honeybradger

5 years ago he was in the Championship team of the season. If youre going off past performances Choudhury played consistent minutes with us when we finished top 5 twice. Soumare beat PSG to a League title. Bobby Reid had one season where he scored 18 in the championship. Justin had a run of games where he was arguably our best player whilst we were in the top 4 in the PL. Luke Thomas started and won an FA cup final. Harry Winks had a good performance in the champions league against real madrid. Daka played in the championsh league. Things change, sometimes a player's resume looks better than the actual player, sometimes players' abilities drop off a cliff. Currently Skipp is miles off it and then some, it's very unlikely that he will turn it around this season. He has faced two of the easier opponents he will face all season and was/should have been hooked at half time in both of them.

Here's my head cannon. They sold Dewsbury Hall for £30mil. They considered Skipp to be a similar level of player to Dewsbury Hall who also had experience at a top 6 side. They all gave themselves a pat on the back for meeting PSR for selling Dewsbury Hall whilst, in their mind, improving upon him by buying a PL experienced player in the same position for a lower fee. They even gave him Dewsbury Hall's number to drive it home that he is his replacement/upgrade. Sadly for them and us Skipp is nowhere near an adequate replacement for Dewsbury Hall and giving Skipp the Nr 22 looks ridiculous in hindsight considering the gap in ability between the two.

What does a confident and in form Skipp with the fans fully backing him even look like for us? He's currently playing at a mid table league one level and we need him to be a top championship midfielder. He would need a significant improvement in performance to even reach mid table championship level let alone where we want to be. The better solution is probably just to bench him, not even worth the effort to get him into form.

In a team full of bad performers Thomas was ok the other day. Not sure why some are going after him.

If you perform it's OK, it's that simple really. The whole spat with Van Nistelrooy happened as a consequence of that stinker Winks dropped against Everton, some further commitment was needed to get him up to standard.

He was putting in half arsed performances before the whole spat with Van Nistelrooy. The whole reason that the falling out happened was that Winks was serving up dogmuck every time he stepped on the pitch for us, with it all coming to a head with that God awful Everton performance. Van Nistelrooy believed his performances were down to him travelling long distances for games. If Winks was actually holding his own at PL level (or in the cup vs QPR) I dont think RVN or anyone would have cared about him commuting. It was because Winks was so abysmal and half arsed for us at the time that Van Nistelrooy asked for some commitment from him and he didn't give that to him, which is why he was rightfully frozen out.

What opportunities has Alves had for us? Don't think he has had many.

Monga and Page look exceptional for their age tbf. Don't think it's a black mark against Alves that they outperformed him on this occasion. Many of our senior players dont match up to the level of Monga and Page either.

Have we regressed further from last season under Cooper and Van Nistelrooy?

Evans is gone most likely. Hopefully not as he's one of the best talents we've produced in my opinion.

Fair play, making the journey to huddersfield on a Wednesday is not for the faint hearted!

I'd have him starting in the league as well with El Khannouss playing box to box but it's very unlikely to happen with him not making the bench currently. At least if he gets some starts for us in the cup under his belt he can impress and hopefully put himself in contention for the matchday squad or even a starting position.

Rodgers - He was young and then injured Dean Smith - Injured Maresca - Injured until the last games of the season Cooper - Played Choudhury at CAM in pre season ahead of him and brought in BCDR instead of him. Cooper's opinion on Alves is invalid because of those reasons. RVN - Already on loan when he came in. Cifuentes - Concerning lack of trust in Alves in the last pre season game and first game of the season but it's early on in his time here. Hopefully he gives him a fair shot.

It's good that he's talking about Alves which is better than pretending he doesnt exist (Cooper). Still he needs to back it up by starting him tonight, otherwise it's just words.

I for one am still happy to see the back of him. Hasn't looked bothered for us for a long time, one half doesnt change that. Especially when that half was against a team with no pre season whose first team players were dropping like flies.

12mil for Okoli would be excellent business from our end.

They were definitely unreliable. Pick any highlights video of our season in the championship at random and there is a decent chance there is a cock up leading to a goalscoring opportunity from one of Faes or Vestergaard. If we had a slightly worse keeper than Hermansen and the forwards in the championship were slightly better/luckier we would all be in agreement that those two are shaky even at championship level. Faes in particular under than poor run under Maresca was a bombscare. Game 1 - Coventry. Completely in disarray at 0:30 and 1:18 Game 2 - Huddersfield. Why is Faes going after Vestergaard's man at 0:25 and leaving a man unmarked at the far post? Game 3 - Cardiff 6:52 Cardiff are in their own half yet Vestergaard still leaves their striker unmarked.

Any pairing that doesn't contain Nelson is not our best pairing. Faes and Vestergaard are unreliable defenders even at this level, one good game doesnt change that. We need someone like Nelson who is more likely to win a tackle if he goes for it than lose it.

If we can break even we should. We massively overpaid in the first place.

€3mil when he had 6 months left on his contract is not cheap!

In terms of (un)popularity surely Chilwell deserves to be here. That FA cup cupped ears moment is the stuff of legends, cant think of a player our fans love to hate more. Especially considering he came from our academy.

Sell Daka, promote Evans from U21s, save on wages, potentially improve on the pitch as well. No brainer.

You got it right. Gave the player in question (might as well say Matt O'Riley as it's clearly straightforward who im talking about) no opportunities to make it into the first team despite clear talent. A couple of years later and he's a big name in Scotland who would be one of Fulham's best midfielders and makes a big money move to another Prem side. You hear a lot of 'you dont see them in training' when talking about managers not giving opportunities to young players but from the perspective of one of these talents they are often unseen by the manager himself. Most fans would be surprised by how distant that relationship is if the manager isnt actively looking to promote youth and take that risk. It's not like Scott Parker is an outlier either, he's going to be among the top 20 managers in the country next season despite being despised by Fulham and Bournemouth fans alike. It's fairly common that managers are scared to see youth players push their way into the team as it would disrupt the hierarchy.

Page can play CM.

Alves Khannouss Winks/Page This is our best midfield alongside Ricardo inverting. El Khannouss for progressing the ball up the pitch and his work rate/aerial ability as an 8. Will also be able to drop back and help Winks/Page/Ricardo in the buildup. Alves for his ability to dribble and unlock defences as well as his work rate and tackling. Winks/Page to collect the ball from the defense and distribute it up the pitch. Maybe a bit light defensively but with enough structure we can get away with it at this level.