StrangelyBrown

Maybe we could loan Ramsdale back

JWP looked like he was shoulders and head above everyone else in the few games he played for us in the championship. However, we ought to just move on from players past...

I've watched Stephens play off the ball all season and he's consistently been out of position, ball watching and has avoided taking responsibility. Admittedly THB has been even worse, but that is a pretty low bar. On the ball Stephens consistently slows us down. What he's good at is making recovery tackles which pleases the fans but you have to ask the question why is he making last ditch tackles in the first place. In my opinion it's because he's shite

Spot on. He frustrates the hell out of me; given time to think he invariably makes a poor choice, but when he's playing on instinct he demonstrates time and again what excellent technique he has. He could be a really excellent player but either he doesn't think quickly enough or massively over thinks what he's doing.

Stephens for Quarshie - seriously??? The guy may have made a few mistakes, but he was nothing like the liability that Stephens is nor did he dramatically slow our play down every time he was involved with the ball. It is no coincidence that we've improved since Stephens got dropped (same as when he got dropped in the last championship season). I'd happily never see him in a saints shirt again.

Fantastic to win at last!!! The commentators are absolute helmets - desperate for the inferior team to win...

Don't get me wrong, he was better than Baz would have been in the same scenarios, but that bar is pretty low. But yes he did make us more solid. And in general from a defensive point of view having players at CB who actually defend proactively made a huge difference - yes the may make occasional mistakes but at least they don't watch the ball and just simply point at each other when things go wrong.

He "bazzed" a shot into the nearest striker and some how got away with it, flapped woefully at a corner and conceded the goal (which admittedly I haven't seen properly so I may be being harsh). Other than that he was tidy enough but didn't really have to do much (or do anything good either). We could do with a keeper that in occasional difficult moments pulls something out of the bag and we have that in Ramsdale who is busy warming Newcastle's bench...

I thought there were a lot of positives today. Fellows looks class. Azaz looked good apart from a couple of dodgy moments and a glaring miss. Wood and Quarshie are clearly our best CBs and Edwards looked much more comfortable than he had done previously. Charles is an absolute gem. Unbelievable that the snake oil salesman thought he wasn't good enough! Jander looked much better with Charles than Downes. Other attacking players were a bit hit and miss. Armstrong is still pretty brainless - holds the ball far too long and can't help but shoot straight at the keeper most of the time, but his work rate was fantastic. Stewart led the line better than anyone else has done this season albeit in a bit of a shambolic way at times. Scienza wins free kicks but does little else. Robinson didn't do much but didn't get many minutes. On the negative side: We look short of confidence in front of goal. It was a shame that Still didn't realise that Manning had run out of steam in the second half - he looked absolutely knackered. McCarthy just isn't good enough - if only we could bring Ramsdale back... Overall things moving in the right direction, but not fast enough for my liking.

I probably need a lie down, but thinking about who I really don't want to see playing and who has looked the most effective recently, I'd switch formations to a 4-3-3 and go with: McCarthy Jelert, Wood, Quarshie, Manning Shea, Jander, Downes Fellows, Archer, Robinson It's probably a bit harsh on Frazer, Scienza and Armstrong.

It's a classic case of the "standards you walk past are the standards you accept". We have rewarded a player who doesn't lead, who gets sent off for petulance, who ball watches and doesn't take responsibility with the captaincy. It is all downhill from there. We've accepted a goalkeeper who doesn't save very much. We've accepted strikers who don't win the ball. Still needs the balls to stop this, but frankly his continued picking of Bazunu and Stephens suggests he's just another SR yes man.

Still deserves a bit more time, but not much. We've been a shit show for ages. There seems to be some lingering Russball crab football and I can't help that some of the remaining coaching staff might be part of the problem. SR failed to give Still some major key ingredients: GK, Striker and Captain. We seem to have no leadership at all on the field. HOWEVER, what exactly is our game plan? We don't seem to have any discernable patterns of play or any idea of what we're trying to achieve. This is 100% on Still and something he needs to sort out pretty damn quickly.

Looking back at the goals and watching Stephens positioning - he's in no man's land ball watching on all 3. A better player would have instinct for danger and occasionally lend a hand. All 3 goals are a defensive shambles (admittedly with dreadful individual errors), but we still look like a calamity show and until Still sorts that out we're going to continue to lose. Where Still is concerned I'll give him 10 league games before making my mind up, but as a minimum I'd expect 16 points from those 10 so he's got a lot of work to do.

We didn't deal with the 3 things we most needed: striker, keeper and captain. Still is working with a spineless team (in both senses)

Looking at the hull team sheet there isn't one player that I would rather have on our bench let alone into our starting 11. Really should be 3 points today...

Maybe Downes is ok, trained well, but not quite 100%?

5 for me. Good players signed and a lot of players who needed to go have gone, but key fundamental problems haven't been addressed: striker, keeper and a proper on field leader.

I am, but getting bored already. How Gashford gets in the England team is beyond me...

My view is this is just down to formation. He looked his best in the 23/24 season in a 2 playing with Bednarek, whereas in a 3 he looked like a fish out of water. In a 3 there seems to be confusion around who is doing what - i.e. who is marking who and as a consequence THB often looks like he's waiting for someone else to take responsibility. Stephens does this all the time too. In a 2 the responsibilities are super clear and I'm confident THB would look significantly better provided he's not paired with Stephens who is a liability regardless of formation.

I've said it a few times now there is something suspicious about us playing 3 at the back... We started doing it regularly when SR first came in, Rasmus spouted some bollocks about it when he first came in (related to what a genius he was at Brentford or something) and we seem to relentlessly stick to it despite it not suiting us apart from when we did ditch it under Martin and went on the unbeaten run. Our players aren't intelligent enough to do it properly too. It's all very odd ...

I don't think we'll be chasing Middlesbrough (or West Brom for that matter...) come the end of the season. The important points gap is between us and Leicester, which is only 4 points.

We really need to move on from the players who have been ever present through our demise - AA, Stephens, McCarthy - they've been here too long and don't offer much either. Moving on all three would give us space to address our three biggest problems: GK, Striker and leadership at the back

Another excellent signing! Welcome Tom!

Welcome onboard - really good signing for where we are right now. Hopefully he can grow with us!

I'd go further. SR came in with promises to move us forwards and we've gone backwards. They've FAILED - why shouldn't we be angry about it? While Spors might have almost got some very good deals over the line it doesn't look like he's going to fix our 2 biggest problem areas, GK and Striker, despite having signed players there. At GK no matter who we choose we have one of the weakest GKs in the division and we as yet none of our strikers have scored a league goal. Why shouldn't we be disappointed? SR and Spors have much to do to prove themselves.