S-Clarke

Exactly that - Fraser being the prime example, impacting every game he came into before eventually forcing himself into starting. Edozie has done the same as well. I'm yet to see Sulemana impact a game for us as a sub, that's a huge problem. He has a lot of pace, quickest player in the league I'm sure, but it's pretty meaningless if he doesn't know how to use it.

Sorry, I'll just keep watching the game in front of me. I know what I can see.

Glad I wasn't the only one impacted by that game! Honestly it took a week to get back to normal for me, but even a couple of years on I was still hung up over that game. Like you say the rollercoaster of emotions - Viafara 'spoiling the party', then Rasiak equalising in the last min. And of all people, the regular former penalty and free kick taker of Derby (Idiakez), to miss our crucial spot kick. And what pissed me off even more is that Derby went on the following season to be the worst ever team the PL has ever seen. What a waste of time.

He won play of the season last season, yep. (on Sky Sports, not the official one). But who cares what he did last season? All we can judge him on is what we see in front of us, and it's been pretty pitiful let's be honest. I don't need to look at stats, graphs and figures to know that he hasn't scored, maybe assisted 1 at best and has created very little. On the other hand he's created a shit load of opportunities for the opposition through his awful touch, poor positioning and lack of awareness on transition. That doesn't strike me as someone who has been decent for us and I don't think it's fair to say our expectations are too high. I just want someone who can defend and provide an outlet at full back.

It is a strange one, can't say I watched any of Swansea last season - so you wonder if he just had a shit hot understanding with whoever was left wing for them? I think against the usual Championship fodder he passes as a decent enough player in a defensive sense, but stick him up against players like Carvalho, Philogene, Mvavidi, James, Summerville etc and you just need to accept defeat. The biggest surprise for me though is his lack of impact in the attacking third - he doesn't do anything, even against the lesser teams. Lots of turning back and passing backwards, crossing is poor. So as an attacking outlet against everyone he is shit, and as a defensive option against the best he is shit. Squad cover at best, but then we don't have anyone else who can paly LB. (Bree I guess). Two positions which are less than ideal this year and will probably cost us at the end - proper number 6 cover for Downes, and a capable LB.

Agree with that, KWP was exposed so badly on that goal - where was Armstrong? I remember pointing at that space before they scored and thinking wtf? That should never have been allowed to happen. Armstrong had an absolute disasterclass that night, he's been utter shit for weeks tbf. But when he stops running and covering for the team like he did for that first goal, then his position comes into question for me. 16 goals or not.

DM is still CM though, same position really. I don't think you could play him there. He can operate at LB/RB, totally different ball game in DM. He's too slow to react and doesn't smell danger, so he'd be left on his arse most of the time if he was left in DM imo.

Yeah, let's not start these 'Stephens as a DM' calls again! He is awful on the ball, gives it away too much - wouldn't want him anywhere near CM. Charles, like you say, is our only alternative to Downes. He at least has the awareness and discipline to cover, whereas Smallbone just goes walkies.

I think the difference with Sulemana is the fee - our record, 23m. And also because there's no time on anyone's side here, he will use us as a transport vehicle to another European club in the summer - so you do have ask what is the point of giving him any opportunity, might as well put all faith into SAA and Edozie at this stage. Edozie is a player who will grow with us, and is being allowed to do just that. Sulemana is just passing through, that's why I find it hard to have patience with him.

He's been injured for almost 2 years. He may not have officially retired, but he's all but retired in top level terms. Best he can get now is some money thrown at him by Wrexham for 6 months. But he probably does need to hang it up now. Was great for us in the Koeman years, one of our best LB's in the PL era imo.

That was always going to happen, the high 'future fee' advertised in the loan was just to appease some figures/numbers, it was never being activated. We'll probably negotiate an obligation in the region of £20ishm, with a loan deal for one of their wide players thrown in. (if we get promoted, they won't come here if we don't).

I don't think it was recognised as the official one, I've just had a look through and all the official ones have Maatsen at Burnley as the best LB. He certainly did get plaudits last season though, up there in the top 2 or 3. Again, absolutely no idea how. I guess the standard of the league has risen massively this year, but still. Edit: - it was Sky who had him in their team of the season. Think we can discount that then. Left-back: Ryan Manning (Swansea) - 7.26 Rounding off the backline is Swansea star Manning. The 26-year-old returned the joint-third most assists (10) in England's second tier, while no player made more key passes than the Swans full-back (108) in the Championship. As such, Manning deserves his inclusion in the side.

The Derby playoff semi final hit me particularly hard, don't think I went back to work that week. I guess I just knew that it was shit our bust for us that year, and the future was going to be pretty bleak.

90% of his dribbling stats equate to him ending up in a blind ally or in the opposite direction of the opponents goal. Worthless stats. He needs to do way, way more - as has been the case since he signed here for £23m.

But the point was that if the scenario above had played out, which wasn't unthinkable at the time, we would have almost turned over that 11 point deficit - whilst still having to go to their place. Of course there is still automatic promotion to grab and that's still very much the aim of the game, it's just that people saw the chance to win the league - there was a tiny glimmer, and our form and the fact Leeds and Leicester played each other opened the door ajar slightly - as long as we did our job, but we didn't so it's done. I don't think having hope can ever be constituted as having a twattish belief.

At least Luton are making somewhat of a fist of it, more than can be said of the other two promoted sides. It is looking likely that the 3 who came up will be the 3 who go back down, and once again Everton will survive the flush. Has there ever been a situation before where the 3 promoted teams go straight back down, and are replaced by the 3 relegated teams from the year before? It doesn't feel like it's a massively common scenario, but it's a genuine possibility this year.

Just to stick up for those who were starting to think this, it was whilst we were still unbeaten in 25 and had just done Huddersfield. If we (as we all totally expected) had won against Bristol City, WBA and Hull, whilst Leicester dropped points against Boro and Leeds, we'd have gone into the Millwall game on 73 points with a game in hand on them. They'd have still been on 78. Beat Millwall and it was down to 2 points and we were right on their coattails. A week or two ago it wasn't totally unfathomable that this scenario could have played out, but given we've not done our job it's now done and dusted and most will accept that. I don't think there was anything wrong with fans having a bit of hope that there could have been something to grab, certainly no need to now laugh back in the faces of fans of your club.

Not saying it'll be easy at all, still a very tough league. I do think (if it comes to it) we'd sort ourselves out enough to be in the playoff convo.

We aren't very organised I agree, the way individuals are exposed 1-1 is quite frightening. You get lucky against the lesser sides as they don't have the quality to really do anything, but against the better sides playing as high as we do without any real defensive structure is suicidal. You can't rely on just keeping the ball, there are times when teams break the lines and we cannot deal with that. It's not going to change though, this is how we play and we need to find a way to get the better of the good sides by playing that way. The standard of this league is very high this year though, that has to be said. But I don't think we are anywhere near the level of Leeds or Leicester, they're much more complete teams. Leeds defensive stats show that.

I'd take a draw in that game right now if offered tbh, as it stands I cannot see beyond a pretty comprehensive Leeds win. Leicester can absorb 2 defeats given their gap, so they can get back on the trail against QPR the following week. I think Leeds will just want this one too much for Leicester to handle. The two best teams in the league IMO, best this league has probably seen in many years standard wise.

The drop off next season if we fail will be enormous. The following won't be here - THB, Bednarek, KWP, Sulemana, Fraser, Brooks, Adams, S.Armstrong, Rothwell, Downes - and we'll probably get bids which will be hard to turn down for Adam Armstrong (as he will only have a year left). Core of the team next year if we fail will be built around Stephens, Charles, Manning, Mara, Bree, Smallbone, Dibling, SAA - things of nightmares tbh. Of course we'll reinvest and rejuvenate the squad, but there won't be a like for like replacement quality wise. The drop off will be quite steep, but hopefully the league won't be as ridiculous next season standard wise so a playoff push should still be a genuine target.

I'm looking at the next block of 4 - Millwall, Birmingham, Middlesborough and Sunderland - 12 points required from that to keep us within touch, anything less and Leeds will be pulling far away into the horizon and not to be seen again. 100+ points plus for the top 2 this year IMO, which is mental. I think we'll get high 80's, low 90's at best. Not to discredit as in most seasons that is an auto promotion tally and a great season, i.e our last two promotion efforts, but the level required this year is ridiculous and I don't see how we do it with our run and Leeds run. That's how it feels to me right now. The level requires us to be faultless, and we haven't been.

You're talking as if these guys are pampered PL players and have never played at this level. Armstrong, Adams, Downes, THB, Manning, Fraser, Brooks, Stephens, Smallbone, Rothwell have all played regular Championship football in their careers, some as recent as just last season. I don't buy that the players are only used to a PL schedule, that's nonsense.

Like other's have said, the critical element of this tactic when it's countered is the out ball. That's either down the flanks with arcuate passes to the wide players, or over the top to a striker who can hold it and bring others in. If you do that, there's space and things open up. But we were aiming balls at Sam Edozie and Armstrong's head, which was totally the wrong thing - and they were both very, very static in their movement. Mara was the definition of useless in terms of an outlet, so we were pretty much playing with 10 men for that first half and we had no way to get out. The team was full of all the wrong players to be able to execute the counter to the high press.

To sum him up, there was a moment in the second half where Manning was struggling to defend on the left. He got some help and we got a throw in from it. Who helped him? KWP, the RB, who'd run across the field to bail out his left back. You can't be any more inept than that, KWP could have played both positions last night and still been better.