Badger

That Pele bloke, all well and good, but he’s got to master the defensive side of his game and track back more … summary borrowed from I. Branfoot

Agree with this, but problem is that we effectively take off the players who look to move the ball forward and our attacking threat has gone. We end up camped in our own half. I don’t think Aribo and Romeu offered anything going forward in their time on the pitch. Robinson and Archer were a pale imitation of Scienza and AA. Robinson seemed to try and take on one player too many or run himself into trouble. You and I have covered our differing views on Archer on his own thread so won’t dwell on it here, but to his credit he did seem to stretch Birm with his pace (but it petered out with his finishing). Hoping Tonda might have better options once injuries clear, and possibly in January window.

Should he ?? As I saw it on their video the ref let the play flow, the fouled player passed or released the ball to a teammate - at this point he’d played the advantage - but the player receiving the ball was then tackled. Should he stop the game at this point, and call it back for their free kick, or is it a second or separate phase of the game ? Perhaps the Brum fans think he should have played on, but then brought it back for their free kick if they didn’t eventually score from it.

Agree with you totally we just allow the opponents to take the initiative and come on to us. The MF seem to retreat and we have taken off the main attacking outlets (although we did still create a couple of breakaway chances to put the game to bed). Credit to the defence though there was no shortage of blocks going in and throwing bodies in front of shots. May not seem a lot, but much improved over the last couple of years.

Okay, let’s revisit this one in a few months.

Gets my vote. But please don’t lose.

Last league game at Goodison, first FA Cup tie at Hill Dickinson perhaps

Wonder if Tonda will look to bring in any coaches to support him, possibly from previous clubs he’s worked at. Or if he’ll be allowed to. The roles may already be permanently filled from his U21 colleagues, but not sure if others have been put in place to assist Lallana.

Panto season. Auditioning for Robin Hood: men in tights

Hoping for somewhere new, that we might expect to get a ticket. So not Weston super Mare away. But it’ll probably be Palace.

Bit of a contrast to Strachan ball juggling on the touchline when it went out of play once.

Is that such a surprise ?

Are they the short skirted cheerleaders who drop the pom poms and each other in the pitchside rituals before the game ?

I recall Hoddle raved about him whilst he was at Saints.

Plus two good saves from Scienza first half.

Might depend what league we’re in.

Question for those criticising goalkeeper performances -and NOT Bazunu specific. If you’re a Birmingham fan do you come away from yesterday raging about their GK and conceding the second, or praising him for preventing it being 5 or 6 ?

Also credit to Bazunu for his impromptu save with his feet in the second half from a deflected shot. Good reflex and thinking. The other side of that coin though is that in the ground I thought ‘thank Christ it took a deflection and he didn’t have to use his hands’.

I’m by no means one of Bazunu’s fans but certainly at the match I didn’t think he was at fault for their goal yesterday. It was accurate and struck with power, sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition. I haven’t seen the goal on highlights though, so perhaps someone will point out his positioning, or slow moving on his feet, but from the ground it didn’t look one to pin on him.

Might also add Channon being given a free transfer from his second stint at the club. He carried on playing for a couple of seasons after. Won the League Cup at Norwich. I doubt we’d have released him had we known Keegan was intent on leaving later that summer.

Thought provoking thread. For me, going back years, Chris Nichol as manager. I and many others thought he’d taken us as far as he could, and perhaps he was holding the club back. No one of course ever imagined how it could rapidly go downhill and also give up on playing style when Branfoot was appointed.

Think you’re probably right. I’m surprised some are enthused by his performance yesterday. In fairness he did bring a bit of needle to the game from a local West Midlands grievance and more willingness to run than often seen but no surprise he ballsed up his decent chance which his pace had helped create. Didn’t do enough to take himself out of the ‘waste of money, waste of space’ category in my book.

I’d expect a bit more for the money we spent, than his only redeeming feature being “better option off the bench than Downs”.

Isn’t that a reflection on the players and subs he has available to him rather than Tonda ? Although bringing Aribo on is a very poor choice after last week

Played some great stuff at times. Some of the Scienza, AA, Azaz, Jander and Fellows play exceptional. Fellows unlucky hitting the bar but then seemed to snatch at his chances later. Unfortuately the subs made us weaker with each introduction. That’s down to the squad recruitment by others rather than TE.