Guesty

One problem I've always found is the type of players needed to pull it off. It's hard to find players who can do it while also doing the defensive stuff/dirty work/digging in when the going gets tough. Players like Rodri are rare; even Man City went to s**t when he got injured the other year. It's full of technically gifted players who throughout their youth days have never/rarely been the players who had to dig in when the going gets tough; their team mates did that while they pinged the ball around the pitch. And it really shows, every time we try to play it with our joke of a recruitment team. It maybe could work with the right manager, the right recruitment team and the right players. None of which we have. But even then, it's outdated and one dimentional.

Someone in another thread said it's like knowing an alcoholic or drug addict that won't help themselves. And I sort of agree. After a while you don't stop caring, but you do become more desensitised/apathetic to it. You sort of give up hope, until they finally start helping themselves.

Was hoping we'd get some money for him and he'd be gone permanently. At least he's gone, but if he's as anonymous there as he has been here the last two years that buy option will never be activated.

This guys like 5th/6th choice now. Even Luke Thomas looks a better centre back. Hope someone comes in for him.

So nice to have a bit of positivity after a game. It's been so long. McCarthy and Thomas redeemed themselves the longer the match went on.

Tbf to Thomas, if you'd never seen him before, you wouldn't know this was only the second time he's played cb in a back four. He comes in for a lot of s**t on here, but he really does look decent there. We've looked much better there with him there instead of Okoli. Which I never thought I'd say - as defensively he always looked bad at lb.

Decent save by McCarthy. I'd rather have a keeper who's s**t with his feet and good at shot stopping.

I will be interested to hear Martin's reasons for making these subs so early. Maybe it's a match fitness thing.

As bad as McCarthy is with his feet, I care more about his shot stopping. So until he starts letting in easy chances, I'll put up with him. But we really could do with someone who's better with their feet. When we add the players we've bought today we'll look a lot better. Even more so when they've all gelled.

We look quite decent going forward which is encouraging.

I get that Martin wants to play out from the back. But McCarthy is bad at it. He at least needs to be allowed the option to launch it if he's having a shaky 5 minutes.

I don't think it's your internet. It's Sky. I was watching Leicester and the picture kept going blurry every 5 - 15 mins or so (but it never dropped). There have been times on our TV's where someone's been streaming Netflix and Disney simultaneously whilst someone else is using the internet and it all works fine. Yet on Sat it was just me watching Sky+ and the pictured turned to mush every 5 mins.

Don't think I've ever seen a winger as consistently anonymous as this guy has been for the past 2 seasons. Genuinely baffled any championship team would want to pay his wages - let alone a transfer fee. The only thing I remember him doing last season was missing a few sitters.

This squad has desperately needed a decent defensive midfielder to shield and protect the defence for the past couple of seasons. And we need someone who's vocal and a leader in the middle of the park to organise. We could do a lot worse than someone who had 29 appearances in a team that was promoted to the Championship last season.

Pretty much what I expected tbh. It's frustrating watching players like Thomas and Okoli who have such obvious weaknesses. Most teams would try to minimise them. Yet we consistently send them out and ask them to play a style which maximises and exposes their weaknesses.