shen

Besides Fatawu, Ricardo and maybe James, I don't see anyone else in our squad standing out in this division. Maybe Ramsey in due time. Winks can have some decent displays when bothered, but he's also been pretty awful in other games.

Ricardo v Oxford? Monga vs Sheff Wed? Ricardo vs Brum? Pretty good goals from a tactical point of view as well.

I'm confused - do we have a talented squad that that a manager should easily put top of this division or do we have a poor squad full of failed players that any manager would struggle to get a tune out of?

Surely Slimani's record was similar? And we did get a some decent spells from Kel.

True, but it's his first proper appearance. I'm nervous that he'll soon stop doing it. But James and Ramsey have definitely increased the quality of our play, so there is some hope.

I'm disappointed at the lack of patterns of play, especially in the final third. When we play it out left, nothing happens. Where are the inside channel runs to stretch defences? Can we please have a striker with ANY presence? When we play it out right, we expect Fatawu to beat one, two or three men and pull off worldies. We HAVE to be less predictable if we want to have any hope of finishing top 6. I'm also starting to lose patience with Marti using failed players again and again. When he bigs up our young players, why doesn't he show some faith in them? Why can't we ditch Faes, Thomas, Hamza et al and give Aluko, Evans, Nelson etc a try? I'm sure they are far better trained in nice passing patterns, defensive shapes etc than our seasoned failed pros.

And it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Oh Thomas, you have to hit the target dude.

The weird thing is, he's the one player I can see make a telling forward pass.

Oh dear Ayew.

Again, Ayew producing a bit of quality. It's a shame he has to take 57 touches first.

Ayew's been OK since coming on. Everything has to come from Fatawu though. No-one looks capable of making the right pass or making the right runs. So it has to come from some individual brilliance.

Impressive in this day and age that Portsmouth have 10 British players in their first XI.

Mike Vennart just uploaded an abandoned Oceansize song from the Self Preserved... album sessions from 2009. He added vocals to them this year. The last two minutes were actually re-used to create A Penny's Weight, which featured on the album. So nostalgic to hear "new" Oceansize!

Nigeria, Wow. Ended up winning against Group leaders Benin 4-0 leapfrogging them into second place, while also edging into the last runner-up playoff spot ahead of Burkina Faso on GD. If they had won just 3-0, I believe they would've missed out. You have to feel for Burkina Faso here...

Second place in that group is effectively knocked out, no? There's no chance they will be among the four best placed runnerups. Benin draw is enough unless SA romp Rwanda.

Job done. Unless the Greeks get their act together, I expect Scotland to ensure it comes down the last game. Even just a draw against the Greeks will give them a decent shot, because Denmark are vulnerable.

It's getting nervy. Denmark completely on top for 60 minutes, the Greeks reduce the arrears against the run of play and suddenly the momentum has completely swung their way. Vestergaard nearly scoring an own goal which was cleared off the line by Joachim Andersen.

Wow wow wow! The Faroes beat the Czechs and are one point off second place... The hell?!!

Andorra scoring two goals and about to get an away point. These hopeless minnows picking up points is refreshing!

That's an incredible result in the making!

I understand, but I'm wondering if it plays a trick on the mind that just because we spent big on a supposedly superior player in the same position, and that player still being here, makes some think it's not a priority to upgrade on Thomas or to address the issue. Obviously we would have had more room financially and literally in the squad had VK left this summer, but I recall people pointing at our full backs last season as a major weakness. And this was in a squad that was frankly performing poorly all over the pitch.

Would you also be saying that if we hadn't spunked a lot of money on Kristiansen? It's scary if we get promoted? It's the not-getting-promoted prospect that's scary, not having to replace players.

I mean, the Ballard and Azeez goals are up there, and they're both similar to the JJ and Fatawu goals so I understand them not wanting to only have one type of goal on the list...

Wow. That's too strong. If you do, you've got issues (or not enough issues!).