Lighthouse

Makes sense, three games in seven days is a lot for any player and Leo struggles to maintain his intensity for more than an hour at the best of times. Hopefully JR seizes this oportunity. Glad to see Jely on the bench and Romeu not included.

If they’re ‘business and profit managers’, why on earth would they care about a bunch of people waving banners and protesting? Boycott if you want but people don’t give up on investments worth hundreds of millions because someone wrote ‘SR Out!’ On a big piece of cardboard.

I still can't for the life of me figure out what people think RA's motive is for insisting we play five at the back. Especially when we've played a couple of games this season with a four. Why, of all the weird things to insist on, would playing a back five be mandatory? What does it gain anybody associated with SR, financially or otherwise?

My gut feeling is yes but we have played some of our best football with a five this season and some of our worst with a four, so it isn’t necessarily the obvious solution to our problems that some are perhaps hoping for. With any luck the return of Mads and Jely will give us a couple of better options at RB to play behind Fellows.

There’s much to criticise SR for but signing OR on a short term deal, after SC’s injury was a fairly low risk decision based on relatively sound principles. Eight months of what can’t be particularly high wages isn’t going to bankrupt the club. I think some people perhaps overestimate the ‘PR moves’ the club is willing to engage in. If you’re running a football club, success is promotion and financial stability in the PL. ‘Beers for £1’ and interviews with MLT are a PR move, we aren’t going to sign players just to get them trending on twitter.

I think the most concerning this is that he doesn’t have ‘fitness’ issues in the sense that he comes on and looks knackered after 30 minutes, or starts a game and needs to come off at H.T. He quite simply looks nowhere near the pace of the game from the moment he steps onto the pitch. The game is just a yard ahead of him all the time, it reminds me of when Michael Svensson came back in 2008.

Some pride salvaged at least, whitewash avoided and all that.

If he does come up with some new ideas, we’re going to end up fourth again.

Cheer up guys, at least we’re batting well in the Ashes.

Merry Xmas!

TBF to the England batters, your beer will start to get warm if you leave it for more than ten minutes.

I doubt many people will be checking in on here tomorrow, so Merry Christmas to you and yours! P.S. Any mention of ducks or toasters on this thread is strictly prohibited.

Bingo. So why are you upset about us doing the exact same thing, along with every other club in world football?

So why did they sign him at all?

TBH he is one of those people who I thought had died ages ago, RIP nonetheless. It is slightly spooky how people who sung famous Christmas songs keep dying at Christmas time. Greg Lake - 7th December, John Lennon - 8th December, Kirsty MacColl - 18th December, George Michael - Xmas Day, Chris Rea - 22nd December.

How much competition do you think Bettinelli offers Donnarumma and Trafford at Man City?

I'll pass thanks. Been playing like a fish up a tree since Martin was sacked, and that was over a year ago now. He can go and regain his mojo somewhere else, he wont get into our team the way he's played this season.

We had 23 shots, 7 of which were on target and the entire second half was in their final third. By comparison QPR just scored 4 goals by having 12 shots with 6 on target, so I'm not sure what game anyone was watching if you think we didn't create chances. Coventry are by far the best team in the league and they're clearly well organised. Liverpool only scored one goal more than Spurs, despite playing over an hour with a man advantage and Spurs being, let's be honest, sh*t. It's very rarely a walk in the park that some people seem to think it should be.

Apart from winning the half 1-0 against the league leaders, all the balls into their box and shots we had at their goal.

Somebody behind him shouted that they didn’t much care for The One Show. No need for disgusting abuse like that.

I’m confused. What number is 2, if it isn’t 2?

What part of my post constitutes an obsession? We have two right backs, a RWB who has been superb all season in Fellows and a LB who can deputise there competently, as he did today, on the rare occasions that all three of the others are injured. In no possible interpretation of the English language do we, "only have one right back."

Eh? We have Jelert, Roeslev, Fellows and Wely who can all play RB/RWB.

We were playing against ten men, not seven. Going two at the back against the league leaders, even with a man advantage, would have been reckless stupidity. One decent break and we lose 2-1.

Fellows for Wely looked like a no-brainer to me. Jander’s strength is collecting the ball from deep, taking it forward and playing it into space. Given that we were already camped on the edge of their box and Coventry were very compact, I’d say the reason for bringing him off, for a striker, was fairly self explanatory.