DJ Barry Hammond

I’m not sure I’ll be able to notice what Abdul’s doing myself - that jaw line is impeccable!

I like 👍

See my previous comment.

Yeah, but he’s incredibly good looking… so that must count for something, no?

He didn’t say he’d pick him though did he. Maybe Marti simply left him out.

Maybe, but I’d argue that the playmaking is often the responsibility of your 10… and as well as Page did tonight, he’s not quite there in terms of dominating that space. Skipp and Soumare are the water carriers, the progreesors / breaker uppers that look to get the ball back and give it to your more threatening players - and by and large they did that tonight.

This is why managers will persist with players. He was excellent tonight and hopefully he will back it up with more of the same. Skipp also benefited from his performance too.

He got the full 90, which speaks for itself.

Thing is - you can’t overdo it either. He’s got buy in from the players already here, so it’s about supplementing them. Ironically - our biggest transfer might be who we keep, i.e.Bilal / Winks. If they were to stay and play in the right attitude… I think that would make such a difference to our attacking threat, that we’d only then really need a proper striker to play off.

Grit, workrate and a bit of quality at key moments!

You add a dominating 10 to that team… we’re a force to be reckoned with. Bilal - be part of this season mate, you won’t regret it!

How do some of you feel at having to give Soumare above a 6 this evening? He was superb tonight!

Yes, this hasn’t been pretty… but Marti deserves a lot of credit for developing the buy in from all of these players. He’s building something here.

Monga… that is class!

This squad is together… such a good sign!

That pass is why Vestagaard gets picked.

Marti proactive with changes… he’s a good manager.

Fair play to all of these guys - they’re showing commitment and desire here and that’s an important starting point.

Yeah, did well but think he’s struggled with the pace of the game. Change makes sense, we need a genuine threat in behind here.

He was - his flock around the corner contributed to the goal and he’s worked well defensively.

Ayew’s dropped too deep meaning we have no out ball. Before the goal, him, Mav and Fatawu were staying really high - giving us a chance to beat the press - and we were defending a lot higher. It needs some tweaks at halftime - not in terms of players, but tactical instruction - to be braver and play a higher line and get the balls into the front 3 earlier so it’s Birmingham turning and going backwards, rather than us sitting and trying to break from our own half.

I think Soumare has been excellent… and Skipp deserves some praise for that half too.

For all of Birmingham’s pressure / posession… 1 shot, 0 on target. Marti to regroup them at halftime. Daka for page might be a choice - we need a threat in behind.

I think Birmingham’s long ball tendency has forced our back line to play deeper… which has meant our forward press isn’t as effective. We’ve also been guilty of giving the ball back too easily.

Ayew’s defending too deep - he needs to be available as an out ball.