Midfield_General

Shambles

Well there have been plenty saying that Armstrong, Archer and BBD are a perfectly good set of attacking options in the Championship because they've all had seasons where they've scored lots of goals at this level. Looks like today we'll find out if they were right.

Fucking Armstrong down the fucking middle for fucks sake. Other than that, not a bad side.

Sounds like they are about to sign Meghoma to sort out their issues at left back

Fellows beat his man and cut back the cross for the WBA goal

How about £7m, which is what he actually cost?

He is being passed to. He's had the ball passed to him three yards out in the centre of goal twice and he's missed both of them. It's not writing him off to say that he's had a poor start, but it's bizarre how people on here are blaming everyone except him for his performances so far. Maybe, just maybe, it's not everyone else's fault, he's a work in progress and needs to do some work to improve.

It’s a relief and incredibly refreshing to have a manager saying stuff like that, even though it’s just the most obvious basic common sense.

Nope - it bounced off Downs to Fernandes. It went: Downs > Fernandes > BBD > Archer > Fernandes 3 mins 25 here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7jSjHFT0LBY&pp=ygUac291dGhhbXB0b24gdnMgbm9ydGhhbXB0b24%3D Fernandes run was absolute quality. Really intelligent play to keep going after starting the move, and then run outside where there was space, before that completely composed cut inside and finish. Class.

Sensational late bid incoming for Tony Blackburn

What were his stats like on Football Manager 1962?

I’m not going to slag off everything he’s done as it’s not warranted, and it’s also very early days and like all players he needs to be given time. But he hardly laid that off. Yes he backed into the defender, but he didn’t get the ball under control, it hit his knee and bounced to Fernandes, who gave it to to BBD who threaded a decent pass to Archer who set up Fernandes who had carried on running (a run which was as class as his finish btw). There were multiple other instances where he got outmuscled or just fell over. Like I say, it’s very early days and Still needs to work with him and I’m sure he will improve. I’m just saying that from what I’ve seen so far he doesn’t warrant a starting place yet. Stewart should start if he’s fit, IMO, and Downs should be introduced off the bench until he looks ready to lead the line.

Yep. All true. Stating the obvious, but what it comes down to is what people value him at based on what he’s shown and what they think his potential is, and everyone is going to have different opinions on that. Personally I don’t think an offer of £35m + £8m + some sort of sell-on is buttons for him given he’s not signing a new contract, and if we need to sell him to buy as appears to be the case then personally I would probably have taken that rather than gamble on getting a few million more but also possibly seeing his value drop if we don’t sell him this window. But I don’t run the club and as a fan I’m not close enough to it, and others may disagree and think he’s worth more, or the gamble was the right one, and of course that’s fine too. The club obviously thought they could get more, either by pushing Everton up further or because they thought there was other genuine interest that would mean more of a bidding war. They may still be right. The truth is we won’t know until the end of the window. Interesting to see how it plays out.

No offence taken. Play him because it will give us a better chance of beating Ipswich on Saturday, because he’s our best player in that position, and even if he has an average game he’s probably more effective than Adam Armstrong or whoever. Not because if he plays he’ll definitely show the world he’s a super duper £45m player and it will make Everton or whoever come running to sign him. Being the best right wing option for a championship team doesn’t necessarily make you a £45m player. It just makes you the best we have available.

That I agree with. If he’s ready to play, play him purely because he’s better on the right than any of our other options and we want to win the game. I think the risk of injury would be too much though so can’t see him playing again until after the window shuts if we’ve blown the game of transfer poker and he’s still here.

Not necessarily. When’s the last time he had a consistent run of games when he actually looked a £45m player? Two managers ago? The outrageous price we’re demanding is largely based on some good games he had before Christmas and then loads of hype from people within the club saying how much potential he’s got, and us pumping up his perceived value by bandying about figures like £100m in the hope that it makes people think an offer of £50m actually represents value. If we play him he might show a flash of genius that gets everyone scrabbling for him, but based on his form over the second half of the season he might also have people asking what all the fuss is about. Personally I think our summer transfer strategy was predisposed on him being the one we definitely sold because of his contract situation, and we can’t really move forward with the other signings we need until we sell him. We got a bit greedy, overplayed our hand, and now we’re stuck having to go back and look a bit sheepish as they’ve called our bluff. As they seem to be the only real option and time’s running out, a power move from Everton would be to lower the bid slightly and see what we do then, because if the counter offer is true we’re making it pretty obvious that our bluff’s been called and we need to sell him. I still think he’ll go there, probably for a deal worth about £40m and 10-15% sell-on, but it will be right at the end of the window and will put us under pressure. Our position was based on their being others who also wanted him and were prepared to join the bidding, but now with apparently no other interest, Everton hold the cards now really so they can make us sweat.

If Che Adams, BBD or Sekou Mara had missed that exact chance, I wonder if so many would have been saying how it wasn't that much of an easy chance actually

Not only that, but being hung out to dry, being asked to play against Premier League quality defences, as a traditional winger out so wide he had chalk on his boots, in a position he was obviously utterly unsuited to and therefore got ridiculed when he tried to play, can't have helped either. What sort of idiot looks at a lumbering ox like him with zero pace or close control and thinks 'yep, he's a Premier League quality wide man alright'?

Oh come on now. At any level of football you have to be able to adjust your body or your run ever so slightly if that’s what’s required. It’s early days, he needs to bed in and get used to the league and the role and all that, but that’s a sitter at any level, as was the one against Wrexham, slight push or otherwise. He’s not going to get many easier chances than those.

Agree with that with the exception of Downs who has done absolutely nothing to warrant a starting place from what I've seen of him vs. Wrexham and last night. He's not only missed two absolute sitters but also looks weak as piss and has provided absolutely no physical presence whatsoever, which is worrying seeing as he was meant to be one we were bringing in to make us a bigger, stronger side. He has just been getting brushed off the ball and nothing has stuck to him so far. I hope he's just rusty and will settle down as he gets used to the league and the role he's asked to play, but early signs really have not been great and he clearly needs to be given time to get up to speed and maybe adjust to the physicality of the league. Bearing in mind that Armstrong simply cannot play CF and BBD is just shocking anywhere, that means that for the foreseeable we are still relying on either Archer or Stewart for a physical CF presence and goals. Which is a scary prospect over the course of a season. If Stewart is feeling better he needs to start on Sunday, and if we can find anyone to take BBD and/or Armstrong, we should ship them out just to get them off the books, and try and put their wages towards someone who can give us an option to hold the ball up and bully defenders, because we've got literally no-one who can do that as it stands. Keiffer Moore is a very limited player but they picked him up for £2m and he gave us all sorts of problems on Saturday. We need at least one option like that who lets us mix it up a bit when we need to change the approach.

Could be worse. Could have just lost to Bromley, like Ipswich have. So they will actually go into our game looking worse than us.

Oh christ. Him as well. Fuck me we're screwed

So just to be clear, our goalscoring options this season are: Adam Armstrong Archer BBD This Downs geezer who has now missed two open goals in 60 mins of football Ross Stewart and his amazing glass knees Fantastic.

Glad we've got Downs in to supply the goals

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