saintant

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.

Analysts from other teams will know that Baz is weak at saving low shots from outside the box. We can expect opponents to be encouraged to try their luck with speculative efforts because they know it's a good route to scoring against us.

RM lost a lot of street cred today presiding over that embarrassment. Those nagging little doubts just got a whole lot bigger. The guy is very likeable so I hope this is a blip and we'll come back stronger but it was one hell of a wake-up call.

I think they were giving away corners to set up counter attacks 🙂

For someone who comes across as thinking he knows about goalkeeping that is a ridiculous comment. Every keeper is taught that if you parry the ball you need to make sure it goes somewhere relatively safe. That parry from the free kick sent the ball straight into the middle of the goal and we were only saved because the guy who latched onto it either lost his footing or miskicked it.

We've had a good window and I'm hoping there is enough there for RM to produce a side that has good possession stats but mixes the passing stuff with some powerful direct running with balls in behind retreating defences. Sunderland did the latter to us all game and made us look pathetic - their guy on the left, think it was Clarke, was the best player on the pitch. RM was taught a hard lesson by Mowbray today - from what we hear from Swansea fans he will probably not be swayed. I'm not convinced the mantra of relying 100% on possession football will get us out of this division as it's far too one dimensional. The next few games will be interesting for sure.

Spot on.