S-Clarke

Surely we have to win at some stage? I often find that when everyone is accepting of the fate and defeatist, the opposite happens. No logic to it, but based on that I fancy us. I remember people thinking we'd get pummelled by Leeds at home last September, after a similar run. It's hard to be positive though I'll give you that, just 2 goals scored and 9 let in for the first five games is as bad as it gets really. If it doesn't get better from this point then we might as well pause our club for 10 months and start again in August.

He was on the back foot from day 1 due to his Forest connections, he needed to have them Top half/top 6 at this stage to appease them. He won't last, but he's on a hiding to nothing there. Poor pick by Leicester and a poor call by him to go there. Suddenly they look more attractive due to no points deductions. Be interesting to see if the board have to act as it was toxic last night.

As a fan, I wouldn't even say we're lovely to watch. Frustrating and dull as dishwater at best. Horrendous and naive at worst.

Credit where it's due, that was a great bit of scouting and pickup by the club - obviously in anticipation of KWP leaving in the summer, so it leaves us with a little bit of an overload at RB...but better than having none I guess. I can see KWP leaving in January, our last chance to get some $$ for him. It'll still be a loss on what we paid, but better than nothing.

I'd argue that even if Ramsdale did start giving up goals because he's playing like that, he'd still prevent a hell of a lot more than Bazunu did. Simply any shot on target was a goal with Bazunu. It's nice to have a GK who can save shots again. That's why having Alex back in the side was so refreshing at the back end of last season, he's not the greatest by any means, but still a better option than Bazunu ever was.

That was shocking, it must be on instruction as I've seen some screengrabs of literally all 11 players inside our own box. Of course Ipswich are going to leave players free on the edge, get a header wrong or head it the wrong way and it's done. It was deflected, sure, but that goal was as bad as any goal you can concede at any level of football. Amateur hour. Fully preventable, just needed some brains. It's another tactic we employ which is an absolute freebie for the opposition manager to use. 1) Use our passes back a press activation (Free goal number 1) 2) Sit off and allow us to paly it in between our CB's and close the space in front (Stop us scoring, easy peasy) 3) Leave players on the edge of the box when you have a corner (Free goal number 2) We're just giving up free goals every game because of that and find it hard to score because of that, opposition managers will love playing us as they have obvious routes to goals before they've even stepped on the pitch. Such an easy-peasy team to score against and prevent, nothing to it at all.

He'd be a cracking pickup for a mid-table, high bottom half team (Palace/Fulham/WHU/Bournemouth). I assume that's what these sides are waiting for, a solid freebie. We're absolutley lightyears away from anyone mid-table in this league it pains me to say, so even a move to Bournemouth for one of our players is an enormous step up in aspirations and level right now.

I don't think it's a worry as such, more of an acceptance. They're here for this season tops, no more than that. It's a shame we didn't get ourselves a Fernandes or Dibling as a CF, it all seems a bit pointless without one. (how many years have we said that for)

That's a 'looking for a reaction post' if I've ever seen one.

A few years ago we'd be able to enjoy one of 'our own' at this level for at least a season, but I reckon we'll find it hard to ignore big bids in January if he carries on like this. Especially as we're likely to be well adrift and all but gone by that point.

I thought we needed to turn up today, and we didn't to be frank. I thought Ipswich deserved at least a point, this is an Ipswich team who are on par with us and one of our rivals, but for big portions of that game they were much better than us. If we cannot compete to be better than Ipswich then I struggle to see how we can compete against anyone in this league. We simply don't create enough openings, we are incredibly easy to defend against and even easier to attack. Bright spots obviously Dibling and Fernandes, but it really wasn't great. BBD continues his impression of a carthorse it has to be said, he looks naff as hell. You don't go 19 games without a win in the PL if you're a good player, period. Onto the next one I guess. I just have a feeling that this season is going to be the worst in our history by some distance, and we've already finished bottom in this league twice before.

Live pictures from the scene -

I don't think anyone disagrees with that first 30 mins, but a good 30 mins gets you nowhere in the PL. If all we can muster is a good 30 mins, with the mental strength of an ant, then we will lose 38 out of 38. We do have to build on that 30 mins, but we also had to build on that 60 mins or whatever it was at Newcastle and we didn't. At the moment it's propaganda football at it's finest.

I know there is a lot of hysteria from playing out from the back, but in isolation that isn't what's causing the issues. Yesterdays goals weren't down to that. I actually noticed much better use of passing the ball from the back, the CB's were wider and providing better angles and Ramsdale wasn't afraid to go long if required - so that wasn't an issue yesterday. We will still play from the back, but we need to stop being so close to each other when we attempt it. That caused all of our problems at Brentford with a lack of passing options, that then caused us to keep going back, back and back and invite the press. We just need to spread the CB's a bit wider, and a 4 at the back allows that. 3 just makes it too condensed.

I think the difference with Adkins start is that we were able to compete. We went toe-to-toe with Man City in the first game and won a lot of admirers. We also did the same with Man Utd in the home game, gave them much more of a game than we did this time. We did have Wigan and Arsenal nestled in the middle which was pretty crap, but we at least scored goals and looked like causing teams issues. We took until November to really settle down last time - but you could still see the ingredients were there ability wise, not sure I can say the same the same this time. We still have a squad full of lower league players really.

But he was a success in that side because they played a target man, he made runs off of the target man through the middle. They were a route 1 side in many ways and he suited that. We are the total opposite and he is required to retain the ball and make recovery runs down the flank. He is completely ill-suited to this as he's not technical enough nor dynamic enough.

I mean, Calderwood signing did coincide with us keeping a couple of clean sheets last season, but we still conceded 60 odd goals. So he's not some sort of defensive master coach by any means. We'll concede 70 odd goals this year without sweat. The problem is that Martin and his lot cannot coach defensive organisation, all the focus is on passing and playing through the lines, but being able to remain organised when we are on the ball to defend against turnovers is our achilles heal. It was the same last season against any decent side with power and pace on the break. This year every team has power and pace on the break. It's hard to see how we survive, as this pattern hasn't changed in over a year. It's food and drink for PL sides really. We have two ways teams can get us - let us have the ball in the middle thirds/back 4 and tempt us out, then win the ball back and run at Stephens and Bednarek. Job done. Pretty easy for opposition managers. Or use our passing back to the CB's as a trigger to press hard and tie up Stephens and Bednarek in all sorts of knots, and get a few free shots on goal. Another job done.

Looks a bit of a carthorse from the left, can understand why he was subbed by Chlie. Maybe he'd be better through the middle? Doesn't look dynamic enough to me, would fit better in a gung-ho playing off a target man/route 1 style team. Looks lost in a passing team as I don't think he's technically good enough.

For the first 30 mins, as everyone has said, I thought we had finally come to life. I liked the setup and the spaces between everyone, we were pressing United and constantly winning the turnovers. Fernandes in midfield was popping up in the pockets and playing some wonderful passes down the sides, or across. Dibbling has Dalot on toast. It was kind of what we'd been waiting for. The penalty was shit. It wasn't a good save, it was crap. But the problems stemmed from that. Our heads dropped, our mentality dropped and with one foul swoop of something bad happening we crumbled yet again - it's a criticism I've had of this club for years now, different players, different managers, but whenever adversity hits we just melt in front of our eyes. Defensively from open play, I thought we were open and got caught on the turnover a few times in the 2nd half. Ramsdale earned his wage, and given it was 3-0 anyway, that is pretty worrying. The first goal was absolutley woeful defensively, but equally that third goal was a joke in terms of THB failing to play the line correctly - basic stuff, really. At the end of the day, a good 30mins in the Championship can put you 3-0 up (like against PNE), but a good 30mins in the PL doesn't really ever equate to anything other than a defeat. We still look and act naive in moments both on the pitch and on the bench. We don't look capable of sticking in and nicking something if other things aren't going well. It's all about next week for me. If we lose next week then I think it's probably curtains.

If only we'd followed Trabzonspors logic when we went shopping in January 2023.

Summer 2022 - Roméo Lavia (sold for big profit) £15m Gavin Bazunu (long-term injured and pretty poor) £14m Mateusz Lis (sold for a small profit) £Free Ainsley Maitland-Niles (left) £Loan Armel Bella-Kotchap (trying to get rid of) €12.00m Sékou Mara (sold for a small loss) €11.50m Duje Caleta-Car (sold for a loss) €8.00m Samuel Edozie (loaned out) €8.00m Juan Larios (Still here, but injured for a year) €7.00m Joe Aribo (Still here) €7.10m January 2023 - James Bree (Still here) £850k Mislav Orsic (sold for a loss) £5.75m Carlos Alcaraz (sold for small profit) £13m Paul Onuachu (trying to get rid of) £18m Kamaldeen Sulemana (trying to get rid of) £23m

You're right, I didn't even count Cornet - forgot about him. Just realised Dibling too can play from wide areas. Makes sense in that case.

Good move for him. It'll be interesting to see how he does over there, will be watching closely. Jury is still out for sure, but I've not given up on him yet. I wonder what this means for Sulemana? (the lack of news from Ajax is quite damming I think) I'd find it hard to believe that we'd loan out both Sulemana and Edozie, as it could leave us a little short if we had any injury issues.

I don't think there is an anti-RM bandwagon at all, I for one want him to succeed as much as any other fan and always have done. I don't want to be a club that chops and changes managers every year or so. But that doesn't mean we cannot call out issues or voice concerns over what we see in front of us. What I take issue with on your post, and a lot of your posts, is that you're calling what he's doing as revolutionary, something different, no one has ever tried it. That narrative is repeated by Martin himself and seems to filter throughout the club and it's really cringeworthy. Let's just take a step back and work out what he's trying to do - Dominate possession and create an extra man when on the ball out of defence. Now tell me no other team has ever tried that before? It's honestly nothing new, unique or magical. Barca did it, Man City do it, Arsenal did it in the Wenger years. What is the big difference between us and those guys? Player quality. In the Championship we could get away, to a degree, because our players ability was higher than that of the other sides in the league. We're now doing the same in a league with much, much higher quality than we have. I'm not sat here saying abandon all passing football, but there needs to be an acknowledgement and an awareness within our coaching that our quality is significantly lower than that of who we are facing. Bednarek's touch isn't tight enough for example, so what we're providing is an absolutely perfect press trigger for opposition sides when we retreat back. They know that Bednarek/Stephens aren't comfortable on the ball when pressured, so as soon as we go back they swarm on our weakest ball playing players. Brentford played it perfectly. They use our back passing as a trigger to condense and tie us in knots, and that's where we give the ball away and get ourselves in a muddle. That's not reinventing football, it's being stupid and not being honest about your own limitations.