SWLondon Saint

I don't take it personally, can definitely see your point, but Jander is primarily seen as a DM and was generally speculated to be going to a higher end Bundesliga side so he's clearly meant to fill that spot. At the back, I'm not a huge fan of any of our CBs to be honest, but I can see why Quarshie has been brought in and hope he plays a lot this season. The championship is a bit of a weird one for central defenders, I do think there's a lot of mediocrity so maybe the thinking is we can just get by. Upfront it looks like they want to get it done by committee - Archer looked decent for a half at least yesterday and is clearly finding his feet again. I'd actually like to see Stewart given a shot as he looks well up for it. So I think there's probably enough there overall. But not unreasonable to doubt them as well.

If we can shift Edozie, Aribo and Smallbone, I think that'll be pretty much everything anyone could have asked for except for a Baz replacement...

I agree about his general stropiness and attitude, I just can't see who buys him to be honest? He's too much for a champ team and not good enough for the PL and no-one else has the kind of money we'd want...

I mean, I posted this as a joke, but who knew this is what Spors looks like with his glasses off... 🤓

I think the way to look at the first goal is that about 4v things went wrong and Baz's save or non-save depending on your opinion is just one of them. - No pressure on cross field ball at all. - wtf is Manning doing, you can't just wait for fouls off the ball to be given, have to assume they won't be noticed in this league - Huge gap on left side of mf / defence, too many sucked towards the ball? - Baz's positioning for save / non save It's still a great finish right inside the post and if Cam Archer had scored it we'd be saying what a great goal it was, not commenting about the keeper. My first thought when it went in was 'why is there so much space there and who's lying on the ground', not necessarily the save or lack of. While for Manning's goal my first thought is 'keeper's got to get that'. I'm not a huge Baz fan, but the strategy is clear, just hope he's good enough till we get promoted and Rambo comes back. It's gonna be a long season if everyone's just complaining about Baz the whole time, he's not the only one at fault so far. If he lets a trickler in, then sure.

Said it in another thread somewhere, but too many of our players seem to be in what I'd call the 'lazy attacker' mode, ie go in hard so you either win it or foul someone and don't have to bother fighting for position or running back round. Charles took a yellow today when he didn't need to dive in on the Australian lad, he should have hassled him running back and got goal side. You've got to put in those hard yards against the ball, which Jander has said he enjoys, so I guess a lot is riding on him being a success...

Yeah, I know - honestly think he should be looked on as a first team player, not in the u21s, I think he's looked the part so far. Of course he'll mess up at some stage, he's a kid, but we needed his physicality today.

Btw, did anyone else see Downs chase back on defense and take that yellow and think, 'Bloody hell, can we see some of that pace going forward please?!' Get him running in behind and he'll scare defenders.

I think they messed up with the midfield today. Sesay should be on the bench regularly this season already, I liked what I've seen of him so far, good motor and willing to chase down and do the dirty stuff. Both Charles and Downes seem to do the 'make one attempt to win it or foul', which is the 'can't be arsed to run back alongside and jockey someone off the ball' approach, which when you miss the tackle and the foul means your defence is horribly exposed.

I agree completely, his first instinct seems to be to look for the ball in behind or into the channels. Unfortunately in particular our defenders are not used to playing that pass so it's disjointed at the moment. It's neither here nor there as an approach, as opposed to coming short it does stretch the defence which I *think* Still likes. But that ball has to be played early which it isn't right now. I know exactly the moment you're talking about, if the pass had gone straight in behind instead of via a delay from Armstrong, he would have been in.

For everyone moaning about Bazunu, you could look at the goals we scored today - 1st one, keeper and defenders playing musical statues, 2nd one, keeper's side of the goal, always the likely option from so close, absolutely must be saved - or the goal Johansson gifted WBA to lose that game for Stoke...

I don't think THB has looked right at all this season - he's looked a yard slow and has struggled against any physical forward, which is most of them in this league, and has to resort to shirt grabbing. Not sure if it's because his pre-season was disrupted or his heart's not in it, but something doesn't look right.

Did anyone see why Manning was on the deck leading up to their first goal? You can't just go down expecting free kicks in this league. Thought he and THB were not good as a left sided defensive pairing at all.

Sorry, you lot blaming Bazunu for those goals are just delusional. That free kick was top bins and the other one was a rocket. The most savable goal in that lot was the Manning free kick which was 100% keeper's side, he should have saved it. But then Manning and THB were rubbish for their first goal.

Blimey. Guess Charles will sit with Azaz and Robinson just ahead of him? Not sure about this lineup at all...

Definitely does not look a happy camper with crosses, think he badly misjudged one in the Fellows highlights as well...

For anyone hankering after Johansson, he just dropped a corner for an oppo tap in after earlier misjudging a cross and nearly carrying it into his own goal. 👀

The other thing to remember is Stewart is in the last year of his contract, so he has every possible motivation to play and play well. Do a good job and fire us to promotion, and he gets a renewal or at worst a top of championship team. If he doesn't play, he'll be with a champ struggler or L1 team. We'll see him at his best I reckon, and certainly against Norwich he looked like he's getting close, he was good closing down and also winning the ball when it was sent long to him.

I'm a bit worried if he'll be able to step up to the PL, but I was assuming we'd have to pay £15m+! At 8m+2m it feels like a lot less of a gamble, as I said before their fans must be absolutely fuming. 🤯

Honestly, just watch the press conference where Still gets asked about Cam Archer. He said he wants him to be himself and not fall back into 'things we don't want him to do.' Basically he's saying 'Martin f***ed Archer up' without saying it. There's your answer about BBD in a nutshell.

I'm optimistic he'll be able to make the step up as his game seems to be based on technique and vision which are arguably more valuable in the Prem. Feel like he might need to up his physicality to cope though, but confident the new regime is not gonna let anyone slack off in that department.

I think most on here would agree with you tbh - right now he hasn't shown he's a PL quality defender. His best quality is probably his passing or the way he gets to the ball at attacking corners, when it comes to defending he isn't that strong or quick, nor does he read the game that well. I doubt Palace would go for him but if they do, selling is the one area SR have a rock-solid success rate in...

Unfortunately I reckon the price goes to £12m if BBD is included....

Don't disagree, but as I said, Russ has been bad for his development because he's gotten into the habit of only playing 'safe' backwards and sideways passes. He never looks to turn / take on the half turn and go, and in the PL with the pressing systems so developed, if the opposition know you always go backwards and sideways, you're a sitting duck. Which he was, and we were. You have to earn the right to pass it in the PL and I don't think Russ ever got that.