honeybradger

Him and Page do seem to be prone to getting hacked down by opposition out of frustration at this level.

Also Amani Richards has been putting up numbers lately, didnt have a good loan but he looks to have kicked on recently, just needs to sort out his decision making. If he can get a league 2 loan in January that would be ideal.

Didnt watch the game but i see that we took off Aluko and didnt replace him with any other defenders? If that's the case not sure that's the fault of the defenders that we conceded those three at the end there, more the manager for leaving us short at the back.

This is hilarious in the context that Faes and Vestergaard have cost us points in the last 2 games and consequently Cifuentes's future as a manager here has been under scrutiny. Faes and Vestergaard have never and will never secure the future of the manager they play for, only jeopardise it. Even Maresca was being questioned at the end of last championship season when Faes was having a brainfart every week and made us lose our 17 point lead.

Didn't he leave Man United due to them being a crazy mess. Not sure he would want to come here then.

We're predicted 3rd but based on our performance so far they put us 20th in the league. So this supports the relegation narrative more than anything.

Is it improvement or are we just playing in a worse league?

He's so bad that he's single handedly fueled a new found appreciation for Daka among our fanbase.

If im wrong and the likes of Nelson, Aluko, Page, Evans etc shouldn't be in involved/have no immediate future with us then we are royally screwed as a club. I choose to believe there is at least some hope for rejuvenation through our academy players as the alternative of being stuck with our senior pros is looking bleak.

He's the one who keeps playing these players though. Skipp is a write off and shouldn't see the pitch for us yet he was one of the first substitutions in. Before this game he has played Ayew every minute or close to it. For some reason he clearly rates him which is a red flag. He has stood by the Faes-Vestergaard pairing who make errors every game. Nelson meanwhile is out in the cold who was solid at this level at the end of last season. Kristiansen is also a borderline write off yet we have Aluko who can come in instead. I could accept the excuse that we have a terrible squad, which I completely agree with, if Cifuentes was taking the approach that these players are bad and need to be replaced but instead he has put his arm round their shoulder and enabled them.

He played left back most of last season.

Not even

9 more players like him and we will be good.

He went to Juventus's academy? It's not like he went off into the wildernessess of the European lower leagues, he got picked up by one of the biggest clubs around.

I said at the start of the season that he's our best centreback and I stand by it. Not having him involved at all is really poor.

He hasnt exactly attempted to fix the squad has he, instead he has just cemented the rubbish in their positions. Could have given Nelson a proper chance who is proven quality at this level, instead he has chosen to back Vestergaard and Faes who are worth at least one big error a game. Could have given Aluko a chance instead of Kristiansen, could have given Evans a chance instead of bringing in Carranza. There's lots that he could have done to fix the squad but instead he has built his short managerial term around these overpaid and under skilled players (as you put it).

Let's see how Cordova Reid performs at this level. If he's no better then what's the point of playing him over a player who is going to learn and develop from the gametime and improve over the season. It feels like we're expecting Page to be one of our best players when all he has to do is be as good or better than our worst player in his position to justify involvement.

The lineups not that bad, at least we have a striker that doesnt sit in midfield and Monga's starting. Reid despite not having any technical ability does have the ability to get on the end of chances as well.

BCDR starting tonight apparently. Whether it's for Mavididi, James or Soumare we'll have to see.

We dont have any PL quality. Not even Fatawu at this point in time.

Not much you can do when subbed off at 56 minutes whilst playing as a 10 in this system which is pretty isolated. Will be interesting when Ramsey is back, not sure he is going to fare much better.

I remember the first year after we signed Fofana his old teammate Saliba was struggling in the Arsenal U21s. There was a debate over whether we had signed the better centreback despite the French saying Saliba was better. It's interesting that one was one of the best centrebacks in the premier league that season and one was struggling to impress in youth football, yet the one struggling at youth level was actually the better player. Just goes to show how much of a talent drain getting dropped to the u21s is, if an elite player like Saliba can struggle that badly you can only imagine how it has/will affect Page.

It's fairly simple he should leave out BCDR, Kristiansen, Daka to make way for 2-3 of Aluko, Nelson, Page, Evans. Those first 3 dont contribute much anyway.

So what i said is correct that the academy players have been pushed further away from the matchday squad than when the season started. It's not just for the new signings either it's for duffers like Kristiansen and Cordova Reid (yes he did get us the point the other day but still a duffer). It's not hard to understand why i think it's dubious that Cifuentes will integrate the young players over the season considering his decision making implies the opposite.

James Trafford was dropped for Muric by Burnley in 23/24 in the PL. Muric was a catastrophe for Ipswich so getting benched by him is impressive. He then had a good season at championship level in 24/25. He was then swiftly replaced at Premier League level by Man City after a couple blunders. Stolarczyk was fine when we were in the PL last time, there's no guarantee that if we go up someone like Trafford doesn't commit the same errors that Stolarczyk gets blasted for. Trafford's record at that level is actually very spotty.