Sunbury Fox

Defensively we look very vulnerable to counter attacks. Ricky is inverting as a right sided high 8 (the Ndidi role from Enzo’s time) in what appears to be a box midfield 4, with Winks and Soumaré as the base and James and Ricky at the top. In possession we are then left with only 3 defenders at the back, covering the whole width of the pitch, one of whom can’t even run. It’s hugely risky football and we’re not currently benefiting from the overloads in midfield in terms of creating chances as our ‘striker’ is dropping back to make it a midfield 5! Plus, as others have said, the wingers are receiving no support near them at all, so their only option is to beat 2 or 3 players on their own or lay it back. We have nobody underlapping or overlapping near them for the most part. We better hope that Carranza and Ramsey come good or our lack of creativity and goal threat is really going to kill our chances of promotion.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the Derby v Fulham abandonment in 1983. Fulham were vying with us for the final promotion place on the final day of the season. We drew at home to Burnley, meaning that if Fulham won at Derby they would finish 3rd ( no play offs in those days). However, the Fulham game was abandoned 78 seconds before the end of the game because Derby fans invaded the pitch, thinking the ref had blown the final whistle, to celebrate staying up. After waiting in vain for 15 minutes for the pitch to be cleared, the ref called the game off. Still feels odd that they didn’t wait longer to clear the pitch. Fulham subsequently submitted an appeal for a full replay but it was declined, the result stood and we were promoted!

He was pretty poor first half but I thought he was actually really good second half. Played some really nice one-twos and progressed the ball quickly.

Not sure about these stats. Funny Hull scored 2 against you when you drew 0-0 with them....

Man U have won only 1 of their last 22 PL games against 'established' PL teams (ie those who are not newly promoted). Astonishing stuff.

He made his debut at Old Trafford the week before and was really good there, I recall. But you're right he struggled in some of his early games for us. A horrific defeat at Bournemouth springs to mind as a bad day for him.

This is exactly what I was going to say. Marti has been picking players who he knew wanted to be here and were committed to the cause, to try to rebuild a strong culture and team spirit at the club. When those players then ground out 2 successive ugly wins, he could hardly drop 3 or 4 of them for the better, more technical players to start. It would have undermined the very culture he's trying to build. So he had to pick the same starting XI in my view (Page would have started if fully fit, too). What is good about yesterday, however, is that after the second half showing, he now has the justification to make the changes he probably wanted to - and we still got a draw that felt like a win in the circumstances. Against Cov he will surely go for something like this: Jakub Ricky P Faes (I know, I know, but he's class at this level and I can't stand seeing Okoli on the ball any longer!) Vesty Thomas (or maybe fit Hamza in there) Winks James Fatawu Ayew Stephy Carranza That team gives us 3 out of 4 defenders who can progress the ball effectively into midfield and a midfield pivot who can progress the ball to the forwards. In turn, it will also enable us to control games more and make us more press resistant. Well, that's my theory anyway!

Just when I was finally feeling more optimistic about things.....

I thought he picked up an injury on international duty?

Great achievement to get promoted with 2 games to spare, even if recent performances have been far less impressive in the main than they were in the first 6 or 7 games. Really chuffed!

What a sh1tshow today. If we do limp to promotion, next season could be like City's 2024/25 PL season, judging by recent performances.

The skittling is well under way. We seem to struggle badly under scoreboard pressure.

This has the feel of the Middlesex home game. Lose early wickets in our reply and we'll be under huge pressure.

We need rain and lots of it over the coming days.

I don't think Marti will either, but, whilst there's plenty to like about Okoli, not least his apparent commitment to the cause, it would be nice if he passed to his team mates more often.

Tricky selection for Marti. It's easy for us as fans to want him to include the new players from the off and possibly bring back Faes and Winks, but he has to think about overall squad harmony and continuing to build the strong culture he's talked about. If he drops 4 or 5 of the starting line up who have just battled so hard for 2 consecutive wins, however ugly, it would surely go down very badly in the dressing room. For that reason, I think he'll name an unchanged starting XI. If he were to make a change, I think the most likely one is to bring in Carranza up top, with Ayew moved to the 10 in place of Page.

Surely they're going to be in massive PSR sh1t soon, given how they're throwing money around.

Could be something in this - we love signing a man-child who throws his toys out of his pram to get his way.

The match against Derby was in the EFL Cup. Ramsey scored a 94th winner and got the highest rating on Sofascore.

Whilst not enabling us to get the kind of fee we wanted for BEK in any case. A total mess.

Fair play to Brentford rinsing Newcastle for £55m for a 29 year old with only 1 year left on his deal. Shows that a competent club can still get very good prices for players who have thrown their toys out of the pram.

Some people saying we had no choice to get rid, whatever the deal, after he threw his toys out of the pram. And yet 2 seasons ago, Gnonto and Summerville did exactly the same thing, didn't get their moves and went on to be key players for Leeds, with Summerville getting the Championship player of the year award. Anyway, no point my moaning about this any more, it's done now. Just hope we can bring in the 3 or 4 decent players we need in the next 12 hours. Can't say I'm at all confident about that.

Fernandes 2 goals, 4 assists BEK 2 goals, 3 assists That extra assist was worth well over £10m.

Torino This will be the new Dennis Praet saga over the remaining 3 years of Woyo's contract!

Even if we are now in the clear with PSR then surely we should be getting the best deal possible and this feels far from that.