Guest

For all that Newport are shit, we are also shit and Winks is out of the picture (for now anyway) I'd be hesitant to recall him largely because, through no real fault of his own, it's the first time he's ever been playing senior football week in week out. I'm guessing his form means we could probably find him another loan at a higher level but there's no certainty he fits in or plays anywhere near as regularly. Similarly, I don't think there's really any guarantee he plays very often here either, and is it really worth dragging him back into this environment to have him sit on the bench and maybe pick up a handful of minutes here and there? From the sounds of it he's pretty integral to everything Newport do in a way that I can't imagine he would be here - the responsibility seems to be doing him good even if the reason he's been given it is that his teammates are all absolutely gash. I do think there's merit to each option but on balance I'd probably leave him be and let him get a full, uninterrupted season of first team football under his belt.

Same. I can accept there's a possibility we're not very fit relative to some other teams, but to the extent that we're blowing so badly after 45 minutes that we physically have no choice but to drop off? Not having it

Second half was genuinely the sort of stuff you see when a lower or non-league team play someone like Man City in the cup and are just hoping they can hold out for penalties

He seems worryingly out of his depth for someone who had already been managing in this division for the past two seasons. Proper rabbit in headlights stuff yet again

Makes some very impressive saves but his handling and distribution are really poor and I'm not convinced he's actually much (if at all) better than Hermansen was at commanding his area

Stop parrying it straight back out you helmet

Didn't see that coming, totally against the run of play. What an unexpected thing to happen! Truly a surprise.

This is as concerning as it was predictable. It happens so often you think it has to be deliberate but it's so obviously counter-productive you think it surely can't be.

Another smart finish from Bob and superb work from Fatawu who I was reading earlier is "garbage" and needs dropping. We're so back

I've never really been sure how beneficial it can actually be to arrange friendlies against teams because they're geographically close to the ones you've got in the groups. Say we were playing one against Nigeria - what would that actually tell us about what it's going to be like to play against Ghana? They've got a different manager and a completely different set of players. Are we more likely to beat Panama if we play a friendly against Honduras instead of Japan? It's not like there's a really strictly defined Central American or West African way of playing football and if you think about a team doing the reverse and e.g. trying to get a feel for playing against England by arranging a friendly against Scotland, I don't know that it would make much sense. If we were playing away then I could see the logic in picking geographically to try and recreate what the conditions will be like, but they're both at home. A couple of decent teams to actually give us a test rather than two minnows we wouldn't really learn anything from strolling past makes sense to me.

My suggestion would be to always dash into/through his attacks rather than away from them, if you're not already. Bait one of his big sweeps, dash through so you're behind him, get some hits in, repeat. Easier if you have extra dashes via the mirror upgrades or Hermes but even without, you'll get used to the timing and learn how late you can leave it. If you can get Athena dash then even better. My go-to weapon is the Chiron bow which makes it really easy to just keep your distance (i.e. away from his lunge/thrust attacks, which are the hardest to anticipate and avoid) and chip away at him.

Not top priority maybe but I feel we could do with another wide option. Bobby looks more useful playing centrally and should probably be first choice there with Ramsey out, Silko Thomas I'm really not convinced is up to it, Cifuentes doesn't appear to have a great deal of faith in either Monga or Evans at present. Thinking of Boro having Gannon-Doak last season or Ipswich getting Sarmiento in January 24 - got to be some Premier League youngsters/squad players looking for minutes, surely?

Incomprehensible that he was omitted for as long as he was but better late than never I suppose

Shame that after having seen our opponents basically declare at 3-0 and almost see it backfire last week we've ended up doing the same. We look so unconvincing when we try to sit on leads and "control" games

Please don't just sit off now

Always rated him

My bold prediction is that England definitely won't beat Brazil in the group

Jordan Ayew goal direct from a corner to send us Crashing Out

Why would he be? Anyone who would have him down as one of our worst forwards over the last 30 years needs a good long think

His performances and application earn him the benefit of the doubt and I'm inclined to think those quotes are born of sincere belief and determination rather than flippancy and complacency, but yeah, not massively reassured by our supposed Premier League quality and "the leaders in the group" at this point. He is at least one of the players you sense can be relied upon to back up this sort of talk on the pitch.

I've seen a few shouts for Tony Mowbray, can anyone enlighten me as to why exactly? Took over at West Brom with them sixth, sacked with less points per game than Cifuentes has with us. A friend of mine supports them and some of the criticisms were pretty similar to ours at the moment - nice guy but no discernible structure or plan with team and players looking lost, couldn't really manage games and weird team selections like playing Grady Diangana deep in midfield. If the hope is that he'll come in and give everyone a kick up the arse because he's a good old-fashioned proper British gaffer then that hope might be misplaced because the consensus also seemed to be that he was a bit of a soft touch and their discipline collapsed after he took over. I get that if we do end up looking for a new manager the shortlist is likely going to make for uninspiring reading but I really can't see the appeal. Is it just that Pearson isn't coming back but we still want a 62-year-old former Boro player who's recently been really ill?

Aiyawatt is surely too busy leading the "football operations revamp" that is definitely actually happening

As far as I can tell, lowest since 12/13 when we were 17th but that was after only three games. Last time we were this low a fair way into the season would have been 10/11 when Sousa was sacked with us bottom after nine games and then another poor run had us 17th in December.

Hopefully consecutive defeats to teams who sacked underperforming managers and then mysteriously started climbing the table will nudge him over the edge but I'm not convinced it will

We're so back