HarvSFC

Seen it discussed in here also, but Alfie House has been quite outspoken on Twitter this evening. As outspoken as a person in his role can be. Pretty much confirming what all of us on the outside looking in believed to be the case. He says there's a "rotten" culture, created by the players that needs to be reset and that there's a clique amongst the squad that needs to go for us to be successful. Doesn't outrightly name the worst offenders, but does imply that Armstrong's a part of it, while stating the only players we should look to keep this summer are Charles, Jander, Fellows, Azaz, Scienza, Robinson, Armstrong (Without the others), Quarshie, Edwards, Wood, Roerslev and Bragg (in a follow up Tweet). So, you can assume a lot of the unnamed players are a part of the damaging culture within the club. This is from someone who has a lot of access to the inner workings of the club. Goes on the pre-season tours, etc. I hate the current inflexible setup as much as the next person. But, also know we'd get beaten routinely playing any formation with the half hearted performances the players have been putting in the last month and then the management will use it as an excuse to say they tried a back four, it didn't work, so will further solidify the want for a back three. Also reiterates what we all said in the summer. The team showed no fight last season, they were very close to all being tarnished with being the worst Premier League side of all time and not even that could motivate them. They couldn't even motivate themselves to put in a performance for the Portsmouth home game earlier this season. The standards across the club are at all time low once more and Jack Stephens is not the amazing leader nor captain that the hierarchy tried to gaslight us into thinking he was and deserving of the new contract.

My issue is, is that this run of fixtures has been quite favourable. We've seemingly faced teams at the right time, out of form, like us and been outclassed and outthought each time with little to shout about. Norwich - 23rd in the league and if not for Sheffield Wednesday would have been bottom, won 1 of their previous 16 before we rocked up. They did have a new manager bounce, but they're still only 22nd now. We should be beating them, yet they saw us off comfortably, Manning's goal gave us some hope, but Norwich won deservedly. Coventry - Top of the league, yet they've suffered recently. 2 wins from their last 8 and played 40 minutes against us with 10 men. Yet, again, we didn't do enough to win the match and didn't test Rushworth or create enough chances to beat them. Oxford - Sacked their manager days before we played. Against another amateur manager in Craig Short, who hasn't had a full time managerial job since 2010. They've suffered 2 defeats from 2 games since playing us, they've lost 5 of their last 7. They've won 2 of their last 13. Really poor result. Birmingham - ANOTHER out of form side? Surely not. Today was their first win in 8 games. They've lost 4 of those 8. Yet, we went up there and gave them the run of the park. If not for Kyogo's misses they beat us comfortably. Millwall - The theme is still going. With today's results Millwall have won 2 from 7. They have an old school manager in Alex Neil and he's done Tonda twice. Can't remember us having a shot on target against them in the second half at home while Bazunu did the unthinkable. Middlesbrough - On a run of 3 losses from 4. Hadn't scored in any of those fixtures. So, up rolls the Southampton charity club. Smashed us 4-0 to reignite their season. Adding context to this run makes it a lot more bleak than it actually is. We aren't losing every week to in form Premier League side's with millions of pounds pumped into their squads anymore. We're losing comfortably to Championship side's on bad run's with a fraction of the resources we have available.

Embarrassing, and we've been heading towards a thrashing since the first half against West Brom, six games ago and nothing's improving. Portsmouth is the only thing left to play for this season and in this current state we're going to get embarrassed there too. Abysmal from top to bottom. Yet another experiment that has gone terribly wrong. Gambler's fallacy with SR, though. They'll believe they'll strike gold on the next rookie appointment.

Wish Manning would pick up a red.

Poor CV, no top club experience, no playing career. Areas where Eckert is also lacking in, so doesn't make up in that area. Another one who won't inspire or motivate the players to listen.

Fraser Forster going to Bournemouth.

How Joe Shields got picked up by Chelsea after a scattergun summer here and remains in position always astounds me.

90 minutes wasted. We tried the same move over and over again. 10 passes between our backline, Millwall aren't getting pulled out of position, so we resort to hoofing one up to no one, Millwall get the ball back with ease and start a threatening attack. Even without the ball our players just jockey slowly, not really applying any pressure or threatening to put a challenge in to win the ball back. The opposition force us into far more errors than we do the other way. Said on Monday that Birmingham are in poor form, haven't won any of their last 7, we made them look good and they got trounced by Watford today. That wasn't a good result and these performances are way below standards, again. Archer really does hate Birmingham on that note. Only turned up for two games this season, Birmingham home and away. Our best attackers are Fellows - Azaz - Scienza with Armstrong in front of them. That should be the starting front four every week. But, like with Still for whatever reason we're rarely seeing them all on the pitch together. I thought Matsuki was fine today, but no reason why Fellows shouldn't have been in that position with Jelert playing as the right wing-back. Whatever the formation anyway, we're not beating anyone with the lack of intensity that we showed today. This is starting to feel like the form an individual brilliance of Scienza and Fellows got Eckert those early points. They flagged in second halves and so did our performances. Now Scienza's off form and Fellows is returning from injury we don't have a clue. Another SR masterstroke?

I suppose the subs did make a good impression on Monday, so rewarded with starts.

It's an interesting one. The lack of game time obviously a red flag. But, if Hamburg have a secure number one then it's hard for a goalkeeper to work their way in, as Ramsdale is discovering at Newcastle. His previous performances also attracted Bayern Munich to him, obviously as the backup to Neuer, but he has shown he has something about him to make an elite club sign him. Our signings of the elite clubs squad players has served us well previously, before we went hunting in their youth teams. Just have to hope the club's knowledge of German football is bringing in another Scienza/Jander, rather than a Downs. And if the club have identified someone worse than Bazunu and McCarthy, like Long, then that will be impressive in itself.

Well, you called it. Take off a centre-back. Three of them on the pitch when chasing a goal, every week and it doesn't change anything, funnily enough.

Beadle made a good save from THB right after half time, they score. Every week we're asking how our players miss chances. Because the opposition goalkeeper's are actually able to pull off good saves and our lot are training against a mannequin all week...

Standards have dropped right off in the last few games and so far Eckert's shown he's been unable to get them back. The team earlier in the month showed what they're capable of playing, but they need strong leadership to ensure those levels are maintained, but they seem to have reverted back to their comfort zones. A much stronger second half needed. Fellows is our dangerman at the minute, get Scienza on the other side.

Birmingham have only won 1 of their last 7, losing 3. Including our form team seeing them off fairly easily. They haven't got Gray tonight and their manager must also be getting pressure on him now given the money spent. They may be coming into this match in a worse state than us, so hopefully we actually turn up.

Giving Scienza 30 minutes so that he can play on New Years Day..... 🤔