Midfield_General

Tonda somehow manages to deliver a performance that was like the lovechild of the worst of Still and the worst of Martin. At the back, Martin's awful, pointless, tippy tappy shit inviting pressure and creating panic, and going forward, Still's low-energy, clueless, patternless, pointless floaty high balls for big central defenders to calmly nod away from our sea of midgets. Absolutely putrid.

We could do a lot worse than get Bree back and reintegrate him for the rest of the season. He'd be a much better option than Fraser to start at RWB in situations where Fellows is out or when we need to change it to add a bit more defensive solidity. From what we've seen of Roerslev I'd say Bree looks a better all round player and has been playing well for Charlton too, getting forward and creating.

They are indeed shrewd judges of a custodian

It's a really interesting one. All the arguments about how well Armstrong is doing and the fact we've already got 4 centre forwards on the books are totally valid. But you'd hope that the club wouldn't see it as simplistically as that. Stewart is permanently injured and bar a miracle, Downs looks like a flop signing who isn't going to contribute much, if anything. That leaves us with Armstrong and Archer as actual realistic options. What if Armstrong gets injured tomorrow? Are we going to rely on Archer for the rest of the season to score the number of goals that a team needs to get promoted? And then the other point is about the profile of strikers we have. With Stewart out and Downs not ready, our two realistic CF options have quite similar profiles (small, quick, like to play off the shoulder), and there's only really one way we can play in order to play to their strengths, which is how we're playing at the minute. I don't think there's a manager in the land who wouldn't like to have the option to play more than one way, so there is totally still an argument to bring in a bigger, stronger forward who offers more aerial threat. It's not about having more back-ups, it's about having options with players of different profiles to change it up if it's not working or we get sussed out. The fabled 'Plan B' that everyone says a manager should always have. I don't think we will get another striker either btw, but there's definitely an argument for it that is more nuanced than 'we're already got 4 centre forwards so we don't need any more'. I guess the problem is that regardless of who is permanently injured or just not good enough, we still have to pay them all, so if we need to make space then we should send Downs out on loan to find his feet or his confidence or whatever, and get a better version of him in.

On his way here in January. Just waiting for the President to OK it.

You're right that he tries. Unfortunately though, Stephens' idea of leadership is to shout a lot, but he couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery. He can't even organise himself. He's habitually out of position, and always watching the ball rather than his man, which he has been guilty of his entire career and at 31 is clearly never going to grow out of as a player. You need football intelligence to organise a defence, and he just doesn't have it. None of our current crop of defenders or keepers do. Fonte was amazing at it, from the moment he joined us in League One to when we were a good Premier league side. It's why Lovren looked like a world-beater when he was playing for us and then became a calamity when he went to Liverpool - when he went there he didn't have Jose constantly telling him what he needed to be doing. We need someone with the footballing intelligence of a Fonte in that back line.

It’s not just physical attributes that are missing though. We really, really need an ‘organising’ defender who understands how to marshal a back line and who is highly vocal and makes sure everyone is doing their jobs, in the right place, stepping up at the right time, marking people etc. We don’t have anyone who can do that and it’s one of the reasons we’re a mess at the back.

What in god's name are you on about

We need three things: a proper goalkeeper, a central defender who understands how toi organise a back line, and a defensive coach who kicks things off with how to defend corners. Get those in January and we're sorted.

Very festive

Got it - cheers 👍

I’m on Sky/ Now TV too and can’t find it - what channel number is it please?

Anyway, never been to the Bernabeu so I’ve got fingers crossed for Real Madrid away. Imagine seeing Ronaldo CR7 in the flesh! Need to get through the group stages first though 🤞

Do feel free just to post links in future lads rather than cutting and pasting entire web sites

"Pffft, you'll never get anywhere with a philosophy like that"

Quite a few Birmingham fans saying we're the best team they've played this season and that we're a better side than Coventry. Also full of praise for the 'absolute quality' we brought off the bench. Quick, let's sell them Aribo.

We'll have too much for these boing boing ballbags 4-1 and Adrian Chiles can do one

Yeah - it's how Poch had us playing too when he first came in. It seems to suit us as a style and is really entertaining.

Just throw the actual bench on. It would probably provide more defensive cover.

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Fair point. I think we maybe thought he’d be easier to replace than he was though. Adams had his uses but was never anywhere near as consistently effective, and watching others like Mara, Armstrong, Brereton Diaz, Onuachu etc toil away against prem defences always made me realise how good Ings had been. Two great feet, half decent in the air, quick, always seemed to be able to create space for himself and a great finisher. He was one player who left a massive quality gap when he left, although you’re right that he didn't do much after that and almost £30m or whatever it was was good business. Just a shame we could never find a way to properly replace him.

Danny Ings won a lot of points for us, creating a chance out of nothing and then finishing it so that we edged something in games we otherwise would have drawn or lost. He’s the last properly PL-quality centre forward we’ve had, and not having a player like him last season was one of the (admittedly many) reasons we were so uncompetitive. A very good player who was written off by a lot of people when he arrived because of his past injury problems but was a very astute signing.

'September', by Earth Wind and Fire. Because that's how long he'll last.

Well that solicitor must have been absolute quality, bearing in mind good old lovable Brucie got caught on film in a hidden camera sting accepting a big wedge of cash from an undercover journalist and still got off after pleading he was “just gathering evidence so he could hand it over to the police” 🤣

Whatever could you mean?