saintant

I didn't say that.

Time the recruitment team at SR sorted out the centre forward issue which has been a major problem since Danny Ings left. The signing of Damion Downs is looking increasingly laughable. Plymouth signed 23 year old Swiss striker Lorent Tolaj from Port Vale for peanuts - even in their poor side he is looking a good signing and we could do worse than trying to prise him away from them in January. He's big, strong and powerful, reasonably quick, knows where the goal is and works his nuts off. He'd have been far more use to us than Downs.

Your going overboard about the fact we didn't beat Swansea is embarrassing. Did you watch the game? If so you must have missed all the good stuff we played leading to chance creation. The fact that we failed to convert any of those chances is the problem. We have no centre forward which is down to poor recruitment. Get a good striker and this side will start banging in the goals.

Is there a vacancy?

Lots of common sense and realistic views from the four podcasters who highlighted the good football we played and could see progress on the pitch. We all get the fact that we didn't convert even one of our numerous decent chances and they pointed this out as a frustration. We just need a little more composure and the goals should come because we are creating opportunities whilst looking fairly secure in defence.

How about chances in the first half? Or don't they count?

Absolute bullshit.

Agree entirely. We played some very good football yesterday and there are clear signs that Still is getting a tune out of the squad. If we'd had a half decent big powerful centre forward playing yesterday we'd surely have claimed all three points and there would have been far less criticism on here. The simple fact is that we did not win because we missed some relatively easy chances - nothing Will Still can do about that. A good performance other than putting the ball in the net.

🙂

That's novel - maybe we should try it.

We don't have a centre forward to take off - just a bunch of short players who run around a lot but clearly need a focal point, a leader.

You said that not me.

Depends on progress and results. I'd certainly like to see him given a decent centre forward in early January.

So in your eyes SR have done nothing wrong? They've actually done precious little right since day one.

Fair enough. He's not totally convinced me but I'd like to see him given more time especially as he has no centre forward to work with thanks to the continued incompetence of SR - it would be a bit rich for them to sack him when their mistakes are a huge part of the problem

That's not much of an answer though is it? You've slated the manager and I've pointed out that we missed 3 simple chances which should have won us the game.

Yet for all those negatives we limited Swansea to zero chances and had enough simple chances of our own to win 2 or 3 nil even without a recognised striker. So the manager must have got some things right or we'd surely have lost the game not thrown it away.

Why do you think it was a 'must win?' It wasn't a relegation battle or a match between two sides battling for automatic promotion. We should have won but missed easy chances. Had we converted those chances we'd have gained 8 points from 4 unbeaten games which is a pretty good return. The manager cannot go onto the pitch and put the ball into the back of the net for them - this poor result is on those who missed the chances they should have buried with their eyes closed.

The manager cannot be blamed for the simple chances we missed. Ok, it wasn't a scintillating performance but we should have won 2-0 and most fans would have been reasonably happy so let's not beat the manager up because our players missed simple chances - nothing he can do about that. It's been said too often but SR have been completely negligent for again failing to sign a big strong centre forward with experience - they were available for far less than the fee we wasted on Downs. This means our build up play stalls because we are reluctant to put in crosses and have nobody to hold the ball up while support arrives. Will Still is trying to juggle 5 or six very similar players but what he really needs is an out and out centre forward - what is he meant to do?

But that is clearly incorrect isn't it.

I didn't say that 🙂

Yeah Semmens, the guy who brought us Sports Republic!

Maybe it's all down to the 'tools' who sign the players.

Unless we fall in or close to the relegation spots and stay there I think Will Still is here for the rest of the season. Obviously we all want to see a big improvement in results and performances but I believe SR will give him a reasonable amount of time. He is hampered by poor recruitment not least the fact that he has no recognised centre forward which limits his tactics. We need to buy a decent centre forward early in the January window but options of who will be available are always limited plus I have zero confidence in our recruitment team especially after the signing of Downs.

It's all about opinions and my view is that we don't have anything like a strong enough spine. That's down to continual poor recruitment.