Ric Flair

It's been reported the club were surprised at a lack of interest from suitable clubs. I presume at Championship level. The question then is, would he be better not playing at all or at a League One club like Barnsley who were supposedly interested and their DOF is our ex head of analytics. I do think we have to shoulder some of the responsibility here. There was absolutely no reason not to use him from the start in some games in pre-season whilst we had zero attacking midfielders. Would have given him the opportunity to prove whether he's capable amongst his fellow 1st team players here and generated interest in the Championship as to his recovery from his ACL. A missed opportunity for our biggest start from that age category. Hopefully we get a move lined up for January.

Yeah it's very odd

I'm still trying to work out where his best position is going to be. Looks class doesn't he.

Josh King has had a few injuries in the last year or so, so hopefully he's over those. Looks to be very very promising.

Matias Almeyda at AEK Athens please 😂

Done

Still think Diego Martinez gets a chance in England and does well. His work at Granada was exceptional.

Didn't they pay about £40m for Evanilson?

Of the out of work managers Niko Kovac or Roger Schmidt would be my standout choices but experienced managers with a track record for fast results but don't always want to stick around (not a bad thing) I'd see if Rudi Garcia or Lucien Favre would take it for 18 months. Both got great track records promoting young players too. But the one who I think might fit this squad is Kasper Hjulmand, could see us being interested if we did want a new manager. Whether he'd be any good domestically remains to be seen.

This squad doesn't have the individual talent of 2022/23. That relegation is one of the biggest failures in Premier League history. The current squad under any manager who can in the short to medium term effect the combination of team spirit, tactical nuance and good man management will keep this squad up. The squad of 2022/23 was a top 10 squad, which needed a shake up. The squad of 2024/25 is a bottom half squad with masses of Premier League experience, some quality from key areas but a manager with serious question marks over their ability at the highest level. A decent manager gets this squad around 14-15th, possibly higher. Only have to look at Marco Silva in 2022/23 at Fulham.

That is quite the take

Wow

The PL don't dish out the points deduction. It's an independent commission don't forget.

Yeah was nasty. We definitely got away with as much as Arsenal did yesterday.

Tuesday night I think

If you are efficient attackers and crap defenders then you focus on what you're good at, it's nonsensical to do otherwise. However, I don't think we are defensively poor per se, but he's picking defensive line ups but either not instructing them to be defensively disciplined or he's not capable of coaching them to do so. Either way it's a recipe for disaster. The stats don't make for good reading either. There's very little to be positive right now, what's frightening is we've actually got more points than our output suggests we should have. It's no coincidence our manager is a master at failing to win football games. He's statistically one of the worst Premier League managers for quite some time that's managed longer than a season at this level. Imagine going to Arsenal and picking a very defensive line up and then this positional pattern happening? It's suicidal. At least pick players who can take up those positions and hurt the opposition, we're towards the bottom in nearly every attacking metric, except for scoring goals from very few chances.

Those who still believe in him, out of interest were you still of the believe Shakespeare could turn it around in October 2017? and if so do you think that was the wrong decision to sack him? If Southampton win tomorrow we're pretty much in the exact same position when Vichai pulled the trigger. Albeit a couple of games more.

I need to try and verify this but I think somewhere around the 80th min, so we'd have been about 10 mins with an advantage.

Agreed. Skipp should have gone as well though so I can't ignore thr likelihood we'd have had precious little advantage for very long anyway.

Plenty of luck went our way yesterday for us to even still be in the game. We then required every decision and outcome to be perfect and it never is.

In Maresca's defence every time Alves worked his way back to full fitness and he was in the reckoning, he then got another injury. Not giving him any minutes vs Blackburn though was shocking.

Don't agree with this at all.

One of the best performances from a keeper I've seen in many a year

No major surprise but one thing is abundantly clear, our defensive block is not disciplined at all. Major gaps in the banks of 4 on two crosses for the goals. It's powder puff stuff. If you're going to set up like this, which is logical given the opposition then there's an expectation that you can do it reasonably well. We can't and haven't which is why there can be valid criticism for that 1st half. Welcome 15 minute relief now for our fans. Enjoy it.

Very nearly had to put Alves or McAteer on the bench. Must have been a really stressful 24 hours for Spaghetti Hoops.