S-Clarke

He won't though, as we have to play 3 at the back. We have to. It cannot ever change. We are not allowed to play any other way, so if Fellows plays he will be a wing back.

I think we all know it's beyond appointing new managers now, it doesn't matter what we do. They will always make a worse decision. 7 managers in 4 years is just unbelievable really, yet they keep doing the same thing over and over again. Inexperienced and left field choices trying to look clever. Giving Ruben Selles the job when we still had a sniff of staying in the PL was bad, then doing it again with Tonda when we had a sniff of getting into the PL is beyond bad. The ownership need to go, how we do that though is the question.

The sort of performance that brings on depression. It was horrific. We have been horrific for weeks, absolutely back to baseline. This squad of players are an absolute mish mash, there are some good individuals, but as a collective it is an absolute mess and needs ripping up. The attack is so isolated because the midfield is invisible, by having 3 at the back you have no numbers in the areas you need. You saw it today, as we saw against Birmingham, Coventry, Oxford - teams will stand back and let us have the ball in our third, they will sit off and block the channels and watch us pass between each other for 90mins. Our phases of play, if you can call it that, are actually worse than slow - it's like slow motion. Everything we do is predicted at least 5 mins before we do it, every pass is telegraphed before we attempt it. It seems as if any imagination or spontaneous play is sucked out of individuals in an effect to make us play and adhere to a structure which is as anti-football as you can get. Tonda has been brought in as a puppet. Modern football is all about having puppets on the touch line who adhere to the overall DoF/Technical Director club strategies and it's sucking the life out of this game quicker than anything I've seen. Credit to Bazunu whilst I'm at it, it was a good save to keep it as 0-0. We probably should have lost it as I thought Millwall had the better openings. Onto the next one, against a Boro side who have lost their last 4 without scoring. I think we all know what happens here.

I know what yourself and Badger are getting at with Bazunu and Gunn coming from City as another big club - but they came from the City Academy setups, rather than the first team setup. This guy was/is at least part of the Bayern Munich first team setup and was their bench keeper last year, so he's not just a 'kid' keeper with potential from a big club as before. Seems like it has a bit more substance to it, but we'll see. Bayern do make some bad transfer calls too!

I agree that he needs some backup 'experience' around him, but haven't we got it all back to front here? The main man should have the experience, the coaches around him could be younger up and coming voices. If we are now saying the manager needs 'experience' around him, then it makes their decision to appoint Tonda look even dafter than it did. I don't really buy the comparisons with other takeovers, or the suggestion that it could be much worse. From my point of view, watching this team for the last 2 years - it can't get much worse. We are owned by a group who have had full control for 4 years, in that 4 years they have relegated us twice - one of those relegations is among the worst in footballing history. We are now sat bottom half in a lower division after splurging £55m. I notice you mention Wrexham as starting to collapse, but they are 5 points and 5 league places above us in the league. When Sports Republic assumed control of us, Wrexham were battling for promotion from the National League, we were established in the PL. Wrexham are now above us in the football standings. I get that you take a positive view and you like to think things are getting better, which is fair - but there comes a point where you need to take a step back and realise that actually there's no route to 'gold' with these owners. They don't have a scooby.

Strasbourg are part of the 'BlueCo' group, so Rosenior is effectively already paid for by Chelsea's owners - they'd just move him around the group at no cost. I don't see that happening as he's not at the level they need, it's probably Fabrizo putting 2+2 together and coming up with 50.

Take stats out of it and watch with your eyes - you can see without stats that he is not a goalkeeper. He has the presence of a nervous pigeon, the goal dwarfs him, and any shot on target goes in as his wrists are weak. So he cannot command the area, he can't get across the goal as he's not a big enough presence, his positioning on the line is poor and often ill-judged, and he cannot save strong shots because his wrists are too weak. None of that equals a goalkeeper. When you combine what you see with your eyes with stats, it paints a very clear picture.

I'm pleased we're looking at a goalkeeper, but I can't say I know a great deal about this guy as he doesn't seem to ever play. You have to have something about you to be backup at Bayern though, you'd have to say - and that immediately puts him many levels ahead of Bazunu. All I want is a goalkeeper who makes saves, not asking for anything revolutionary, just someone who makes saves. I hope it's not a foreign version of George Long, as that would be utterly pointless.

Does anyone know what's happened to Smallbone? I thought he was doing fairly well there at the start of the season, but he doesn't even make the squads nowadays. I assume he's injured, he does seem very injury prone tbh. Another one worth scrapping off long term I think.

I don't fully disagree with you on this one, I believe the problems go far deeper than any manager here today. The makeup of the squad is all wrong to start with. But...that does all boil down to the ownership making bad decision after bad decision with the managers since Ralph, which has created us such a confused and odd looking squad caught between a few playing styles. (add the constant cycle of DoF's to that as well) For this season in particular I believe the club have needlessly gambled and thrown away a season to try and be clever and seen as 'revolutionary' by appointing a left field choice, when in many ways it's like throwing a lamb to the slaughter with the mishmash of a squad we have.

Someone better tell Fabio Cannavaro, Thiago Silva, Baresi and Puyol then.

I've seen this mentioned a few times now, it seems bonkers to suggest that a formation/tactical setup is being used to hide/dilute the limitations of the players we have. It's entirely backwards if that is the logic and it's not how formations are meant to be used. Tactical setups/formations are in place to give you a foundation and structure to get the best out of the players you have in the squad profile, they're not there to be used as an aid to cover deficiencies and gaps in individual quality. Let me suggest something ground breaking - maybe to cover deficiencies, you buy better players? Just thinking outside the box here. But no, they keep renewing the contracts of these poor players so we're in a groundhog day loop.

But our CB's aren't short. They're within the normal ranges of heights expected from CB's. I don't know what you're getting at here. Proclaiming that we have to play 5 at the back because our CB's are short/poor is just so flawed. Formations aren't there to cover gaps in quality or individual limitations in players, they're there to bring the best out of the players you have. The fix for individual limitations/gaps in quality is to improve them with recruitment.

Goztepe seem pretty wedded to 3 at the back/5 at the back, not sure about Valenciennes as there are no historical line-ups/formations listed anywhere I can see.

Nah I don't truly buy that. When we had Mads and Jelert available earlier this season, we still played 5 at the back. When Jelert came on yesterday we still played 5 at the back. The idea seems to be that our attack needs to be supplied by our full backs, which I think is flawed. We've got Leo, Fellows, Robinson etc as wide players - let them supply the attack, let the full backs defend. We've even had Robinson and Fraser playing as wing backs this season, everything just seems so backwards - just out of absolute desperation to keep 5 at the back no matter what. A lot can be made of formations, and sometimes too much focus is placed on them. In simple terms you need your best players in the 11 in their natural positions, but we don't do that - we shoehorn players into positions they're not as effective in, just to accommodate 5 at the back.

You were a huge supporter of the decision to renew Stephens contract in the summer, siting it as good due to his leadership and experience. As we all said at the time it was flawed, and it was a decision which pretty much nailed our trajectory this season.

You can - you can tell the wingers to hug the line, stay wide, keep the width. You can play with an extra CM to sit deeper, which allows Azaz/Jander/Bragg or whoever to step up higher. Azaz coming for the ball in the centre circle is all wrong, Azaz passing the ball back to the centre backs is all wrong. He shouldn't even be in that area. Space is created by moving the ball quickly, and also by stretching the game and having your wide players playing wide. We condense it too much through the middle through our safe backwards/sideways passing, you've even got Leo coming inside - and it's Manning who provides the width down the left side. I'm not saying we don't need a physical centre forward, we 100% do, but there's also so much more we need to do to our game to make the opposition sweat and think a bit. We make it so, so easy for everyone we play against. You could coach a non-league team to defend against us without much trouble.

Apologies, I didn't realise we shouldn't be complaining or criticising the club as everything is in fact pretty good right now. It's not like we're sat in the bottom half of the Championship past the mid-way point of the season after spending £55m, with 2 relegations in 4 years including one of the worst ever PL efforts by any team. You're right, we are certainly not made of the right stuff and it's in fact all pretty rosy and going really well, well done Sports Republic. My mistake.

Given that we concede from most set pieces, it doesn't particularly add much - if anything. I've always felt 3 at the back confuses the situation more than aids it. I think too much can be played on the 'target man' line, not all teams play with a target man - the key is to move the ball quickly, stretch the game and open it up and get yourselves in behind. Fellows playing deep does not allow us to do that, especially against teams who press up against him - it means he has to focus on defending, which just nullifies his influence. Stick him wide right, Leo wide left, Azaz in the 10. Play forward quickly through the midfield and stretch the play - not relying on wing backs, but actual wingers, to provide the width. Let Leo and Fellows commit and run at players higher up the pitch, that's where they're dangerous.

Reminds me of the Bournemouth 'bucket rattlers' days.

I don't want to be constantly throwing out depressing posts tbh, I've always been someone who looks at the bigger picture/positive swings of situations - but there's just nothing here, it's all pretty hollow from what I can see. There's no grand plan to get behind, nothing. As fans we're desperate to get behind the club, but we need the club to give us something to cling to - just a chink, anything. But it just feels dead.

Do you know what a revolutionary idea would have been? Appointing an experienced manager in the first place, rather than now scurrying around looking for an 'experienced' number 2. It's so back to front it's frightening. Seeing Ben Reeves giving tactical advice on the bench today, was a really stark picture of how much SR have regressed us.

I genuinely don't think we'll be anywhere near promotion for many years, so them coming down is irrelevant in that sense as they won't be a threat to whatever we're doing.

Not sure it's a case of him being played out of position per-say, it's our general lack of moving the ball with pace. If we move the ball quicker, he can get into space and make things happen. He's one of those 'stand still' number 10's, he's not effective if we're needing him to go after the ball/pressing/chasing - that's not his game, like a duck out of water. Just move the ball quickly, stretch the game, get him in the space in the gap between the midfield and attack and watch things happen. Azaz cannot be the final line of our attack, he needs people ahead of him.

One of the reasons coaches play 3 at the back is to enable more control of the ball from the defensive third, and through the middle thirds of the pitch. Then you have progressive attacking full backs able to stretch the play (go back to Wolves in their pomp - Ait-Nouri and Semedo). But it doesn't work for us because we have a winger at RB and one of the worst LB's (if not the worst) in the entire league. For this tactic to be truly successful you need progressive ball playing CB's like John Stones, who can feed the ball into a Rodri/KDB type - with progressive wing backs pushing high. We have Manning, Nathan Wood and Jack Stephens, with Downes receiving it in CM. It's never going to work. I don't know why we can see it, but the guys paid £100000's more than us can't.