Smirking_Saint

Different league, different manager

We looked much more assured and assertive with 5 atb, I know many don’t like the system, even I don’t like the system, but it does allow for a lot of tactical flexibility and Will Still has fallen back on it a lot in France If we are without Tyler and Fernandes than this makes the most sense for me, if by a miracle they’re both still here than we’ll almost certainly incorporate them in either a 4231 or a 532

Mental, didn’t think their music was that shit

Yeah I can’t imagine he is… only really as an emergency No.10 His legs have gone imo

I think Wellington looks a much brighter player than Manning, Sesay looked ok but raw, Robinson looks a must start. We desperately need back up to Charles (who looks twice the player we had last Champ outing) and Downes and a No.10

We’re a better team than Wrexham, lets be real Ipswich will be a test but im confident we’ll have a closer version of a team this year by then

Its bed wetting, the front line is fine, midfield will have Downes back, it wouldn’t surprise me if we start with either MF or TD The defence is fine, im no Stephens fan but he’s probably better ok at this level and we have THB and Edwards Baz/McCarthy despite soggy knickers are mid table quality, we probably could do with an improvement but its not disastrous Its bed wetting We all know we can’t buy until we sell, we aren’t getting a winger/No.10 until we sell MF/TD because whats the point

Plenty of bed wetting on here today

He pushed the SR bid because it was the best bid, its been outlined on here and online that other bids were nowhere near as rounded as the SR bid Semmens managed to talk himself in and out of a position on the SR board by being pretty useless in the first window, convincing us to keep Ralph, costing us targets and subsequently arguing with SR about strategy But yes, the club was in decline under Gao, we were lucky we weren’t relegated under that ownership as I don’t think we’d even be as competitive as we are now

Pretty much… basically the trend will be strengthening as much as you can in the prem years so you can bounce back in the relegation years and ‘hopefully’ rebound, then wait for a prem club implosion, this year could be Brentfords Something does have to change though, there is basically now being created a huge divide in the Champ, despite everyone pissing their knickers, us, Leicester and Ipswich… even Sheff Utd are streets ahead of the chasing pack and it’ll be the same next year when Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland drop Im realy not sure where football goes from here tbh… Liverpool able to spend effectively a promoted clubs allowable PSR budget on 1 player, and likely twice is laughable

As do the bookies….

Completely differing reasons, if its ‘just us’ why have none of the other relegated clubs started splashing the cash ?

To be fair, he was more involved last year, although should never have been in that position and without knowing it completely Id imagine that was more of a Kraft/Rasmus idea considering one got sacked and one sidelined

Well that sucks or maybe not I guess

You’ll never guess what guys… Eve’s eaten the bloody apple

Exactly this Good god this forum is hard work to read, reality is if we lined up right now, despite the differences in ours and Wrexhams transfer activity we STILL have a better team on paper Despite everyone thinking Archer is completely toothless, the bookies STILL have him as top scored favourite, or there abouts We’ll spend when we know the make up of the squad, every season we get the same ‘buy early’ clap trap, and every season we don’t, its as if clubs strategise later buys to ensure they get the best deals I simply can’t judge where we are until the end of the transfer window, but as it stands, we’re ‘rightly’ favourites for autos along with Ipswich

They wouldn’t of done, if their demands were met And that’s exactly the position that we’re in right now, and as such Id be angry if we hadn’t set out a demand that doesn’t suit the players ability and importance, and that I feel we have. If we get 80m+ combined for MF and TD thats good business Im not 100% on how PSR works but I’d imagine because of it there’s a requirement to plug the 60-100m hole in turnover or else it impacts what we can spend next year… its a shit system designed to keep non top 6 traditionalists non competitive but its a set of rules we have to abide by unfortunately

Probably a bad choice of words on my part because I agree we definitely weren’t safe… I should of said we played primarily to maintain possession first

It was an ok system, based on a tactical model that has now been found to he outdated and even Pep is having to re invent himself It, imo had positives and negatives, it allowed us to build up immense pressure on back lines that sat deep, but was, as we saw against better sides both in the. champ and prem, relatively easy to exploit if you had quick and effective counters The point is, we’ll have to work hard to undo the auto mechanisms coached into players to make them look for safety before opportunity

I think THB is the closest to it, JWP was ok but more of a consistent grafter rather than inspirer on the pitch But yeah… we’re definitely missing somebody

My main issue is leadership really, we’ve been really lacking there since Fonte left, and I don’t buy into Stephens being the answer to that, but Im not going down that debate again Ultimately I want to see a change in two personality areas, one, we HAVE to become more resilient, we have had a real tendancy to completely fold under pressure over the last 4-5 years and as such need pitch leaders to change that Secondly is what you touched on, Russell apent a lot of time training certain characteristics into the side, and it will take time to coach that out of them, but overall we need to become less risk averse and, especially at this level, assert our dominance on the opposition with actual progressive action, not just possession for possession sake

I do think ots a difficult balancing act really, spend bug money now and we likely have to re arm with less funds if we go up Don’t spend in key areas and we risk not getting promoted I do think both us and Ipswich go up in the autos though, we just look stronger than the rest on paper Tough position for the club really

Stewart or Downs can hold the ball up, Id imagine its why Downs has been brought in System wise, I do agree with you and @hypochondriac, Im just suggesting we’re not in as dire position as many may think. As it stands, Fernandes and Dibling are here, the club has said it wants more creativity, so I’d imagine we’ll get that as well as replacing TD or MF is necessary We scored 6 goals in pre season largely without MF, TD or DD AND playing RF at No.10…. Not that I’m too concerned with pre season form anyway Im sure we’ll be ok

Im at odds at this frankly.. Armstrong - 30+ G/A last EFL season Archer - 18 goals last EFL season bookies top goal scorer favourite BBD - 22 and 14 for blackburn in the EFL Stewart - 36/70 for Sunderland (albeit league 1) Dibling/Fernandes/Robinson - The former two looked largely excellent in the prem, with a slight TD drop off and JR has been excellent so far in pre season Downs is an unknown quantity, and of course we could lose people, but we aren’t in the premier league anymore, even if the above output is halved I think we have more than enough… do we have to build on the above ? Of course But I really don’t think, comparative to other squads we are in bad shape at all… we can afford to ‘wait’ for the right targets, where as the likes of Brum and Wrexham, as good as their recruitment looks, cannot