iancognito

I rarely agree with you but it'd be better for everyone if one of the bottom half Prem strugglers made us an offer. His head's not been with it for a couple of months tbf. His first touch is now non-existent and he's not been near a goal for a long time. Thanks for 2021, cheerio.

Look at his dressing room dance last week. Fella loves it here. Keep the manager and the bulk of the squad, why wouldn't he want to be here? Even if touted, it's his choice at the end of the day.

Leeds? Oh, I remember them! Won stuff in the 70s? Had the little ginger fella in midfield? Wish my dad were alive so he could tell me about their glory days. The last few weeks have showed Saints are the nearest challengers and we'd need to have a terrible January just for them to push us.

While everyone's watching the Leeds & Ipswich pissing contest, Saints have put together a 17 match unbeaten run and we don't play them til March.

His workrate for that Justin goal is exceptional. Three Cardiff defenders playing statues and Abdul just dancing round them hunting the ball. Compare and contrast to the last two seasons and some of the lazy sh!ts we've had "performing" for us. Player.

I'm starting to think unless you get Haaland in there, every striker will struggle in this formation, they're almost the spare man. Nacho comes deep to join in, Jamie's role is occupying defenders and Daka can't find his feet unless he's ten yards out goal at his mercy. It's almost worth going with an extra midfielder and just playing false 9s.

that's been the worst of the bunch tonight his chatbox has been going mad

Need to get points on the board while we have the full side available, rest a few at Miiiiill next week if there's any tired legs

I don't know why there's been such a gap between Ipswich and Plymouth adapting to the higher division. After storming it last season I expected Plymout to be at least top half if not play offs but they were utter gash down here the other week

See Martin O'Neill for details. Famously only came in for the Friday session unless there was major work to be done after a defeat or poor run.

There's no reason to hold the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney or even Carrick to higher standards because they achieved more or played at a higher level as players. Look back down the years, top players so very rarely become top managers. All the players that Ferguson brought through at United have either bombed or just not gone onto be managers at all. Hughes, Ince, Pallister the Nevilles. You could say Bruce has done okay at a push and Giggs was doing okay with Wales. TV pundits like Shearer, Wright, Carragher, even Keane have never had any real joy as managers or coaches. Even most of the top foreign managers were average players - Klopp, Mourinho, Wenger to name 3. So often they get thrown into the hot seat at various clubs usually by starry-eyed owners looking for an easy-in with the fans and it's just not that simple. We had it recently here when there was an opinion John Terry could sort out our leaky defence and the 40+ set pieces we conceded would suddenly go back to being magically headed away and cleared instead. Go further back and I'm sure Vichai wasn't expecting Sven to achieve 9th with a sizeable hole in his transfer budget. Having a name doesn't mean a thing, sometimes I'm pretty sure it actually leads to the opposite. Certain coaches through their humble careers just have that gift. They werent the loudest in the dressing room or even the most gifted but they know what to do and what to say and with a group of players that were their "level" in terms of talent they just know how to get the best from them. The classic in this division is McKenna. Every top player needs to cut their teeth somewhere as a coach but I'd suggest Championship clubs desperate to be amongst the big men with a plan no longer than 6 months into the future probably isn't it.

My other takeaway from this that I forgot to mention before was that we have VAR because clubs- especially the top clubs - refused to accept the referee's authority and errors were not accepted because, to quote several pundits "too much is riding on these games to have them ruined by human error". We're now in a situation where people still won't accept human error, won't accept interpretation and won't accept something being subjective not absolute. They won't accept humans make mistakes WITH VAR so it's pie in the sky to think they'll go back to basics and accept them with no VAR.

Their fans saying we were one of the quietest away sections but also saying their Blue Action group were embarrassing. It's becoming a football-wide thing no doubt. Not just us but apart from one or two outliers football grounds in general are just becoming sterile. The rivalry and banter is being discouraged and yet in most sports it's something that they cherish.

It depends how much you like winning. I'm sure we'd have had a few goals chalked off this season but in recent games alone we'd have had a pen vs Millwall and they'd have been down to 9 men for some over the ball challenges, we'd have had a pen last night to put us at 2-0. There wouldn't have been an intervention about Harness but at 2-0 we probably get all 3 pts and there's a lot less over-analysis and whinging today.. I agree with VAR being in football but they're using it for too many incidents and because of one or two refs being incompentent in that Liverpool Spurs game they're taking too long to get their decisions watertight. If you need to draw lines it's not clear and obvious and in any case benefit of the doubt should go to the attacker anyway. We said for years that refs needed help - this league proves it - but they need help not over-ruling. That idiot last night and the exceptionally gifted Mr Keith Stroud should never ref a game without help, IMO.

That doesn't look like a poor eye line to me, he's bottled it.

Did you see Iheanacho when he came on tonight and did you see him in the 6 or 7 games before his illness? He's been bloody awful. Playing like a man with an offer on the table. I agree about Daka, his link play isn't great and sometimes his control is just as bad as Nacho but he's also in form.

"Fannying around" with the ball means that you have it and they don't. They scored after getting the ball from a thrown-in. After we'd hoofed it into the stands.

We're two deflections away from seeing the game off, they barely had a clear cut chance. For those "points dropped" we just won 6 out of 7 in the league before tonight. Let's have it right, if the ref does his job we get a pen and 2-0 against a side that should have been down to ten. Wasn't like we surrendered.

Hand was in a natural position and it hit his chest. Nothing like a handball.

Problem is without KDH and Wilf there's no high press. Akgun and Casadei aren't the same type of player and we lose control without our starting XI

Will never criticise VAR after this season. We've had some shocking refs.

Shhhhhhh FFS SHHHHHHHH

He's not making 2024 is he?

That what happens when you have a good man manager who breeds confidence rather than an egotistical apologist who uses you as a scapegoat

I think he was bought for the Vesty role but circumstances and form mean he's the wider CB, not his best position