Hopper

Well to be fair to the lad I certainly couldn’t answer the questions he’s being asked in German with the level of eloquence he’s handled his press conferences. I think if you read/listen to the content rather than the cadence you hear someone who’s clearly quite considered and seems to be a deep thinker. No he’s not going to light up a room but if he gets the lads to light up the pitch then he’s fine by me.

I find myself rooting for Downs when he comes on for some reason. He shows flashes of good positional sense and he made a couple of nice turns today but you can see he's playing with a ton of nerves. If we can string a few more dominant performances together hopefully we will get to see a few more low-risk opportunities for him to get his feet underneath him. I think there's potential there but he's WAY off at the moment.

Right now I'm in the camp of better the devil you know with Eckert. The other available condidates don't exactly excite me. I'm not sure if he'll be the right appointment in the long run but I've seen enough to know he's competent, can clearly man manage and get the best out of the lads. Ruben Selles he is not. Given the emotional fragility this side had I'd much sooner keep him in place and see what he can do with some time and backing than upend everything.

Play like this and I think you keep Arma at 9. He was incredible today. Dropped back, created well and scored. If Eckert's system allows him to perform like that through the middle I wouldn't upset the apple cart.

That’s as impressive as I’ve seen us since the last championship campaign. Everything felt far more automatic. Less thought more intent. If you can’t see a difference in how we’re playing under Ekert at this point I think you need to get to Specsavers.

Tbf Tonda at least got some effort out of the lads. Not sure we'd have seen that with Still, still in post. At this point I've no read on whats going on and have given up trying with these owners. All I know is it's never 'normal' with them. Feels equally likely that Tonda will stay on as it is for us to appoint some name out of the blue.

If we all had the same opinion it’d be pretty fucking dull. This forum has always had its happy clappers, bed wetters and everything in between. A bit of arguing and banter over different views never hurt anyone.

We have a ton going for us. Parachute payments, a squad full of quality (for the championship) and owner happy to invest, first class facilities at Staplewood. A premier league stadium etc, etc. We are a great prospect for any manager worth their salt under the elite level.

The solution to mediocrity isn’t more mediocrity.

Can play either, has looked good when he's played buy picked up a muscle strain a couple of matches back.

Don't understand the fascination with Viera. Most middling of managerial careers, great player, bang average manager - at best.

Of the 'names' mentioned with some playing cache and gravistas I'd take Ole over any of them. He has a pretty defined style of play, something that Viera has been widley critisized for (and that we desparately need). He steered a shocking United side to their best league finishes in a long time and to top it off seems like a thourghly nice bloke. Don't see it happening however.

He didn't get Genoa promoted he took over with them 17th in Serie A and pulled them up to 13th. His managerial record is pretty dross all round, he's just a name. Koeman had at least won multiple trophies/championships before joining including the Copa del Rey with Valencia. I don't think they are even in the same stratosphere.

The reality is there’s not a lot of concrete information out there either way about what’s going on behind the scenes. When we’re to the point that we’ve got talk sport walking back about stories about TE being made permanent it’s pretty clear that no one is even getting a sniff at the current hiring process. Just an observation but this probably speaks to Spors team and how they operate as little was known about a good few of our summer signings until just before signing, same with Ori’s return actually. At the moment the only thing for sure, is that nothing is for sure.

It's not like him being in for a couple more games is going to kill our season dead. If waiting means we get the right man then it's well worth it. For what it's worth I fully believe they will have someone in place by then.

In what world? They are already interviewing and we have a two week break.

Sounds like someone else we know 🤔🤣

There was a definite pattern to the play from goal kicks for example that wasn't there with Still. Often Macca would just go long. Baz and co played it short and out to the right a lot against Wednesday with THB finding quite a bit more success on his favoured side. I'm not saying he's made sweeping changes (no pun intended) but there was definitely a more deliberate action there.

Agreed. I definitely saw a much more deliberate move to play out from the back (I believe this is why he put Bazunu back in) and the boys were also shifting the ball quicker and trying to find the spaces.

What is this winning feeling…

The frustrating thing with Downs is he often makes good runs and find nice pocket of space…. It’s just everything else!

I said a couple of weeks ago I just wanted to see a professional performance. We’ve not covered ourselves in glory this half but it’s been a much more professional display than Wednesday night.

Plenty. Throw on Edwards and Quarshie!

Agreed. He’s got a touch of Hojbjerg about his play. I’m here for it.

Jander has been excellent today. Great signing.