saintant

Just to be pedantic we didn't buy him in 2025 🙂

Yeah, you're right on that. Bang goes my Italian theory. Maybe someone quick because allegro means done at speed 🙂

No such team as Notts Forest - they are Nottingham Forest. However there is a Notts County.

The difference is we played a high intensity press under Ralph whereas under Russell it was largely walking football so no excuse for running out of steam unless due to poor fitness.

Yeah, I get that Russell trained the guys to play a lot of walking football so you don't need much fitness for that. The fact is if you want to compete at the most elite level then your players need to be as fit as the fittest teams and we aren't which is clear from just watching us and comparing how our performance level tends to dip in the last half hour of matches - that is down to Russell and his coaches particularly in terms of the important pre-season work but also days off after weekend games and the fact that he's granted Xmas Day off despite us having a Boxing Day game.

Again, performance is more important than the result. More of what we saw yesterday and I'll be happy. Compete well and a loss will be ok because the only goal we are chasing is beating Derby's points and few expect anything against a resurgent Forest.

He reminds me a lot of Amad Diallo who is 4 year older at 22 so plenty of time for Sam to develop.

Bare bones innit!

I'd guess an experienced Italian player because I think the car is an old Fiat.

I get your point but he'd be coming into a squad coached by Ivan Juric who clearly has more idea and better credentials than the bloke before him so a good chance for Charles to learn from someone who has a clue about how football should be played.

Agree and so does Ally McCoist who was about to name him Man of the Match until Diallo's late hattrick.

Didn't realise Ivan Juric was in charge for the Spurs game.

Ivan Juric made a clear nod towards our lack of fitness when interviewed by Adam Blackmore after the game. His words were along the lines of having to work more so that we can compete with intensity after 95 minutes.

Aint that the truth!

So you didn't see that Juric had us looking like a proper football team and competing - maybe it's your penny that needs to drop. I get that we lost but that performance was night and day compared with Russball.

Aside from THB's howler, and he'll have to explain that one to his future father-in-law, we were ultimately undone by a lucky break that went Diallo's way for the equaliser and a brilliant ball from Eriksen - very fine margins.

Some harsh comments on here tonight mostly probably derived from the disappointment of having a possible 3 points snatched from us in the final 10 minutes. Come on, let's give some credit to the performance which for most of the game was very good and we deserved something out of it. There were some good signs that Ivan is getting to grips and considering he's been here a few weeks and inherited an extremely unfit squad I think he earns credit. We looked like a football team where everyone knew their jobs and it's a while since that's been the case. Our subs weakened us whereas Utd's generally made them better. Much to be encouraged about tonight and I got the performance but not the result as expected. Not convinced we shouldn't have been given a penalty when Sulemana's shot was blocked and reckon VAR would have given it if it was a Utd player having a shot blocked at the Stretford End. Great effort for no reward but more than enough to show that Ivan knows what he's doing.

Well played boys and well done Ivan. Score line was a bit of a travesty but much to admire about us tonight. Unfortunately the subs continually weakened us and not sure why Smallbone was brought on because he is too weak for what we needed. Some very good signs that we'll improve more and pick up enough points to beat Derby's record.

It was time to move on after 6 games.

Managed by Martin.

Because his teams set up to go backwards and sideways so Sulemana never had grass ahead of him to take players on with his pace.

Anyone still defending Russell? Shows what could have been. Ok, we may yet lose this but what a brilliant half that was. Well done Ivan!!!!

Result matters not a jot but we do need to see a decent performance.

Yeah, unless Ivan thinks he can get a tune out of him.

Listened to his press conference and thought it was like a breath of fresh air. Obviously he has a massive job on his hands to even get us competing but I liked what he said which is an improvement.