Hodgey

Anyone else notice he is suddenly using his left foot - 2 left foot goals in two games !. Every other season he would have tried to run round both those shots to get it on his right. Be annoyed if he’s suddenly become a two footer striker just before he’s off.

I do wonder if some of our difficulties in getting a striker is understanding what we want. That’s not an Adam Armstrong style player - he struggles playing up top but has looked excellent as an ‘inside forward’. What is clear is that RM wants a player with the style of Ross Stewart (not seen enough of him to know how he plays). Extremely hard position to get in Jan, so can understand the focus on a right winger instead - which we also need as all our wingers perform and prefer on the left

Strange way of looking at it. Pretty sure Bazuna isn’t worth more than the £12m we paid for him, Bree has already done it at this level last year so good signing if we did it now, but a dreadful one in the Prem. The other 3 yes - our loans have been good - but we are adding value to 3 players for other clubs and if we don’t go up at least 2 of those won’t be here (hence the need to buy players wisely - not continually piss it up the wall) Our transfer business (buying players) really hasn’t been good in my opinion - either poor players, injured players or players not ready for the level we signed them for. You could certainly argue Lavia - but he does look a bit injury prone. Outside of that I’m really struggling for successes over the past 3 years. I guess Livramento - but we didn’t see much of him

I think overall having a pop at our transfer business is fair. Yes we’ve used the loan system well but given we have little money we’ve spent £20m on a very questionable left back, an injured striker and a city kid who isn’t ready (didn’t learn that lesson from last year). Honestly - I don’t think we would be any different position wise if we hadn’t signed any of them. £20m is a lot in this division and we should be spending it much more efficiently

Not sure about this - have those 3 significantly improved or found their level ?. I still wouldn’t trust Bazuna or Armstrong in the Premier League , they are clearly good Championship players - have they actually improved ?. Same with Bree - he was one of the best championship right backs last year so has he really improved ?. I’d go Edozie (end product), Bednerak (genuine senior player now) and S Armstrong (fitness and attitude). Bazuna would be 4th choice - he’s definitely got more confidence playing for a top side in the division and is improving , but I fear we’d see just as many errors in a struggling Prem team. its a good debate though !

Does anyone know what kind of striker thrives in a RM team ? I know Piroe did but didn’t RM suggest he’s more a support striker and he was happy with Armstrong doing that ?. I genuinely don’t know what style of striker would thrive as our one up top - I don’t know enough about Stewart to know what type of player he is. My instinct is that a highly mobile striker with close control and link up play is probably more suitable than a classic finisher but interested in others opinions.

If you look at it another way - if there is a £1m loan fee and we cover £100k a week with an obligation to buy if we go up then you are looking at £3m. i can see that appealing to all parties. Given there is £100m plus on offer then that doesn’t actually seem like too much of a gamble - it’s probably less of a gamble than finding a younger £5m striker and hoping he can do it. Plus by season end you would hope Stewart and Mara would be in a better place if we don’t go up.

He can’t play the lone striker role - that has been one of the major issues. RM has created a role for him that plays to his strengths but really pleased for him as attitude and effort were never the issue.

Is it correlation or causation ?. Looking at the facts he played half the terrible game against Leicester, half the loss to Ipswich, he also wasn’t on the pitch when we scored winners against Bristol, Hull, Millwall and West Brom. He was great against Leeds and I’d argue was the winning difference there, the rest ? Honestly not convinced if he didn’t play in any of them our results would be any different. And that is the problem for me - Tella was the winning difference against Sheffield Wed and Plymouth on his 3 games for us - that is the impact we need.

The problem we will face, nice problem though it is, is that it’s highly likely we would go up with Leeds and Leicester, whilst Shef Utd, Burnley and Luton will all go down. We are so far behind the other Prem teams that we would arguably be in the strongest Prem league in terms of depth ever. THB would be bought so that solves one problem, it’s possible ABK returns and starts fulfilling his potential. Baz may finally be ready for Prem football, KWP is quality, and I think Alcaraz will be that level. Outside of that we have real quality issues - Downes maybe, if we can buy him. Don’t believe the Sulimana hype and can see us selling him in Jan. You don’t need a team of amazing players, but you do need a core so we would need to find a high quality left back, def mid, att mid and 2 strikers. Realistically you would need a £200m transfer budget minimum to stay up - and unlike last season not just waste it….you would need a 100pc hit rate. Having a relegation season with low expectations will be more fun, we may upset a couple of clubs and unlike last time we won’t have thrown it away by doing daft and idiotic things.

He’s clearly frustrated, and Adams question was basically interpreted as the team don’t score enough and still look prone to conceding, which is true and something we all know. He especially didn’t like the Bazuna praise countering that he had ‘very little to do’ again true, but many times we have still conceded from few shots. What I liked about this was it demonstrated that despite our run, he knows we should be better. I guess the concern is, and he must be thinking this, whether it’s his tactics or players not executing responsible.

A friend is a city fan and I randomly went with him to their 0-0 vs QPR. Dreadful game but they looked very sound defensively. Their new manager just picked up his first win so their tails will be up. I’m expecting them to sit back and hit us on the break. Sadly think this will be similar to Rotherham / Huddersfield - we’re going to need to be a bit more inventive if we want a comfortable win.

Couple of things jump out from that - Adams is amazingly our second most productive player despite downing tools, Sulimana not even on the list….

Hopefully he is that missing opener we have been crying out for !

Not without some major additions no. But you worry about that when you get there (along with the huge increase in transfer budget / allure of playing in the Prem) worse case is you go back down with another 3 years parachute - we’re already seeing how much stronger a position that puts you in the much inferior quality wise Champs

First priority for Jan for us is stability - try not to lose anyone you don’t want to lose. You can be sure that the teams fighting relegation will be looking at the champs - hopefully our players prefer the gamble here, than there, even better if our rivals lose their managers (Ipswich ?) or better players. We’ve also effectively got an early Jan signing in Ross. I think we have some money to invest, and I think SR will spend it, let’s be honest - everyone expects Ipswich to struggle at some point with injuries/squad size, they may not (we didn’t) but it is likely. Then we have a race for 2nd place, Leeds certainly thinking the same. so where are the gaps ? I’m pretty sure they will be looking at a right back to understudy KWP (Bree is a different style player), and it wouldn’t surprise me if we go for another striker with Che off, whether we finally replace Tella as promised I’m not sure - but we do look short of a natural right winger. personally I’d like a better 1st choice left back (but don’t think they do). we are in a great position, this really is a very good squad - question is whether it’s better than those teams above us.

Hard to say how much of Turner we will lose to England, but we definitely need a red ball batter - clear weak spot last season.

I heard the guy from the podcast too and if he’s right this is going to be a massive test. He basically said they rarely give chances, are extremely disciplined in shape, and quickly counter only when the opposition is overcommitted. That is basically our Kryptonite at the moment which will be fuelled further by the pressure to attack playing at home. That said we have better players and if we score first makes the job much easier. If they score first we’ll be in trouble. I’m going for an unconfident 1-0 win here, if we hadn’t had our 4 game wobble a draw here wouldn’t be a bad result, but we did so it would be.

Not sure I agree with that. Firstly Leicester were 9 points better than us last season and clearly had a better team so their starting point was better. Secondly they have been much more proactive in the transfer window losing £100m of talent but spending £50m of that - and they have spent it better with Winks replacing Tielemans and the excellent Mavidi replacing Barnes, meanwhile they upgraded their keeper who arguably was a major reason for their relegation (I agree with previous posts that all 3 teams relegated last season had by far the worst gks). Simply put they have better players all over the park - ie strikers they have Vardy, Ihanacho and Daka with their £8m prospect Cannon learning in the wings. Both managers try and play a similar way (Man City style), one has much more capable players to do that with. I don’t think if we had their manager (who turned us down) we would be much different.

Frustrating though it is - it does seem like this was one of those days. We created good chances and dominated. Not sure I can slate RM for today as it looks like his tactics did break a resolute team down, we just finished appallingly. Another bad home result though, and if we don’t turn that around we won’t be going up. Even with a pretty average start we are 3 points off 3rd - so whilst automatics look increasingly unlikely (we won’t catch Leicester, but Ipswich could fall apart if they lose a few) we are in the mix and if Stewart comes in firing we could see dramatic improvement.

Was excellent on Saturday, I genuinely didn’t think he was capable of finishes like that, and has been one of our better players so far. He was also terrible in the 3 games previous. Like many of our players he needs to be in a system that suits him. I’m not sure he can play a lone striker role - as someone else said he seems to be an old fashioned ‘inside forward’ he definitely wasn’t good enough for the Prem, and was given ample chances, doesn’t mean he never will be as there are a few players who needed a couple of bites to get going.

Really enjoyed that, we looked solid and dangerous attacking. The big question for me is has Martin abandoned his oft quoted never will I change principles ?. The inverted fullbacks seem to have gone, and 2 games in a row we have had less possession. My hope is he is adapting to what he has, and being pragmatic to his approach - after all Rome wasn’t built in a day and keeping that as the goal but acknowledging we need smaller steps to get there seems a better way to go. I’m really hoping that he doesn’t revert back to type - we’d been figured out. I reckon half the reason for the win today is that Farke simply wouldn’t have expected that. Back to the game, extremely impressed by A Armstrong - frankly I didn’t think he was capable of those sort of calm finishes, amazing bonus if he can start doing that more often. Bednerak definitely adds something - he helped H-B perform much better. The squad was much more balanced today - more players in midfield and a better mix. Second half we did lose our way, and the subs made no sense. So let’s see what happens at Stoke, but optimistic RM is seeing a different way with this group of players.

Was an interesting game as the Youngsters did really well 1st innings, and fell apart in the 2nd. Guess we shouldn’t be too surprised at that given experience / pressure etc. But without Abbott, Dawson and Vince it would have been a very convincing Essex win.

Central midfield much better, but you’ll have to convince me that Smallbone, Adam Armstrong and Fraser are in any way a top 6 attacking midfield outfit.

Got to say - Dawson has had a very strong season, got to be up there as championship player of the year