Saint Pete

Fifa have done their best to make it impossible for the big nations to not make it to the World Cup Finals so that would be some feat if Italy don't make it! 🤣

Italy struggling in playoffs v Bosnia. Down to 10 men, heading for penalties.

Yes, agree they looked good. Asian teams have done very well in World Cups previously (Japan, Korea) so not sure why people think we should roll them over easily when we are missing probably our 3 best players in Kane, Rice, Saka?

Yep, shame Watkins not available as we needed another proper striker if Kane not there, but I think Tuchel probably thought Calvert-Lewin and Solanke were not up to it at this level (rightly) so he tried something different with the false 9 thing. Didn't work out so reckon we will rely on Kane and Watkins in the final squad assuming they are both fit. It's only a friendly so not too bothered, we will be a lot better with Kane, Rice, etc back in the team.

I'm all for trying players but the ones I mentioned have been around for some time and we know enough about them to know they aren't players who will challenge to be in a World Cup winning side. In my opinion of course! Happy to see the likes of Trafford and Livramento getting a chance.

I think Tuchel's done a very decent job as manager so far, but don't really get the selection tonight. I know it's a friendly so experimental, but Spence, Solanke, Henderson, Calvert-Lewin? Surely it's obvious these guys will/should be nowhere near selection for the WC finals squad so why pick them?

Forest 1 up at half time! 😂

Wow, great to see Russell 2.0 doing so well at Chelsea! 😀 And I see Everton now 7th in the as it stands table under Moyes. Wet Spam fans must be so proud of helping hound him out of their club, they are so much better off without him. 🤣🤣

Didn't see the game today but just saw the goals. Shea Charles, wow take a bow son, that was a proper wonder goal! Le Tiss would have been proud of that strike I think iin his heyday. And good to see Fellows with the assist for the 1st, shame he couldn't have scored with the rebound chance at the end. Still feel he could be an important player in the run in if we can get him confident again.

Still easily strong enough to tear us a new one if they turn up when you look at that!!

Gone Sailing.

Comparisons with Baz are surely appropriate to discuss, aren't they? If as you say, Peretz will do in the Championship, that already puts him significantly above Baz, otherwise we wouldn't have (belatedly) got shot of him, would we?

Pretty mad results all round this weekend. Top 3 at start of play were all at home and only 1 point between them! And out of top 6, only Ipswich and Wrexham got the 3 points in spite of 4 out of 6 being at home. Just goes to show looking at remaining fixtures and who teams are facing doesn't always matter so much in such a competitive league, anything can happen! We just need to focus on ourselves and keep picking up the points. 👍

Disagree. We are 6 points off them now with a game in hand. Definitely catchable with this many games left! That result at West Brom today puts our point their in perspective, not such a bad result after all?!

It's great to see and hear Downes enjoying his football again and producing performances we know he is well capable of at this level. He should be a key player in any team in this league with his qualities and Tonda has got him back to that so fair play to him for that.

Didn't get to see the match today but sounds like a great away performance, particularly given it was without 2 key players in Scienza and Stewart. Well done Tonda and the boys! 4 points from the 2 away games this week now looking a good return keeping us well in the mix with 2 home games to come 👍

Anyone know any more about why Stewart came off at half time? The OS mentions that both Scienza and Ross will need to be assessed in the coming days, but doesn't say anything further about nature of any injury?

On reflection, I'm not too despondent about coming away with a point last night. It always had the look of the kind of game that we struggle with and I hope it will be a timely reminder to the players and manager that they need to be on it in every game in the run-in irrespective of the apparent merits of the opposition. There are literally no easy games in this league unless you earn the right. I'm pretty confident we will see a much improved display at the weekend against a team that will look to dominate us, although of course Coventry are flying so will be a difficult challenge.

Maybe "meaningless" was the wrong word, but others have used the term "nothing games". Reality is there would be an awful lot more nothing games without the lure of the play offs in the last quarter of the season. If entertainment is a factor (which I think most people would say it is when we give up several hours of our time each week to watch matches) then surely it is more entertaining when there is some prospect of a meaningful outcome? The other reality would be that you would see a lot more teams with an "on the beach already" mentality in the last 10 games, and see more teams fielding weakened line ups once it's not feasible for them to achieve a top 3 place. This then would transmit to the fans having a more "who cares" attitude to matches. And I don't think it's fair to call fans "stupid" for wanting to watch their teams achieve a higher placing and potential promotion. I take it you boycotted the last few games of 2023-24 championship season and subsequent play-off semis and final that saw us go up with a win at Wembley after finishing 4th unlike the stupid fans who went and enjoyed it? That said, I disagree with extending play-off down to 8th place, a step too far. Current system is fine, if anything could be adapted to give the higher teams more advantage.

Would take any of Leeds, West Ham/Brentford or Port Vale, preferably at home. Probably won't happen though!

You can't compare leagues directly like that and assume he would score the same here. From what I saw of him, I don't believe he would have scored 18 in the Championship. But what I do know is we should have been signing a decent big man up front for this season in his place. I guess Downs was meant to be that but clearly not up to the job.

Got to say, I love to see the likes of West Ham and Spurs struggling like this! Mainly because their fans are so entitled, no manager is ever good enough for them as they think they should be winning the league, trophies etc. They deserve and are partly responsible for what's happening now, although they are far too pig headed to ever admit to that!

For the clubs it may be about money, but don't discount the impact of the play offs on a huge amount of fans. It keeps our interest to the latter end of the season, our current position in the table is a great example of that. Yes, it would be fairer if the top 3 teams went up, but personally I prefer a play off system to consigning the vast majority of games in the last quarter of the season to be meaningless.

This is the purist view of course. But you surely have to acknowledge that in a 24 team league the play offs do add a lot in terms of keeping the the last 10-15 games of every season interesting for a lot more clubs and their fans? Would we be giving a flying f*ck about the rest of the season now and monitoring the league table each game if it weren't for the play-offs?

Ramsdale brilliant saves tonight, hopefully get us a couple of extra million when he goes permanently?