DJ Barry Hammond

Much better. I assume the whole point of you voicing an opinion is to gain an idea of agreement / acceptance amongst others - so how can anyone view any worth in an opinion that states a “preferred option” based on absolutely no evidence? It just shows someone that shoots in the wind.

You can have an opinion - but I’ve asked you to quantify it because of your chosen wording. There’s a distinct difference between saying “I’d like to see how Souttar and Lascelles perform together, if/when fit” than stating them as a “preferred partnership.”

This is nonsense. The ‘player trading’ model is rife with clubs having dramatic peaks and troughs in overall team performance - and has no grounding in “guaranteeing success.” Southampton were doing ‘player trading’ long before we started it - and look at their history of promotions / relegations etc. Also pay attention to what’s happening at Palace, Brighton and Wolves at the moment - all clubs that have regularly cashed in on prominent players assets and are showing signs of going through the growing pains of that process.

What playing evidence are you basing that opinion on? How can you have a ‘preferred partnership’ of two players that have both; 1.) not played together 2.) hardly played over the last 2 years It’s a nonsensical statement.

Looks a proper snake oil salesman here.

Why this stupid idea keep appearing on these boards? If any manager actually did this, you’d call them insane and want them sacked immediately! You know - it’s not like we’re drastically short on central midfielders at the moment? So yeah, let’s chuck the only one we have with the water carrier skill set in at left back and stack our central midfield with pretty passers!

I reckon that will happen reasonably often with Rowett - it’s a thing he likes to do.

WHY!?!?! This is just an insane opinion - I have no idea of the logic. Skipp’s right footed by the way too!

This forum does love to slag off a fullback.

NO! Neither of those crosses today were ones a keeper could be expected to come and claim. Both were hit with pace, meaning there was no time to get into position to claim the cross. Creswell’s cross had a bit of flight to it before dipping into the six yard box, but it was in no way one that ANY keeper would be trying to claim - it was in the six yard box by the time Begovic had taken a half step to his left. The second on the other hand was a flatter delivery at around head height, adding extra difficulty to claiming it (if you’re coming to claim, you need to be sure you can get it before an attacker can get their head on it). I also checked Begovic’s starting positions on each and he’s exactly where he should be for each.

They tried to make it work with him… which given the success we had in the previous seasons and the rumoured contract release terms; that’s a reasonably understandable position to take. What was equally unfortunate was we’d had a little upturn in form before the World Cup break that year; that bought Rodgers more time than his attitude deserved.

Susan Whelan was at the club for the £90 million loss year (22/23 season). That - and the unthinkable relegation season - has been the issue the club has been trying to rectify ever since. The other thing that seems quite clear now - the signings of Kristensen, Tete and Soutar in that seasons window were clearly a financial punt that was made on a basis of staying in the Premier league, further compounding the clubs PSR issues.

He tweaked the pressing structure second half - had Monga sit on the wingback more and pressed with three instead of the 442 shape that was being used in the first half I believe. His using Aribo wide didn’t surprise me either - my understanding is he likes to use a more central midfielder on one flank to give a bit of flexibility in terms of shape - I reckon we’ll see more of that going forward.

Personally, I don’t really want my winger back that far in open play like that. You can cope with an extra man in the box if your defenders and keeper defend their aerial zones correctly. It also helps to put pressure on the ball before it is delivered into the box rather than stand 5 yards off.

I’d argue Nelson has to forget about his man when he sees the flight of the cross and just win the header - ultimately you defend the ball first. Equally - we allowed the cross to come in far too easily - a common theme when we’re defending (especially leads) where we seem to think standing in front of a player 5 yards deep is adequate defence.

Surely that was written for Thomas to score there!

You can’t defend like that. Absolutely no pressure on the crosser again and ideally Nelson see’s that cross and thinks, **** my man, I’m heading that.

That’s why I said at halftime - you don’t dare take him off yet because there was very little chance he’d be as bad again.

Him and Thomas.

Fair play to our Thomas - he didn’t back down.

We’re threatening something here. The later the goal, the better, so we don’t have long to then hold on!

Ah! A central midfielder on the wing… I wondered how long it would take for Rowett to go to one of his go to plans!

That’s why you don’t necessarily sub off someone having a poor game at halftime!

That’d be a pretty poor game plan away at Stoke.

We are very light weight, especially in central midfield. It was a concern I had at the start of the season (alongside our striker options) when many on here were talking up “HMS piss the league 2.” The problem as I see it - collectively we only have an average level championship and not enough difference makers in key areas.