Aus Fox

We lost to a better team, biggest difference was the quality of the back lines, they stayed organised and didn’t really give us a sniff. We made mistake after mistake, and were punished. We’ll need to be a lot better organised at the back to get something out of games this season.

That is just bloody awful at the back, no excuses their we’ve given them 3 goals tonight and that’s the worst of the lot.

This forum really is struggling to turn anything into a negative at the moment isn’t it? Are we really going to judge these fans solely on what they look like? If anyone of us new we were attending for the first time, and photos would be taken for the clubs social media - would you not look your best? By all means let’s pick apart what they achieve, but let’s wait and see what they do before we decide they don’t represent us because they don’t look like fans in your eyes.

I honestly don’t think supporters would let it happen in England. I think a lot of owners of top six sides were shaken a bit by the response to the Super League and quickly backed down. The only was to get it through would be to completely turn your back on your core supporter group and rely on the tourists money coming in and filling the stadium.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBWko5wAPpf/?igsh=MTQ3Z3cxMXA5djUzOA==

Massive 3 points!! Not just for what it does for us, but Southampton would have gone into that game looking at it as a must win too, for them to go 2 up and the lose will kill their confidence. It’s still early days, but it’s really hard to see them staying up now. As for us, back to back wins is huge, if we can take confidence from that, we can really kick on. Another 4 points from the next two and we go into the next international break in a really strong position to kick on as we move through winter.

Every CB has got their weaknesses, we can’t expect them to be the best in every attribute. Overal we’ve got 4 decent lower to midtable Premier League CBs all with some great qualities and some weaknesses to their game that may cost us from time to time, but if they didn’t have those weaknesses they’d be playing for a much bigger club than us. Only 11 players can get on the pitch, so I don’t think it’s harsh to prefer one player over another. The competitive nature you want within a squad is if one players gets injured/suspended it should be tough for him to get back in the squad - that’s the sign you’ve got a bit of depth. Having depth though, ultimately means when everyone is fit someone will eb left out of the squad. Hence why with Buonanotte playing well and El Khannous on the bench Alves can’t get an sniff of a squad. Over the season we will need everyone at some stage - just got to hope you can keep them happy in the meantime and match fit and ready to perform when they do come in.

I don’t think Skipp and Winks can play together, also Ndidi? You can’t leave out the player who is number one for tackles in the league and number 2 for assists this season. We all know it will be JJ in for Ricardo, but add Ndidi in for Winks and I think that’s the team I’d go for.

You’ve got my vote, as long as none of the younger players go to Melbourne City and get poached by Man City - Oh and maybe Ward to Sydney?

I don’t think there’s any hate for Vestergaard, just by the looks of things early Okoli is a far better CB, especially in a two CB system. Vestergaard is a limited footballer with some string attributes, but him and Faes together is not a good combination. Right now, I think game by game Okoli is getting more comfortable and more reliable, I thought he was superb against Bournemouth. I do feel a bit for Vestergaard having signed a new contract, but I really can’t understand the clubs thinking with a 3 year deal, especially with the likes of Ben Nelson coming through who will hopefully be a first team player for us within the life of that contract. Vestergaard had a bit of a redemption last season, but you could argue he’s found his level. At the moment, he’s 4th choice here and we probably should be looking to move him on in January.

It’s a straight toss up between him and Coady For a spot on the bench. I’d say Vestergaard is probably just behind Coady interns if what he brings to the whole squad.

This is getting weird, hopefully things can be worked out and all of the players get home safely.

Ndidi also on his way home after Nigeria will boycott their game against Libya, after being stranded at the airport for 16 hours with no food or drink. Crazy scenes

The leaders for every stat

The expectation and the target for a newly promoted club is 17th. He’s had us above that position all season. Now, it’s not pretty and it’s not perfect, but it has been effective. The only stat that truely matters is points on the board at the end of May. We fell from where we were, and now need to rebuild - that takes time. Step One was getting back up, step two is now staying up. So, doing marginally better than expected at this point in time is a solid C+, again this isn’t saying he’s doing an amazing job, but he’s doing what needs to happens to lay down the foundations to enable us to move forward in the future.

Being honest, regardless of who or how we as supporters think we should be playing, there is no way he is being sacked without us being in the bottom 3 or getting turned over in games. We as supporters need to get behind the club and back them, he’s doing a solid C+ job at the moment, which is fine for now. The only goal this season is to stay up, then we build from there, which potentially includes a thank you Steve and we move on, but Cooper right now is doing exactly the job he was brought into do - make us tough to beat and keep us up - so far, without setting the world on fire he’s doing just that. If you’re expecting him to be sacked any time soon, you’re going to be very disappointed.

I’ve always thought they should play all the League Cup games on the international breaks, all Saturday 3pm. The big sides rest players anyway, it’s one way of getting some life back in the competition. None of the big clubs play the big players anyway and it would reduce the fixture congestion.

Fun Fact on Tom Williamson, he was the last sub to ever come on at Filbert Street. He came on in injury time in the 2-1 win over spurs for his only appearance- not sure he touched the ball.

Souttar starting for Australia Vs China tonight - must win game for both teams.

I’m quite happy with where my heads at thank you very much.

Completely different players with different attributes, I don’t know why people struggle to see this.

There is zero evidence that there’s a fall out with the manager, the fact he was captain in the game against Walsall says their is clearly no fall out. It is simply just a case of Justin is preferred there. We can argue all day about whether this is the best decision or not, but there’s no evidence that it’s anything other than a preference of one player over another.

I think from the start Cooper was brought in to keep us up this season and that alone. At the end of this season we build, and that includes thanking Cooper for his service and playing a role, and then we move on. Right now, with our current financial position and the EFL waiting like a pack of hungry dogs to take us to the cleaners it’s imperative that we stay up by any means possible. And if that means a season of crappy backs to the wall football then so be it. At the end of the season, we survive, we then need to take the next step towards midtable - that slow build like last time with Pearson, Claudio gave us a little bonus, the Puel had a job to do, which again wasn’t pretty but served a purpose then Rodgers took us on to the next level, before the crash. We need to follow this process and look to quickly build at the end of the season.

This guy really needs some games under his belt. He looked like a player who hasn’t played for a long time. When is the next EFL Trophy game? I’d be throwing him in for another 90minutes, along with some of the other players who we might need to call on this season, but aren’t in the squad. Its where I feel we miss the old reserves league, let a player like this get a run of games and see what they can do. On Saturday, he was simply not good enough for what we need, hopefully it will come for him with time, but in a relegation fight we don’t have time.

They’ve hardly been ostracised have they, Vestergaard has been injured, Winks played every game until Bournemouth, where Skipp was in my opinion rightfully selected ahead of him and Ricardo although not fancied for what ever reason , was captain for the league cup tie recently. We have a big squad and can only choose 11 to play. For what it’s worth, right now the only selection that’s up for debate is Ricardo, and he wasn’t particularly great in the cup games he has played.