saintant

Two of those aren't close to being good enough from what I've seen so far. That's almost 20% of the team.

When JW speaks he always fills me with confidence that the club is in safe hands. I do wonder what he made of yesterday's performance because we were way off what he alludes to.

Like most of us I like the guy and really want him and his methods to succeed not least because it'll mean we have a team that plays good football. The issue I have is that I'm not 100% sold on the effectiveness of possession based football at the expense of all else because few teams make it work. RM is very young for a manager so it's no surprise that he has no real track record to prove he knows what he's doing. I think we are looking one dimensional and teams know what they are going to face. Sunderland proved yesterday that, the way we operate at the moment, it's very easy to score against us. I get that we are very much a work-in-progress but I'm just not convinced. Would love nothing more than for RM to prove me wrong. We'll see, particularly over the next batch of games against some strong looking sides.

A lot went horribly wrong yesterday to state the bleeding obvious. One thing which rang alarm bells loud and clear to me was the way we allowed Sunderland to break on us from our own corner kicks. The first time it happened I thought to myself that it was naive in the extreme but not long after we did it again. Surely it is not beyond the wit of RM and our coaching staff to make certain we have enough defensive cover to stop that happening.

Their problem is that they are still paying Ralph and Jones. Will they really countenance paying 4 managers at once? I have my doubts.

The one in 9th won 5-0 and it should have been more. The one in 9th may soon overtake the one in 7th unless we learn from our mistakes very quickly.

I'm not even convinced Baz is as good with his feet as he's cracked up to be. I see other keepers pinging 50-60 yard passes right on the money. All he does is a few simple short passes that any half decent keeper should be capable of - there's nothing outstanding about his passing and he is sometimes guilty of dithering on the ball for far too long.

I know which one of those two systems for the two sides currently works better in the Championship. The jury is out on whether RM can mould us into a Man City lite version that will stand up to the rigours of the season ahead. I'm not holding my breath on the evidence so far even though we have 10 points on the board because RM himself has admitted we've generally not played particularly well.

Man City are a superb team coached by one of the best. They have rich owners and have been able to assemble a squad of players we can only dream about. Their football is a joy to watch so it is admirable to aspire to play the sort of possession football they make look so easy. The problem for sides trying to emulate them is that it is far from simple. It's why few teams and certainly none in the Championship are brave enough to go down that route. My concern is that under RM we are in danger of trying to buck the trend and prove we can play in a way remotely similar to Man City - we can't and never will be able to. Let's not waste this talented squad of players trying.

He needs to have a plan B for days like today when the passing game clearly isn't working. That performance was a joke because for the entire game we just carried on doing the thing that wasn't working. I bet Mowbray couldn't believe his luck.

Sunderland would beg to differ.

Agree, a really worrying performance for far too many reasons. Any team serious about a tilt at promotion cannot afford to lose many games let alone a defeat as comprehensive as this one. A young and fairly average Sunderland side put us to the sword and it could easily have been worse. There can be no weak links in the side and we have a couple I can think of which weren't fixed in the business we did in the transfer window and were exposed again today. I remember how relentless it was last time we won promotion - we had a great side playing really good football consistently but it was still a slog - week in, week out our promotion rivals would invariably win. RM will need to be more flexible and be more relaxed about his obsession with possession football in my opinion because we are not, and never will be, Man City. Mix it up and make us less predictable or we could slide down the table pretty quickly. I fear he is too set in his ways and teams will quickly have a plan to beat his favoured style.

Don't remember Edozie hitting the post?

Some worryingly accurate points made here.

He was worse than the worst you could ever imagine.

Yes but without today's 5-0 mauling which has set alarm bells clanging.

Yes but clearly they aren't the only two sides we're competing against. The Championship could well be far closer than many thought with numerous teams making a run for promotion. Who'd have thought Preston would be top, or we'd be getting hammered at Sunderland or Leicester would be losing at home to Hull? I'm certainly changing my mind on how it is likely to pan out - from what I've seen so far it's all to play for with a very open field.

I thought today looked very much like a re-run of what we saw last season - hardly a far cry from it.

Probably watched that shit show and thought what the feck have I done 🙂

Leicester lost at home to Hull - softens the blow ever so slightly.

Preston this season's dark horses?

I wonder if he'd be better off introducing his passing obsession gradually. Mix things up a bit whist always developing the passing mantra. Maybe it's too much too soon. Certainly looked that way today.

Burnley taking a pasting at home to Spurs. Remember a woman fan after their first game of the season against City saying she was impressed and they'd be fine. Wonder if she's changed her mind.

Would be a novelty!

Charles needs to start in midfield probably in place of Smallbone who seemed to just get in the way of allowing Downes to do his job. Charles is young but has physicality and power which is severely lacking when he doesn't play. He's also dangerous from corners and set pieces.