Lighthouse

I'm surprised he's not on the bench, given that we seem to be going without CB cover at all recently, but in all honesty he's a young League 1 defender and we're in no position to be giving people a run out just for experience. Ultimately I think this is just an avatar for our absolute sh*t show of a recruitment strategy in summer. We knew our squad was nowhere near PL quality in the summer, needed major reinforcement and after seven games we've got Wood, Edwards, Lallana, Diaz, Les, Taylor and Archer all NOT starting. Ever single player we signed should have been better than what we had and gone straight into the starting XI. We already had enough Championship quality 'options', now we've got nearly thirty.

That just isn’t true, it’s something that people say all the time and then immediately forget if it doesn’t happen. We beat West Brom home and away last year, so obviously they were, “due a win,” against us in the playoffs, likewise Leeds in the final. Etc.

You realise that you do actually need a decent manager to make it work like that? If you want to email Man City and inform them that they’re wasting millions a year on Pep’s wages, because their squad and budget ‘dictate’ that they’ll win the league anyway, then be my guest.

Why would it have been an inevitable result, but it’s not an inevitable result that we’ll get our first win against them?

Except that’s not true, Tadic put in a large number of superb performances on the left and the central role was usually occupied (superbly I might add) by Steven Davis.

And yet we got enough points for promotion and we’re unbeaten against the other three playoff teams, with 6 wins and 3 draws.

Who would you prefer to have lost against?

Don’t get me wrong, this persona we’ve created on the internet of ‘Legohair’ sitting in a hipster café, drinking £45 vegan lattes and vaping, before going to the game, yelling at Archer to, "pass it back to the ‘keeper FFS!" When he has a tap in from five yards, before going home and masturbating ferociously over his possession stats and photos of Pep, whilst a bored Lucy watches Love Island, is utterly hilarious. Honestly I just can’t stop laughing. However, the fact that some people think it’s actually true and not just some internet meme is just ludicrous and I can only assume they need their house checking for radon and hallucinogenic mould.

TBF I do think it’s nice of them to be inclusive of audio-impaired fans, I can’t criticise that.

A few decades ago maybe. Modern teams can knock the ball off you on the edge of their own penalty area and have it in the back of your net in ten seconds flat. The illusion of safety in just booting it up the pitch died out long ago.

It’s quite amazing really but there are a not insignificant number of people who actually believe statements like this are true.

Why would that matter? It worked out great for us with Tella.

This thread sent me over to YouTube for a quick rewatch of that Sunderland game. Not only the best individual performance I have ever seen for Saints but one of the best in PL history. How many other players have either scored or set up seven goals in one match I wonder?

All the players I’ve mentioned have had at least a season in the PL upon which to make a judgement. I’m willing to give Martin longer for the same reason I’m willing to give Sugawara longer, in spite of his recent clangers; he’s had eight games.

KWP I would say hasn’t looked up to his best this season, although I suspect the contract issues may have some part to play in that. Beyond him I’m curious, who do you think has put in consistently better PL performances in previous seasons than they are now?

Which is a point so asinine that I didn’t think it actually worth mentioning, but for the sake of clarity; none of our players are playing at a worse level now than they have previously, with the exception of Adam Lallana who used to be better who used to be better when he was younger and his legs weren’t made of dust.

So Martin’s ineptitude is holding Lallana back now, not the fact that he’s 37 and has no legs? Which players are you talking about specifically? Bednarek, Taylor, Stephens, AA, Archer and Diaz may have PL experience but all of it has been right down the bottom getting relegated. KWP and Ramsdale are two of our better players but that’s nowhere near enough quality to keep us up.

It was your suggestion, it’s not my fault it won’t hold up in real life. We have a Championship standard squad, none of our players have achieved any higher than they are now. Last time out in the PL Armstrong scored two goals, Archer scored four, BBD scored six. Maybe, they’ve all been held back by terrible managers consistently, throughout their careers or maybe, just maybe, they’re a bit sh*t and this kind of form is all they’re capable of.

You seem to be equating showing a modicum of patience with giving up. I can absolutely guarantee that if the new bloke had a sub-standard start, people would be calling for his head by Christmas, regardless of Fry’s nineteen game suggestion.

So basically you’re counting the fact that he was here to get us promoted against him. Yes, Russ has short comings, as will absolutely any manager we have a realistic chance of getting, but to say that he only gets eight games after getting us promoted, whilst a complete stranger gets nineteen, makes no sense.

That’s very obviously not what I’m saying though. Most people wanted Russ gone after Bournemouth, i.e. six games. Now the consensus seems to be that failing to win our eighth game will be the final straw. My point is that if the next bloke comes in and gets one or two points from eight games, why does he then get another eleven games to prove himself? In short, why would we hold two different managers to completely different expectations in terms of time available to get results? Because I can absolutely guarantee it won’t pan out that way with the fans. Nobody was demanding we give Jones another twelve games after that Wolves performance last year and it’ll just be the same if the new bloke turns in similar performances.

Why does the new man get nineteen games when Russ only gets eight? (Many wanted him gone after six, some as few as three or four).

I don't know why anyone is hoping or expecting for him to have been sacked in this international break, when his last game was away at Arsenal and for the most part we acquitted ourselves alright. If it didnt happen after our trip to Bournemouth, then it isn't going to now. So what, we just keep sacking managers every six or seven games? What if the next bloke comes in and only gets a point or two from his first seven? Sack him and bring in another?

We had peak Rickie Lambert, scoring 15 goals, peak Adam Lallana providing the creativity, Steven Davis who’s far better than anyone we’ve got now and a raw but talented J Rod and Ramirez, who both chipped in with six goals each and Morgan who, well let’s just say I can’t see Man Utd coming in for Flynn Downes any time soon. That squad was comfortably better than this one.

A 95th minute deflected Ipswich corner is just barely holding that stat together but I agree with the sentiment.