Ricey

You can point towards the two Champions League collapses and last seasons relegation as examples, but more pertinent to me is the evidence from this season. It’s hard to deny that we’ve struggled in the big matches and the big moments. If I was to bet on it now I’d bet on us bottling this, as that’s the direction things are pointing, but these players still have enough time to prove that they can handle the pressure.

He’s going to have to try something different for a bit. With Ricardo out we have no one who can offer what he does. We are also seriously missing Ndidi and now have Praet and McAteer injured as well. Time to mix it up. Against low blocks I’d be tempted to try Justin at RB and have him play as a traditional wingback. Rather than have the right sided 8 make runs wide to support Fatuwu, have Justin do that. I’d even try KDH deeper with Winks and Yunus as a 10. We need to freshen things up, psychologically if nothing else, but also to get the opposition guessing.

Also said that we need to find different ways to score.

I could explain away the Middlesbrough and Leeds results, but today was woeful. Team was wrong, subs were wrong, attitude was wrong, game plan was wrong, the rainbow that appeared inside of the stadium felt wrong. We missed Ricardo and Vestergaard massively, but everyone’s performance levels were off, in particular the players that were left at home midweek. Things have turned very grim very quickly. I just hope this is happening early enough for us to have time to rectify it.

Normally there are no matches on the Monday of an international break, as that is when the players report for duty. It's possible that the Southampton match gets brought forward a couple of days to the midweek. It's a free midweek for both of us and there is already one Championship match scheduled for the Tuesday. Wednesday for Southampton and Sunday for the Cup probably suits us.

Great performance. Time to trust these fringe players a bit more Enzo?

I'm sure I read somewhere that Ipswich picked up a couple of injuries on Saturday but I can't find anything online about it. Any news?

Would it though? Bournemouth might make some changes, meaning it isn't quite the acid test that people want. Also, what if we both go full strength and we beat them? What does that really mean? That we are Premier League quality? Great, no signings required in the summer then. The best chance to see where we are is to achieve our objective of winning promotion.

I suspect Nelson will play RB rather than Cover.

I think during the first half of the season we were often losing or drawing going into the last 15 minutes and had to force things a bit more to get goal or two. More recently we've been ahead going into the last 15 minutes with something to lose. I think the lack of rotation and subs also plays a part. Earlier in the season the rotation was fluid and our fitness looked great towards the end of matches.

He has to make changes. We just can't risk it. It's not just about QPR, it's about Sunderland, Hull, accumulative fatigue and injuries.

I actually think the fact we've lost two matches going into this further reinforces the need to make changes. If we were going into this match in good form I'd be worried about a defeat knocking our momentum, but as it stands we don't really have any momentum. I'd be making lots of changes and even leaving some players at home. No point them travelling all the way down to Bournemouth to sit on the bench.

Rudkin was fully behind Rodgers. Various Percy articles backed that up. Rudkin is Director of Football and wholeheartedly trusted by the owners, if he had wanted Rodgers gone it would have happened earlier than it did.

…and does Rudkin not have a part to play in those poor finances? Signing poor players on big wages that we can’t shift? Disastrous transfer window last January? Relegation caused partially by Rudkin’s stubbornness to sack Rodgers? I could go on. The fact that we couldn’t replace Casadei with another loan is probably more down to poor relationships with agents and clubs, rather than finances.

It is, and he’d be absolutely right to do it.

We’ve been guilty of this a lot this season but not last night. We kept pushing for the second for most of the second half. The equaliser felt like it came out of nowhere and then obviously the implosion occurred.

We are an exceptional team with a resilience problem. Lacking the composure to take the big chances and crumbling when put under pressure at the end of matches. We were superb tonight for 80 minutes but it’s another match to add to the pile of matches that we’ve thrown away.

See.

We’ve been brilliant but I’ve watched football for long enough to know that there’s no way that we don’t rue all of these missed chances. Not a chance.

Also, why does tonight feel like a Play-Off semi-final first leg?

Leeds have improved a lot against lower blocks over the last few months. They have become really effective at blitzing a team early, going ahead, normally by a couple of goals and then winning the game. I'll be honest, I've no idea how I'd play it tonight. Sitting back and trying to eliminate their pace going forward doesn't really suit us. We don't like not having control and eventually we'll start to panic. Press them high up the pitch to try and cut off their transitions at source, like we did against Ipswich at home, could be suicide if we don't do it well enough. We'll also tire doing that. A lot will depend on what Leeds do. It's evident that Maresca tries to predict the oppositions game plan and then trains all week to combat it. Whenever the opposition have sprung a surprise we've often struggled in the first halves of those games. Leeds have the quality to kill the game off by half time if that happens. I suspect Leeds will come flying out of the traps to try and get ahead. If they don't, they'll drop a bit deeper to try and spring some traps.

I agree to a certain extent but the equaliser for Ipswich at our place was always coming. We didn't take our chances, sat back, lost control of the match and became nervy.

Perfect!

It's really thrown me that 4th Quartile isn't green.

Hull pressing like mad, be surprised if they keep it up. If their finishing was better they’d be out of sight by now.