Jobyfox

My frustration with managers and Enzo is by no means the first, is their negative tactics when a team goes 1-0 up. Against Sheff Wed he brought Hamza on to hold the game. Today he brought Casadei on - although I suppose that Nacho was the one who started the break. A team 1-0 down in the closing minutes has to chase the game. The most effective way of defending is to play as far away from your own box as possible. Why not bring a fresh attacker or two on instead of inviting pressure? Though clearly I don’t know what I’m talking about as so many managers do it. Including our last three

Yeeaaaghhh !!!!!

KDH !!!!!!!!!

Or both

I must admit I was nervous when I saw our starting eleven. We’ve changed the entire midfield since the last game. Yunus and Casadei definitely don’t give us the control that KDH and Ndidi do. How long does Enzo leave it before they come on?

I’m expecting QPR levels of frustration

The random stat of the day right there

My opinion on VAR and how to improve it has not changed for a little while now. 1.The bar is “clear and obvious” and that’s where it should be set and intervention should only be in the vast minority of cases. 2. A new measure of “referee’s call” should be implemented. If it’s not “clear and obvious”, but there is some debate, the VAR officials should just stick with the on field decision. A bit like “umpires call” in cricket they are stating that it’s not reached the threshold to intervene. 3.If it genuinely is “clear and obvious” then the VAR official makes the call. This would end the ridiculous spectacle of seeing the referee trot over to look at pitch side monitors. If the VAR officials decide that it’s reached the threshold then just make the call. The current system doesn’t work anyway as there is rarely a referee brave enough to stick with the on field decision. The above is all about minimum intervention, keeping the game moving, but keeping the protection against the obvious error. It was never intended that the game would be refereed in a TV studio

Well said … We were a Premier League team, but we lost the three quality players that would be coveted at that level. We had a very unbalanced squad with no wingers or width. We had to rebuild the squad and lose a significant amount of the playing staff. We shouldn’t underestimate the task we had to integrate the new players into a team and philosophy under a new manager. That’s a technically difficult thing to do before you even consider the morale of the players with the chosen ones mixing with those with no future or looking for a way out. The only difference between us and teams like Leeds and Southampton, who arguably have squads as strong as ours, is we made that transition more quickly. Those early points may prove vital at the end of the season. Would this style and squad be good enough IF we went up? I would say it’s a big definitive “no”. But that’s no stick to beat EM with whilst it’s proving sufficient for the immediate task in hand

I know that some have been quite slow to come to terms with it but: WE’RE NOT IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE !!!!! …. and I also sometimes wonder whether people who seem to think that promotion for a relegated team like ours is some sort of foregone conclusion have actually watched any football over the last 50 or so years

To be fair to Brendan, based on what we saw in the PL, leaving Vestergaard out wasn’t one of his worst decisions. There weren’t many of us calling for Jannik’s inclusion. There are plenty of other completely bizarre calls - like persisting with Ward and Amartey - but Vesty? He still would have a bit to prove if he were to represent us in the Premier League again

It’s a bit of a mystery with Ian. When on form he’s the most instinctive finisher in the squad. He has brief runs where his touch is sublime - then long runs of nothing. I was very much in the “keep” camp because I thought he’d excel at this level. Is he just out of form, can’t play in the current system, can’t be arsed or just not good enough? The truth is that we all want and hope to go up at the end of this season. If he’s not contributing anything at this level we probably know he’s not what we need at the next. Him moving on seems like the best outcome for all concerned currently.

That’s a strange formation

I’m sure once he gets his chance he’ll explode … … oh f’k it!!! … I can’t do this anymore!!

Hmm… just googled it. During the 1945/46 season the FA Cup was played, but not League games. Do those games not count as competitive fixtures? Harsh to deprive Derby of their one and only FA Cup win. Anyway, despite the listing of Zero games played for us I found this, which shows the two FA Cup games and the “Football League South” games that Frank played in for us: https://www.thefranksoofoundation.org.uk/1945-1946

A first step has to be an independent regulator if the fans aren’t to lose the game completely. Effective regulation is another step entirely, but we have to start somewhere

Apologies …. just felt the need to quote you again for no apparent reason

Well, they definitely stayed up at our expense… but I’d agree that we only have ourselves to blame

Everton deducted 10 points for breaching FFP rules. Some will be annoyed that they stayed up last season at our expense. Personally, I’m somewhat pragmatic about it given we weren’t exactly innocent when we were promoted in 2014. interesting how Everton get punished though whilst others (cough … Man City … cough) get away with it ….

He wanted to speak to Leeds, but we refused him permission to do so. He then ran his contract down, which left him a free agent to join Celtic. Not that I have anything against him as he exceeded all reasonable expectations we could have had at that time. We've actually come a long way as a club since those days in terms of profile, size and potential.

Thank god we’re in the Championship then eh …

In-ten-si-teeeeee!!!!!