sacreblueits442

...just looking at the above clip, McAteer seems uncomfortable taking the ball on his left!!! There are two instances where the ball gets away from him because he takes the ball with his right foot and the only time he tries to take it on his left the ball runs away from goal. It seems he is better on the right where it is natural to receive the ball on his better foot. He gets the control right and the ball is pushed into his path directly on goal. Too many touches and the chance goes begging.

...if I recall, a team that passes well, young players that are brave on the ball and willing to play out in tight spaces!!! They had the beating of us last season, as they had a cohesive plan and a manager who looked to play an attacking game against a team in a higher league.

...seems like you did!!!

...if Maresca has seen fit to extend his contract then he sees a player who he believes he can mould into a player capable of playing within his system!!! So long as he works on stopping him from going to the ground, staying on his feet and gaining the knowledge of reading the game. He seems more assured so far in the work that he does and so long as he can control the need to fly into tackles, he will give whatever Maresca asks of him.

...it is not as if he would be playing with one leg!!! If you are saying his recovery from the ACL injury and rehab will make it difficult for him to come back, I can understand your hesitation. But the talent that he has will see him brought in at the earliest opportunity, McAteer, and Madivadua were given opportunities, and Braybrooke has too much talent to be sidelined due to age or the belief that Maresca hasn't got the bottle to put his judgment to the test.

...better quality players, it was evident in pre-season, that they have a crop of exciting young players!!! A well drilled squad, who plays to a system that attempts to dominate their opponents. They go a goal down and they expect to win the game despite that setback.

...had 13 starts for Reading last season, 1 goal scored 1,111 minutes in total!!!

...he doesn't have to play in a 2, as a false 9 he should be excelling in this role!!! We have seen this form from him before, his touch is off everything is bouncing off him and he makes poor decisions and is on the ball too long. He was out in the wilderness before, and you thought there was no way back, but he clawed his way back into the team. I believe he is under a lot of pressure and he cannot see any sign of redemption, all he sees is an axe hanging over his head, and in these situations, you do not perform anywhere near your best level.

...Mavididi will get a lot of room with Blackburn being on the front foot!!! Fatawu still looks like he will be a match-winner, but the end product is not there at the moment and we might seemingly have to wait for his contribution, somewhere down the line. He will start but McAteer will definitely be coming on pretty soon into the second half if Fatawu is still firing blanks. Would love to see Akgun as one of the 8's, he looks a bit of a schemer and we need that sort of creativity within the team.

...pretty important to hold to his beliefs and Maresca must feel good that he didn't waver in his beliefs!!! On another day the scoreline could have been worse, but we should have been looking to feed McAteer more at the start of the game as Curtis was struggling to stay with him. Akgun had a good game, held onto the ball a bit too long, and should have been looking to release McAteer and move the ball quicker.

...46, I am not sure if I understand this part!!! Surely 40 in the league and F.A. Cup game depending on our progress, so minimum 41.

...perhaps better being featured on the bench than not being in the matchday squad at all, pure optics regarding a potential sale!!!

...you just couldn't make it up, if you tried, no one would believe you!!!

...you wouldn't have thought he would have had any hesitation about getting out of here!!! He was marginalised by the incumbent manager and the club did not seek to do anything to remedy the situation. Why wouldn't it happen again, and who would be there to fight his corner? It seems he lost a lot of faith in this club.

...he didn't want to be here, he was holding out for another deal which did not come about!!! If you did not wish to be somewhere, why would you not take the offer to get out? We won the league with him and he has gone on to win 13 major cups, 12 of them since he left us, he has won all the trophies you can win in the game, and we were lucky to have him for that season.

...by all means liaise with Maresca any intention to change and pursue a new style of play, but his remit of getting us back up should not include having any more additional load to carry!!! Perhaps he might be aware of someone within the Manchester City system who is restricted in any progress and would excell with building his own processes and running and overseeing his own department. I would rather be taking these losses due to building something new, than it being as a result of adhering to a system that was broken and attempting to repair it with the same damaged parts.

...if Rudkin brought anyone in to take Petty's place then I suspect it would be an internal promotion as he would want to have control of the direction the academy is progressing and control of the people under him!!! Any external personnel would bring their own ideas and would challenge him as to what they were seeing being played out throughout the age groups. Our only hope is that Maresca speaks to Khun Top and outlines the necessary pathways required for his methods to flourish long-term. Rudkin was not the driving force to bring in Maresca, his appointment went above his head, let us hope Khun Top repeats the process.

...it was right to jettison Beaglehole, we just did not look far enough to find an adequate replacement!!! Everything with this club is short-term, with never any long-term plans, and no vision or comprehension of what is required in this sport for any kind of longevity. The only time it appears that we had a plan for this club was when Khun Vichai was in charge and led from the front. It seems as if we now have a leader at the helm, decisive, opinionated and knows what he wants, having him around this club may just push an apathetic board to be more professional.

...it really is about coaching and improving players!!! Watching players grow due to the information imparted to them will solve the preparing player's aspect. I would say apart from the Goal Keeper, Centre Backs and Fullbacks, I do not believe any other players have an inkling what their position is or what is required of them. Dismantling this team with immediate effect is what we need to do, the longer we wait to instigate a structured system (see the first team) the further we will be from being able to compete.

...if there is anything this team lacks is structure!!! We haven't had it for years and we see the results before us, where we are constantly second best to whomever we come up against. Why we did not copy the first team I do not know as it seems we could not have been looking to transition to this style of play, as there is no continuity in the outlook for this club. It is all short-term planning, no doubt worried about the switch to our new format if it did not work, not looking to commit to a process that they were sceptical about being successful. This has to be the moment we commit to a long-term policy with this style of play and get incoming players up to speed with what is required of them and the roles they are asked to fill. Just looking at Casadei he seems out of tune with the rest, he has to play in match situations to grasp the understanding of the players around him. Braybrooke and Alves will be so much further from meeting the team's needs unless they are introduced and conditioned to the style of play before they are brought in.

...H T Middlesborough U21 still lead 1 - 0 but it has been pretty onesided!!! The stats are overwhelming in the opposition's favour, It is a miracle it is only a goal to nil.

...19 minutes gone, a goal to nil down to Middlesbrought!!!

...curb Boehly's involvement and you will be more than half way there!!! There problems will continue to exist, so long as he continues his influence on the club. Imagine Maresca walks into that club, he would immediately get the respect and attention of the players. The whole culture would change overnight. When you introduce a no nonsense leader into an environment things change, and so do results.

...25 years old and having been through two big academies, he still cannot shoot across the keeper, or has the composure to steer the ball into the net, rather than needlessly using pace to shoot!!! Take that crazy decision making out of his game and the goals will come, as well as better decision making. As an inverted winger, his ace in the hole is the curled shot across the keeper, drawing it in from the keepers back post. He has tried to do this and failed spectacularly, ending up blazing the ball away from the goal. At his age he should not be needing coaches to remedy this, it should have been an intrinsic weapon in his armoury long before he ended his academy days.

...there are no U23s, it has been rejigged as U21s for some time!!!