Hodgey

I’d like to see Carrick or Rowett - whichever doesn’t go up. Not convinced about Gerrard / Rooney etc. Potter would be batting above our average, only wild left field style thinking I’d like to see would be a top manager from another league Prem clubs haven’t taken a gamble on - ie Celtic manager (I know extremely unlikely). Cooper would be tailor made - question is if Forest go down, and even then if they sack him.

They are a very good team, but this batting issue has been a problem for a while. When conditions are not favourable it seems like we have few batters who can tough it out. Prest deserved a go, but we are still 2 openers light. Organ needs a rest but I’m unconvinced on Holland as an opener so lots of pressure on Middleton (started well).

Better hope for rain in this one. No idea why we can’t bat at the oval, but I don’t fancy us bowling them out for less than 250 so we need the tail to really wag. Madness to chose to bat first

We are just so weak in the air (both ends) so a keeper who can’t clear out doesn’t help. Haaland really should have had a hattrick - just rusty at the back post against JWP, I don’t see Bazuna saving that if it’s on target. I dont blame Bazuna for any of those goals, it’s just that he looks so small to me, he doesn’t seem to have the ability to make himself big (might be a confidence thing) and put strikers off. I’d really worry about him and our cbs in the championship with the amount of big players and diagonal Ariel balls.

The problem is speed. Ideally you would want to sell and buy quickly so you know what you have pre-season, but to maximise value we probably need to sell at the end of the window. This means we’re going to have a very turbulent pre-season, which will probably see us start slowly as we build a new team. So it’s going to require patience and good will - something that frankly is in short supply. There is an argument to take a financial hit and get the business done early. But I don’t think we have the mentality or ability to do that. Expect long drawn out transfer sagas, inertia in signings as we try and sell/loan players, and a fair few unhappy players causing issues when the window closes. Of course you also can’t really get going until you have a manager in who tells you who they do / don’t want…. Wilcox is going to have a very busy start.

I mean what do people expect, of course a novice manager is being found out against world class experienced managers - only a lunatic would think that would work in a relegation battle. The same lunatic who thought a long ball nutcase who had failed at a similar club to us would somehow surprise everyone. He’s done well given what he’s inherited and his experience but playing like that in the Championship we’ll have no chance. We also need to bring in a lot more height and strength - the team of small inexperienced kids we have will be beaten up there. On the plus side this is a genuinely exciting chance for a manager to start again. Someone who can bring a new style / players that suit / their own coaching squad / money to spend. Of course the well known issue is the sheer arrogance of our leadership making this decision, it’s at best 50/50 that they don’t balls this up and appoint some left field strategy which only they’ve spotted as they are so clever. We don’t need to be clever here, we need to do this by the numbers - get a proven manager in with a short term (2 yr max) goal of taking us up. If that means buying a few expensive 32 year olds with zero sell on value, or players without a ceiling to become a Prem star but actually just bloody good / nasty sods in the championship then we do it. Oh and an experienced gk please. As Burnley proved its also a great chance to play the loan system - something we’ve again had a pretty poor record of.

Didn’t realise that he signed a long term contract. maybe this ITK isn’t ITK then !

Shame the wheels have come off a bit, as there seems to be some talented players at this age group, I don’t like the playing younger players excuses - if you are getting thumped by 7 and 6 there is more to it than that. on the Athletic comments there was someone who seemed very ITK who said Doyle won’t sign a new contract and will sign with someone else, and Payne is wanted by 3 Prem clubs (but under contract). That’s a bit worrying as Morgan and Doyle were seen as two of our best. I wonder if some players are understandably below par due to being unsettled. hearing good things about the two ex Spurs lads, with Ballard described as a great talent who needs to work on his decision making - which sounds worryingly similar to many of our 1st team attackers !!

Surrey starting with another 400 plus first innings, carrying on where they left off last season, will take some stopping….

Middleton steadied the ship today opening - impressive for someone with so little experience, dare we hope he’s the opener we need. it’s still a funny batting side - Vince aside there is little difference in run scoring from Organ opening down to Fuller at 9 - says as much about our top order as it does our tail. Let’s see what score they can put together in this innings still can’t imagine many batters fancying Abbas, Abbott and Barker in April.

Selles has actually done a good job for someone who has never managed before. He’s obviously making mistakes, as you would expect, but looks to have something about him. Sadly not here though, we can’t afford someone learning on the job next year, especially someone who I feel is better playing teams that play nice football and attack you (won’t be much of that in the Championship), plus his team looks really weak at defending set pieces. A new manager needs a clean start and his own team so I don’t see how he goes back to a coach (not that he would want that) Hopefully another club look at this spell outside a ‘manager relegated’ and give him a deserved chance.

We’re going to need a massive rethink for the Championship. There are a load of West Ham / Leeds / Brentford type teams there - you know, ones where we don’t look like scoring. the Ralf playbook needs to be put in a safe and as we prep for the championship we need to think much more positively on how we score goals and equally importantly how to defend the standard free kick / corner we seem so susceptible to. Both Jones and Selles have tried to tighten up at the back, all both succeeded in doing is moving our defeats from 3-1 to 1-0. We have players who can score in the championship, but they won’t if we play like this. That league is all about strength and speed. Lots of players we have won’t cope in that league but there are a fair few who should excel. question is can we keep the ones who can and lose the ones who can’t, and find a manager. Work cut out…..

So first game next week, is it me or is there absolutely no news or build up (maybe just used to PL hype), I’ve no idea who has played in friendlies, if they looked good, any surprising names, injuries etc, even Hampshires own website isn’t interested !! Hoping for another good season, still an opener light and relying on dads army for the bowling but think we can be top 4. Limited overs will be interesting, look to have a good t20 team again with Benny Howell. Brave look weak this year so might give up bothering with that increasingly Micky mouse competition and focus on the 40 overs instead. Got a feeling we will see more from Organ, Currie and Prest this year. Be surprised if Fuller can maintain last years level. Also looking fwd to seeing a few evening major posts - never tire of that.

Yeah mentally I must have forgotten about him! - he’d be there all right - although like Tall Paul some mitigation in that he was bought by another manager / style.

Best - Case, Adams, Flowers, Hall, Katchoul, Richards, Clyde, Beattie, Schneiderlin, Marsden, Lambert, Mane, VVD, Tadic, Svenssonsx2, Worst: Delap, McLaughlin, Osvaldo, Delgado and his mate, Van dam, Crainey, Moi, A Armstrong, Forren, Marshall, Dixon, Speedie, Quashie, Bernard

I still can’t work out if there is a Prem quality team in there or not. Whilst there are a lot of poor players in the squad, I can’t help but feel there is a decent 1st team in there given the right structure and support. Sadly I don’t think we’re going to find out as we have too much to catch up and rivals are picking up points. happy with the battling spirit yesterday, and overall we’ve been decent since Selles took over (yes the odd bad performance). It’s so important for next season that we keep improving and are competitive - if we go down we need to believe we will come straight back up and start next season quickly. I think even with some of our best players picked off there is a quality championship side there, what will hurt us much more is not having a winning habit or belief.

Not one of our 5 Jan signings, specifically bought to have an immediate 1st team impact, starts. I think that says all you need to know about our recruitment success.

For some reason I think we’ll get a draw. The only way we score goals is from free kicks or winning the ball high when teams play out - which Spurs will. So I think we’ll score, but we will almost certainly concede - probably from a corner as they have players good in the air and we can’t defend corners at all. it’s all a bit moot - we need wins and we don’t score enough to get them. I think it’ll be a good game though.

On Sulemana - there was one point where he was hugging the byline with acres in front of him, even Selles was gesturing frantically for a cross field ball but nobody looked up. He does need to get involved more but equally we need to look for that ball to use his pace and get the fullback worried. For whatever reason both sides favoured play on the same side - our right and their left, this was a particular issue for us when we had Adam Armstrong out there, something I don’t want to see repeated.

I saw this very differently. Whilst the pen was poor, I really liked JWP reaction - his head didn’t drop and he and the team used that miss to galvanise them on to our best period. I thought he and Lavia were excellent today defensively, they shielded the back line, broke up play, kept possession, competed and Leicester had no shots on target. This was even more evident in the second half when we had Elynoussi, Mara, Armstrong*2 offering zero threat upfront and unable to hold the ball up. the pair of them must be utterly knackered (so I understand the free kick you cite - which was caused by Elynoussi getting totally done by their player) but they did a great job for me

I thought Selles finally (as in terms of for the whole season) found the right balance today with his line up. Walcott starting was a surprise for some, but it actually just highlighted our unbalanced squad - we don’t have any right sided at mid and it was the right call. I really liked his decision of Che over Paul - picking the player who suits his style over the Newly expensive option. I also don’t rate Perraud so was happy on the full back pairing. I also noted him at the edge of the technical area constantly giving instructions and communicating, generally calmly although in the last 5m his emotions definately got the better of him. Now the negative - those subs were ridiculous, Elynoussi as the support striker for Alcaraz decreased that attacking momentum. Worse was the Mara and Armstrong subs. So I get that Che and Walcott may have been deemed unfit for 90m. But what we all know, confirmed on Wed, is that Mara and Armstrong cannot hold the ball up, and are nowhere near Prem standard. Sure enough those two not only killed any attacking threat, but also meant we had no out, neither could hold the ball up, increasing the pressure on out backline. he’s got a 66pc win rate in the Prem so you have to respect that. But I think he got lucky today and hope he learns quickly as those changes today were frankly terrible.

Going on Sat with very low expectations - was hoping they would at least throw everything at it as their cup final, but after seeing Leeds and that I just don’t think they have it in them. as for the team, it actually doesn’t seem to make much difference who they play in terms of any attacking threat. Adams has to play it fit - he’s not good enough but at least makes things happen. I’d go with macca kwp ABK Salisu Perraud lavia kwp Armstrong Alcaraz sulemana Adams Tall Pall to come on for last 30m for a bit of route 1 when we chase the game after making some defensive howler or two. If Adams and Salisu still injured then I guess Tall Pall and Bednerak (I mean you can’t play cc after that)

The summer signings in terms of quality/price were generally good. They were just not what we needed at that time. the last window was self confessed panic - strategy out of the window and supposedly the club aimed solely at staying up. But since then we’ve appointed a coach as manager, bought a striker who looks no better than Adams and can’t last more than 60m, another erratic winger to add to our other erratic wingers, a winger who can’t cope with this league, a mate of a manager we sacked, and a decent looking Midfielder that we’re not sure where he plays or if he fits our system. wouldn’t surprise me at all if we see a lot more of Bednerak, Walcott, Adams, McCarthy, Moi, Armstrong and Djenepo for the rest of the season. And if that happens you know how bad those windows have been !

I’m not sure I agree that Lavia is our only Prem quality player, JWP and KWP clearly are and I’ve seen enough from ABK, Salisu and DCC that with good coaching / set up they could shine at this level. I also think Alcarez and Sulemana have all the attributes to be Prem players. So we do have some talent. What’s really killing us is not having a Prem competent gk (self inflicted) or striker (much harder to solve) or manager (self inflicted). We also seem to have a load of not quite good enough wingers. we’ll see in the summer how many Prem level players we really have when the bids come in.

It’s pretty clear to me the issue - the team at the end of that game included - Bazuna, Bednerak, Maitland Niles, Diallo, Adam Armstrong, Mara, Walcott. Those players are mid championship at absolute best. Which incidentally is where we are heading. I guess it’s because we are trying so hard to stop conceding, but we simply don’t look like scoring from open play and we need to win games now. We’ve moved from missing easy chances and conceding regularly, to creating no chances and conceding slightly less regularly.