Hodgey

This game is psychologically significant, win and those 4 away points look great, lose or draw and they look poor. its also significant as we’ll see if Still is as tactically great as we hoped and solves the cf issue (either via formation or personal) and start getting performances from his transfers. I was disappointed to read about poor performances from Manning and Aziz against a poor team with 10 men, and we have Charles who did well potentially exhausted. i think it’s going to be another draw, ramping the pressure up for BC on Tuesday. 1-1, can’t see us scoring more than 1, can’t see us keeping a clean sheet, plus we always seem sluggish after an international break. hoping I’m wrong, and clinging to the fact that we seem to be a bogey team to Swans, putting them away with relative ease in recent years.

Indeed - and if Ipswich win their game in hand (v Blackburn) they’ll be 5 points clear of us (along with Leicester) and they won’t drop too many points. Throw in Coventry who look unstoppable at the moment and you realise the task ahead.

That works if you think Still is about to go on a 20 odd game unbeaten run and create a playing identity. agree you can’t write him off but he’s going to need to improve - lots of worries for me.. Gks not good enough Fwds not good enough Look incapable of keeping clean sheets Cant Seem to create/score more than one Transfers look poor No clear idea of what we are trying to do I don’t think we had the same issues with Martin at this stage last year bar 1 and 3 and this is what I think people are worried about. These aren’t simple tactical tweaks, they are hard to solve problems.

Boro fans are certainly split on him - the general consensus being he is a bit of a luxury player but when on form well worth it but tends to go missing against the better teams. I expect us to have similar opinions and him to split the fan base (which most creative players do). As long as his goals/assists output is something like last season I think it’s money well spent to get us out of the division, but Prem is a step up too far.

Can only assume Fellows at right wing back and a back 5

Meanwhile congrats Abbas - he wins the title with Notts - good move for him ! To win this we are going to have to actually bat like a div 1 team in what looks like a tricky wicket - can’t see it myself but maybe Surrey will phone it in now it’s a dead rubber

Just saw the highlights - if you can’t deal with diagonal long balls into the box in this league expect trouble, and the half chances we created for Downs - I don’t think he is capable of finishing. Agree with others - whatever Still is trying to do, is a puzzle as tactically it looks all over the place. He needs to quickly get across a style so fans can see where we are trying to go - think we can be more patient if we see some kind of goal that we are building towards. Liverpool reserves away with no real expectations is a great chance to show us - I want to see his best 11 playing a style he wants - the result isn’t important, the team he picks, performance and style is. He does need more time though - Christmas is the time to asses. Finally I wonder how much that South coast derby disrupted both teams as Portsmouth were equally dogshit at home which is actually very unusual for them.

Feels like we gave up on red ball cricket somewhat this year - the two Indian recruitment may still keep us up but outside of Abbott and Dawson we mainly look like a div 2 outfit - especially in the batting. the reliance on youth has kind of worked in short form with Albert, Currie and Mays all doing well but Orr/Middleton/Albert/Turner/ Prest have all been found wanting in red ball (as you could argue has Gubbins and Brown) which compounded the loss of Vince and Abbas. Be good to stay up - but only if we invest in the team for next season or it’s pretty pointless.

Good effort - they lost their way 10-15 overs in and had a really poor last over leaving them 20 short where they should have been. Wood I assume was crocked hence couldn’t bowl and Lynn couldn’t run either - neither of those helped but fair play to Somerset - a really good side with strength throughout. What has happened to Prest though this year failing to get into a limited overs team with Orr and a 17yr old preferred….

He’s playing, as is Orr. Lots depending on our top 3 today - at least 2 of them need to fire. Cartrights power will be a big miss as will Dawson guile

I think this Championship is much tougher than the last time we were in it and honestly I’m not convinced we are top 2 material. I think we’ll be ok upfront with new signings but that core of gk,cb,dcm simply isn’t at the standard required and doesn’t look like we will improve it. I also have doubts that we have the right type of cf. I do expect us to be highly competitive but can see a number of stoke and Watford style results keeping us in a play off battle. still - much more fun than the Prem. on which note those wanting prem level players is a very tall ask, think we are doing the right thing getting top quality Championship players and worrying about it if we go up (interestingly consensus is that Azaz isn’t Prem quality but Fellows may be)

Quite a lot to unpick in that match, given it’s really the first proper look we’ve had: Starting with the concerns. Armstrong as a lone striker - he must be brilliant in training as that’s about the 5th manager in the last three years to try him there yet he’s failed every single time. Made even less sense if the idea was to fire lots of crosses in from the wings. If that is going to be the case we should be trying Downs or Stewart The full backs were dreadful, this may be ability based but I don’t think you can rule out tactical set up given both were so poor. I do think this was done on the basis of our dearth of available wingers and not something Still wants. The back line wasn’t drilled - despite them not being particularly quick I counted 5 clear opportunities they created simply down to poor positioning / defensive line. Hoping this resolves as the coaches find settled backline and work with them. Edwards - had heard great things but he had a mare - hopefully just a one off. Archer - it’s just not happened for him here, hoping he puts more shifts in and Still finds a use for him as I think there is talent there The big positives I felt that Still was trying new things, a fresh change from simply replacing like for like after 65m when it isn’t working Stephens, Baz and Manning. Let’s be honest all have had heavy criticism - hopefully start of a redemption arc as they all had big performances, at the least must give them all huge confidence. Charles - looked like the £12m player we were promised 2 years ago. Overall very positive, also think some have been a bit harsh on Quarshie who I thought looked ok and gave us much needed height and pace.

I reckon Cox could have scored 10 6s in a row if needed. And god knows how many he’d have got if we played another 10 overs…. Batting pitch mixed with some pie throwing (Fuller / Howell especially)

What an odd t20 season it’s been. Started really well, then were woeful, then really good again last 4 games (including a narrow defeat at Somerset). Talking of off seasons - Albert’s T20 form has generally been excellent whilst his 4 days terrible. I actually thought at one point he’d make a good 4 day opener but now seems more comfortable ramping 6s. The two new overseas both look very useful which helps.

If you can’t get any batting points, at home, on a batters paradise (along with getting the second least amount of batting points this season so far), and you can’t bowl out the only team with less batting points, then you have to ask some deep questions. We lost our best batter and bowler this year, and are now totally reliant on two players in their winter (Abbott and Dawson). On the plus side looks like we may start getting some decent Indian players. But the lack of progress this year on what seemed to be highly talented youngsters is a massive concern (id even suggest some are going backwards)