Willo of Whiteley

But none of his players quite amusingly 🤣

I think everyone recognises he is very, very poor. But he wasn’t the problem on Tuesday night. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ross Stewart shouldn’t be offered a new contract. If he was unfit for work as much as me he’d have gone down the fitness to work route and been paid off. We’ve established it would be “nice” to have a new GK, but we aren’t going to cancel George Long’s loan, no one is picking up Alex McCarthy’s wages when he has six months left, and we won’t be selling our current first choice in Gavin Bazunu. So you may as well rule out the GK option until the summer. I think we’ll only bring in a wide player, someone who hopefully injects a bit of pace. I would like to see a CB leave for someone better but again realistically I don’t think it’ll happen. Equally I’d like to see a better left sided WB, but again I doubt this will change as long as Larios is on the books and we have Welington as back up.

Ok let me phrase it another way; go with this example: we could win 1-0 with one attempt at goal, take an absolute pounding and he saves ten-plus attempts at goal from the opposition. But there would still be many on here complaining about that one misplaced pass that went out for a throw in. He didn’t really do anything wrong on Tuesday. But if you look at the first, second and third comments after that game you’ll see how there was those few that said how shit he was, despite probably keeping us in it. Understand? —— As mentioned before, I am not a Bazunu fan, but bloody go after him after he’s made a mistake by all means. Tuesday there was no reason to.

Leicester weren’t deemed catchable two years ago, and yet for a short period everyone did. All teams will have their drop off.

We’ll get promoted. Coventry will start to falter over Christmas. Middlesbrough and Stoke will fall away in the new year too, they’ll be lucky to finish in the play offs. Ipswich will probably go up too.

We aren’t buying a goalkeeper, you may as well rule that out. I think we’ll get a wide player on loan, hopefully someone in the Scienza mould. I don’t see a lot of change. I’m very confident that Aribo and Edozie will be on their way out, maybe a couple of other fringe players out on loan too.

Was mentioned on Goin Home with Adam and Jo that the players wanted Tonda Eckhart very early on, due to his direct, straight-forward and simple approach. It’s certainly showing.

And as long as there are posters that blatantly have an agenda against him, even when he’s done nothing of note wrong in this particular game, those posters will never be taken seriously. 😂 I don’t think anyone sees Gavin Bazunu as an amazing keeper, I include myself in that. But he did more to help the team in last nights game than hinder them. Chances are we’d have conceded way sooner due to poor defending in our own penalty area. As I said higher up the thread, he wasn’t the issue last night, and to say that he was is pretty pathetic and laughable. Just have a week of slagging him off needlessly. 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

I said a few months back what an excellent player he is in this division. Future Ballon d’Or winner.

The defenders, in fact the ten outfield players that were all in our penalty area failed on four successive occasions to clear the ball or win a header just prior to the second goal. Given that he saved the three previous attempts says more about the players in this instance than it does him.

I’d like to be a fly on the wall to understand how we can have game after game of amazing first half and monumental drop off in the second. Is that not a fair point? 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’m not saying he’s crap, I’ve not even said he’s crap. But as fans we can see that certain players aren’t performing or that as the game peters out you have to tweak tactics, and it just stays the same. An example is bringing on Joe Aribo who has been dogshit every time he has played, that is poor in-game management. It’s basic stuff. 😂

His in-game management is pretty horrific. Our tactics are very predictable. He’ll be found out before too long.

Can we have a new bench’s worth of players. Preferably ones that can make a positive, attacking impact?

I’m going to say this very politely but seriously fuck off if you think he was the issue tonight. 😂 He didn’t do anything wrong in the first half. From watching from the Northam End; the first goal was through a crowd of players. He then pulled off three or four good saves to keep us in it before the second goal went in. I’d put the majority of the blame solely on the defenders the rather brilliantly invited all the pressure in that second half to West Brom’s attack. Is he the best keeper in the world, no. Is he one of the best in the league, no. Would I replace him as a priority in the next window, yes I would. But Jesus Christ he was not the issue for us tonight. Some people’s agenda against him is laughable. (Based on what I watched in game having not seen highlights yet).

So to summarise, excellent first half, the way we switch from snail pace to lightening acceleration was very good and caught Weat Brom off guard. A bit of luck and we could’ve scored maybe another in the first half. Very tidy and composed performance. My only concern was the defensive pissing about, not as bad as under Russell Martin but still a lot of nerves for the fans when it’s sprayed across goal. Second half quite aim play was terrible. Once again inviting pressure. Taking off key players so early shows two things: one - basically us saying “we’re not going to attack you anymore”, and two - how inadequate and weak our bench is. There is almost no one outside of our current starting eleven that I would say could make a notable difference to a game. That is concerning. The West Brom goals were coming. Basically enticing them in the entire half, several times players left unmarked on the edge of the box, weak defending from set pieces today. Gavin Bazunu made a few good saves in quick succession prior to the second goal, I’m sure some will put blame on him for conceding two as per usual but quite simply he kept us in it for slightly longer. Fantastic win on the face of it, but it feels very hollow after that second half performance.

4-1 win incoming. Very confident

I don’t think Spors was a realistic target for them. A bit like me saying Sabrina Carpenter was on my shortlist.

Rob Edwards will no doubt lose his job at the end of the season, or when they’re inevitably relegated. Nice pay off though!

As much as a keeper is plainly obvious to us all, the club isn’t going to get rid of McCarthy or Bazunu, Ramsdale is on the books but that’ll be the summer. I think we’ll get maybe a midfielder on loan and not much else. I can’t see SR investing in a striker given they spent £7M on Damion Downs and they’ll want to wait as long as possible before accepting defeat on that front.

You can guarantee it’ll be an away tie. Probably against one of Liverpool, Everton or Newcastle.

4-1 to Saints. The obligatory one chance, one goal for the opposition but I think we’ll be fine. West Brom have plummeted down almost as quickly as we’ve gone up.

Mo Salah effectively saying “sack the manager or you’ll never see me again”. Would be nice for a board to back a manager but this won’t happen for Arne Slot.

I mean, quite frankly, who is?

Wasn’t at the game but saw that we take off the two best attacking players we have. In other words that says to the opposition “we’re done for the day now”.