S-Clarke

Exactly that, you get it!

Not sure we have anyone who is true captain material. You want a player who sets an example, steps forward in tough times and you notice them. I'll use Gerrard as an example, he was a proper captain. Chips were down, he'd be the one standing up and driving that team forward. He got them out of the shit through pure leadership. Fonte had a similar effect on us as well, I remember a 4-1 win at home to Arsenal when we were on a slump - he stood up that day and dragged us through that with the opening goal. Vestergaard is a good player, but I don't see that in him. I see another player with poor mentality who will more often than not shrink in size and panic when the going gets tough. Look at what happens to our defence when it's attacked by reasonable force by any team, they just crumble every time and start doing stupid things.

Really poor squad management as you say, so frustrating we are in this position. I guess part of it is because we need to so creative in moving players out, in order to open up the space for incomings. That's just pulled away at our squad depth over the years though. Academy kids aren't up to it, feels like 2008 all over again when we are throwing Ramsay and the likes onto the field - he'll never be good enough. You can usually tell pretty quickly. Best option for me is 3 at the back, Salisu left sided, Bednarek right sided, Vestergaard in the middle. Bertrand LWB and JWP RWB. We will lose something in the middle of the park though - step forward Alex Jankewitz - your time is now (take 2).

Vestergaard isn't captain material. Not even close. Stephens has more captain attributes than any of our current CB's. Sadly he's not very good.

I agree that clubs will sign duds, it will happen. But our 'duds to successful ratio' over the last 5 years has been diabolical for a club of our size, now it's put us in this situation. Carillo is the biggest dud we've ever had. He wasn't given more opportunities because he wasn't a very good football player. That was a shocking, criminal deal for us to sanction. No point persevering with a player who is clearly no where near the level. Boufal had more than enough chances, lots of twits and turns, but no end product as you said. But like you also say, it's the same as our other wide players. Moussa in particular is again no better than Boufal. Moussa is looking more and more like another expensive £15m dud for me. Hoedt - shocking player, he doesn't deserve the time of day from us. He's at Lazio and being as equally dreadful there going by reports. He thought he was a world beater, a superstar, yet he is one of the worst CB's I've seen play for us live. And I saw Alan Bennet at home to Crystal Palace. Lemina - talented, but attitude all wrong. I'd say we persevered with him, but again a player we signed with all the right tools but the completely wrong make up mentally. Elyonoussi - Not a PL player, no idea what the scouts saw in him to feel he's suited for the PL. Weak on the ball, poor off the ball, slow as hell. That near on £80m of transfer fee's above. They've either been released for free or are on loan. That level of 'return' is disastrous for a club of our size. I will accept clubs have duds, but not to the tune of £80m worth. It's killed us.

Hopefully we don't still have the same scouts who found these guys, they should have all been sacked at the same time Ross was turfed out. Turns my stomach over to think how much we splurged on Carrillo, Boufal, Hoedt, Elyonoussi, Lemina - if we hadn't, and Ralph had that to play with, the story may be totally different.

It's the age old ''they become a better player whilst not playing'' way of thinking. But you're right, he is absolutely hopeless with the ball at his feet and he can't move his feet or body quick enough, that's always been his problem. So we'd be expecting him to come in and play a sweeper keeper! It would be a complete recipe for disaster. McCarthy is as good as we've got for that goal keeper role, he's not great, no, none of our goal keepers are particularly suited to it (great scouting, once again) but he's the best of the bunch.

Exactly. I will lose my shit with Moussa playing there though, it would absolute carnage. I'd put JWP there if anyone. He can play the RWB role.

I can see us go with those 3 as centre backs. Bertrand LWB and someone else as RWB, probably Moussa.

They were 19th on 20 points.

A spine. We need a goal keeper who isn't afraid to shout. We need a centre back in the Fonte/Cahill/Evans mode - experienced leader. We need a solid defensive midfielder who has the energy to go box to box and isn't afraid to get stuck in to his own team mates or the opposition. Then you can supplement the side with Ings, JWP, KWP, Vestergaard, Armstrong etc and it starts to look like a decent side. But without those additions to the spine of this side we will continue to be a very meek side, happy with things when the going is good and playing well...but we will always struggle and sink when the going gets tough (and that always happens during a season).

There's a lot of chat about 'Plan B', but what is it? 'Just hit it long and get it in the box!'. It strikes me that when any team has a bad patch the supporters of said club refer to the lack of 'plan b'. I don't think there are ever plans set like that, it evolves during games. The lack of urgency in the closing stages of games is a concern though. It doesn't even seem as if we have a 'Plan A' when the chips are down.

Actually this season we haven't been as reliant on Ings as we were last year. We would be on around 20 pts without Ings goals, but that's not saying someone else wouldn't have scored them...!

Only thing I heard was 'hamstring'. No idea. Doesn't look a particularly good one if I'm truly honest.

I think people were nervous about injuries, I think we all knew we were a few injuries away from dropping off due to our squad. Sadly proven to be correct, although I don't think anyone predicted we'd be hit this badly. Full backs particularly. Two massive parts in our game, esp KWP, so if he is missing again I fear for us. I reckon we will end up going 3 at the back with Moussa as RWB. Hence why I fear for us.

The club have obviously given him an 'open book' to implement his ideas club wide, so they obviously trust him as much as most of us fans do. Now he needs to be trusted in the transfer market. Please Gao, just give him a tiny bit of flexibility to add the missing ingredients to this team without having to sell off half the squad before hand. We feel so close, yet so far at the same time.

Is it all on Ralph though? He can only do so much with the group he has, and let's be honest it's largely what he inherited from day 1. This team struggled to hold onto leads under Pellegrino and Hughes as well, that facet isn't new. And the core of the side is still the same. I do believe Ralph has worked wonders to even get us competitive to be honest, that's why some of the calls for him to leave (and I know you're not saying that) are totally and utterly wrong. Re-watching games from the last 5 years could be interesting, I'd imagine you will see exactly the same traits in all of them under 3 or 4 different managers and 3 or 4 different systems. I don't think I could put myself through that though.

Yeah, he was dreadful. Didn't do anything, didn't get involved. Forgot he was playing at times to be honest. Seems another 'shy' and quiet type! Redmond was much more active than he was in the first half, that's for sure.

Yeah we had long spells in that 04-05 PL season not winning, but we always separated it with a draw in an amongst it. The most losses in a row we had under Port was 4...believe it or not. So yeah, this team has set another new record. Good times.

That's Redmond in a nut shell for you. His decision making and final pass/shot is more often than not absolutely diabolical. He's sometimes the oppositions best defender. He seems to overcomplicate everything and I don't know why. It's not a new thing either, this has been 5 years. This is Redmond, it won't ever change. I'd happily sell and reinvest his money.

I'm sure we've gone on really long spells not winning, but we've probably thrown a draw or two in an amongst the 5 or 6 games etc.

I've thought about that, but he's another one who seems to suffocate under pressure. Doesn't strike me as a captain to be honest, when the going gets tough he just becomes a mess. It's not all about being vocal, although that's kinda important, it's being able to direct and lead other members of the team and pull them up if they need it. I don't see any of our players automatically doing that by habit. It's not in any of their make ups. All of our players seem scared to take the lead. If we go back to last season, PEH was another example of a poor captain. When the chips are down you need your captain to stand up and show an example, I remember in the final throws of a game we needed a breather...he had time to just bring the ball down and play it out...but he skied it up in the air in our penalty box and put us under pressure. That was our captain and it's no different now.

I dread to think what would happen to us if we got relegated. I don't think it would be pretty.

Absolutely nail on the head. We don't have anyone who is a leader in this side. I never hear our guys shouting, but I heard Coady today in the Wolves back 4 barking orders all game. JWP as others have said...is kinda there by default really as there isn't anyone else in the squad with those attributes. Vestergaard? Nope, doesn't strike me as a leader. Another technical player with the ball at his feet, but doesn't seem to have a 'nastiness' to him. Bertrand? Been there, done that. Not a captain Romeu? - Could argue he has the most 'nastiness', but he's still incredibly quiet on the pitch and doesn't strike me as a leader. Those are prob your only other options bar JWP. Pretty poor all round and that is why we struggle to hold onto leads and why we struggle when we hit adversity. I reckon we'd be a better 'team' if we lost one of Ings/JWP and replaced them with a Coady type of leader. We'd then have a bit more about us and I'm sure we'd see more games out. At the moment teams know if they get us on the back foot, we will fold 9/10. A really poor show for a team to be honest. It's a shame we'd have to sacrifice starters to get those sorts of players though, but that's where we are. Ideally we'd supplement what we have, but we can't do that.

Wigan took that tbf, they've vanished into no where land now though. I'd be interested to know how their fans feel now. They will always have that FA Cup to their name, but they're decades away from the top level and may never get there again. Price to pay.