DJ Barry Hammond

Personally I’m baffled at the criticism Faes is getting for the goal. He’s in a good defensive position, it’s just that the cross is so good he has absolutely no play on the ball or Richarlson.

Commentator is being a bit harsh on Faes about that goal. That was such a good cross, he never had a play at either the ball or Richarlson.

Well yes… that was pretty much my exact point?

I’m not totally against that red card personally. Technically, in line with the law of the game and the way they are being applied it’s probably not warranted. HOWEVER, I absolutely hate seeing the blatant, “foul the guy so they can’t counter us” tactic that’s becoming more and more commonplace. It’s one thing if you’re honestly challenging for the ball - it’s another if all you’re doing is flicking a leg because the guy and ball has already long gone.

I see 👀 what you’re doing - how much have you put on the scoreless draw?

Look, you are one of many in this thread talking twaddle. The club haven’t tried to dress it up as ‘new investment.’ It is the blandest of bland factual statements as is usually the case for finance related statements - it’s quite clearly been written by an accountant - there is no spin or creative flourish to it whatsoever. Now of course the club has needed continued investment - I don’t recall a period when the club wasn’t regularly losing money! Indeed most football clubs are being run at eye watering losses. But even if the club had had near perfect performance on and off the pitch - it still would have been haemorrhaging money because the level of finance required to compete at the top level is miles away from what our current revenue streams can provide. I should also be clear - this point shouldn’t be viewed as a defence or endorsement of the current ownership situation - if is simply trying to ground sentiment and feeling with reality. The way a lot of people talk on here, they make it seem like running a successful football club is easy.

I’ve seen a fair few fans suggest bringing Nigel back; are they not aware he’s had a pretty serious health battle over the last couple of years?

Secured funding; via such a vehicle as debt to equity conversions; are a stipulation for breaching the upper loss limit under PSR. So this is not something new - they’ve done this consistently over the years. - - - The club haven’t ‘spun’ anything here - it’s a very bland factual statement that is intended for the eyes of the Premier League. And whilst it is not ‘new money’ per say - it is an indication of the underlying investment Top / King Power are providing.

To answer the OP, because I’ve seen a lot of inaccurate and bad takes in this thread. Not really. This happens every year - clubs breaching the “upper loss limit” under PSR are required to do this. The issue the club continues to have with regards to transfers is fitting them inside PSR limits - rather than not having the available cash (or owner credit facility in our instance) to do so.

It’s part of PSR requirements for debt to be converted to equity when loss amounts are above the upper loss limit. It’s why this sort of thing has happened essentially every year under Top / Vichai / King Power for years now and is commonplace across most Premier League clubs - I’m sure I saw Forest announce a similar move by Marinakis recently. So whilst it will be a positive move for the clubs balance sheet (again); it’s got very little to do with January signings. Indeed, my understanding is the problem being had with January signings is once again down to complying with PSR - not the lack of Top wanting to invest in the club.

You don’t have to speak French to understand what the commentator thought of that absolute howler. The thing with Onana is he doesn’t have a classical goalkeeper technique. His movements and way’s of doing things actually go against a lot of what keepers will be traditionally taught.

I wouldn’t discount an Ipswich win tomorrow. And maybe Everton… just because Spurs are on one as bad as us at the moment.

Add to this that he’s being asked to play as a lone striker with not a lot to feed off or link to and has had to spend a lot of the season playing deep inside our own half as a front prong of our horrendous low block - he wouldn’t be having much joy this season even if he was 18 years young. He has to be allowed to be further forward - and needs support players (and the ball) in and around him.

This is potentially a relegation 6 pointer - especially if the Spuds go and lose to Moyes & Co tomorrow! They also have a trip to Germany in the week, so you know - this is could be an opportune moment to face them… if we weren’t in such insipid form ourselves!

I disagree. I think the group that got us up were done a massive disservice by Cooper by his constant deriding of their ability to step up to the level of competition this season from the get go. I know the players themselves haven’t done much to dispel that idea themselves - but there is an argument to say that successive managers have failed to provide a suitable platform for them to do so through tactical choices and selections. Fulham weren’t great today - they rather trundled to an inevitable win because at hardly any point did we play with any belief we could win. You could tell the players lacked confidence and were second guessing decisions. And that’s what’s really annoying for me from today and previous weeks. You don’t install confidence in a team that’s been struggling to score and keep goals out by sitting in a passive low block at home for the first 45 minutes. You have to send the team out in an aggressive fashion - that’s not to say all out attack - but in a way that will create situations where players are running hard, making tough tackles, battling for second balls and playing for territory gains - the sort of in game actions that 1.) builds momentum and confidence; and 2.) doesn’t allow for over thinking. Instead, we had Vardy’s average first half position being 20 yards behind the halfway line. That’s not going to work is it, even if the other 10 players alongside him are the best the Premier League had to offer.

He decided to go 442, so clearly felt Bilal wasn’t an option for the flank - what he didn’t bank on was the crowd’s reaction which (alongside the substitutions) killed any sort of momentum we had been building at that point.

Yep and sitting as deep as we have been gives very little chance of growing confidence through your own play.

I’d argue they weren’t much of a watch either.

The problem with this ‘idea’ of course is it doesn’t provide you with immediate width - you have to wait for it from fullback - and that rather depends on dominating the ball to give your fullback time to get there. Now how Fulham like to attack with Robinson down the left - I’d be wanting to pose an immediate threat to the space he leaves with a winger - so maybe Mavididi would be better utilised on the right today? 🤷🏻‍♂️

There’s no clear pattern of play is there. We pass and then hope someone will do something magic. There’s no “this is our path to scoring.”

Very passive, deep defending at the moment - with very little obvious threat going the other way. It’s going to be a long afternoon if we continue like this.

Given Ayew has presumably been picked to help defend against Robinson - you’d have liked him to be a bit more aware of his threat there.

You’re just building an excuse for an out - you know full well your ‘final straw’ has a high probability of happening 😂 You also know full well that even if that happens, you’ll be drawn back in soon enough!

He’s the main Boro journalist for the local paper so well connected… However! A deal such as this (player liked locally for what looks a lowish fee from their point of view) probably hasn’t gone through too many people at that end.

Quick look to check the Daka comments 😂 !