S-Clarke

I don't think Lewis has got any better. he doesn't paly for the B Team anymore, he was dropped in favour of Bycroft? (i think). They kept shipping too many goals with Lewis in there. I'd be tempted to give Bycroft a crack (if we can) and forget the Lewis experiment. But I reckon you'll see us get an emergency loan in before the weekend...

It's interesting, as we've seen many a time with Ralph and players...when he has a problem with you, that's pretty much game over and you're out of the squad. Maybe you're right and he has now had enough of him. I wouldn't put the blame all on McCarthy though, there's plenty of other people around to relay that message - including the on field captain who was as meek as we all come to expect. We'll probably get an experienced goalie for a month, then go all out for Johnstone in January at which point we'll probably never see McCarthy again. (maybe sub at most once Forster leaves)

Pretty shit indictment of the players in the squad that replace him to be honest. Our lack of threat from those final third positions isn't good enough. Bar Redmond, who seems to be involved this season, no one else ever contributes from those areas. We're carrying them most of the time.

He has come out and stated why he left subs later, sometimes he does them earlier but it didn't make a difference I didn't feel. We were still in the game and controlling it to a certain degree. Brighton had the majority of the ball but they played in front of us, so it was fairly comfortable and we were managing it without much stress. Without that brain fart we'd have seen that game out with relative ease, let's be honest. And I doubt his 'in game management' would have been questioned at all then. Not sure I can really throw the shit at Ralph for 'costing us' this one, as we really weren't in any trouble. The on field players caused it themselves.

Yeah I mentioned on another post, we're not actually playing badly. We're playing as well as we did at the start of last season, we just can't score goals (which was going to be obvious as soon as we sold Ings). We have no breathing space this year. We had a 10 point cushion last season (we had about 24/25 points at this stage). I fear what will happen when we have our genuine dip in form and stop playing well.

Very fair views, you see the game very much as I do really. I really like Broja but it feels a bit of a fail that our attack and goals are down to a teenage loannee. Need to sort that out. The wide players are as guilty, there's no goals from anywhere else. I know Armstrong is still adjusting etc, but I still expected more from a £15m outlay. We didn't get pushed back as much 2nd half, but we did drop off a little as the half went on. Probably tiredness like you said. Ralph does sub Romeu from time to time, maybe JWP needs to be the victim of a sub occasionally. What worries me is that we are playing well - against Leicester we played well, against Brighton we should have been out of sight after 50 mins. Played well against West Ham at home, Utd at home - Norwich away we should have been out of sight really. At the start of last season in our 'playing well' period we had Ings banging in the goals, now we have no one to score those goals consistently hence why we're only managing the odd win and mainly draws. I fear as to what happens when we have a dip in form and performances, as there is nothing in this team which will ever enable us to 'win when playing badly' - we can't even win when playing well.

You could guarantee that if we were facing a team without their two goalkeepers, two centre backs, attacking mid or DM - we'd somehow contrive to lose in the most irritating way. But when we're in that position I don't see Arsenal having any problems what so ever. They'll probably swat us aside by about 50 mins, if that.

He's kind of captain by default really. Bit of a symbol for the academy etc and good PR all round in that respect. I don't think he's a bad player, far from it, but he's never been a leader in my eyes. The problem is we don't have anyone else who is that mould and we haven't for many, many years and that's why we are where we are. We lack leadership at critical moments, we lack professionalism and experience. When your captain is doing what he did in the last 2 mins it shows up everything that is wrong. There's some real quality in this team, but it's a little bit rudderless and extremely naive at times. Sometimes we're screaming out for some experienced heads at crucial moments, and we're really just a bunch of kids.

It didn't. Ralph is also scathing at the lack of communication and professionalism.

I wish you'd piss off from these forums, you're a right nasty piece of work.

Why did he have no idea? That's a worry for me. The players in our side are way too quiet, no one takes leadership of on-field issues and just sleepwalk in moments like that. Someone should have flagged that as soon as it was known, even McCarthy himself. Lewis it is then. Not sure we have anyone else?

He's shit anyway and costs us the game every week, according to some. So we won't miss him when he's out, right? We're in an awful place now. Needed at least 4 points (pref. 6) from these two games. Just 2 puts us deep, deep in the shit, in my opinion. (with injuries, suspensions and a nasty run of fixtures). Looking like an amazing Christmas for everyone.

Overall, it’s the same old bore-bag of a story really. Start well, pressure them, should score more than 1 goal, don’t score more than 1 goal. Come out second half, slowly drift back, team come into it, equalise. And rinse repeat every.single.week.for.ever. That was against a depleted, unconfident 9-man Brighton by the way. Absolutley pathetic from everyone on the field not being able to close that one out. We make such hard work of scoring goals, it’s beyond painful to watch. But we all saw it, everyone. Sell Ings and gamble on his replacement (which we did) and this team will need an incredible amount of luck to stay up as there are no goals anywhere else. I genuinely think a half decent winger/number 10 may mask our lack of goals, but we don’t even have that. Our attack, bar a young unproven loanne, is just marooned in averageness and shit. What do we do in January? Well, we buy an actual player who is a decent attacker for a start. But we won’t as we have no money. Will we limp through this season? I don’t know, it’s hard to say. We make such a meal out of scoring goals and that’s just not sustainable. There’s a lot of positives in certain areas of this team, and how we play, but there is a significant lack of quality in certain areas which is looking like it’s going to kill us.

I think you'd be surprised.

Could be an amazing Christmas present for us all, who knows!

Yep, I think that's absolutely fair. Exactly how I see it. It's nice to have some stability around the management of the team for a change. We clearly have an identity but are lacking genuine quality to be consistent with it.

He did ok last season as well to be fair. Bit too lightweight for this league, but he was always the sort who'd do a lot better in a league like La Liga.

I bloody well hope not. He shouldn't be anywhere near a PL squad, same as Long. I reckon we'll see Lynaco alongside Salisu. Makes me a tiny bit nervous as they're both a little rash in how they step out of defence, Lyanco in particular. Trossard will as usual pull them all over the place, so they need to be sensible in and out of possession. Would expect to see Moussa come in for Tella, maybe Broja for Armstrong.

Yeah, exactly. Thankfully that one has gone now by the sounds of it. It's kinda why I've always been a bit sceptical of the Newcastle lot as well, lots of talk but then they appoint Howe. Will be interesting to see how they play January.

He's always been fairly average tbh. Throw him in a team with lots of good players and he'd do a job, but he's not good enough to carry a midfield as the 'lead' player in my opinion. Struggled here with a load of average, bit better at Spurs when they have their best players in the side, but struggles when he's part of their 'second string'.

If I'm honest I feel 'not knowing' who the parties are is much better than having their names all over the media. When prospective owners start chatting to the press that usually rings alarm bells. If they are keeping themselves to themselves and studying the club in the background and not announcing themselves to the world then it feels more genuine to me. Hopefully KL makes a much better choice on the next one.

Yep, that was a cracking save. And equally a save I couldn't imagine Forster getting down quick enough to make. The first goal was the most disappointing though, very weak.

That's pretty much it really. Two very average goalkeepers, both have lots of shit points to their game, both are capable of making the odd save. Changing one for the other makes zero difference. We just need a new goalkeeper, pretty common knowledge. The club know it, we've just got to limp through this season as best we can and see what we can come up with in the summer.

Good results for us all round really. Can't see Benitez hanging around for long, although it's not really his fault. They splurged a lot of money and are now stuck. Kinda similar to us really, but in a more extreme way.

As I said the other day, He's like a young Shane Long. Sadly that equates to him not being very good. He will get you tons of goals in the Champ, but probably never more than a handful at this level. Lots of running, no real purpose to his running though. Very hectic, not very accomplished with his touch or technique, very much a hit and run type style to his game and that's not going to get you far at this level. Time will tell obviously and I hope I eat my words, but the signs aren't good from what I'm seeing.