Smirking_Saint

Ive slept on it… overall Im not dissapointed we lost, I was expecting it, Spurs are a good outfit.. but the manner of the loss ? Ive never been Ralph out, but there is just too many issues that we can disect; Djenepo… ok, he looked offensively good in pre season but even then we saw he struggles to defend with any ability at all, fails to read the play, mark a man or tackle with any strength.. so what is he doing at LWB against a team that plays high attacking WBs and Kulu/Son ? Especially with a recognised LB on the bench A Armstrong… ok he needs minutes, but he is almost certainly not a lone striker, we have that on thr bench in Che Adams and AA showed he wasn’t up to the task, effectively went missing for 60 minutes. And then to bring Stu Armstrong on upfront ? S Armstrong - Arguably one of our better attacking players, fans like him, ralph likes him.. doesn’t mean you need to press gang him into a side as a striker, either play a tactic that accommodates him or accept he doesn’t fit Valery - I thought he had a decent pre season tbf, but lets be frank, we have 6 other senior CBs in the club, there’s no reason to be starting 352 - It just doesn’t work, its a formation that needs significant tactical training to be familiar with and CBs really need to trust each other, because otherwise you get a lack of anyone taking responsibility at the right times, and we saw that yesterday. We also play it SO aggressively, often camped on the edge of the opposing box, and push both wide CBs forward too.. its asking for breakaway goals and we saw that Mental fragility - A theme Ive seen with us for years, maybe an issue with youth, maybe a lack of real leaders… I just don’t know anymore but we capitulate when the game goes against us, there is zero fight in this squad, zero.. Im not even sure how you begin to address that effectively Im still optimistic we’ll be ok, we should have more incoming, we should have more than those below us, but yesterday was worrying to say the least, we don’t seem to have learned anything since last year On the plus side Lavia was very good, but yeah.. thats it really

Ahh lovely… still fucking useless at the back then

Lovely… nearly an own goal… not sure where Bazunu thought he was going or why Bednarek played it without looking

It’ll be 352/541 yes because thats how the transition works, Aribo will drop in on Hojbjerg out of possession I imagine in order to try to stop him passing the ball (although having seen him play it may be better to just let him) I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Bednarek isn’t as horrible a defender as people say, I certainly prefer him overall to Stephens/Lyanco though ABK will end up in his place I imagine Generally speaking we looked so bad towards the end of last season because we insisted on carrying on this gung ho full press approach despite a lack of stamina and generally it was half arsed… hence we had no cover infront of our CBs and only some FF wizardry kept our heads above water

Stephens is more versatile then Lyanco… snd how exactly is it depressing? We were always going to play 352 and we know we look light at LB/up top

That looks a 352 to me with Aribo alongside Armstrong… not sure what Adams has done to be benched, but Im assuming Ralph is looking to play a more solid system and try to win on the break Im not holding HUGE hope today but hopefully we can steal a draw… I just want us to be as committed as we were at the start of the season and not as lost as we were towards the end MOST importantly I want us, if we go 1-0 to hold our heads and not capitulate ————-Bazunu————- — Valery —Bednarek—-Salisu KWP—————————-Djenepo ——Romeu - Lavia- —JWP—— ————Aribo—————— —————-Armstrong————

Yeah Im not getting upset about it, we’ve signed kids so far and our end of season form was terrible Its a pretty comfortable take to say we’d be relegated

Undav is in the same calibre as Pelle, thats my point.. Haller was the Eiredivisie top scorer before and after the WHU move and still looked awful in the prem..anyway we’re going round in circles so Im not going to carry on this argument but my point is/was the only proven strikers at our level are Ings/Austin (with injury issues potentially) and like you say.. Lambert in our high spending League 1 days. Obviously Id rather Pellè than Carillo… anybody could see that was a car crash from about 20 mins into his debut

Ralph has until November, if it’s not looking good we have a couple of replacements in mind and will strengthen in January if necessary SR don’t want a relegation as it effectively nukes their club model plans

Undav has 47 goal contributions in his last 63 games, would you be happy starting the season with him ? Also Ricky was a different animal, we were a league 1 team and signed a very good league 1 striker… that’s entirely different to a prem team taking a punt on a Eiredivisie striker (who turned out to be excellent)

We’ve been over this, he hadn’t done anything anywhere except for one good season in the Eiredivisie who, in general, are only performing against defenders comparative to League1/2 outside of about 2/3 teams… he wasn’t in European competition to judge either He was hardly proven and thats a hill Ill die on… again, the only ‘proven’ strikers we’ve signed in recent memory was Ings/Austin… both with significant injury worries As per our potential signings. We don’t really know how seriously we persued Delap or Broja but clearly we feel there’s potentially more value elsewhere.. im comfortable with that as long as a striker is incoming before September

He is more one that turned out great rather than one that came in as a top player

Fulham, Bournemouth, Forest all pretty much odds on to drop I have no faith in Brentford, Leeds, Everton and even Brighton/Leicester could be sucked in… Brighton as they’ve been weakened and Leicester genuinely look in disarray when you delve into their off field issues

I can go along with that… I think we might have ‘enough’ at CB at a push now, Valery looked very good at RCB and I don’t think Bednarek will be ‘as bad’ as he was last year… more importantly I think our issues were exaggerated by our late season tactics within which we were still gung ho despite playing a half arsed press which effectively meant when the ball ‘broke’ our back 2/3 were up against it with the rest of the team engaged at the top of the pitch… I hope we’ve learnt from that We do definitely need another striker though, and Im a little dissapointed he isn’t here yet But I’m optimistic enough to look at this squad and realise we have more, imo, then the bottom 3/4

This is exactly what I was told btw

He looked very good in Belgium to be fair to him, but it’ll remain to be seen if he can replicate that same form in the premier league really Id say their squad is steady, but nothing spectacular. Its well stewarded by Potter but after losing Bissouma and Cucu Id say they are significantly weaker. Its worth noting too that they did well off the back of Maupay/Trossard early/mid season form and from memory (purely memory so apologies if this is wrong) but it feels like last was maupays/trossards best seasonal return and Im not sure they have the consistency to do it again Of course with 100m ready to go they could look very different in a couple of weeks but they have a lot to do in the market

Without Adams we’d of got relegated Without JWP we’d of got relegated If we only played the second half of the season we’d of been relegated All pointless statements really Point is…. Che statistically had a better season than Broja and factually what you said was bollocks

Their squad is looking very very thin though to be honest, I don’t ‘think’ they’ll be relegated but Im not convinced they’ll do much Maupay and Undav are meh… their midfield has a huge Bissouma shaped hole, Trossards form tailed off last year.. defensively they’re ok I suppose and yeah Colwill should do well but as a club… unless they make signings quickly, they look like they’re going backwards

I mean… he didn’t but don’t let the facts get in the way of hyperbole

To put it simply, from watching, Che looked as though he was still busting a gut where as Broja looked like he couldn’t be arsed As for Broja swapping with Che… as on RIGHT NOW, not taking into account any potential then no, I think it majes us overall weaker

I have a feeling it’ll be Delap or Broja tbh Id be genuinely happy with any of them, but do very much like the overall feel of Kalajdzic

I think they did work, to a point, but he again went missing towards the end of the season I do like Broja and I certainly wouldn’t mind him back but not at 30m… I think there is better out there for that, for instance Scamacca was around that price point and likely Sesko or Kalajdzic Broja is good on the ball, strong and direct but Ill stand by what I said, when he wasn’t scoring he didn’t offer much else, he posted no assists and he didn’t have as good a workrate as Che and certainly wasn’t as good at holding up play… thats what I meant by it

Im not sure he was ever the Ings replacement, I think that was Adam Armstrong… who on the face of it seemed a good fit Adams plays as I expected him too really, he triggers the press well, makes good runs and tbf to him does get into scoring positions but too often hits the keeper, not sure if he can work on that or not or he just gets unlucky but I like him and he isn’t the obvious striker that, for me, needs replacing… you rarely have 2 striker systems within which both score 10+ goals anyway, and Che plays well as the support striker here This is my point, if we sell Che for Broja… then he has no support.. Armstrong isn’t that player, Adams would almost definitely be the guy who partners him, like this year… besides, Broja managed 6 in 32, hardly prolific, Im not completely convinced by him ‘yet’ I don’t think the club need to raise funds for the striker ranks, and I think if necessary those funds would need to come from elsewhere.. it hardly seems sensible selling a striker to sign a replacement in a position we already need another body, does selling Che to sign 2 make sense ? Maybe it does in which case we’ll see Likewise I don’t see selling KWP to sign a striker is a particularly good idea either considering he is our 2nd best attacking outlet and we’ll then likely need to sign a further 2 FBs

He scored 7 goals last year and provided 3 assists in the prem Conversely Broja had 6 goals and 0 assists I somewhat agree that Broja may well have a higher ceiling, but this isnt FM and it certainly isn’t as guaranteed as many believe. Overall Che’s game is stronger than Broja, because when he isn’t converting chances he is harrying opposition, providing an outlet and general being a very good foil Broja, from what Ive seen offers goals and little else really, to the point early season Ralph made a point of calling him out for not working hard enough and then late season he again went missing So yes… I find it baffling… almost as baffling as saying Che’s career has ‘waned’ here which doesn’t really make sense but I see that’s been addressed by Psycrow Out of interest… if we get 20m for Che who do you propose we replace him with that holds similar attributes?

Completely agree… but que the people saying they’d rather have Broja despite Che having a better season and overall being a better player right now It’s baffling