shurlock

Everyone’s got a price Charlie, especially a player like JWP who’s not indispensable.

We’ve looked poor whenever we’ve played 4-2-2-2. Not only have our CBs been exposed but we’ve been run ragged in midfield.

Welcome back pal - was worried that ALWAYS had you locked up in his dungeon after pm’ing you all those pics and meetup requests. But looks like you’re fine. Hope you’ll be sticking around for a busy window and sharing any news.

Wee Ross has learnt well from Les.

Wolves away IIRC.

Scousers complaining about luck as if the blatant pen never happened.

All set up for scouse heartbreak.

How about the people who rated Pelle but have their doubts about Ings, my poundshop moral crusader?

Targett not a defender too?

Had a good game. Far from the finished article but has come on leaps and bounds since he first featured. The speed of his improvement is what makes him a genuinely exciting prospect compared to some of our academy products.

That’s the one

To be fair, our lovable little bumpkin cousins have a point -we were pretty tinpot today. Still, Charlie Austin could have spent 90mins in the corner and it sill wouldn’t have beaten their que sera sera, we’re going to st.marys chant in the tinpottery stakes. Cretins.

All eyes on you now Goa.

Lay off the glue pal. Tad early to proclaim half of those players as top 10 players.

How tinpot - Austin trying to waste time at home to Bournemouth.

Excellent play Valery.

Enjoy the game. Life’s too short pal.

Yep, though Targett and Valery are further forward and closer to the midfield. But I agree - still think we’re missing something in central midfield.

We’ve gone to a back 3 (or 5 if you want) with Bertrand moving to CB.

Lemina for Long or Ings would balance things in midfield.

Shance’s description of Mané is still gold - something along the lines of having all the grace of Titus Bramble trying to nutmeg and Messi someone.

You're missing the point. We don't necessarily need a goalscorer, though that would be ideal. We need a fresh pair of legs who can occupy and keep central defenders honest - whether that's in the air or as RH prefers in behind them. Long has showed he can do a job of sorts in that role and he's not a goalscorer. The problem is that we don't really have an alternative once we sub the main striker. We've tried Sims, Obafemi, Austin, Redmond and Gallagher who've either come up short, got injured or are not suited to the role. When Ings is healthy, we can bring on Long; but that's not something we've been able to count on -and even if we could count on Ings, frankly we can improve on Long.

V. interesting thanks - can't remember how many total points we've lost from a winning position this season and whether those figures are net of the points we've gained but RH's record seems better than Hughes. Not sure how it compares with the rest of the league averaged out a season.

Apart from oddly leaving out the Cardiff game (why not leave his first few games as he would have similarly had a limited effect on them as well), I think the question -and the more interesting one- is how many points from winning positions/late goals have we thrown away or conceded under RH?

I think it puts us 11th (if you include the Cardiff game) and we're as close to 15th as we are to 8th. It's also the case that our form under RH has slightly dipped over time (if you compare his first 10 games with the last 10 games). The bigger point is that RH has stabilised us and we're no longer in that group of clubs that finds itself cut from the rest early on and dragged into a dogfight. This should continue next season; but beyond that I wouldn't read too much into things and get carried away with our prospects just yet.