mrfahaji

Does everything have to be about the quality of a night out?

Thought he played a bit like Alonso for Chelsea, almost has a free role from left back, but still has the pace to get back into position.

I was speaking to someone yesterday who works for Fulham and they implied that bigger clubs than us have been sniffing around Sessegnon. Paris St Germain have even been looking at him. Maybe if we were in 7th or 8th there'd be an outside shot, but not now.

Yeah exactly, the weird thing was to include one but not the other... And that Arsenal game really should be written off as a meaningless match. It came 3 days after we'd secured a trip to Wembley, yet people moaned that it we weren't taking the cup seriously

In fact people started singing a Lemina chant shortly after he came on, though it's not the clearest, took me a while to realise who it was about...

A game we simply cannot afford to lose, and therefore I'm predicting a loss. Richarlison vs Bednarek should be interesting.

Ah ok. Give Carvalhal a chance then - one game, one win! The reason I said about WBA having a purple patch was related to Pardew's teams having them.

Which player was booed? Redmond? I don't remember any booing, just not much applause...

Really? It's pretty clear to me why we don't - because Pellegrino is the manager!

One thing I noticed from the game on Saturday was how a few times the ball was played into the right channel, and we just didn't have any pace to exploit it with Davis and JWP as the two midfielders on that side. It makes me wonder why we don't try playing Boufal or Redmond (I mean, he's going to play no matter what...) centrally when JWP is right mid so that there's always an option of getting in behind, even if the 'winger' isn't capable of it. Do you think Boufal is played wide so that when he inevitably loses the ball, it's not in as dangerous a position for us defensively? Because I think he could be more effective centrally, in the same way that Mane was. It would also mean we could put Tadic on the left (i.e. the only position he plays well), and Boufal could then make runs to both wings to help with our lack of pace on the wings.

Let's take a quick look at the front runners for the Stoke job. Obviously this isn't an exhaustive list because we all know the fabled black box is always planning for managerial changes and we track every manager of every team in the whole world so we can never be caught out. This is obviously just my opinion... Martin O'Neill - good long term appointment? No. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Probably. Gary Rowett - good long term appointment? Yes. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Yes. Slaven Bilic - good long term appointment? No. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Not sure, I'd say yes. Michael O'Neill - good long term appointment? Maybe. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Not sure. Steve McClaren - good long term appointment? No. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Doubtful. Would we stay up? No. Garry Monk - good long term appointment? No. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Doubtful. Would we stay up? No. Graham Potter - good long term appointment? Yes. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Not sure, I'd say yes. Nigel Pearson - good long term appointment? Not sure. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Probably. Ryan Giggs - good long term appointment? No. Would he do better than Pellegrino? No. Would we stay up? No. Slavisa Jokanovic - good long term appointment? Yes. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Not sure, I'd say yes. Mark Hughes (subbed in for Koeman) - good long term appointment? No. Would he do better than Pellegrino? Yes. Would we stay up? Not sure, I'd say yes. So it's not a phenomenally good list, but simply by taking a bogstandard list of candidates for the Stoke job, I can see several names I think would at least give us a chance of staying up. Not many I'd be chuffed with, admittedly, but I'm surprised you haven't seen ANY realistic or good replacement suggestions.

Is that true? Pardew has actually had a fair amount of success as a manager, and his teams seem to go through patches of form, good and bad alike. All West Brom need is one purple patch... I think his biggest problem is that he has inherited a side built by Tony Pulis, I'm not sure those players are good enough to start playing a different way. Carvalhal took Sheffield Wednesday to the play offs twice in three seasons. And he's won 1 match out of 1 so far. Don't know much about him but seems a bit premature to write him off as worse than Clement. I think both will struggle to stay up, but can still see them finishing above us.

I'd have thought Rowett would try and get Derby promoted, they're in a good position. If he's available then we should go for him. Though being from the midlands and spending virtually his whole playing and management career there maybe Stoke would be his preferred option anyway.

He is, but we sang (positively) virtually all game, despite most people wanting Pellegrino sacked. That was the only time in the whole game something negative was sang (arguably the Gabbiadini chants as well), but none of it was getting on the team's back. I was surprised there wasn't a lot more. It's difficult for fans to get behind the team without it looking like they're also behind the manager.

Good post. I'm under no illusions that relegation will be tough. Hard to stomach given we shouldn't be in this position (back in the 90s you accepted pretty much every year you were in a battle to survive, what with Tommy Widdrington and Neil Heaney in your starting XI), and potentially disastrous for the team/club. Not to mention it'll be harder to watch the games... But I also cannot stand the Premier League as an organisation, nor the constant media love in for the top 6, particularly United, City & Liverpool (or should that be United, Guardiola & Klopp?). There's nothing to say that we will fair better in the division below, but at least it feels like everyone is in with a chance, and the teams/supporters are all part of a competition rather than a circus.

Except some managers seem to turn round motivation within a week of arrival. I think there is some truth that there are added problems that go beyond the manager. Maybe Pellegrino under normal circumstances would be good enough to lead us to 16th in the table instead of the 19th or 20th we're heading for. But without any 'clouds' or backstage issues, 16th wouldn't exactly be good enough for our squad would it? Any problems we have which were purely down to the manager can largely be fixed by the new one. Perhaps losing our upward momentum last season meant a few of the players lost belief that we could break into that top group and hence demotivation set in, but does anyone really think players like van Dijk and Bertrand would be happy to turn down top 6 clubs to stay with us under any circumstances?

Funny you mention these two, I haven't wanted a manager sacked so much since them. Even Redknapp brought some positives to the table.

Yeah sorry I definitely used a smidgen of your post to go off on a bit of a tangent...

Agreed

Hanged

There was a spell in the second half where we were playing ok, looked a threat going forwards (before Boufal went off). Long was looking spent, couldn’t even jog back to get onside. The game at that moment suited Gabbiadini AND Long was tiring, yet he waits until we are sat deep and hoofing it forward until he brings Gabbiadini on with 5 minutes left, the circumstances everyone knows Gabbiadini is rubbish in. He didn’t look bothered when he came on, but not sure I can blame him. Was gutted he missed a sitter, felt like the whole end were desperate for that to hit the net!

I wondered if he deliberately didn’t bring Gabbidini on because the fans were calling for it. He’s such a spineless guy, sneaks out with the team at the start so he doesn’t get booed. Then at the end of the game fails to acknowledge the crowd at all, just skulks off with his head down. The fans could have been a lot tougher today, I’m mildly disappointed that there were any MP-out chants, the worst he got was a “you don’t know what you’re doing” when he mystifyingly took off Hojbjerg.

Thought he was anonymous for the first 60 minutes, one of only a few players not at least playing “decently”. But he did then have a spell when he did quite well. Not enough, but don’t think it’s right to say he was awful for the entire match.

I wouldn’t want us to spend money like Man City. I loathe them because of it. They’re not smaller than us (lol), but in my lifetime they had been a mid-table team at best who suddenly had cheat mode enabled. Surely when you taste victory you want to feel like you’ve earned it through harder work, or smarter choices than your opponents. It’d be like me getting a 90m head start in the 100m and then showing off I had an Olympic gold medal. I do agree with Daft Kerplunk that having an owner whose first priority wasn’t the success of the team (even if it was linked), with directors who seem hellbent on overseeing team affairs in order to achieve those priorities for them, has been costly. No matter which way you cut it though, we are in a mess because we appointed the wrong manager and haven’t done anything about it. Our transfers haven’t been too bad really. Sure, could have been better, and the GK situation is laughable, but no bad enough to get us relegated.

I will support the players, and want us to win. I don't get to many games so the ones I do get to, I want to make count! But I will equally chant and shout at or about the manager and the board.