OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Got the Mara song now but after his last game, you might not get the chance to sing it 🤨

That's an interesting table, but I guess it's when was the start and end date. Our balance in the bank looks really positive but we forked out loads in the previous summer and January windows. Still think when we've got £15m players on our bench other Championship clubs can only look and dream of having the same. It's no coincidence our league is looking like the premiership with a few wealthy clubs at the top. If we weren't in that group, then our fans can rightly question RM's methods/tactics. I think he's one dimensional but can't really complain too much given the season we've had so far.

Feeling this could be a watershed game. Win convincingly and the recent blip is behind us, but lose or draw and Leeds/Ipswich could be getting in to uncatchable territory.

In many ways, with our comparative wealth and what we've spent, we are the Man City of the Championship and anything but automatic promotion represents failure. We've got the players to have a variety of tactics. Just like Ralph had the Plan A pressing style but no real Plan B, so RM seems to only have a Plan A. What is also concerning when watching the Liverpool game, is that his second stream defence is far less comfortable playing from the back and both the back four and midfield's first look was to see which backward pass they could make.

That's precisely it. We need to go up and find our feet in the premiership rather than watch from afar and see our team's quality players being taken away. As posters have said on here for years, we need a striker. Spend more on a striker or strikers from lower leagues with potential. It's the most glaringly obvious thing wrong with our team and like the commentary team said yesterday, against good premiership teams, you don't get many chances so you need to put away the ones you do get.

That's been really noticeable. Also, if you're going to rest a player, rest him. KWP coming on was pointless.

Oh dear, he's not been brave after all. He'll better get automatic promotion after putting out that defence. That said, I don't mind that attack for a counter-attack.

Not too sure about the pace of Saint Keef's experienced team up front, but that defence is letting no-one through! That said, with the current squad I really want RM to go out and field his best team. If he rests players, then rest all of them. Don't do a half-way house.

So here's what we do. We do a Millwall. Jack knobbles any of their strikers in the first five minutes to let them know we're there. Then we put everyone behind the ball except Sulemana and Edozie/Sam AA. Then, when they attack and lose the ball, Baz (not Lumley) hoofs it to our super fast forwards to score on the break. Can only get 40/1 on Betfair for 2-3 to us. They know it makes sense. 😉

I'm guessing Norwich will creep in to the play offs at the expense of West Brom, which is a shame because we did the double over W.Brom. They treat us with respect and hold off which plays in to our hands. The other inconsiderate sods go at us, so I think we'll struggle to get past Hull or Ipswich to even get to the final. The squad needs to swallow a gallon of positivity pills and get out there and play like they were doing a couple of months ago and avoid these play offs altogether.

Certainly give Sulemana a start on Wednesday against Liverpool given the way he played against them last time. Yesterday's match had all the hallmarks of last year. Passing sideways, down the wings then back again. You'd think by now we'd have a plan to get through teams that set up to park the proverbial bus.

Some say look at the opposition team before deciding your own line up. I say put out your strongest team every game. A player gets replaced when either crocked or suspended. Matchday programmes used to have a double page spread where you could easily see who had played every game and who was coming in from time to time. Without doing the analysis and my memory is short, I bet during Oct/Nov/Dec, we were often playing an unchanged team which builds understanding, confidence and a winning mentality. With cup games, additional players in the transfer window and Jack S being shoehorned in to the matchday team, RM is now constantly tinkering with the team. Stop it.

An alternative view is to say Klopp will put out a team that will keep some of his heavyweights on the bench, so here's our chance. Many think automatic promotion is now not realistic and barring a catastrophe, we'll be in the play-offs, so why not put out our strongest team. RM can show some respect to the 5,400 travelling fans and really go for it. A few strong tackles early on (aka Millwall on Fraser), they'll lose heart and we spring a surprise which will do wonders for players' confidence.

Did you get on the platform? Seemed like half Hampshire's constabulary was heading that way when we left the ground. Can't think of anyone who had a good game today. As some have said, the transfer window doesn't seem to have done us any favours. Even Brooks was largely anonymous. That ball needs to go in to the penalty area and there needs to be our players in there to do something with it.

Fucking hate that team. Ok, maybe judgement if coloured by the time in the late 1970's when my mate bet if I would wear my red & white scarf walking down Elland Road and that didn't end well, but fucking hate them. Their fans weren't altogether or whatever that crap is they sing until the 80th minute. Before that all I could hear on TV were Leicester. Really annoyed with Leicester throwing that away. Leeds looked very ordinary for a lot of that game. Hull would have buried them. Feels like a loss. Now, as S-Clarke has said, we've got 4 very winnable games starting today, so let's see how the land lies after them.

And tonight's game will see hope levels shift dramatically one way or the other. C'mon Leicester.

Everything about him says 'I don't care about this club'. While I don't necessarily want players thumping the badge, you see Fraser playing with real passion, you see Edozie trying his best, SAA really going for it and yet Sule gives an air of can't be arsed. Combine that with someone who's got no end product and he's got something to prove. He's not anywhere near as good as he thinks he is.

I remember this time last year after Stamford Bridge thinking if we win this/that match, we can still avoid relegation. The hope's back again but this time it's if we win this/that game, we can still get automatically promoted. It's not an irrational hope. We've still got to play the top three (the proverbial six pointers) so it's in our hands. RM needs to pick the best team, stop the tinkering and there's no reason why we can't do it. Certainly this year's hope is more realistic than last year.

Well, we've slipped up but I'm still hopeful. Many are singing Leeds' praises but contrary to popular predictions, they'll get thumped against Leicester and that'll knock the stuffing out of them 😉

Also prefer Mara to Che and like someone said, AA has been pretty poor recently, so I'd like one of the Sams to take his place but accept that won't happen.

You're right, this is a real concern. No Downes and the others in midfield look rushed. Better when Aribo and Brooks were on but Hull looked good, pressed hard, created a lot of chances and to be fair to them, they didn't go out of their way to waste time at the end of the game. Can't complain about the result. Annoyed with RM's starting line-up, especially Rothwell, but I'm still expecting Leeds to blow up on a couple of games (starting with Leicester on Friday) and we'll be back in it.

Is Brooks ready for a start? I also thought Mara did more than enough on Friday to justify another start ahead of Che. The one thing Che does ok is hold the ball up, but Mara did a good job of that on Friday despite being closely marked and he's got an eye on goal.

Agreed. His attitude, outwardly at least, seems to have changed. He injected more tenacity in to the team when he came on on Friday and filled the midfield.

He was but it's good he recognises his mistakes and addresses them.

But that tackle today was 😀. So glad to have got rid of him. It's not just the signings Wilcox has done well, he's also been good at offloading our dross.