S-Clarke

The likes of Forest, Everton, Palace etc should be breathing a huge sigh of relief that the bottom 3 this year are so, so out of their depth. Luton have made more of a fist out of it than the other two, but you can tell they're too limited for this level. I think it'll be decided weeks before the season ends. Very low total to stay up this year.

The confusing thing with people saying that he's ''playing how he's being told to play'' is that Martin knows him better than any of us, better than any of the players at the club. Martin knows his weaknesses and his limitations. He's got him playing in a way he surely knows he can do, and has seen him do it (albeit in a much lesser team). I just think this is a step too far for Manning in terms of a level, he's a pretty middling Champ player for me.

You misread my post, I said we've had our chance (our opportunity is gone) I honestly felt Leicester would wobble at some point, and we just felt invincible at the time - but we didn't take our chance, so I'm not here still saying we're going to catch them. We're not, done and dusted. But had we done our job in games you'd bank us for (Millwall for one), then it would have been very, very, very interesting. Even just winning against Millwall would have put us to within 5 points of them. They've had more of a wobble than I thought they'd have!

He didn't unsettle us as an individual performance - as I agree, he was good today, but it's the moving around of THB etc to accommodate him - I think it's unsteadied us a little.

I'd have Fox every day, he was decent for us I thought. At least he had an attacking output that season, 11 assists I think? If Manning was able to make up for his defensive dodginess with some attacking threat, then he'd have a few more fans - but even in attack he is pretty piss poor tbf. We will be so much more stable with him out of the side. Guarantee it.

Now you've put the bait down Trousers...... We had our chance tbf, I knew Leicester had a wobble in them - but we decided to have ours at the same time. 8 points between 4th and 1st is pretty mental at this stage though. Ipswich somehow have clawed themselves back to within 3 points of the top. After Leicester were what feels like 11 points clear of everyone all season it's a bit of a bump in their rear view now.

Not sure what that's all about to be honest. Feels very shoe-horny.

I called it a few weeks ago, on the back of our Huddersfield win - it was in reach, esp. with the Leeds/Leicester game on the horizon. We didn't do our job though so it's null and void. But it wasn't that ridiculous 'never a chance' opportunity that many made it out to be. We had every chance.

Someone get this fucker banned. Sicko.

We made fucking hard work of that, should have been a really comfortable 3 or 4 niller, we were very good today and created stacks and stacks of chances. Defensively though, notably down the left side, abysmal. Manning had a role in each of the goals they scored. I'd personally have him on the bench now and try and shift him for a fee in the summer, he's cost us in games too much. Not entirely sure moving THB to right back helped the stability either, we have a ready made RB in Bree - just play him there. No need to break up Bednarek and THB. I thought Stephens had an ok game weirdly, but I think the change around has unsettled us a little bit. Good to see Downes back, I thought Brooks had a great game - really in his groove now. A Armstrong back to his best. And Aribo taking on the Fraser mantel. This result has the potential to be a critical one, could look back on this in May and how important it was.

I think there is over reaction on here from people and they make a judgement without really knowing why - it's how it is. But I personally don't rate Manning, positionally all season he has been inept. It could be how he's told to paly, which is even more alarming given that the manager should know him and his limitations more than most. All of our problems come through that left side, they have most of the season. I don't think it's coincidental if I'm honest, teams target that space because Manning is always out of position and simply doesn't have the pace or physicality to recover. Maybe our tactics hang him out to dry a bit, but if the manager knows him more than most then it's pretty worrying.

I thought on the second goal particularly, he's too close to Bednarek. He's got to be aware of his surroundings and be in a position to respond to any sort of misplaced header, but he's kind of in no mans land there - they win the header, or if Bednarek gets it wrong (which he did) and they're away - and that's what happened. He just doesn't seem to have any positional awareness or sense danger, he's everywhere bar where he should be defensively. Reminds me of Oliver Bernard.

We've played alright I think, should have at least 3 goals here given the chances and openings we've created. Controlled 90% of that. Sadly undone by horrific defending on two occasions. Manning was tucked too narrow for the first, but where was the cover? Second goal Bednarek and Manning are too close to each other, Bednarek miss-does the header - but if Manning was a little further behind in a positional sense Stansfield wouldn't have had all that time. It's fine margins, and Manning has been pretty poor on both goals there. Football/possession/attacking/chance creation wise - really good, as well as we've played for weeks. But that left side is just all wrong. Still think we've got enough to get some goals here in the 2nd half, but we're making it much harder than it needs to be.

Personally for me the best combo still is Smallbone and Downes, that hasn't changed. Smallbone was terrific in that 25 game run for us, he was as pivitol in that as THB was at the back. Basically what we've seen in recent weeks is Smallbone playing a role that he's not necessarily suited to physically, so it's showed up more of his limitations than his positive attributes. So with Downes back we will get to see Smallbone deployed higher up the pitch in the area's where his positive attributes can come to the fore, where physicalness or positional awareness isn't as critical as it would be in the 6. There's nothing wrong with Smallbone at this level and some of the fans OTT comments towards him are drivel and are born out of a lack of understanding of football from themselves.

What's that got to do with anything? Some of the abuse Jones got was also utterly detestable and was posted in main by the same trolls who target Smallbone. Neither scenario is right, fans who throw disgusting comments (well, any human to be fair) at people on social media do not deserve any spotlight

Some of the crap sent to him on social media was a disgrace, ''i hope you get cancer, so you don't have to pass the ball anymore for us'' was a significant low point. Although we all know they're not fans. Sadly that's twitter for you, the cesspit of society with weirdos looking for a reaction to 'extreme' opinions or posts. He's better coming off of it.

Nah, i wouldn't read anything into it what so ever. The most obvious takeaways for me is that you have to play your best players (i.e KWP, Armstrong(s), Adams, Fraser, Downes, THB etc). We didn't do that yesterday for a start. And the other takeaway is that we'd need to purchase attackers of the right quality, our approach play last night was pretty much spot on and it showed what you can get out of the way we play - but the quality at the top end killed us. I reckon we'd have done better with Fraser in there.

yep, very much that as well. He doesn't seem to know how to use his 'tools', so it's all pretty ineffective really. Like Usain Bolt trying to be a footballer because he's quick.

I know he won a WC, but his career still feels like an absolute waste. I imagine he'll retire now.

He keeps making those schoolboy mistakes by staying logged into the wrong account. I wonder who his positive persona is? always?

wtf are Stoke up to? I didn't realise they'd invested into their team at those levels. If they go down they are ruined.

I don't understand why we're calling out Bazunu in a thread about a game in which he didn't feature in? He wasn't even on the bench, yet people are still digging him out?

Yeah I think he does have technical ability, he has some skill in his locker - he just doesn't seem to know what to do with it half the time, that's his biggest issue imo and why he'll never really amount to much at the top level.

Thought I'd bump this on the back of his performance tonight. I thought we used him well, he kept wide and stretched their team - the spaces in their team in the first half were massive, and we were exploiting that and his pace was adding genuine threat and danger every time we got forward. But...the biggest criticism I will continue to lay at his door is his lack of any footballing brain. He's quick, decent skill, good technical ability...but all of that means sod all if you don't play the pass at the right time, see the opportunity to cross, know when to shoot or know when to hold off etc. Exactly the same has to be said of Edozie and Mara as well, they're young but they need to start developing a deeper understanding of football. It's not just about speed and skill.

Decent attackers, we score at least 1 goal, maybe 2. The approach created those moments, it was the quality in the final third which killed us - not the way we played. An inexperienced Liverpool, who still included McAlistair, Gakpo, Gomez, Timaskis, VVD, Elliott, Konate in their team at varying points - not exactly a bunch of never heard of players, just saying.