Saint86

Ralph would destroy this league with these players.

Martin has a colossal amount to answer for.

Agreed. Its why i am not concerned in the slightest over losing Tella.

I pretty much roll my eyes at the people making out he's been poor this year and at fault for loads of goals. There have been a couple where you'd like him to maybe get nearer, but he's nowhere near as bad as some are making out. The defence has made loads of errors and we're set up to be extremely vulnerable and give away a lot of chances. He's a solid keeper, has good distribution and sweeper play, and his mentality must be strong (because despite finishing bottom last year and having fans on his back constantly, he doesn't show any real signs of low confidence imo. Playing for a year in the championship in a winning side (and with a defence and midfield that will get used to playing together) will do him a lot of good - and hopefully he'll develop his command of the back line / cb's once we get some stability. I think people forget he's a young keeper that went up 2 divisions and played behind a total shit show of a side last season. He's not as bad as many make out, and he certainly has a lot of potential.

Agreed, we are appalling from a defensive perspective, and a huge amount of that blame lies with the manager and the way the team are setup. He needs to tailor his tactics to improve this or we're going to struggle to meet expectations this season.

Well it certainly won't be 0-0!

I like to think of the broken clock analogy when it comes to people like MLT - they say so much nonsense... but then, just by the law of averages, some of it probably isn't that far off 😂

To be honest, i don't know what you are trying to say because you've contradicted yourself. Saint Clark was opining that having a lot of shots (more in fact that any other team in the league) means we aren't boring to watch. And your response/stance was firstly that those stats have no relevance at all to how we played (quote below)... And yet here you then are (quote above) saying that those stats are subsequent (i.e. caused by and therefore directly related) to our playing style... There are a great many stats used in football, how they are impacted by style of play is ofc relevant to how useful they are in the discussion being used - and i haven't seen anyone say different. Personally, xG (which you seem to have been previously railing against) is a very good indicator of the quality of attacking chances sides create, and similarly most fans would argue that teams that create a lot of chances (particularly good ones) are not boring to watch.

Whitey is absolutely spot on SC... We play the way we play purely to generate shots for the betting market... how can you not see that?..... Absolutely nothing to do with effective playstyles, generating chances, trying to score, stopping the oppo etc 😂

Ah in which case i agree (you confused me with the reference to tella leaving). Central defence has been too slow for a while, although hopefully the new guy will aid that. KWP has pace at least, but manning is nothing special in that regard.

Two of your 3 attackers in that side are pretty damn fast, probably faster than Tella tbh. And Sulemana will likely be the fastest player in the league as well. Also Alcaraz is no slow poke! Sadly we don't play counter attacking football, so it will come down to intelligence, off the ball runs, and creative midfielders threading the passes.

Will be like taking candy from a baby for Leicester.

We let him go too cheap. Was said at the time and it's becoming more obvious with every passing game. I just hope he gets his England place, but I think that needs a Southgate sacking (which should have happened after the Croatia wc semi anyway).

We seem to be living in this cloud cuckoo land where some people think we've had the best transfer window ever and the team is stronger than last year... Hopefully that nonsense has been put to bed after today. Shocking defensively and has to be an absolute klaxon of a wake up call. Honeymoon over.

We just didn't have the players to make the most of them, that much is becoming incredibly obvious. West ham are a big strong side, I won't look forward to our defence facing them and jwp when/if we're back in the prem.

Its a fucking pointless move in that case. He's easily a starting level CB for us and far too good for the champ.

A very tidy bit of business, i approve👌

100%. That is a club sanctioned leak to soften the blow imo.

Watched an obligatory youtube video on Paintsil, he seem comfortably to good for the level he was playing at - which made it hard to tell how good he actually is. What was apparent is that he is fast, relatively short, but built like an ox compared to players like Edozie - i.e. seems to be very strong and able to either run or muscle his way past players. His touch/control was decent enough - we won't be seeing tricks like edozie, but he seems to have a tidy touch and good balance - which paired with his speed and strength is a potent enough mix. His highlight reel implies he's a very direct player - looking to run at players and into the box - to get a shot or a pass off, or equally to make runs through behind. He also seemed to have good composure in and around the box, able to stop - turn - look up etc. and place a pass / shot. Who knows what his defensive work rate is like, or his fitness. Summary, probably a decent enough addition, and defacto will offer more than Onuachu - even if we just bring him on for the final 20-30min and tell him to get at teams etc. I can't see that he'd be far of championship level even as a worst case. The negative - reckon there must have been about 7pens in that highlights reel from one season - so he wasn't scoring many from open play.

How is sulemana 'money pissed away'? We'll be able to sell him for at least close to what we paid, and might well make a tidy profit. It's money pissed away if the club do something stupid and let him go cheap, but he's a class player, has a long contract, and has plenty of clubs interested.

There is literally no difference between his situation and players like lavia and jwp. They wanted out, we had a valuation, it was met, they were sold. He can state he wants to leave to the club (it's fair enough and he is certainly in the majority let's be honest), there is no need for fans to get upset over it unless he goes on strike / causes issues. If he adopts a mindset of playing for a move it may even benefit us in the league 🤷‍♂️

Excellent. They were gloating that by buying him they'd forced leverkusen to buy tella and had therefore doubly damaged us by getting their man and forcing us to lose ours 🤣

Its interesting that he didn't train last week, didn't play on the Saturday and yet he is still yet to move? Would have expected it to be imminent in the same way that tella's was?

I remember his finishing being ridiculous when he broke through at Man City! I guess part of it is the difference made by playing in a world class team vs a poor team.

Are we able to get a poll on it?