honeybradger

We should have promoted Jake Evans, not been among the goals for the U21s recently but I still back his technical and finishing ability as well as decision making over any of our senior strikers.

The issue is that we were better off when Cifuentes didn't have a full squad to pick from. Kristiansen and BCDR (i know he got us a point but he was so bad otherwise) should be nowhere near us. We would be better off if Cifuentes didn't have all these bad players to pick from as he seems to love poor players.

The Wout Faes cycle: Doesn't start -> has to play, best defender we have -> starts -> he's a bombscare we have to drop him You would think we would have caught on as a fanbase by now that Faes can not start for us.

Monga is a ridiculous talent, giving him minutes is expected. Starting Page was a rug pull in order to get him to sign a new contract. Not the most academy friendly of practices.

Kristiansen being involved in place of Aluko tells me all I need to know about Cifuentes.

He's been our biggest bright spark this half. At least he's responded to the criticism well.

Get Faes out of this club

It's not about starting them every match, they dont even make the bench. Kristiansen making the bench ahead of Aluko, Cordova Reid making the bench over Page and Nelson not making the bench sends very clear message, Cifuentes will only use the academy players as a last resort. He is slowly phasing them further and further away from the first team after a succesful pre season where they showed they were at the level required.

Cifuentes has been a disaster for our academy. Let's hope he at least gets us promoted, with him not giving the young players a chance and going for a 'results now' approach it means he will get very little patience.

The argument that Nelson isnt ready to play for us doesnt hold any water. Coady has 2700 minutes played for us and compare his time at Wrexham to Nelson's time at Oxford. Coady has played himself out of the first XI at Wrexham due to sloppy performances whereas Nelson was an important part of a rock solid defence for Oxford at the end of last season, with good performances against teams like Leeds, Sheffield United and Sunderland who are all better than what we've faced so far this season. The thing is is that if Coady was still here you would have some fans arguing that he's somehow better than Nelson and deserves to be above him in the hierarchy.

He's also benefitting from playing with better players. We wasted him in a front 4 with Ayew, Cordova Reid and an old Vardy.

Yet Winks and Soumare had a similar number of progressive passes and key passes. Not sure how you can say one stat pads and not the other, both are very conservative with the ball and usually play the safest pass available instead of progressing up the pitch. I fully agree that Bouba becoming a regular in our side at this level is a sign of our demise and that he is made to look decent by the opposition being poor. The same goes to Winks though, both are decent midfielders at this level but that is a result of the opposition being poor more than anything else. I just find issue with reactions on here like Winks had an 8/10 performance and Soumare had a 4/10 performance. It's more that Winks was a 6.5/10 and Soumare was a 6.3/10, both serviceable and didn't do much wrong but didn't do much good either.

Centre back

At least this time you actually provided some reason instead of some crude statements. I disagree that he sped it up when needed, he's usually too slow on the ball and kills our attacks, same as Soumare. I used stats because we clearly have different opinions from watching the game, stats are just objective.

Yh, just a bunch of meaningless phrases that the zombies on here love to lap up. I provide stats and substance, you proved empty phrases like 'he's mustard at this level' 'he dictated the game' 'miles better than bouba'. All worthless phrases with no real meaning, weight or substantiation to them. You like most people dont know how to look past your own preconceived opinions of players. Probably not even your own opinion but based purely off what you read here. You see people coming on here to talk about how bad Soumare and Thomas were when they had a perfectly fine game and how class Winks was when he did ok. Just zombies regurgitating the same opinions.

Bunch of word jargon without actually saying much. Soumare 'dictated the game' against Coventry just as much as Winks. Saying anyone dictated the game when we werent much better than Coventry on the day is complete rubbish by the way. Soumare and Winks both completed a high number of passes, Winks 79, Soumare 58, both had a similar number of progressive pases Winks 8 soumare 7, similar number of long balls Winks 4, Soumare 5, similar number of key passes Winks 2, Soumare 3. I dont rate either by the way, but both are fine at this level. Winks just benefited from playing at a lower level for us in his first season and gained a better first impression with us by looking good against poor opposition. Soumare isnt rated because of how poor he was in the Premier League for us but Winks was also poor at that level and at this level there isnt much between them.

He did about as much as Winks. One gets celebrated for passing sideways and offering little in attack and defence, the other gets hounded. Soumare is at the same level as the rest of his teammates (Winks, Vestergaard, Faes, Ayew). If youre fine with those players starting then you should be fine with Soumare.

Why not both?

Good defensively as well just a couple brain farts.

Couple mistakes defensively but he is just so ridiculously good. No way Kristiansen is on the bench ahead of him on footballing merit.

Taken off early so maybe.

Back on

Aluko injured

Sat behind me in the stands

I kind of agree that he's not been as good as the last time we were in the championship, his passing game seems to have regressed quite a bit and he's pretty much solely taking players on and shooting. That being said he's just got so much natural ability that despite being more one dimensional that dimension is still far too good for this league and he's still effective.