Sunbury Fox

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.

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.