S-Clarke

A new contract for Bazunu is a genuine possibility, apparently it's in the works. We'll wait and see, but I fully expect a new 4 year deal.

I think they'll get 15-20 points by the end. They're down, no doubts, they're not getting out of this - but I can't see them finishing below 12 points. They'll have a run of 3 or 4 where they pickup a couple of wins and some draws. We all felt the same last year, I didn't think we'd beat Derby's record but we did - and we were bad! They'll be fine in that sense, they put in a good shift yesterday and competed. Brentford at home next, and West Ham at home in a week or two - they could win both of those, and end up sitting on 8 points by January.

I'd never put him in the Bazunu league, Stephens has much more to his locker than Bazunu and has given us more in his time with us. He is very average though and is certainly a contributing factor as to why we concede as many goals as we do, although yesterday was on Wood's dumbness I'd say. Stephens is the sort of player you keep around, let his contract run down, and say 'thanks, good luck' and evolve the position. But we didn't and gave him a new deal, which summed everything up - happy to settle for mediocrity.

Cov aren't in their 'top' form at the moment, they were scoring goals for fun at the start, but they've been clipped back a bit in recent weeks. They're dining at the right end of the table and deserve it, I think they'll finish 2nd at minimum. They aren't dropping out of that race now. It's a surprise, when you look at the teams in the league (financial power) how they've managed to pull away is a great effort, fostered by a decent manager you have to say. But they've always had good players, their scouting has been top notch for years and years. Their RB Van Ewijk - awesome player, KWP-esque. Haji Wright is the American striker we should have signed a few years ago. Asante was a clever signing by them too, a proven Champ player who has added genuine explosiveness to their front line. CM wise they have Rudoni, who is a top tier Champ player, alongside Grimes who we were after a few years back. Sakamoto and Torp are also top players at this level to, whom they scouted for fairly minimal fees. Overall they're dining where they are because they've planned this over many years. They've got a tight setup which was built really well by Mark Robins, and Lampard has just taken them up a notch (with some more clever scouting). They are a good example for all Champ teams to look at and believe you've all got a chance, it doesn't need £50m spends. They've reinvested their Gyökeres and Hamer fees very sensibly.

It's a bit worrying really, the more I see and read from everyone around the club, the more it feels like the last 6 weeks have been a purple patch rather than anything particularly transformative - and we will dine on that purple patch for months. They seem to be using this 'purple patch' as justification for everything they did in the summer, rather than holding their hands up to say that they got multiple things wrong. For sure, Leo, Jander, Fellows etc - good picks, good additions. But they cannot ignore the catastrophic errors they made up front, at CB and in GK. They need to own those. I don't like how the club kept Spors back from the media when the going was tough, when Still was sacked etc, but he's then happy to front up after a 6 week uptick. Hide when the going gets tough, it's a trait which follows the players on the pitch too.

This is something I hope we don't expect to happen every week, the space THB got to play that role against Charlton in particular was an anomaly. The space Armstrong got to receive and turn in those games deep in CM was an anomaly, it's not the norm. The worry is that this is now all we will try, every week, and act surprised it doesn't work every week. It won't. 1 or two games a season you may get lucky with passive teams enabling that, but in the main in this league teams press, harry and remove space in the midfield areas. That's basic lower league 101. If we have nothing to our game bar THB getting in space, and being able to spray it to an unchallenged Armstrong, then we will tumble down this league quicker than we came up it.

He was always bad, Norwich fans said as much. Every other club he'd been at said as much. This is why some were so absolutely pissed that we got him in the Summer, people saying he's 'fine for third choice' were completely missing the point. We didn't need a third choice, we already had that third choice (McCarthy/Bazunu), we needed someone to push those. It was obvious to everyone bar a small subset of people, and the idiots who have brain farts at our club.

It's Lighthouse, that's how

I mean you're really stretching here. The reality is that when Stephens came into the team on a regular basis, we have regressed at an alarming rate. Good lad he might be, but he is a really sub-standard defender. It's not all on him, but he's one of the reasons in our decline over recent years.

Yep, agreed. On paper they are the profiles we needed, but the club gambled on them rather than go and buy proven of that profile. Very risky, but they have a knack of doing that sadly. To be fair to them, Leo, Jander, Azaz, Fellows - ticks in the box, more than usual for SR. But the flops have been pretty damaging to us as they're key spine positions.

This is true, I don't think it's a case of advocating for long ball either - but we have zero options to switch a game in that area. Armstrong > Archer > Robinson. All the same, quick, nippy forward players. Not physical at all. I discount Downs as I don't think he's up to it. He was probably meant to be that presence, but we need a more seasoned presence in that mould. Stewart could have been that, but he won't ever last more than a handful of games so he needs to be discounted too. So yes, a ST and a GK are two priorities for us - with specific attributes. I wouldn't be against signing a CB either, but we'd need to shift 1 or 2 first.

Yeah he has been quite underwhelming it has to be said, surprising really. I thought he was better than what we've seen.

Sadly how I see it, we won't go anywhere near the top 2 at any stage this time round, which given we've spent £50m is absolutely nowhere near acceptable. We'll be in contention for the playoffs right until the end I think, but once we come up against the sides we're in there with I think we'll slip away.

With Fraser as RWB we were never going to do that, same with Fellows really. We're playing with wingers at RB at the moment. And Manning, well he's manning. He's incapable of defending as we all know. Could do with a LB and the return of Mads. Remain entirely underwhelmed by Wellington.

'He's fine for the Championship' (tm)

He's had a set back, apparently some way off. Gone for another scan.

His inability to influence games in the second half is a theme, and that substitute where Manning or Wellington became left centre back was like a nod to the Will Still roulette days. Trying to be too clever. He's relied on huge slices of luck in the first half of games, but in the genuinely tight matches he needs to influence he has come up lacking. Millwall, QPR (We won, but just), Norwich, WBA. It's a worrying theme.

Back to back defeats away from home, some really worrying signs and some regression back the 'old days' showing across the entire team, it was like nothing had actually changed. 1st half we started fast, as we do, but we didn't get that slice of luck/score the pen and put the game to bed, and we clearly need to score 3 or more goals to win a game with our GK and Defenders, but that's not realistic to achieve every week. Second half was utter abject, honestly. Defensively, especially from Wood, who was an absolute mess. He really isn't much cop, let's be honest. Leo providing the only real drive through the attacking third, everyone else simply not on it. The regression in quality when we play Fraser is so glaring, you kind of feel sorry for him. The subs and how he switched it was a bit wtf - I didn't understand what he was trying to do. Wellington and Manning both over on the left side, why? The lack of ability to influence a game when required is continuing to haunt Tonda it has to be said. Ultimately the blueprint to beat us remains the same - press us high, hit the ball long. Ultimately I think we've benefited from some abject Charlton/Wednesday/Leicester sides not pressing or hitting it long. The fear we just hit a purple patch continues in my mind.

The accom and flights will be crazy for a lot of those games, they'll ramp up around those dates. New York prices are already stupidly high in the summer, so add another premium to them. I reckon if you wanted to go to say New York, grab a couple of games whilst you're there for 5-7 days...you'd be out of pocket for around 6-10k, easily. I guess people could use it as a holiday of a lifetime with football bolted on, but yeah - you need to have stupid money.

Che Adams is back??? thanks for the rundown. Sounds like Fellows is touch and go rather than 100% out, which is a positive.

I'm not a huge stats follower myself, but they're useful to backup what you see with your own eyes - I think that's all everyone is doing in the case of Bazunu.

But, but, but...look at that pass accuracy. I'm sure that's the only stat everyone looks at.

Where does Alex McCarthy sit? It's not like we have Alison on our books being kept out. We have a very poor selection of goalkeepers, and comparing one with the other is pretty irrelevant really.

We have definitely had our slice of luck in the last run of games, but....you make your own luck in many ways, we're racing into leads/scoring goals through our own play at the moment. Two of the goals we scored against WBA were just simply good football, nothing lucky about them. I don't think we've had too many pens either, just the one I can think of. So that's a big positive I can take, we're scoring goals through good football in the main - not through it hitting the arse of players/bobbling over the line etc.

He was down at the arse end in the Belgium league too, when he was there for a tiny period. I know some people hate stats and don't think they actually mean anything, but you can still ignore the stats and look at what's in front of you - and that tells me more than stats, the stats just back it up!