBD is pointless or because he was told to play the system?

This will be the big one. In 40 years, I'd never heard "Your football is shit" sung by our our fans until the cup game at Palace a couple of years ago when Mr Jones was manager, but RM is heading in the same direction. He needs to adapt. Yes, we have championship players in our team but we've also got a lot of premier league standard players and as much as I don't trust SR, they've given us a top goalkeeper and spent money on quality players. It's up to RM to now use these players.

We need to move on from AA as soon as possible. Football at this level is fine margins and AA's miss before half time was criminal. Going in 1-1 at half time and we would have been right in this game. They weren't a lot better than us. THB needs to settle down. He seems to be going through a confidence issue caused by not having so much time on the ball as he did in the championship. Jack Stephens just seems to get in the way of play. I can see ABK playing for us again soon.

Okay, Dibling gave it his all midweek and maybe wasn't ready for a full 90 minutes today, but you're right, the team selection against Man U will tell us what RM has learned. AA was ineffective missed a run in on goal and missed tap in. A striker can't be that wasteful and to be fair he was taken off, but he should never have been starting. Smallbone was caught out a couple of times. THB needs to sharpen up. And as for Stephens. Maybe ABK needs to be reintegrated in to the team.

MotM at Wembley. Really pleased he's back. More than a squad player. Fraser will make a difference.

I like this but I think we'll see AA instead of Dibling and Smallbone instead of Big Les. Dibling will come on as a sub again and hopefully so will Sam AA. BBD and AA need to be much more narrow to allow Sugawara and KWP to go charging down the wing without bumping in to them.

Hopefully he'll choose one. Will do him good and will give others like Sam AA to show their skills off the subs bench and it'll get him off our wage bill.

Lumley looks less assured on the ball than AMc. Thank goodness he won't be playing in goal for us in future. I think Les and Fernandes could go straight in to the first team. And surely Sam AA must be ahead of Sam Edozie in the pecking order now. Now to try and find a second half link that has sound and without a betting ad in the centre of the screen or some russian girl fingering herself!

Thanks for that transcript. Have to agree with RM, on the whole we've done some good business. Downes was by no means a certainty to be signed and already he's showing he's going to be an integral part of the team. I'm confident Les and Fernandes will out. Not so sure about BBD but reckon Archer could prove a good buy. That all adds up a to reasonable window. Fingers crossed for Ramsdale but we've got a team that can compete in the premier league. RM's been given the tools. Now he has to put them to good use.

With Wolves out the picture, this is a chance to (re)negotiate with Arsenal for Ramsdale. I'm presuming our scouting team have got a Plan C and D, but in all fairness, last Saturday's game showed that AMc can do a job should all other options fail. I'd like to see Lumley in against Cardiff because there's every chance he could be our back-up and he needs match practice.

Exactly. RM's theory of passing it out from the back isn't the problem. The problem is the speed we do it and what happens once the initial press is broken. Practically every time we broke that initial press on Saturday, Aribo & Smallbone passed it back again except this time our defenders had an attacker standing next to them ready to pounce. I get that you don't want midfielders losing the ball when nearly all the opposition team is in your half, but they have to be able to turn on the ball and look to go forwards not backwards. I'm hoping Les and Fernandes will make a big difference.

Yes, I think we're quite entitled to start our meltdown. a) Remember that January shopping window a couple of years ago when SR went in to panic buy mode? A goal-keeper with weak wrists and a striker that on the surface looks like a joke, is negating all the good work of the transfer so far. b) I don't buy in to this idea of 'give us time, we have to find our feet in this new league'. Those tactics on Saturday were so negative and so lacking of ideas and that was a real concern. That again resembled our last season in the premier league when, if there was a passing sideways and backwards league table, we would have been top. Things need to change. Personally, I'm pinning hope on Les and Fernandes being inspired signings.

I understand that one minute cameo is the short version. There's a 5 minute version of the Yuri Albertos highlights. Evidently our scouts have filtered their search with "Che Adams" and this guy has popped up!

I still reckon we were destined for another season of championship football until RM changed two things. 1) The goalkeeper, and then 2) At the last away game at Leeds and then W.Brom, he seemed to stumble across the idea of 5 at the back with two being wing backs. Why don't we revert to having wing backs and then get Diaz and AA to come in to a traditional no. 8 & 10 role? Diaz looks pretty one footed and am not convinced AA is going to make the grade at this level but at least give them a chance. Sticking them on the wing was pointless.

This is it. We've got a squad that can compete. I can't believe RM insists on playing at a snail's pace but he needs to understand that there'll be many more clubs that will use a high press against us, so work out a way to get around it. Didn't see him for long, but get the feeling Fernandes could turn out to be our best signing this year.

And on Match of the Day, they highlighted how many passes it takes us to do one shot. And that needs to be sorted. Move the ball quicker, be more direct and have Archer or someone in the middle. For large tranches of the game there were two players standing wide on both sides with a gaping big hole through midfield and attack. Hopefully Fernandez and Les will make a difference in midfield. Afraid Aribo really isn't good enough to make the step up and for that matter, AA is proving he's a good championship player but not a lot more.

And so is BBD when he's not doing a statue imitation on the wing. Fernandez had a good cameo. He could be our creator as the season develops. Dibling looks positive. Now we need to tell Jack and the others to also have that positive intent. The only time they did things quickly was to take quick tappy free kicks....which quickly went backwards and ended up on our half way line! Eliminate those and pump the ball in the middle. Also, sitting in the Chapel right next to the Forest fans, they were noisy. It's because they're singing at you rather than to the pitch like last year when the away fans were behind the goal. Hopefully, the Northam end was more atmospheric than before.

And the BBC Gossip column is also saying we're in talks with Arsenal over Ramsdale. This seems to be following the rule of say it often enough and it will become a reality. We've got the best fans in the world.....😉