bugenhagen

Sensible and thoughtful post, but sadly, none of the observations and potential solutions will happen or change. There is no hope. That’s what really hurts…

The same useless pricks that gave Stephens a new contract? Yeah, they’ll sort it out by giving Baz a shiny new one… 4 more years! 4 more years!

This is what I see every game.

This was always going to happen. It was pretty easy to see. We had a spell where we scored on every chance, and played crap in second halves, but got away with it. That was never going to last. Today is the blueprint for the rest of the season, not the Charlton game.

That is my problem with this as well. I understand his reasoning, but the three moron brothers are just prancing around marking thin air, so there is no benefit in the end.

The club like things and trends that are hip and new. Stats are probably on the way out, and the Black Box was a Les Reed thing... sooo old

There is no need to argue about this... Our first choice goalkeeper should be better than Bazunu or McCarthy, one of them should at most be our backup GK, and the other should be third (or if we got rid of one, Long is probably OK as number 3). The only pointless thing here is the responses from MLG...

Agree that he won't retire, but we can not have him on our books next season in any capacity. He would never be seen as a "bonus player" if fit, the club would once again plan on him staying fit, he takes up a place, and we again miss out on a real option.

Not to worry, we have shoehorn!

Be kind 😉 What really happened was that Archer went up top, pushed Armstrong to the right, and Azaz stepped deeper into midfield. It is more attacking players in certian roles, but we did not really change the genereal shape. What often happened was that Azaz was more on the left, pushing higher than Downes on the right, and THB often pushed up into the same space as Downes was in.

Woolfenden and Labitabidabida? 😉

I agree with the point you are trying to make about our defenders, but starting out with "It makes absolutely no difference who is in goal" is a little over the top. A better keeper, more commanding of his area, would help our fragile defence. It won't fix it, but it would be a big help, and it could potentially clean up a couple of the mistakes they make.

This is very true, but with our squad, goalkeepers and defenders particularly, it might be an easier task to get the forward line scoring as he has done. We will never be hard to beat with this team, but if we often go 3-0 up, a lot of the teams in this division won't have it in them to get back in the game. Can we get better defensivly, absolutely! But I think in the short term, Tonda had the right idea about how to get points on the board. The interesting thing is to see how he now develops the team and his tactics.

It made me think of the interview with Strachan the other week, about the point that he got us in such good shape, where his respons was something like: "The players weren't that fit, but we made them believe they were". The power of suggestion...

Yeah, but that doesn't sound like us, now does it?