CSA96

It’s soon to be 2026 and we’ve still got Alex McCarthy in goal and our two options for leading the line are Ross Stewart and Damion Downs I’m putting more of the blame on the execs than the manager but he of course isn’t without blame Still was very clear about how he wanted us to play and the profile of striker he needed and we’ve not provided it

Yes, very much the right profile

Thought he looked bloody good in the first 30 today and was bringing better performances out of those around him too. Fuck sake. Gutted for him but how we've let ourselves become so reliant on him is just a result of awful squad planning

Just back in the front door from Derby Thoughts... It was a game of two halves, but in the sense that the first half of the game was the 30 minutes where Ross Stewart was on the pitch and the second half of the game was the next hour. Honestly, I felt we looked great with Ross on the pitch, probably as cohesive and threatening as we've looked all season. Lots of nice, mixed passing, a balance of quick short play and direct play into Stewart and then exposing the space between the Derby back four and the midfield. Ross individually looked very good and managed to bring the others around him into the game and occupy the centre halves. Hopefully his injury is a minor one Sadly, after Ross went off, we seemed to almost immediately become drained of all ideas of how to progress the play beyond the midfield. Not enough movement, not enough penetration and zero physicality to use as a platform to bring others into the game. As a result the midfield pattern of play became a hell of a lot more sideways and backwards than it was in the opening half an hour as midfielders continually looked up to see nobody moving or stretching the Derby lines I have spent a fair bit of time defending/trying to be pragmatic about Downs but my goodness, he really offers such little to this team. The runs aren't right, he takes up odd positions out of possession, he doesn't press the backline, he doesn't win enough in the air and his touch/first-time passes are clumsy I actually feel a bit sorry for him because he looks way off it and, ordinarily, a 21yo striker would be able to dip his toe in and find his way into this league with some 15 minute cameos in games where business is already taken care of Given the scenario we're in, he gets thrown in when we're under pressure, the crowd is restless and he doesn't deliver and then takes more criticism on his shoulders. He looks absolutely bereft of self-belief right now and I'm not entirely sure what the answer to that is. I'd ordinarily say he needs to play through it but he is such a passenger that it is not fair on the other 10 lads on the pitch - maybe a loan and/or 21s games in the meantime? Anyway, going from back to front... McCarthy was great today and the defence, by and large, seemed pretty settled and comfortable. Wood continues to impress me. I was happy with the defence and the midfield in the past week or so, but it felt like our question marks were in goal and in the final third. We seem to have calmed down the goalkeeping situation now somewhat and McCarthy should stay in goal indefinitely this season. There's a 'spine' emerging of McCarthy, Wood, Charles, Jander, Armstrong and ??? (I hesitate to say Stewart due to his injury woes) At the other end, we're still all over the place really. Given how obvious Will Still was about his desire to have a physical profile up front to build his attack and entire tactical approach around, to be finding ourselves in a situation where by the first weekend of October we already look shit-or-bust based on whether Ross Stewart's body to sustain itself for an entire season isn't acceptable. For the only feasible alternative to be Damion Downs, who we spent £7m on and looks miles off the level right now, is also unacceptable. At best it is naive from Spors and co, at worst it is negligent I feel we've not yet found the best way to make use of our new signings in the wide areas: Fellows, Scienza, Azaz. These are guys with pedigree (some in this league, some elsewhere) and we've seen flashes from all of them. My feeling is that the formation is helping the central midfielders and the defenders but requiring our new wide players to play roles they aren't quite accustomed to yet. Scienza looked lively today, I loved his positivity in always looking to go forward and he is an effortless dribbler. He needs to cut out the play-acting though because that's already becoming slightly tedious Beyond that, I thought Charles and Jander looked good again in the middle today. Today felt like a game where we got enough from the keeper, defence and midfield to win the game, but the lack of ideas from the forwards left us high and dry and made the draw feel pretty inevitable

Spent much time with him?

Bloody hell, you weren't wrong

Their fans are all over Manning already too. Lost five home games in a row for the first time in 123 years They were up there amongst the biggest spenders in the summer, so their fans expected a lot more Top 10 for money spent on new players (sourced on Transfermarkt) Ipswich £51.6m Southampton £48.8m Wrexham £33.1m Norwich £25.2m Middlesbrough £19.7m Swansea £12.8m West Brom £13m Birmingham £12.5m Charlton £10.1m Blackburn £8.6m

Why's that?

They seemed to watch Estoril pretty well to spot Mateus Fernandes and get him over here with nobody really knowing who he was

Thought he looked really decent at Anfield. Seemed more agile, but also happier to push forward and play the right passes forward, into space

Busy going up and down in a glass elevator in his house

It was a bit more nuanced than that really. Glen was also very fair to highlight that if your defenders can't contest and win some headers inside your own box, and your keeper keeps parrying onto onrushing forwards, then you're stuffed regardless

Sometimes E.coli effects can last for years, so I am guessing it's likely all linked back to when he was seriously ill not long after signing for us, rather than just feeling a bit under the weather on multiple random occasions? We'll never know (not arguing that we should, really)

Flynn Downes a doubt for the trip to Hull with sickness...

Josh Sargent's goal record at this level is not better than some of the options we already have on the books, he was absolutely crap at PL level and he has also missed a lot of time with injuries. His return at this level is Che Adams level - who was widely derided for not scoring as many as he should - but with more injury issues I really do not get the obsession with him, especially given Norwich were looking for over £20m in order to let him go and nobody else in England was particularly interested in him

Not if you're going to whack them in the air from miles away or put those irritating floating crosses in that make life far too easy for the goalkeeper. Need to be whipping the ball low across the posts or between the six yard box and the spot, with the forward actually making an angled run, rather than what we're doing now

I don't really agree with the 'can't see what he's trying to do' narrative that is building - it's pretty obvious: get the ball forward quickly, use the flanks and cross the ball in the final third. It's what we've done since preseason and it's been the same in all of the competitive fixtures We put 27 crosses in yesterday and other games have followed the same pattern. In my opinion, it's far more of a case of: I can see what he's trying to do, but they aren't doing it very well. He needs to find a way to get them to do it in a much better way, or look for alternatives

Hull are looking good value? They’ve let in 14 goals in their last five games and have only won once. I’m aware we’ve only won once too but I wouldn’t exactly suggest they look good value

One was Alan Pace with ALK Capital, now owner of Burnley I'm sure the common version is that Katharina Liebherr used her veto on his takeover because he wanted to carry out a leveraged takeover (which Burnley accepted) but Liebherr/Semmens weren't comfortable with it and wanted a new owner to be an individual or group of individuals with solid proof of funds from other businesses, rather than a capital group like ALK looking to raise investment funds first

I stopped reading when it said KWP was on £20k a week and earning less than Smallbone These numbers seem like absolute pie in the sky