SafewayFox

That right there is why Ayew does NOT work as our 9. He laid the ball off (heavy touch) to Abdul and rather than offering anything, he just stands on the wing and offers zero outlet. Marti, please, make your Ayew experiment make sense.

WTF is Faes doing. But let’s not forget that Nelson had a terrible first half against Huddersfield. 🤬

Spot on mate. Criminal how Rudkin received praise for this window but we’ve done absolutely nothing to actually grow our squad value. Bedding in Nelson would genuinely see us nurture a £30m talent, let’s just sell him for £5m in January and be done with it as it’s mis-management by Marti/Rudkin.

Have we ever had such a slow starting 11/squad? I know it’s very FIFAesque to care too much about pace but how can we recruit so many slow players? What, I’d do to see Lloyd Dyer again 🤓

Couldn’t agree more. Wingers are streaky by nature but Stephy is bordering onto Gray territory of one good game every 10 or so games and with Monga waiting in the wings, inexcusable to keep starting him.

Bouba does that on the regular yet still somehow gets picked.

Ayew has done what exactly in the first six games though?

Out of curiosity did you listen to Monday’s WYS when Pipes was raving about Winks? He said the difference with him being in the team is night and day? That players actually anticipate him moving the ball on and making a positive run that they don’t make when Bouba/Skipp etc are on the ball. Surely, Pipes knows a fair bit about football??

Soumare is the epitome of stat padding though. Of those 58 passes that he made, how many were behind the player receiving the pass? Winks always offers himself, Bouba has a knack of hiding behind a player. Cov’s midfield was horrendous and often Grimes being overloaded, hence why Bouba had the opportunity to drive with it but he did it all at such a lethargic pace. Bouba getting as many minutes as he has, sums up our rapid fall from grace.

Another great pod. I loved the Bouba comments as he gets a free ride on here from so many, such a nothing player. Ric the milk monitor 🤣

I normally love your posts but this is madness. Firstly, both Spain and City did that out of necessity when looking at getting their best players into the starting 11, how long did Pep realise that it wouldn’t work long term and they went all out to get Haaland in? Secondly, you admitted it yourself if that system is to work it’s because you have attacking threats in pretty much all other areas of the pitch, we currently have Abdul and that’s it. I like what Marti’s doing but the lack of goals with this false 9 is going to be the difference between automatic promotion and playoffs IMO.

Forget this “false 9” talk, you either do or don’t have a strikers instinct. Ayew whilst a technically better footballer than I realised before he joined, clearly is not a natural striker and considering that we don’t have goals in the majority of our other positions, it means that we’re going to end up with a lot of results like today. Frustrated and confused as to how we haven’t punished a pretty average Championship side. Daka is never the answer but imagine him playing the same amount of minutes and offering the same end product, it would be wild on here, why does Ayew not get the same vitriol?

I’m not defending Stephy as he was 3/10 at best and he clearly isn’t on Abdul’s level at gliding past players. Is he suffering from the oppositions defenders knowing that they can step up 3/4 yards as there is zero threat in behind? When I think of Stephy at his best for us, he’s running at defenders who are stretched positionally and taking on FB’s 1 on 1 when in full flow.

I don’t like Daka myself but the experiment of Ayew as the 9 is hardly being fruitful. We cannot expect to win games when struggle to score, would happily take a pressing Carranza and Page if means that we actually pin back the oppositions back 4/5. We must be so easy to defend against right now as it’s all played in front of their CB’s.

I spent about 5 minutes watching Thomas when we were under the cosh in the first half. You’re spot on, I don’t know if he doesn’t trust his own ability but everything he does seems so basic and not once did he let the ball go across his body nor does he offer himself as an outlet. 5/10 performance today from Luke.

That’s really not true though is it? Haaland and Isak the top two “9’s” in the PL are there solely for goals. Yet when you think of the best “10’s” they offer a great foil for the strikers and play between the lines. Us not having a striker who’s going to get us 15+ goals is going to be the difference between this season and the Enzo one.

I know that you didn’t reply to my post and both mine and the original post both stated that he is clearly a very talented lad. What should be said out loud as that he’s far from the finished article right now and it would be foolish to expect him to start week in, week out. He glides past players currently but there will be a time when he does it and it results in truly opening up the opposition.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Monga but he still lacks that killer instinct with his final ball/shot etc. It’s a compliment that I am so confident that he will add that to his game.

What continues to impress me about Monga is his strength. He’s going to be quality when adds that end product to his game isn’t he?

When was his last good game? Not a cameo, but good game from start to finish?

It’s his first start for the club with him training with the players just over a week. He looked super composed, got around the pitch well and often showed up (and wanted to receive the ball) in positive positions. I think he’ll be a very good addition and the player that we hoped Skipp would have been.

Daka, Page showed that was possibly his biggest attribute yet doesn’t even make the bench. Abdul has the work rate to do this, Stephy if someone has a word and he’s not sulking. Apparently Carranza is a good presser too. Ayew up top will always prevent a collective press, hate to say it but similarly like Vardy the past season or two.

There was a simple pass on to Abdul in the first half and Bouba lazily played it (under zero pressure) behind him. He’s a combination of lazy and a bit dumb IMO. I’m very critical of Bouba but technically you can see why he gets the nod, he’s like a player at Sunday league level who is clearly better than everyone else but half the time, they can’t be arsed to try.

His lack of right foot and lack of athleticism really highlight his very average ability doesn’t it?

Where was the pressing from the front that Marti spoke about so often? Our system right now seems to go wide and hope one of our wingers does a piece of magic. I’m far from Marti out but if you start players who can’t press, then that’s on him.