saintant

We'll score very rarely from crosses. Better to get the wingers coming in and shooting.

Er, I think we started far better than this dross 2 seasons ago.

Time to reign in our expectations to a more realistic level I think.

Cos nobody else wanted him.

Had high hopes for Will Still.

Still, we should at least win a few games in league one 🙂

Swap the wingers over and get them cutting in and shooting with their stronger foot. Simples.

I thought Still wanted his sides to get the ball forward quickly. When is that going to start happening or is beyond our well paid coaches and players. I despair I really do. We are just so dire in every department.

Clearly we are one of the worst teams in the Championship - dress it up how you like but we are just not very good.

We continue to be a side with no pace or power in any area on the pitch. This won't work in the Championship where guess what....you need pace and power.

Not hopeful.

What the fuck do they work on all week at Staplewood because whatever it is it's a complete waste of time and effort.

One shot on target against fucking Hull - let that sink in.

I think it's safe to say that we are nowhere near as good as we think we are. Better off looking at this season as another fight against relegation.

Game in hand and Boro at home soon so chance to cut it to a mere 4 points - possible but we'll need a big improvement so let's hope Will has been working some magic and drilling them hard on the training ground.

Boro tonight looked good value for their position at the top of the table. Strong all over the pitch and their second goal was an example of the pass and move football we should be well capable of. We need a run of wins to get back into contention. The next 5-6 games will tell us a lot about our direction of travel but maybe this is going to be a transitional season where we don't mount a challenge for the top six. Hard to guess which way it'll go for us.

Well if we're paying his wages he should be available for selection although it's up to Will Still to decide whether he merits a place in the squad. I'd say he does because from what we've seen so far it's a low bar.

Yeah, seems hard to believe and indicates that some of our players are not performing with the freedom required. How can you be afraid to play a forward pass! Maybe some of them need therapy rather than coaching.

Seems likely that Casper Jander is going to start this game in place of Downes. Will Still talked him up in the press conference so it will be interesting to see how he performs and what influence he has on our play. I'm hoping he's going to make a real difference although it may take him a few games to really show his worth. Often one key player can transform a side and maybe he will do so for us because we need a spark to get us going particularly after Sunday's dismal spectacle.

He was sacked by Leicester after a dismal record then by St Etienne who were bottom of their division after 2 wins from 17 games. He has been twiddling his thumbs since Dec 2021 so, by your reckoning, there should be a long queue of clubs desperate to employ him. Whilst he did achieve things with us he's not some kind of genius manager and I'm not sure we'd still be an established PL side had we retained his services.

Agree entirely.

You miss the point 🙂

Watched Barcelona beat Newcastle last night. Their midfield was superb and did everything our players fail to do - they were constantly on the move getting between the lines and making sure they were always available for a pass. Their pass and movement was very good and everything was fizzed around at pace. We seem to spend a lot of time on rondos during training and presumably this is designed to improve pass and move but it doesn't appear to improve us during matches. Perhaps pass and move and get between the lines is better coached during training games set up on a full size pitch with it being continually drummed into the players until they get it right. Maybe the coaches do this as well but it's certainly not working because we are always so static with players failing to utilise all the space on the field.

It makes you wonder why he didn't get a very early message to the players from the technical area after about 5 minutes of hump ball. He has to be proactive.

Well if we are intent on getting our wingers to do nothing more than get crosses into the box we need someone over five foot nothing in the middle and he is better than nothing. Personally I'd change the tactics and get our wingers cutting into the box or getting to the byline for cutbacks which makes more sense if you don't have a big, strong centre forward - maybe that's too simplistic an idea.