Sunbury Fox

I'm not just talking about tonight when a defeat was always very likely and we tried our best, despite the clear quality gap. I'm talking about across the 5 games RVN has been in charge I'm not sure we are much better than under Cooper. We still don't create anywhere near enough and we concede way too many shots and chances. Early days of course, but without a great transfer window we are doomed, I think, irrespective of who is in the dugout.

Let's be honest, after the initial (somewhat fortunate) bounce v West Ham and Brighton, have we seen any real improvement compared to what we were doing under Cooper? We're still way too passive, team selections have been baffling and in game management poor. Not really sure any manager could do much better with the group of players we have.

I reckon he’ll get a 3rd choice keeper gig somewhere like Scott Carson - on a lot less money than now.

He’ll be as happy himself. Swear he doesn’t want to play anyway. He knows he’s crap so easier to take 60k pw and hang out in the 6* holiday spa that is Seagrave.

Tranmere game today called off due to fog. Kinda hoping our game, which is obviously just down the road, might also be postponed!

Sickening to see Everton likely to stay up again. They've stunk the league out for season after season but never had to take their turn in the Championship. By contrast, we had 1 bad season in 9 in 2022/23 and got relegated. I did think this might be the year after their poor start but again Dyche has steadied the ship, even if the football is unremittingly dull.

Classic Everton. Park the bus, barely leave their own half and score with their only touch in the opposition's box.

The gap between top and bottom is much wider than it was back then. Tonight's game is not really a sporting event, as sport assumes some form of jeopardy, and there is none today. Just need to get it over with, without suffering too much embarrassment.

They'll be 3 or 4 up at HT and will then hopefully rest their best players and conserve energy as the next game is only 3 days later.

Think we need 3 in CM for this, plus CBs that can run. Given availability, I’d go for: Jakub Hamza Faes Okoli VK (as Thomas is even worse) Skipp (as there is nobody else) Winks Soumaré Facundo Daka (save Vards for games where we have a chance) BEK

Did a 230 mile round trip and feel the same. Even my boys are losing interest. I sold our tickets for the Man City game next week on the resale platform straight after the game today, as I couldn't face another trip to see rubbish like that. I've been a fan for over 45 years, and I think that "performance" must rank in the top 5 worst performances I've seen in that time. Just awful. Wolves were little better tbh, but then they didn't need to be to beat us. Relegation is a certainty, I fear. At least we've beaten Derby's record low points tally.

You're optimistic. Reckon it will be at least 5, more if Ward starts again.

Basically got everything wrong today. Team selection, subs and in game management. Just stood on the touchline looking lost. Very worrying.

The fact that we've scored in every home game so far and these have been shipping goals for fun makes me worried that we'll lose 0-1. It's the way of the football gods.

Interesting to see that whilst Ipswich have been beaten 4-0 today, they've still only conceded 15 shots on their goal. Still can't understand why we are regularly conceding 25+ on ours. It's ridiculous. Can only think the midfield structure is not right as we do seem to let teams have a lot of free shots from the edge of the box.

Excellent score at Ipswich. Horrible to see Forest going 3rd as it stands. Surely this can't continue?

Agent Brooks doing well on VAR!

If we go to Liverpool with Ward in goal, they could genuinely get double figures.

That is a disaster. Many games of Ward and we’re screwed.

Making Jacob Murphy look like a world beater says everything about this performance.

Why is Ward on the bench when Iversen is clearly a better keeper? Madness.

Another option would be to move from a 4231 to a 433, and deploy BEK in a deeper role in CM, alongside Skipp and Hamza. He has played as an 8 for Morocco.

It was way better. The pressing was good and we moved the ball more quickly through the thirds. The issue we had was the quality of the final pass, where we passed up lots of good opportunities with a lack of quality. Overall, I think it was a close, competitive match, which is backed up by the stats for possession, shots, xG , touches in the opponents box, etc, all of which were much more even than we were seeing under Cooper and compared to the West Ham game. Early days but all very promising.

Happened in midweek, too!

Can anyone provide an explanation as to why Archie Gray is worth £40m? I get he is very young and could improve with experience, but he just looks so ordinary every time I watch him. He’s not particularly fast or skilful, and doesn’t ever seem to score or assist, or even create a chance.