S-Clarke

You don't have to be a genius to sniff out the narrative in your post - not just yours by the way, was a general observation. The undertone is very odd. We went 25 games unbeaten playing the same way, if we want to rip it all up again and start from scratch after 2 or 3 iffy results then that's just odd imo. As I said, there are seemingly people who have been waiting very impatiently in the background since September to ramp back up again.

If we come out of these 2 league defeats in a row without KWP and Fraser then that is going to conclude an absolute season defining disaster for us. Fingers crossed KWP is fine.

He had a good game, was caught out a few times, but positionally he was much better than Smallbone. The biggest takeaway from Charles inclusion was how much better and 'free' Rothwell was.

We lost to Liverpool, it was inevitable. Nothing about this result puts any credence on the ''Martin Out'' chat which people are so, so, so desperate to get going.

First half was decent, so was the start of the second half. But the result was pretty much guaranteed when we didn't take our chances, we just lacked any real quality in the attacking third - and that will kill you at any level. We approached it well, brave on the ball, did get caught out a few times. Some of our build up and play through the two thirds was great, but it was the lack of any real ability at the top end which killed us. I thought Stephens had a good game, but that was prime PL Bednarek out there for their first goal. Rothwell was decent I thought. Most of our threat came through Sulemana, but that's all it was - threat, no real punch at the end of it. Mara did hold the ball up well and bring others into play, but he was pretty shit as our top end threat which is why we lost ultimately. Not really much to learn from this one really, always an inevitable result and the proverbial free hit. We gave a good account of ourselves, but the lack of quality in our attack made it look more comfortable for Liverpool than it should have been. Worried about KWP - hope it was just a precaution, if he's out injured for any period of time then this game is going to end up being pivotal for our season for all the wrong reasons.

He's just a bit clinical isn't he! Luton have given the best account of themselves compared to the other 2 promoted sides this year, but up against the best they are so, so limited and so out of their depth in a defensive point of view.

Our most effective wide player of the season imo. If you class Adam Armstrong as a striker, then none of our other wide options have come close to his output.

The general feeling amongst the fan base for many years is that the away fans where they are is a bit crap, this isn't a new opinion and has been doing the rounds for years. The proposed location is the only place they could relocate them to, and to add to that - both ends of the ground have home fans behind the goal, the away fans are tucked into the corner. I guess the people upset by this are the ones who will be forced to move or change their personal arrangements arriving and exiting the stadium, as I imagine the chapel shortcuts may be off bounds at times - but those are just individual personal gripes, for the majority this is a very positive move.

We should ask Millwall for some compensation. Dirty fuckers, horrible team.

Yeah, it's a crazy thought. Not going to happen. Neither are the manager choices you've named.

They were awful, they didn't play football and had no intention to come and paly football. They just came to kick us off the pitch and scrap for set plays. Look at what they did to Edozie as soon as he was on the pitch to replace the stricken Fraser, they just took him out. I could never accept supporting a club who actively played that way.

The standard of Chelsea's team, after spending £1bn on it, is absolutely horrific. They have overspent on every single one of their signings. Jackson was linked to us and Bournemouth, because we are his level - Chelsea need to be aiming better than players like him, but no they focused on him and spent £35m on him to top it off. Lavia had a good season with us but was still growing, he was not worth £60m - yet they felt they'd spunk that on him. The pointless uneducated splurge they have made in the transfer market has probably killed their top of the table competitiveness for a generation. FFP will strangle them for a long time now, whilst the others just get further away.

RIP - Sad news. Before my time in both playing and managerial roles, but he was only 77 - way too young to go.

No point arguing with Fabrice, he'd be getting behind the return of Jermaine Wright if we signed him tomorrow to play as CB. There's nothing wrong with emotion in football, in fact it's critical - but it's how you handle it and contain it, Martin doesn't seem to be able to contain his emotion and is the type who becomes very spikey and incredibly defensive when things don't go to plan. He's not a good enough manager to be like that IMO.

For me the priority is sorting the horrific defending out - the last 3 or so weeks it's been so bad. Back to September levels. There was even a moment yesterday where Millwall had 6 on 3, that should never happen in professional football. We scored against Bristol City, Hull and Millwall - better defending in all 3 and the scene is different, changes the whole mood as well. We've been playing catchup in every game since Huddersfield because of our shit defending. We will always score goals, but something has gone to the shit with the defensive structure. (cue Downes)

That would be pretty devastating if so. I'd be tempted to just throw SAA in there ahead of Sulemana.

Who do we think that was? I'm going Kaiser Soze

He also spent most of the game hugging their full back tbf.

Hopefully things turn around for you guys next season and you get some momentum. We've had some examples in England where teams have got promoted from the third division and fly straight through on that momentum to the premier league - we did it, Norwich did it recently, Ipswich are giving it a good go. If you get stuff right in the summer and have a good year next year then you may be back at the top before long. Feels a long way off now, but football can change very quickly.

Yeah, this is a bit of a nonsense approach. The only way you concentrate for the the playoffs is to win, go in with momentum - that's it. If we know auto is 100% gone and and we're safe in 3rd/4th by the last two weeks of the season, then maybe look at potentially rotating a few around so we have our best available for the playoffs. But for now, we just have to keep winning although we've forgotten how to. Football is a strange game. 36 points to play for, a very, very, very tough run-in for us in comparison with the rest for sure, but if we aspire to be a PL side we shouldn't be scared of anyone we face at this level.

Teams often mirror their manager, and he's lost all of his composure in recent weeks and has got way too emotional. Funnily enough, so has the team. He needs to get his head back on his shoulders, he's another one of these all in emotionally charged young managers who lose their heads when things go wrong. There's no problem being emotional, but you've got to learn to keep it in check and not allow it to fall out across everyone else. Even Thornton got a yellow on the bench yesterday, they're all mirroring the same. We need to regain our composure as players and manager/coaches asap. It's that sort of shit which scares the fuck out of me for the emotionally charged playoffs.

No one is saying it did help, but pack up and go home? We all moan about the players losing their heads - but christ, some of our fans. Wouldn't want some of our fans on the front line when the going gets tough. This isn't a personal dig at you by the way, just a search through the cesspit that is twitter this evening has brought a whole new meaning to fickle bad losers.

It's only interesting or 'fun' and 'exciting if you're doing well. Stoke's 7 years at this level since relegation have been horrific, it's a cesspit of a league if you turn shit. (As we know all too well!). It can happen easily as well, failure to go up in season 1 or 2 and it will become pretty miserable down here.

I've just listened to his post match interview, I assume he's referring to social media and what some of the fans are chatting. ''Some of the noise is like we're in a relegation battle'' - so he's obviously noticed some criticism on social media from the fan base. Some of the criticism has been well over the top, but that's to be expected from modern football fans. In the bigger context which I think we need to remember - we're having a good season and performing at a level which will get you auto promotion 9/10 - sadly this season it won't, we need to be perfect every week. Given that the target was auto promotion (well, winners) at the start of the season, I think fans are naturally going to be disappointed to see that slip away into the distance. But taking it into isolated games, I think as fans we have every right to be pissed off at displays like today. It was tepid and wimpy, nowhere near what we've been known as. To be fair to Martin he says as much in his interview, not happy enough with the output and movement of the players in the final third - he's right, we were static and slow as shit. Some fans do go OTT though, it's just the way with social media though. Allows nutjobs to have their platform to spout shit, of which some have been waiting months and months to have a pop.

That's it in a nutshell really, whilst Downes is a huge miss, we've made it worse because we've tried to tweak everyone else to accommodate for it. We were without Downes for a few games over Christmas if I remember right, we just stuck Charles in there and carried on the same way. Why has his latest absence triggered the coaches to redesigning the entire system? Today was a mess, no matter what Martin says about it. There was no structure and no continuity because our team has been tweaked and pissed around with to accommodate the loss of 1 player.