honeybradger

To be fair a lot of the fans were adamant that it was vital to keep Winks this season and that we couldnt replace him. Although I guess you expect a bit more expertise from the professionals running the club than your average fan. Winks has completely given up after putting a good shift in first half vs Hull, the most recent performances against Milwall and Blackburn today have been shocking. We need to move on from players like him that give up too easily.

Ruud being proven right every game.

We dont need a manager who gets this squad fighting. We need a manager who gets this squad out the door.

See you on the next match thread

Thomas needs be upgraded but Kristiansen is not that player. If it's between Thomas and Kristiansen then you start Thomas every day, Kristiansen is truly honking.

At this rate he'll go straight from the u18s to the first team.

He's not, played for our u21s last night. You're thinking of Page.

4-0, makes sense as there's not much quality in that side with players out on loan and at u17 world cup

2 goals for man city left back Seb Naylor.

1-0 Man City btw The left back Naylor scored, maybe one to look for on loan?

Imagine an international team puts in a performance like ours against Roma where they just hold onto the ball and dont try and score despite being down. The country would be in uproar.

One of our few players that have shown quality in recent weeks. No Page and no Alves so we dont have a replacement 10 either.

England u21 is quite a high level side to break into, it has players who are playing first team football in the prem, championship, Bundesliga etc. Players like Tyrique George, Nwaneri, Gittens, Jobe Bellingham etc all get regular minutes for top sides. Even England U19s has Ngumoh, Monga, Max Dowman who have been starters at senior level, England u17 world cup is the right level for Evans considering he doesn't get minutes for us, hopefully he actually plays regularly.

£15 million each for Faes and Vestergaard, a centreback pairing that is conceding among the highest chances per game in the championship, only reason we arent conceding 2-3 a game is Stolarczyk is one of the best in the league. Some people were saying we got our money's worth on Faes as well because he's played for us a lot. He has probably cost us £150mil+ by playing.

It would seem likely, although for some reason Otchere has been the next in line for that age group.

How long?

It's factually correct that Faes is the second worst defender in the air in the championship after Coady. He has an abysmal 35% aerial win rate.

Do we? Faes is one of the worst centrebacks in the league in the air and the sole reason that Cifuentes must think that Carranza is decent is that he comes up against Faes in training.

Not saying it was down to Puel, he built a good squad but his tactics held the squad back. I'm saying the playstyle that Rodgers gets credit for in his first couple of years with us was already there from the game after Puel was sacked and before Rodgers was properly appointed (brighton 2-1 win). So how does he get credit for implementing that playstyle when it was present before he even spoke to the players and it deteriorated the longer he coached them. What often is referred to as Rodger's ball was in reality 'Tielemans ball', where we controlled games but also penetrated the opposition before Rodgers could coach it out of them. Rodgers ball is just mindless passing between the centrebacks and we saw that playstyle develop the longer he was in position, surely the intended playstyle of a manager has to be the style that develops the longer he is manager, not the playstyle that is there during the honeymoon period where the players are playing freely.

Before Rodgers took over we played 'peak Rodgers ball' in the Brighton 2-1 win. Not sure the way we played was down to him or due to the quality of player we had, the squad he inherited was ridiculous.

Can a manager who has a tendency to ruin a squad if he stays too long actually be considered to be good?

Mavididi has better defensive work rate and off the ball movement. Monga is better at taking his man on but lacks in the other two departments. Monga has certainly been more threatening than Mavididi this season but i dont mind Mavididi starting. Not a fan of fans blaming recent results on Monga starting though, he hasnt been impressive but he hasnt been bad either, there are worse offenders that are supposed to be far more experienced and are also better paid. Monga's form is acceptable because he is learning, the others are supposed to be in their prime years and are no better.

Ayew has the same number of goals and assists as Monga. It saddens me that as a fanbase we hold our academy players to a higher standard than our senior ones. Monga's performances in recent weeks, which have been uneventful by his standards, are the average game for our experienced players like Ayew and Reid. We need to give Monga at a minimum the same amount of patience that Ayew and Reid have received, sadly it seems that he has already been deemed not ready after 500 minutes whereas he has been no worse than Ayew and Reid who have racked up 3000 minutes for us.

Haaland's consecutive goal streak ends at 6 in a row. Can't even match Vardy's second best of 8.

Players dont only have to find their feet through starting. A season of starting for Huddersfield would have been good but being our first or second attacking option off the bench at championship level could have benefitted him similarly.