VectisSaint

Yes, but what do you say to Peretz and Long who were made promises when they were signed? He did at least turn out for the U21s the other day. In hindsight the Club were too quick off the mark to sign Peretz. It's a shame what has happened to Ramsdale, seems like his career has gone down the drain since he decided to sign for us.

Peretz is having a bit of a mare.

I said I hate these descriptions. I don't really give a monkeys whether his first "excellent season" for them was in an "8 role" or what Wet Spam fans think, JWP has never and will never provide the same midfield role as Shea Charles or Casper Jander.

Agreed, some people seem to think the 2 CM roles are interchangeable. I don't like all these new fangled descriptions but if we have to use them Charles and Jander are 8s, Downes, JWP and Cam Bragg are 6s.

JWP is not and never will be a replacement for Shea Charles. They play different positions and different games and have massively different attributes. They are like chalk and cheese, and that's no offence to JWP. Last season we had Jander and Charles to rotate, with Downes and Bragg rotating. With Jander out we will be very unbalanced and lose a lot of what made us good in 26.

Norwegian Wood mainly written by Lennon.

Think it possibly goes to show that Bragg and Downes don't work as a pair, Bragg with Jander, Bragg with Charles and now seemingly Bragg with JWP does. It could be that Downes doesn't have the "mentoring" ability of the other cooler players, plays his own game. How often did Bragg and Downes feature together last term?

We haven't replaced Charles yet.

He didn't say who he would be playing for (playing devil's advocate)

Hopefully he won't be on corner duty. Last season we were second top in most goals scored from corners. JWP's corners were never great, Bree, Manning and Leo are all delivering better corners right now.

Wouldn't they still owe us an instalment for his transfer 3 years ago? If so presumably this includes that being written off as well, mad if the case.

TF for that, last thing we need is a Louza. We've had enough of them recently.

We have Manning.

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Paderborn are Bundesliga, top flight. Admittedly promoted last season but still you can't say we didn't play at least some decent opposition. I think one thing was overlooked was that this was Tonda's first pre-season. Totally inexperienced in getting a team up to speed after the summer break. Maybe it is showing.

They're poor footballers, but still think that's a bit harsh.

Could link up well with Welington.

He's a Chippenham lad, but I think there was bad blood when he left Saints, his Dad Adie got the boot as well - think it was down to Lowe IIRC. Don't think Tyrone will be heading to Saints any time soon. It was mooted a few years back when he was at Ipswich.

He was injured before the trip to Germany, hence he didn't go. It was more likely Charles was going to leave but he still went to Germany. I could be wrong, but I don't think this is a smokescreen. If we do lose him we are well and truly f*cked.

I don't think Shea should be considered a screening midfielder.

I thought this was the tag for the new Match of the Day lineup.

He was certainly a Still target even if he actually signed after Still left (there had been talks going on long before he joined us). He wasn't signed as backup for Jander, Charles, Downes and Bragg, and I don't think we were ever light in that area, quite the opposite in fact which allowed us to rotate the central 4 so effectively.

They walk among us.

Strange really because he certainly was last season from the time we switched to a 4, all through the unbeaten run right up until he was injured in the 43rd match and was unavailable for the last 3 games. When we played 5/3 at the back he was like everyone else crap, and that includes THB. Manning was awful defensively and when replaced by a proper defender (Welington) we looked a different side. Welington's injury let Manning back in, and in an attacking side he was able to cover up his defensive inadequacies with his many contributions at the other end. We also benefitted from Bree's return, make no mistake we were woeful defensively before the switch to a back 5 or 3. All four of our defenders played well in a system they were comfortable in and with protection from Downes and Jander/Charles. Very noticeable to me that Jack has his first mare for a long time as soon as we are without Jander/Charles (or adequate replacement). We were awful first half yesterday, but so we were in a good many games last season even in the unbeaten run, we developed the tools/knack to come out fighting second half, and that was reflected yesterday as well.

No sadoldgit was spot on. The Dobbin/Azaz thing was partly due to Azaz not being fit to start, it wasn't a mistake. Also Scienza being clattered time and again in the first few minutes meant we have no idea whether it would work or not, Scienza might as well have been taken off, they really took him out of the game. The huge hole would have been covered by Jander/Charles.