S-Clarke

I don't think we'd have held out if he was on the pitch today. We've been in similar positions over the last couple of years at home, and he just goes to pot. I remember one game in particular, 90 odd mins, needed a calm clearance from the back and he just launched it straight up in the air and put us in the shit. He's not a terrible player, but he's not someone we're going to miss that much.

There was a funny feeling in the air about this game, just something niggling in the back of my head 'We don't win at home, City just score for will''......and the rest writes it's self. We were always going to need bucket loads of luck and boy did we have that, but...you make your own luck. Through blocks, harrying, hassling, pressing...it was a proper backs to the wall performance, I love those sorts of wins more than any other to be honest. The players look like they have bought into Ralph's style more than ever, everyone is in sync, everyone knows their jobs and the press is the most well executed I've seen - even better than the MP days. (we just lack a little bit of the quality from those days). Stephens has gone from being average as hell to what he is today. A very competent, strong, powerful premier league centre half. I still hope we bring in another CB to give both him and Jan some competition, but any new addition will need to be a bit of a world beater to oust either of those today. KWP was good, but what worried me was how Silva pulled on him - a couple of times - at the back post, his lack of height was being exposed at times - but technically he's very capable, but he did panic a little in the 2nd half with some clearances. We resumed the league a couple of weeks ago and we were sat on 34 points, still looking over our shoulders a tiny bit. Now we're on 43 points and 13 points clear, and unreal return from us. Something looks to have clicked fitness wise and tactically over the last few months. It looks like everyone at the club have been working their arses off and results like this are the proof.

Why be bothered about being mathematically safe? We were safe in Feb.

Yeah, Jamal - that's the fella! https://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2011/08/05/2606827/tunisias-ammar-jemal-pulls-out-of-southampton-move

It's crazy isn't it - when you look at Villa and you can only really pin point Grealish that may attract real interest, yet Villa are the team who spent £160m on new talent in the summer! #fail.

Brighton winning @ Norwich. Pretty much secures Brighton if they see it out, and it removes any faint hope Norwich may have had. Shit result for those below West Ham really, looking quite bleak for Bournemouth particularly.

Eliott Ward and we were linked to another foreign centre back in our first season back in the Championship, it fell through due to us not wanting to fund some sort of loyalty bonus, but I cannot for the life of me remember his name

I thought that last night - why on earth is he sat on the bench, when Eric flaming 'Dire' is in his position? They are light years apart in ability. This looks to be another Jose masterclass from his out of date methods.

What the hell is this fit and proper process thing actually doing? Absolute shambles again by the FA and EFL.

I reckon we could have fun against them at their place. Our game will probably be the one that confirms it too. Maybe.

Bournemouth need to win this home game or they're pretty much done. Leicester look intent on throwing away Champions league football too.

I don't really know what Obafemi brings us? He seems to lack some basic skills at this level from what I've seen, he's quick no doubt...but he doesn't seem to be able to do much more. Similar could be said of Adams, but he seems to have a bit more about him as a footballer.

Loved Maya, would be great to see him back for a friendly or similar.

Their 'fringe' players include Sane, Jesus, Foden, Silva, Mendy, Cancelo 🤣

It would be good to see Leeds and Forest back And it would be good to see the back of Bournemouth and West Ham!

He's a tidy little player, good awareness and ability to turn in midfield to feed Ings for the first goal. Defo. a great squad player for us, but I don't think we should be seeing him as week in week out first team just yet. Potential is big though from what I've seen of him.

I think he looks fitter tbh, so do a lot of our players to be honest. Certainly one of the fitter teams from this restart.

We are just epic away from home, really, really good. We press well, break well and genuinely disrupt a home teams tactic through our press. It really is executed perfectly away from home, we're just not getting it quite right at home yet. Don't really need to say much more about Ings, It's pretty clear that he's one of the best strikers in this country and we're very lucky to have someone of his level with us. Top 4 player without a doubt. Really impressed with Romeu's impact today, I thought he read the game superbly and used the ball sensibly - he was back to the Romeu I remembered under Koeman, just keeping it simple but using his intelligence to pickup the right area's of the pitch. Credit to Vesterguard too - I thought that was a good pairing up against Deeney, they had him for dinner all afternoon to be honest. Food and drink for them. Not going to moan about the OG as there was nothing Jan could have done really, had he left it Welbeck would have tapped it in - he had to try and do something. I really enjoy JWP's performances away from home, he dictates the tempo for us now days and keeps things ticking - he covers so much ground it's insane, I'm sure he's going to be up amongst the highest on distance covered at the end of the weekend? Adams came on and did finally make an impact I felt, he's just rusty as hell. He did so well to get through but wasn't clinical enough with the finish. Really hope he gets a goal before the end of the season, it's like a chain around his neck at the mo. KWP is like 10 levels up from Valery in ability and quality, I don't know what we do with Valery to be honest....loan to L1 and see how that pans out? But yeah, KWP until the end of the season and then see how he does. It's the first real look I've had of him since he's been here and he was pretty tidy. Let's just finish with as many points as we can and hopefully we can get some decent results at home before the season is out!

I'll bounce my own post and I can now have a good old laugh at it! I didn't imagine us turning it around from that, but credit to Ralph for sorting that out and getting us re-focused. My support for Ralph never waivered, I think he's top draw, so I genuinely hope at some point he is given some backing as he could make us a proper team - up there with the Wolves and Leicester's.

Couple of Celtic views on him, they don't doubt his quality or ability - just inconsistent. CCou

I think being seen as a leader should be drawn from your ability on the pitch, players look up to you and respect you. It's all well and good being able to shout and boss around like a 'leader', but if you're actually part of the problem then it's a bit of an empty role. Mings has been a huge part of their defensive ineptness this year. Yes, we need leaders, but first and foremost they need to be very good in their position, then they'll get the respect from their team mates automatically - not just because they look good at bossing people around.

You'd be crazy to buy anyone from that Aston Villa defence, they are inept. Of all the players, and given it's a position we need additions in, I'd like Max Aarons - one of the really talented Norwich lads, a little bit lost in their shower - but he has real ability. Got a feeling bigger clubs will be sniffing and that will mean the price is too high.

I think you can work with Bednerek - he just needs more quality around him, he's our most capable CB without question. Jacks' come on leaps and bounds, but he's still below the level we were used to. If we want to hover around relegation and bottom half of the league, then yeah...he's perfectly adequate. But if we want to improve and push up, we need a much much better starting player than Jack. New RB, New CB, New CM. That's what I'd see as the 3 main priorities for us. We've been prone to leaving an obvious hole every window and just 'getting on with it' with a below adequate option, but let's hope we actually capture our major issues this time - first main window without Ross too, so I'm much more optimistic. I hope all his 'advise' has been long deleted!

The worry I have with Che is that he's never really impacted a game, never really looked like scoring, never really looked like a threat. I turn to the bench and look at Long before I look at Che and that says a lot, I think the manager is the same. Long is another non-goal scoring striker, but he at least impacts games and looks a threat. Not sure what Che offers to be honest, what he does, what attributes he has. Is he quick? Not that quick. Is he strong? So, so, nothing special. Fair enough, he hasn't played much, but he has not taken any of the chances he's been given to impose himself on any game - and I'm guessing the same goes in training. Up there with Carrillo for me! We spent over £30m on two supposed centre forwards who don't actually look like centre forwards or score goals. That's why we've not got any bloody money to play with, and now we're lumbered with them! We're feeling the pain of yet another Ross Wilson failed transfer.

But then at the same point, we don't have an attack who can benefit from 'balls lumped up top'. We lack quality down the spine of the team to compete consistently, we'll get the odd good results (esp. away from home) because of our pace on the break, but we need more quality through the spine in order to be classified more than a relegation flirter every year. Then maybe we can start dominating games at home rather than continue to play this passive tippy tappy game which has haunted our home games for the last 3 years. PEH is a culprit in that. If we can use his exit as a way to add a midfielder with mobility, pace and strength then we'll be laughing. Easier said than done though.