saintwbu

Played 90 minutes in all 3 games in a week, and i’d imagine covered more ground than pretty much anyone. Great late run into the box that he nearly scored from before Larin finished it off. A fantastic bit of business.

I thought recent info suggested Tonda had never had any contact with Will Salt himself and had no contact details for him. The bullying headlines seemed to be more of a media push, mainly from north east based journalists.

Personally thought Roerslev was absolutely crap every time I watched him. He looked scared stiff against the skates at St Mary’s last season - shirked the forward pass every time he had the ball. Expect Abbott would be the Bree replacement if required.

Good for him, it’s been an awful time here for him. He needed to go play.

Him and Bragg seem to work better than Downes and Bragg for whatever reason. Both halves Bragg has played alongside JWP, he’s been great - has struggled a bit this season alongside Downes.

Agree Bragg was brilliant in that second half. As for Manning, we didn’t look anywhere near as fluid and composed on the ball down the left against Lincoln. There’s a game for Welington but i think in games where we will dominate, Manning still wins out for me.

wonder if this could be the end for Phil Parkinson. They’ve had a slow start when expectations are probably to progress on what they did last year. Taking a pasting live on Sky definitely not going to help.

Good thing it wasn’t a comparison then…

I didn’t see a comparison - it said best we’ve had since VVD. Given that most CB’s we’ve had since him have been absolutely shite, it doesn’t seem that far fetched, even if a little early to judge.

I think so - ABK and Salisu not even remotely similar, Salisu couldn’t control his feet but was a decent last ditch defender. ABK could glide past players, carry the ball up the pitch, and seemed a level above when he was on it. But it only lasted about 3 games unfortunately, which probably explains why he ended up with us.

I think Bella Kotchap was the closest thing we had to Van Dijk after he left, just a shame he turned out to be a complete weapon who couldn’t be arsed. The night we beat Chelsea at St Mary’s he was absolutely flawless, looked like a man against boys. Loving big Kev so far, I know to some people defenders should just be able to head it and kick it, but having a CB who can actually pass the ball makes such a difference in the modern game.

They also won it straight back from that kick, completely illustrating why we hadn’t been doing it all game. Was great that we scored our third from that goal kick everyone was booing for going short (albeit we did give it away and have to win it back).

No way we control that game with Charles playing tonight - exactly the sort of game where our midfield would get overrun previously. JWP superb tonight.

Agree on Archer completely - can genuinely only remember one performance where he looked serviceable, playing left wing against a piss poor Blackburn team. We tried it again against Bristol City a week later and he was crap again. The last minute winner against Swansea was a great moment, but he was on the pitch for two minutes. Mubama needs one more winning goal all season, and two equalisers, to match Archer’s major contributions the entirety of last season.

I would have cringed at seeing Archer/Downs/BBD start any games for this side, it’s absolutely no loss that they’re leaving. I did think we might add one more forward to mean it’s not all on Mubama if Larin isn’t fit. However, i’m not sure anyone can say we’re definitively weaker than last season, if Dobbin becomes any good and if Abbott is better than Wood & Stephens then we are arguably stronger imo.

Solly March is crap, hasn’t hit double figures for appearances for four years, and about 30% of his entire career goals and assists came in one season under Graham Potter.

Presume the reluctance to sell Edozie is because we would need to replace him, and we must not have anyone we’re eyeing up.

Subs do have impact on games, as Shea Charles did, but we’re missing our main starting midfielder which is having a much bigger impact on performances than missing someone we’d bring off the bench.

We didn’t seem to miss him in the 13 games he didn’t start on our unbeaten run, so maybe we’re missing the guy that always started ahead of him who is currently also unavailable.

Prem teams are paying for potential in Charles, no one is paying 25m for a midfielder that wasn’t in the best 11 for the team who came 4th in the Championship if he was 28. Charles didn’t control games, but he had 3 or 4 significant moments last season that put him really in focus - whether we have Charles or JWP, it’s still going to be Downes and Jander starting big games, so it’s down to whether JWP can add his own 3 or 4 big moments this season.

JWP played 20 games last season and 26 the one before, has also come on in 2 of the 4 games so far this season. People act like he’s been sat at home doing nothing for 2 years.

They also have form with Harvey Elliott last year and just benching him permanently in order to not have to buy him.

Disagree completely - the drop off in our defensive quality when Wood came in for him when he got injured was clear as day. Not sure we kept a single clean sheet and think we trailed in almost every game at one point.

I thought he struggled, got the ball nicked off him a few times. Did well for the goal but other than that I thought he was a bit off the pace and the midfield lacked control.

Personally Sunday was the first bad game i’ve seen Bragg have - was brilliant against Charlton, Arsenal and Man City last season. Not sure him and Downes as a combo is particularly effective but when he’s been allowed to just sit at the base and dictate the game I think he’s looked great, especially considering his lack of experience.