Sly

Rowett is going to get hate mail for that lineup if (when) we lose this.

Okay, so I have a conundrum. With Ayew starting, do I even bother watching?

He can be truly frustrating as he does try and do everything himself at times.

He’s an erratic player but is capable of the truly spectacular. For me he’s in that same sort of bracket as a Ben Arfa, Quaresma, Coman etc, as can be a game winner, or just go missing with no end product. I’m not sure he has the “football IQ” to be a truly top player, however he shouldn’t be playing the the Championship.

We need to win this. Stating the obvious I know!

Please don’t even joke ……

114 days until he leaves.

Kristiansen / Thomas - should be able to play at this level. One has been injured and looked doggo, the other gets more unreliable as he gets older. Carranza, Soumare, Faes and Ayew somehow managed to worse than what we expected and looked about as interested as my dog does when I ask it to go outside in the rain. El Khannous bailed but that last performance from him was a disgrace. Monga, Nelson, Page, Alunko and even Stolarczyk haven’t lived up to expectation, however we shouldn’t we relying of so many players at a young age. They’re likely a tad overhyped but need time to develop. Daka could score for fun in Austria. He couldn’t score in a brothel in Leicester. Ramsey has spent more time injured than Kristiansen, which is an achievement. Mavididi has been more cold than slightly warm, but his xG vs goals must be horrendous. He’s not even been half the player he was last time. Ricardo and Winks are a shadow their former selves. Reid is just an enigma. Pops up with goals but then disappears for games at a time. Can’t seem to play anywhere other than a 10. Begovic likely came to be third choice and he’s spent his retirement season playing as the rest are horse ….. Okoli looks like he’s won a competition playing a brand of football that requires him to pass. The style doesn’t suit him in the slightest. The lot of them have largely underperformed but should we have expected less? Reality is we’ve maybe got Skipp, Fatawu, Mukasa and Vestergaard (I said it) that you’d say have been steady, with James being exceptional.

Makes sense. My preference would be. 1st Kit - Blue, White and Yellow (Gold). 2nd Kit - White. 3rd Kit - The club can do whatever it wants, however if pink generates a few £s from selling a different colour kit, I’m okay with it. I’ve more of an issue with the horrendous sponsor on the front, rather than the colour of the kit, truth be told. It can look like any of these for me! I’m not here to dictate fashion.

I think they’re all massive to be honest. We’ve still got Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn as well. Looking at the fixtures, we’ve maybe got the easiest run in on paper. However what the table doesn’t show is that mid table teams maybe take the foot off the gas now if they’re safe, or can’t get playoffs. So who knows. We just need to start winning games of football and take it one step at a time, starting with Bristol City on Tuesday.

Yes, exactly this really. You can see they’ve got ability but they really need to be playing games. Reality is they aren’t really ready for the Championship and that’s the harsh reality of why we are near the lower end of the table. We see flashes of what is capable but they’ve tended to go missing. Nelson could also be thrown into this as well. It’s a different type of pressure playing for us, compared to an Oxford as well. Our fans expectations are typically premier league when reality is so, so much lower currently.

It was more in reference to carrying players that cost us nothing in fees. As in every club should blend this within a squad. Building a squad on the cheap isn’t a long term solution though in a game that revolves around money. The reality is that Page and Monga should maybe out on loan getting more minutes so we can see how impactful they are over a longer sustained period of games. I’d say at the moment, Page has performed the better of the two. Monga is young and skilful. That doesn’t mean he’ll become a top player.

Ignore it! It’s gone wrong

I stole it from the internet!

He’s a very average championship player. It’s likely he’s been kept around for years for squad filler as no transfer fee, lower wages and lower annual signing on fee, compared to bringing someone in. Every club does this, be it youth players breaking into squads, or more experienced players that are steady backups. One or two of these in isolation isn’t a bad thing. Our challenge currently is that we are carrying L Thomas, Choudhury, S Thomas, Page, Monga, Stolarkzyk. We have too many of these and not enough genuine quality. We are doing this as our wage bill has crippled us.

Then if you spin this on its head. The average position for each club to play is: Leicester - 12.47 West Brom - 12.47 Oxford - 12.39 Blackburn - 11.82 Postsmouth - 11.74 In principle, West Brom and ourselves have the easiest run in now.

Well quietly sweep this post under the carpet and forget it never happened.

He’s improved us, however it’s still not exactly amazing. It is very much like the Dean Smith situation. I just hope our inability to act and those two missed game don’t cost us like last time. Still blows my mind that it took us so look to appoint a manager who was out of work. Form wise, we are not 18th in the table over the last 4 games. Our last 10 game form we were 23rd. So it’s an improvement. His goal is to keep us in this league. Matt Bloom has got a better bounce than have so far with Rowett. The Oxford / Blackburn game on Wednesday is massive. I see a world where both us and WBA get relegated and Oxford stay up.

My daughter loves it! It was a marketing genius to be honest. They’ll have sold more as it taps into a different demographic. Sort of ticks the “trying to do more commercially” box.

Do he down tools though, or was he booted out of the squad? Let’s be realistic, something has clearly gone on (multiple times), however he is very talented player for this level. Maybe not as good as he thinks he is though? Football Is littered with players like this. A good manager gets the best out of all of his players. You sort of don’t become good without having a bit of ego. Interestingly I watched the Overlap episode with Bale this week and he was discussing his partnership with Benzema and Ronaldo. He spoke how about the fans, social media and everything perceived him because of how he interacted with them. He just wanted to play football and not play the game to be loved by everyone. He also said that he had to adapt his game to maybe get the best from others.

No, however that doesn’t stop people speculating. I’m speculating that he was somewhat annoyed with playing with lower standard players and crappy tactics under Cooper, Van Nistelrooy and Cifuentes.

I’m not convinced he’s the long term answer.

Shock

Finishing with a better side than we started with.

GARY ….. use the fudging subs’