Sunbury Fox

Spot on. Don’t get the criticism for VK. Yeah, there are better FBs in the league of course, but replacing him is well down our list of January priorities for me.

Wow, that is seriously impressive. I wonder which Man City player will be highlighted on MOTD, though?

He was good in the first half at Liverpool, I thought.

It was great having 2 technically good players in the double pivot today, with Soumaré and Winks both capable of receiving the ball under pressure, turning and playing the ball through the lines. Excited to see how their partnership develops over coming games.

I also think he's playing within himself, even now when he's playing really well. When he bursts forward with the ball, players just bounce off him and he's very hard to stop given his excellent close control. Want to see him do this even more. He ran BEK a very close second for man of the match today. I'm becoming a big fan, I won't lie.

And a red for the keeper as he made no attempt to win the ball fairly.

Why the hell did he not start that front 6 at home to Wolves? It gave us 5 technical players behind Vardy, lots more fluidity in forward areas and 2 CMs who are good on the ball and able to progress the ball through the thirds. When we get relegated, it will be that game against Wolves, which will be seen as the sliding doors moment of the season, I fear.

Outrageous that Neville didn't give him the credit he deserved on the commentary. Too busy waxing lyrical over a simple 5 yard pass from KDB, who was basically anonymous.

Good effort but until we start keeping clean sheets we are not winning many games in this league. Mads' absence is killing us. He knocks that ball away from danger for their first goal, I'm sure.

Would have played Okoli instead of Coady to give us more pace and physicality up against Halaand, but other than that, I'm happy with the line up. Just frustrated that we went with a more conservative XI against Wolves last week.

Yep, this is a huge problem and means we can't park the bus effectively against better teams as we pose very little threat on the counter.

Have sold our tickets on resale for this one. Did it straight after the Wolves debacle, which I think effectively sealed our fate this season.

I know Hamza isn’t great, but harsh to call him out for not marking players out of the game when he’s hardly ever in the matchday squad, let alone the starting XI!

Absolute priority is a good CB who can organise things at the back and offer a threat in the opposition box. Like in 14/15, when Huth's arrival for about £3m in January absolutely transformed the season for us - and of course the following season. Second priority is a RB who is fast, and able to attack well and defend. Third priority is a RW who offers pace and goal contributions, plus ideally the ability to deliver good set pieces (we are desperate for someone who can do that). If there is money left after that, then I would look at bringing in a target man who can hold up the ball and bring others into play. We've lacked this option since Ulloa left. I know some are saying that CM needs strengthening but I think we just about have enough if 2 of Winks, Ndidi and Soumaré are available. Not ideal but enough, given the resources at our disposal.

Like that XI, though I think I would be tempted to drop Coady for Okoli. Think of all of our sub-standard CBs, Okoli is best suited to standing up physically to Haaland. And if we bring in Okoli, he needs to be partnered by someone who can actually pass the ball, so Vesty would get the nod over Coady for me. Fully expect that Ruud will again select Justin and will bring in Reid for Ayew, leaving FB on the bench. Why does pretty much every manager make at least one decision that makes no sense. With Rodgers, it was picking Ward for 2/3 of a season, with Cooper it was Justin over Ricardo and Ayew/Reid over Abdul, and now we have Ruud leaving out FB, who was arguably our best player under Cooper.

And I meant to add that it really doesn't look good, does it?

Looking at it set out like this, it is hard to argue with any of the 10 fixtures you have down as a loss, apart from maybe Brighton and Bournemouth, if they're marooned in mid table with no chance of Europe by the time we play them. So, as you say, we could need some of result in all of the remaining games to stay up. But I think results in 8 could be enough ie w6 D2 or W5 D3, as I think 32 points could be enough this season. It's a risk, banking on that, of course.

As I've mentioned in a separate thread, we've lost our last 14 league games v the big clubs (excluding Tottenham). We've not even scored a home goal against Man City since Boxing Day 2018. Grim.

Since beating Liverpool at home on 28 December 2021, our record against the big clubs (discounting Tottenham) is: W0 D2 L16 F11 A41 (including losing the last 14 games) That said, only 5 of those games have been at home. In those 5 games at the KP, our record is W0 D0 L5 F2 A8 We’ve not scored a home goal v Man City since Ricky P’s late winner on Boxing Day 2018.

Based on his selections so far, Ruud will pick Reid or Kasey over FB, to replace Ayew.

That’s only 4 league games then. Very lucky boy.

Only conceded 4 shots at Arsenal away, tbf. Think we conceded about 40 shots there whilst similarly trying to park the bus.

Think we need at least 1 new CB, too, and ideally 2. That means we might need to make do with the current CM options.

Going to be hard for him to come back from 5 straight PL defeats, which is most likely where we’ll be after the next 2 games, so early in his reign.

I think he is a big confidence player and it’s clear at the moment his confidence is very low, hence his unwillingness to dribble at defenders. One other thing that has always bugged me about him, even in the Championship, is that he doesn’t make runs off the ball ahead of the player with the ball when a counter attack is on. He just stands there waiting for the ball to feet or jogging behind the player with the ball. But, overall, he just needs to back himself more, as I still think he can offer something at this level.