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If I had the chance I’d like to ask these questions and maybe if you get the opportunity you might consider them?
1. Injuries. We have had a lot this year and often significant ones meaning players are out for a number of weeks. Given we haven’t even played that many games and often with breaks between them, is it possible our training is too intense? The players have remarked on it. But if every day is match day intense then it could just be too much?
2. Pitch watering. Last game a number of players slipped over and it’s not the first match. We know why it’s done but is that too much? Given the lack of ball we have had I’m not convinced this season it’s helped us anyway. Last week just helped Arsenal with their passing.
First went to buy some Minky clothes pegs from The Range. But every tub of them had the selophane top punctured and pegs removed to presumably top up the tub people had chosen to buy.
Second I went to pick up my son from the station and popped into Morrisons first. As I had just gone in some overweight middle aged bloke starting legging it out with two full bags and an alarm going off behind him. He was going pretty slow due to his and the shopping weight. He was chased even slower by a middle aged Morrisons woman. I thought she either won't catch him or be able to stop him anyway. I fleetingly thought about going to help her but didn't in that split second. Should I have?
I then took that thought into my third instance. Drove to the station car park which was very full. I managed to get a space. But couple of minutes later the roads round the car park became grid locked. Cars were hooting. I got out of the car to wait for my son and could see some bloke sitting in his car in the road effectively just waiting but blocking the traffic. Perhaps cos of two above I decide to tell him he shouldn't stay there. He was blocking the way and cars were queued back to the entrance. He wasn't having it. Saying a car could get past him etc. 5 minutes later my son turned up and he was still there. I said you have to move now mate. He said get a poiliceman. I wanted to kick his car. But didn't.
How much should we get involved in this sort of stuff? Should we just stand aside cos it's not worth the aggro? I probably only said something to that guy cos I weighed him up physically which maybe shouldn't be a factor either but it is.
In my endless watching odyssey of YouTube videos yesterday on Trump, I learned that only Congress should be imposing tariffs. Only the Cold War time granted a limited power to the president to do so should there be a national emergency.
So Trump immediately abuses that and says that it's a drugs crisis. That gives him a thin veil of legality. But as someone else pointed out, the amount of captured fentanyl coming from the Canadian border last year was about a suitcase full.
So Canada cant win because its cant prevent any drugs or illegal immigrants at all coming over its border. And of course thats not the real reason for the tariffs anyway - it's a tool to impose pressure on them to joining the USA. Which clearly won't happen.
How can his acolytes like Karoline Leavitt and Marco Rubio wear the cross of Christ and know they are telling lies? Rubio even had the lent cross painted on his forehead yesterday like he's some medieval monk.
It will be "interesting" to see the justification for tariffs imposed on the EU or the UK.
1. Many games this season the right back area has been exploited by opposition left wingers. Its not all about the right back its about that Leif presses forward from left back and the team shuffles to more like there centre backs. Then the right of those three just cant get tight enough on the winger in time. It's not all about Godfrey having a bad game, it's about it being really hard for him to tackle a winger in full flight. Like it has been for others playing that position this year. And Godfrey was fractions from blocking the cross for the first goal.
2. Phillips played well. More like what we expected. Getting him in form for his inevitable Leeds move.
3. The team played well. We just weren't clinical in the chances we made. But much better than the Man City defeat for example and even the Southampton performance.
4. Phillogene played ok. He needs time. There was some good stuff mixed in there. He confident on the ball and in time will get more effective.
5. Have we bought too many players that need development rather than being PL ready - probably yes. Mick Mills is right in that our reserve side is probably going to be as good as our first team. And that we would have been better getting 4 or 5 PL ready players. But in reality who would they have been and would they have come?
1. Muric. I watched him in warm up not look very sharp and let a couple of softies in. Said to my neighbour he doesn't look sharp. He's totally shot. Im not a goalkeeper and maybe his height doesn't help, but he never looks properly set to me. I mean the whole bent knees, arms out front kind of position, on your toes. Maybe someone who knows keeping can say otherwise. Walton out for a while and Muric looking gone mentally. The ball under his foot only saved by being wide of the goal.
2. Enciso. Terrific. Maybe over did it a little at times but that's a premier quality player. Fee paid by Brighton 11 mil. Highlights our poor recruitment. This guy was surplus to current Brighton requirements but our best player by a mile.
3. We are all gutted right now. Let's face it, we are going down and the rest of the season could be really painful. But somehow we have to get to the end of it and prepare for next season. This squad should be very competitive in championship and it's important we don't drag the whole feeling down so much that we go into the next with no momentum and a down feeling.
4. Hope Ashton has done his sums right cos I wouldn't bank on a huge resale value for many. I still love Hutch but what premier club is going to say he's a must buy for next season. He lost possession far too often today.
5. We have lost a lot of identity. We don't know our best 11 and we don't know our best way of playing. It's all looking a disjointed mish mash. And so soft at the back. We cough up chances every game that are far too easy for the opposition to convert.
A bit of a previous post repeat, but we don’t seem capable this season of spotting and buying players that are a significant upgrade on what we have.
Far too many 15 million pound lads looking 5 percent upgrades. And at the same time we are getting offered 350k for Edmundson who quite honestly would have done no worse than the other defenders yesterday. We are not getting our money back in full on quite a number of these lads if we go down cos other premiership clubs won’t be buying them. And that could be a problem.
I’m not so keen on this formation now either. We just don’t seem to be able to get play down the pitch. Maybe we need an extra centre mid in there.
There seems to be something very odd with the price tag of players compared to their ability.
It’s like you have players like Broadhead, bought for 1.5 million and probably not sellable for much more than 2 to 3. Then to seemingly buy a better upgrade we have to jump to 16 millio (Clarke). And find that there really isn’t much improvement, if any.
See burgess and greaves.
See Ogbene and burns.
See O’Shea and woolfie.
See Walton and muric.
It like there’s a twilight zone of 10 million pounds where players don’t exist and then they pop out at 15 million to be 5 percent better.
I don’t dislike any of the players we have brought in but my criticism would be they haven’t raised the bar enough. We have fished in an expensive UK market almost exclusively and I think we needed a couple of diamonds from abroad.
Tonight we can shuffle the pack but somehow there’s just not enough quality about us to take charge. We struggled to play forward through their press and out of possession struggled to get it back. We were never in their half long enough to build pressure.
Stating the obvious but we have Broadhead, Philogene, Smoz and Clarke all for that position. Only one can start and one come on.
Are we going to see one go this window?
It would be incredibly hard on Broady as I think he has looked sharp these last few games. His foot work and intelligence have looked strangely more aligned to the prem than it did in the championship.
And Clarke hasnt got started. Theres a player there. Im excited for the Jaden signing but I think Clarke last year was as good. He just needs more game time think. Surely we cant be thinking of loaning him already.
Maybe JP will cover /alternate for Hutchinson on the right for rest of season? That could make sense given Ogbene injury?
And also i saw that delap was having a long chat with Palmer on the pitch whilst rest of team were doing the fist pumps. He must be flattered by the attention.
And also didnt Broadhead play well. I did think weve spent 25 mil on two players who havent really significantly upgraded his pos.
He has been getting rave reviews recently. Some people suggesting he is on course for POTS. But for me whilst Burgess is a good defender who you can rely on to make tackles, headers and be brave....i dont think hes good enough on the ball at PL level. Passes are too slow, control is too slow and many forward passes are wayward.
For me Greaves is as good on the defensive side and far better on the ball.
If we are going to stay up we need to get our best players on the pitch and get them in form and playing.
I didn't sleep well last night and at one stage went through each of the summer signings to rate them, based on money paid, performances to date, have they been an improvement on who had the shirt and fitness (availability).
This is subjective oc and no fence sitting
Muric - Miss. Indifferent form and not a big enough improvement over VH. Johnson - Miss. Hasn't made enough improvement in the right back area. O'Shea - Hit. Good on the ball and reads the game well. Looks PL level. Greaves - Hit. Just - given question now of whether better than Burgess and fee paid. Phillips - Miss. Not doubting pedigree. But not enough impact. Not fit enough of the time. Cajuste - Miss. Just. Decent player. Needs more sustained impact. Carrying injuries. Ogbene - Miss. Harsh - but hardly played then got injured. Delap - Hit. Nuff said. Badly needs resting. McKenna expects forwards to be spent after 60. Clarke - Miss. Just haven't seen enough from him. Decent player no doubt but needs to show. Szmodics - Hit. Grafts better than Broadhead and good finisher. Hutchinson - Hit. Super talented but impact varies against PL defenders.
Think it speaks volumes that we rely on Morse, Chaplin last few games, and how good our recruitment was in L1 and the small fees we paid. Id say 6 miss ratings above is too high. All of them have the potential to come good but we are nearly half way through the season and we are getting into the too late territory.
We maybe never could have a successful window as we couldn't afford the combined fees for 10 proven PL players - but I cant help feeling we have invested in a lot of good Championship players who cant kick us on enough in a short time frame.
I thought Chaplin was terrific today. Lots of good passes. Tackles. Closing down. Good goal. Really pleased for him. What an example of a pro who gives their all whether they are in the team or not.
Taylor played well.
Centre halves both played well.
If we go down then so be it. Its all a ride and if we keep the faith and the support there is every reason to think the club will go forward.
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