sacreblueits442

...Justin received his first International cap in June 2022!!! He was perceived as good enough to be called up, in his position 2 goals and 1 assist having moved up from League 1 and breaking into the first team, seems good to me. His subsequent injury may have scuppered him reaching the heights or potential heights that many envisaged for him. He lost a good season for the 22/23 season, not sure if you are choosing to remember selectively, but he was flying with his performances for us before his injury.

...anything after the 21/22 season would surely be "fruit from the poisonous tree..."!!!

...same that happened to Saracens, should have also lost all their titles!!! One season in the lower league came back up and became champions again, the punishment did not fit the crime, they got away with murder.

...if you noticed the run down the line, where he drilled a perfect pass to Ricardo, who in turn played in Nacho (third man running)!!! If Nacho had finished, Justin would have had a big hand in the goal. He has a lot of ability and is always going to appear negative, on the half-turn as he is playing on the side which does not allow him to use his stronger foot. Maresca has asked for him to play a role, Maresca trusts him, but imagine how much better he would be on the right.

...go into bankruptcy, take the hit with points deduction and spend a season in the Championship and reset!!! A 10-point hit is nothing and is a pretty poor penalty for the brazen approach to FFP. This is not going to hit them as hard as people would think.

...I do not see him as a negative player, he is just not suitable for the role he is presently playing!!! His biggest asset is driving forward, he looks very good when doing so, and if Maresca can get a tune out of Ndidi, I wonder if he (Justin) could be considered to take up a role in the middle of the park.

...the trick is not implementing Maresca ball but playing the players in their right positions!!! We have always come off second best to league teams, it is no surprise, what we do not want, is players being shunted around in different positions to make up a team.

...a bit of a shout, I have previously mentioned him before and at 25 years old, he has to finally test himself at the highest level!!!

...I still think that Thomas would have gone on loan, Fullbacks are not what we use in this system!!!

...with the style of play that he has brought to the club, it is a wonder why he is not heavily involved with the U21s!!! Why has he not implemented his style of play for upcoming players to be ready-made replacements, should he consider that they are of a sufficient standard? It is all very well playing the U21s in different positions, but that is what we should have been doing for 12-year-olds to learn, once you are 18 you should be learning how to play in a fixed role, not surprisingly the U21 turns out such inconsistent results.

...Thomas could not play the role that Maresca needed him to play!!! Doyle I suspect we wanted him to bring him in as he suited the role and Kristiansen stating his case made the decision less complicated for Maresca. Justin has come in and just about held it together, but there will be a marked difference when Doyle returns, regarding support to the Midfield and Left Winger.

...to an extent this!!! There has been compromise with the total possession and the Liverpool style of the press. There is a feeling that teams are becoming a hybrid of both but we are still in the infancy of total possession, where the weakness in the transition is now being tackled and the need for the possession stats is not so fundamental. We need to embrace less possession and a higher tempo way of playing when it is called for. Doing the same building from the back when we are a goal down and 1 minute on the clock of extra time, only proves we are dogmatic in what we do and do not have the ability to change our game when it is most needed.

...I wanted Richards here before he went to Palace!!! Good player, he would have suited us, my only reservation was the way he chose to go into a tackle, always appeared to leave himself open for a bad injury. After the Fofana injury, you start to become aware of the problems when a valuable cog is not available and is out of stock for a while.

...I would not go as far as to say it is boring!!! It is a different approach that we have to get used to and I feel the supporters are right behind the team and right up for games. The only problem is that it does not take long for us to be standing on the ball deep in our half and the supporters have nothing to feed off. It does not matter how successful we are in this process that we use, but we struggle to bring a lot of supporters to go with what we are trying to do.

...I like the idea of not having all our players camped in our box on a corner!!! Holding so many high up the pitch would encourage teams even more, as unless we are clearing at the near post, we are still allowing free headers from set pieces.

...he is poor infront of goal, for someone of his age he has no idea about finishing, just hit it as hard as I can and hope it isn't down the keepers throat!!! He does not supply, a few step overs everytime he gets the ball, he is far too predictable. Switching the wingers may just get them to give a better service to the 8's and striker. Going down the line driving into the box will give them the opportunity to lay the ball off with their better foot, cut backs are not something they seem to understand, it will be natural to do so playing this way. As an inverted winger they both appear unable to play that role, we need to take them back to basics. They very very much need extra coaching.

...he will not be doing it for us!!! He needs a team more into the Liverpool, Leeds mode, where they are on the front foot and playing with overloads. He will have to change and adapt his style of play whilst he is here, it will be easier for him to go elsewhere.

...we do implement it well, we are steeped into this possession game!!! Getting to understand and master and carry out the Manager's ideas was part 1, part 2 now needs to be, being braver on the ball and not see going all the way back to the CB's and then the keeper as the way to build to go forward. If either winger has the ball and pass back into midfield, then it goes back to Justin or other defender and he is on the half turn, where the easier and safer option is to go back towards our goal, as opposed to stepping in and make a forward pass, where we are going to be on the front foot. The players might now have tired of the process, they need to be challenged going forward with something else for them to learn and conquer. Things do become repetitive after awhile.

...what we saw at the start of the season has led supporters to think we had vastly improved!!! Our first two games had fallen nicely for us, and was the two teams that we were likely to beat and so it proved. There has been moments in the other games where we performed well but these defeats were expected and will continue to be so. There was a close defeat to a Manchester City team which was one of the worse Manchester City team that I have seen for a few years. Liverpool were not a great deal better than us, but looked better structured and played as if they understood what had been asked of them. We just do not do the basics well enough, can't tackle, can't sheild the ball, poor first touches, just giving the ball away with blind passes and balls underhit and turning over possession. They need to work on looking after the ball more, as a professional setup they have the time and facility to improve these player and not having to go into the market to upgrade what we have. This is about money, it helps you to build better quicker, but as a coach, you certainly want to improve the players under your charge. If that is not what a coach is, then I am not sure, why you would choose to do this job.

...this team is slow all the way through this team!!! Did not get a chance to see this one, but surprised to see we had gone 2 goals to nil up. The final score was something that I had expected, but disappointed we could not take control of the game while in the ascendency.

.. either way the chances were there but we failed to make use of them!!!

...I thought we had held on for a draw, we went on to concede 2 sloppy goals with the defence at sixes and sevens!!! They were much the better team, just wasteful initially in their last third, disappointed that we could not hold out for the draw. Hindsight would suggest we change it up and put up a deep block after we scored, we missed an opportunity there.

...this bit..!!!

...watching that, was akin to me watching Leicester Women's play!!! They can't keep the ball, can't keep their balance and are weak in their challenges and seems like someone had (for the first time) just introduced a football to the whole team. I hope there will be early changes in the second half, we look ragged.

...that looks like a very attacking team!!!