Sheaf Saint

And schools, not firing ranges.

How we haven't offloaded him yet is beyond me. If he cant even make the bench after dropping a division, in a season when our first choice LB is so bad, he's clearly got no future here. Maybe he realises he's never going to get a contract as good as the one he has now, and is just dragging it out until it expires before disappearing into lower/non league obscurity.

Agreed. I don't even want to think about what would happen if we get promoted and start next season in the PL with Manning at LB. He'd be ruthlessly found out defensively, like Danny Fox was last time we went up.

Interesting point. One thing I notice with him this season over previous ones is that he never seems to get caught out of position and then make an absolute hash of trying to get back and make a block/tackle like he used to do with alarming regularity. I wonder how much of that is down to playing at a lower level and how much is down to the new style? Under Ralph he was often part of a high defensive line when our entire front 6 were pressing hard, and that led to a lot of his mistakes. This season he's still often found near the halfway line, but only when we're passing it around comfortably and keeping the opposition back in a low block, rather than chasing them down and trying to win the ball back in the oppo's half.

That's Leicester who have by far the fewest goals against in the division and have a GD of +28 without even being the top scorers, yeah?

No, they reset after 19 games I believe.

And they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at Hillsborough on Saturday as well. They had a couple of decent results before that, but I don't think they are likely to really threaten us. It's a game we should win on paper, so I'm going for another frustrating 1-1 after we dominate possession in the first half and then concede a soft goal in the second.

We can't include a right to buy for a player who is out of contract in the summer anyway.

Che is leaving. Whether that is in Jan or in the summer is still uncertain, but he clearly doesn't want to be here and the feeling is mutual. Whatever strengths he might have shown in the past, they've all but abandoned him this season and when he should be tearing up this league, he's actually just an empty shirt going through the motions. If SR don't want to fork out for a new striker while he's still on the books then the best bet would be to pack him off on loan in Jan and bring in another loan replacement. If Ings is willing to come then it's a no-brainer.

Just checked and that's our biggest league win since we won by the same scoreline at Sunderland a couple of weeks before the EFL Cup final - nearly 7 years ago!

You could argue he was a bit lucky that his failure to hold the shot from the free kick didn't present a clear chance to the onrushing attacker, but he recovered well and got away with it. Overall a good game though.

This is the crux. Russball is all about being patient in possession until gaps appear, rather than taking unnecessary risks and losing the ball. The quality of the opposition defence obviously plays a large part in how successful that is. In the games where we've appeared to be more front-footed (Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff, Blackburn), the way I see it is they were just more accommodating/naive in allowing us those gaps to play into. Other teams have been more savvy and restricted those opportunities, which then makes it look like we're not playing with the same intensity and results in a frustrating performance where we're not able to convert our dominance in possession into clear cut chances/goals.

I imagine that Russ, like most football managers, won't care a jot what other teams' fans think of him. He's shown that he's stubborn enough to stick to his own philosophy regardless of the opinions of his own fans, let alone others. He's out to try and win games and promotion, not a popularity contest.

OK, hatred was the wrong word. There's definitely an undercurrent of negativity towards him from some quarters though. He's a young lad who's only been this side of the world for less than a year, and he's still very much a work in progress. I thought he played very well today, if we can forgive that horrific penalty attempt. Like Mara, there is definitely still more to come from him.

14 games unbeaten, 5 home wins in a row, and we're STILL 10 points off second.

Nice one Charly! Really don't get the hatred for him.

Leeds v Cov has finished 1-1 Watford have won 5-1 away at Preston!

It would have done, yeah.

Really? Penalty miss aside, I think he's done well since he came on.

Stu's best game for us in a very long time, probably since before he had Covid that seemed to knock the stuffing out of him. MOTM for me.

I'm never comfortable with triple subs cos more often than not they just disrupt the balance of the team. But surely with a 2-0 lead against 10 men we can't fuck this up, can we? Good to see Stephens back.

It should be, but when was the last time we won against 10 men?

Aw man, my stream froze. What happened for the red card?

I just really hope we don't try and sit on this lead now, cos that never works.