Hodgey

I think we need to give him a big striker who can hold the ball up. He is a one trick pony, but that trick could be good enough with the talent he has. Where it has fallen apart is when teams press our creative players forcing us to go long to Armstrong who will always lose it. pressure then mounts and we defend deeper and deeper. So whilst a better gk is important, having a striker who can hold the ball up is much more important. Now everyone can see this, and I’ve heard it’s Tondas big ask so let’s see if our board geniuses will give Tonda what they didn’t give (despite them wanting it) Ralph and Still, to maximise what he has.

I mentioned this on the Preston thread who also had handy loans. Seems baffling that we haven’t looked at Prem loans for our weak areas, especially given that was why we went up last time. And it was a deliberate strategy, but completely non-sensical, about the cost of then firming them up. Instead we have loaned a 3rd choice gk we have zero intention of playing and a right back from Turkey we don’t seem to fancy.

For me this game showed where we are - top two teams are utterly ruthless with opportunities, we aren’t. I do think we have enough in us to be top 6 though - and frankly it doesn’t really matter if that is 3rd or 6th. The game reinforced what we already know. Whilst Baz actually had a decent game, if you swap those two keepers the result is different - we put some really testing corners in and their keeper responded every time. Also we still have no out and out striker - even the commentators were baffled why we put Fellows on when we never put players in the box when he crossed. Archer needs to go in Jan too. There is a player there but he’s completely wrong for our tactics. Best for all to part ways.

Aside from Millwall that was the first real test for Eckert. WBA changed their tactics in the second half and we had no answer, it was a bit of a battering, subs were irrelevant as it started from 45m In the end he won the game, so you could argue it was a conscious choice not to change and believe we would hit them on the break and score again, but frankly that didn’t look likely. We have a weakness against teams who cross balls into big forwards as our cbs are not commanding in the air. Tonda saw this coming and played Quarshie who is too raw, Edward’s and Stephen’s are even worse in the air - in Jan we need a Ben Mee type experienced thug. Agree we need a good def left back too as Manning gets tired and when Leo goes off he loses protection. He also needs a new set piece coach in his team. Get a specialist in as every WBA corner was basically a header at goal.

I genuinely think he is improving last few games. I’d still rank him as a lower half Championship keeper, but previously he was a league one gk. Still worries me with his positioning and he’s way too quiet. I’ve seen defenders call for him to get the ball and he should be bellowing at them and claiming it or telling them to stfu as it’s his call. Hopefully this comes with confidence

I like this game I’m going to add Stephen Crainy - absolutely dreadful left back even if he was free. In terms of value I’d also like to add Larios - £7m totally wasted and Diallo - £12m for someone with no obvious talent whatsoever, and of course Annonymousi - our Tadic replacement who was a winger who was slow, uncreative, weak and a complete inability to beat a player.

2 days to prep a team - was always going to play 3 cbs (as do the 21s). Despite a poor performance in a poor game he comes out with credit. Stephens was the right choice, obvious flaws but he is a communicator and fighter, also right to give him the captaincy (and Edwards deserved to be dropped) Robinson was also the right choice, he’s raw but him and Scienza are both direct and give defenders something to think about. Not all positive though, the subs were awful and put us on the back foot and tactically he had no answer to the momentum shift. Baz ? He’s not good enough to be a top 6 gk in this league, but then again neither is McCarthy. There must be potential in there, City are no mugs, so giving him time when realistically we aren’t going up or down kind of makes sense in a sink or swim scenario. I do wonder though if SR put pressure on him to play expensive younger players such as Baz and Downs to try and protect their investment. If he wins Sat he becomes joint most wins behind Martin under SR leadership - so there’s that !

Went yesterday and thought I’d wait to post. The most concerning thing was we are simply doing the same thing so teams know how to beat us, and that thing isn’t exactly threatening in the first place. These teams we are playing are just average, Preston played some tidy stuff but they are clearly a limited squad, however they are very well coached. That brings me onto Still, do we think if we swopped managers for that game the result would be the same ? Sadly I don’t so as a club we need to make a decision, we are not going up this season so do we think Still can learn enough this year to be a force next ?. If that is the thinking I guess leaving him in until Christmas makes sense, would still give an incoming manager half a season to change momentum. Now the players. There are some basics in football every club aims for - firstly a spine, without a competent gk and cf we don’t have one. In the championship power and pace - we even acknowledged this pre-season yet Preston were far more powerful and aggressive than us. Then attitude and mental resilience - now I accept this teams confidence must be on its arse, but I look around the players and they are not encouraging each other at all, Armstrong isn’t a captain but seems to be the best we have. Then you want partnerships - pick your best partnerships (not players) and let them develop a relationship (ie cbs, fb and wg, cms etc) if you keep chopping and changing that can’t happen. Finally pick formation that gets the best out of the players you have - I don’t believe 5-2-3 is it. Finally i noted Preston’s best players were all on loan - it’s interesting that we decided not to go down that route. I get the history (we had to spend £50m to stay still) but ultimately the only reason we went up last time was due to those loans. For example Dobbin looked a right handful, compared to Damien Downs - should we have got him rather than spend millions on a project ?. The saddest thing of all was the apathy - I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly looking fwd to the game, I am a bit older now so thought it was just age, but what has been and continues to be served up on the pitch has just numbed fans. I went to the Northam bar before and I like what the club is doing - live music, quick(ish) drinks and food, footy to watch and the best atmosphere of the day !. Now if they had won or played well then people would celebrate there again post match, but it was empty (rightly so). We have to start getting some of these big decisions right now, we could easily change momentum this year and mount a proper challenge next, but sports republic need to do much much better. That starts with finding football people who have a plan they can execute - now they did this once with Wilcox and Martin (but then decided when Wilcox left that we didn’t need a DOF in the most competitive league in the world) so it can be done.

I think we need to play that same team now for at least the next 2 games, no tinkering (bar injuries). The set up freed Jander and Charles up to get fwd more, Edward’s allows a wing back to bomb fwd, Scienza and Armstrong had more space, Harwood Bellis I thought played some really good fwd passes that the other cbs simply don’t have in their locker (and this was a big strength 2 years ago). On CF - I think the way we set up means the cf has a really tough job, we don’t have anyone capable of doing it well but you need someone as a focal point - Aribo is an interesting shout but presumably doesn’t want to be here and isn’t really a fwd - should be on the bench though as he’ll be shop window motivated. Azaz doesn’t look happy playing this system so he can’t start. Defensively I think the jury is still out, Swansea were very poor, let’s see how they cope against Bristol - I’m concerned that more direct teams with a big man will have a lot of joy against those 3. Let’s see after 3 games if Still has found something that works with our players (even if it probably isn’t the way he wants to play)

Very encouraging, took a while to get going but Jelert and Scienza are creating a lot on both flanks and defensively we look watertight. should be 2-0 up. The concern is if Swansea change tactics, if not it’ll come.

Looking at that team who is the difference maker - we’ve seen Hackney, Fatuwu, Philogene, any number of Cov players own a game and turn draws into wins. Who is that in our squad ? I was hoping it might be Fellows or Azaz but clearly Still doesn’t think so. I’ll go 1-1 - hoping we aren’t going to aimlessly put high crosses in to 3 midgets - it’s also a very small team so worried about defending set pieces.

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.