Guesty

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.

Braybrooke is really impressing. Given how some overhype our youngsters I tend to lower my expectations now. But he really is standing out and living up to the hype.

We cannot play this style with these 2 cbs and keeper. They're too bad with the ball at their feet. We're so lucky not to be at least a goal down. Given Skipp's cost and history he really should be standing out more at this level.

It's very unlikely he'd come back. But, i do sort of wonder if maybe he's picking his clubs with an eye on what will make a good TV series for him and his family. He's had a series on a year abroad. Depending on what offers he has. Coming back here for one last hurrah and helping us 'in our time of need' would make a decent TV series (and let ITV pay a chunk of his salary in exchange for access).

I've got a family of foxes living in my garden. Was a bit worried at first as there are 7 cubs. Thought there was going to be s**t everywhere and they'd dig up the garden. But they haven't. It's been nice watching them grow - it's only been a few weeks but they've got much bigger already. Every night they come out and play fight in the garden around 8pm.

It's nice to see a manager pick what he thinks is the best squad for the way he wants to play in a tournament. Instead of just picking the best technical players who are flavour of the month. Can't remember where I heard it or read it but it was an international manager talking about tournament squads. He said you want the 18 or so players who are your team and you plan to play. Then the rest of the squad has to be people who will help those 18 players, and are (in a way) just happy to be there. You don't want players you know who will be kicking off or the media will focus on if they're not picked. It's really just about those 18 players. So it makes sense why players like Palmer, TAA and Foden aren't going if Tuchel has no real plans to play them.

Only a guess, it's probably because Middlesborough is further away from Wembley. Just means coaches and cars get back a bit earlier.

Really didn't expect them to do this. But good. This is probably the last time any team ever admits culpability for anything in the EFL again. Makes you wonder: if they'd denied everything and dragged it out like Man City, what would have happened. It will be an advantage knowing the other teams formation, starting 11 and set piece routines, etc. I guess we'll never know how much of a difference it really made.

In a way it suits us that he's saying this publicly as we want him gone too. But it's still irritating. His positional awareness literally is League 1 level at best. He's one of those players where it's so bad that it's surprises me sometimes. There are times it's like watching a 6 year old just chase the ball. That's when he's not injured.

Playing the same tactics every game is bad enough. But it's what he says and his press conferences that surprise me. They make me lose all faith in him. He just says clichés. Two recent ones off the top of my head. Today he mentioned Hamza's best position is in midfield and he brings passion, tenacity there. If that's the case why hasn't Rowett been playing him there more. Instead he plays Skipp and Winks (sometimes together) who are just pass completion merchants who offer very little defensive protection to one of the worst defences in the league. The other day when asked about picking youth team players. He said he wasn't going to just hand out first team starts - and players had to earn it. On the face of it that sounds good. But he keeps playing the same underperforming players and not winning. It makes no sense. He just seems totally out of his depth.

Really wasn't expecting that much from Rowett when he was appointed. But bloody hell, he's been so bad. Tactics, subs - even his press conferences and the things he says are surprisingly bad.

Hope this is the last game for a long time we have to watch this suicidal playing out from the back with players who aren't good enough at it.