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Needless to say I want every player to do well for us but I can't think of one I've wanted to succeed so desperately as lovely Patson. The way he's talked about is absurdly disrespectful at times and way out of proportion with what he's actually contributed during his time on the pitch. Hopefully working with Ruud brings the best out of him.

That is my concern with him - he can strike a ball very nicely which is obviously a good quality for a striker to have but it seems like if he's not scoring he might as well not be there and really needs someone up alongside him to do the link work.

Yeah I haven't played PoE but I remember seeing some footage of 2 last year not long after Diablo 4 had come out and it piqued my interest so I signed up for some waiting list - got in one of the private betas earlier this year and was absolutely blown away by it, been waiting impatiently ever since and easily my most anticipated release of the year. Had an email this morning inviting me to another test from tonight until Friday which was like reliving the Cooper sacking announcement all over again.

What's he being made a scapegoat for exactly? I don't think anyone's blaming the result or performance on him, just pointing out - correctly - he isn't very good which also presumably has quite a lot to do with him never getting a run of games.

Unsurprisingly there is not a great deal happening this month but I will definitely be playing Path of Exile 2's early access which starts on Friday. Marvel Rivals is a free Overwatch knockoff out the same day on PC and consoles, which I can't say I'm particularly excited for after having tried the beta but your mileage may vary. Then on the 9th there's an Indiana Jones game for PC and Xbox (coming to PS in Spring next year apparently) and that, as far as I can tell, is about it. January looks even more quiet so let's get that out of the way too while we're at it - there's a new Dynasty Warriors on the 17th for PC and consoles if you like that sort of thing and a Sniper Elite spin-off for the same platforms on the 30th.

I would rather he saw out the season with Stoke personally. Better for his development and while he can obviously finish I don't think we've really seen anything from him to suggest he's going to be the difference between us staying up or not - chance conversion is not really our issue. I might have liked Nelson back but that's not happening.

That's all well and good Steve but we have also taken the fewest shots and shots on target, have the longest average shot distance and are above only Ipswich for xG and touches in the opposition box. If you think they are indicators of a functioning attack that over the course of a season is likely to produce enough goals to keep a team as leaky as ours afloat then fair play.

I don't think they've been adjusted for today's games yet so Coady's are obviously enormously skewed by having only played a few minutes beforehand. But per 90 minutes Okoli makes marginally more clearances than Faes (I mean so marginally as to be insignificant) but he also makes more tackles and interceptions, more blocks and fewer errors leading to shots. Faes is better in the air but defensively that's about it. Ideally I don't think you'd want any of them starting games but for me the best pairing is Vestergaard and Okoli.

Per 90 minutes, Okoli and Coady

I'm not convinced of that just yet. Everton managed 40 points last year after having 8 deducted with a group of players that I don't think is noticeably better than ours, though admittedly Branthwaite and Tarkowski are a level above any centre back we can call on. Ruud has a job on his hands for sure and it's not a good squad by any means but it shouldn't need to be to finish above three of Ipswich, Southampton, Everton, Wolves and Palace.

I agree with the sentiment but i dont expect either of them feel any sense of responsibility for it whatsoever

But we don't know what he does

No real idea how good an appointment this is but if he has a plan to get results that extends beyond trying to keep it tight and hoping for the best then he is an immediate upgrade

Yeah I liked him, one of the many weird and wonderful loanees of the Sven era. Like you I wouldn't have guessed he got that many caps or that he played at a Euros. Had a good old stint in the Premier League as well, I didn't realise he spent so long/played so many games at Palace

Van Aanholt

No, hence why that too was a risky appointment. Some risks pay off and some don't.

Is it not more likely that rather than saying to the players "whoever the new manager is will be someone for whom we don't have to pay compensation", which I agree would be quite an odd thing to do, Top simply told them who the new manager is going to be and Percy either doesn't know or has been instructed by his source/the club/whoever is briefing him not to say who it is?

Can you shed any light on how close Martin O'Neill was to getting the job this time?

Ten Hag signing his contract as we speak

For some reason I can't really explain I feel like RVN would either be a huge success or total failure, nothing in between. Either we stroll to a top half finish and he leaves for a Champions League club in the summer or he fails to win a single game and gets sacked. My similarly unfounded suspicion about Corberan is that he would be right in the middle, solid but unspectacular. Neither would blow me away exactly but needless to say I would be more optimistic about the rest of the season with either of them than with Cooper.

We're also not likely to get a manager who was actually any good during that previous experience because if they were, they're likely either holding out for or already occupying a decent job. It's a bit like how unless you've got loads of money and pulling power, going shopping for Premier League proven players tends to be very expensive and provides very little value in return. Our preoccupation with experience seems to mean that rather than gamble on a relatively unknown quantity who might excel at this level but also might be crap, we'd sooner go for someone who has proven themselves to be the latter.

Depends on what your definition of an achievement is. For me, getting a really poor Huddersfield to touching distance of the Premier League only to be halted by Jon Moss is an achievement, as is getting West Brom to the playoffs despite financial turmoil and a squad that saw basically no investment

He can only use the players he has at his disposal though and West Brom have neither an abundance of talent nor the ability to buy it. I don't think he's come in, dismantled a really exciting creative team and then demanded they spend tens of millions on buying cloggers, that's just what they have.

Big ask for him to juggle his morning radio show with managing us I reckon

The points about him setting up defensively regardless of opposition is my main concern with Moyes and why I find it a bit odd seeing so many people refer to him as pragmatic, which I understand is everyone's new favourite word even if they don't really understand what it means. Apparently playing the same style every week is really bad unless that style involves getting everyone behind the ball and launching it when you get it, in which case it's pragmatism.