funkyrobot

Would be interesting see if his stats back this up. For me a passenger with almost no influence on the game. Disagree that he had more touches on the ball than Soumare. He barely touched it - Boro absolutely dominated us and in part it was because our number 10 was having to do so much dirty work to cover back. James and Winks had to do all the heavy lifting. I often agree with Pipes but on this occasion I don’t see it. On Saturday I’d move James backwards and put Ayew or BDCR in the 10 role.

A good manager can see hard work can’t hide a poor footballer and will get rid of both as soon as they can. Daka will leave at the end of this season and Skipp will find a home in League One (maybe with us.)

Rarely there these days. Supposedly has a more hands on role now he’s taken over Whelan’s position but doesn’t turn up for games. If he can’t be arsed how can he expect the fans to.

Interesting to see that Top’s more hands on role as CEO doesn’t result in him being bothered to watch the team. AGAIN. At least for Cifuentes’ sake it means he can’t do a Marinakis. You actually have to attend a match to make a leaving early statement Top!

We create almost nothing, we don’t look like scoring goals and can’t keep clean sheets. It’s a Yes from me!

He contributed almost nothing other than holding a position on a pitch. Like a mobile football training cone. He’s a central midfielder who avoids the ball either on purpose or because his reading of the game always puts him in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s the Anti-Ngolo Kante!

I’d play Mavididi in the 9 role on Saturday. Given up on Daka, Carrenza and Ayew in that role.

Onfield spectator again today. Barely touches the ball. Doesn’t influence the game. James had to put in so much leg work to cover for him. Just holds a position whilst the game goes on around him.

Fair play to the lad. He came and gave his boots to my boy as a memento at the end of the game to cheer him up. Ultra rare adidas ‘blue circle’ edition too. 🦊💙

Even the poppy sellers outside are affected by PSR. They’ve just scammed me with a 2024 badge after I donated for Remembrance Day. Be warned!

Things went wrong when we stopped signing leaders to replace those leaving/retiring including big Wes yes. Huth, Morgan. Kasper, Fuchsy. Those key roles have been replaced by players who don’t lead. Look at our senior pros - Verstergaard, Faes, Winks, Ayew, Reid even Riccy. None of them are particularly strong willed and none are true inspiring leaders. Players like Vesty and Faes are so caught up with their own self that they don’t provide the inspiration that a leader needs. It’s a real failure in recruitment.

Driven out of Falkirk in a taxi. Brussell is a fraud.

The alarming issue with me that makes things different with Cifuentes than it was with RVN and Cooper is that he’s generally playing all of the obvious best creative players. Cooper dropped Fatawu, Mavididi, Ricardo, ELK even Vardy at times. RVN dropped Winks, Buonanotte, Mavididi. They were players that we could say would come in and improve the side if only we had a manager that understood their talents. Step forward Cifuentes who has generally selected the better FORWARD thinking players at his disposal. Two of his signings have been two of our best players in those key attacking roles too! Look at his bench today. Without an ill Monga the only players with a semblance of creativity were Silko, Bobby Reid and Ayew and none of them are particularly going to frighten the opposition. Maybe playing Reid would’ve prevented Soumare’s disasterclass but based on Reid’s anonymous performance v Swansea (and in his LCFC career in general) he wasn’t likely to create that much. Either way, not playing Reid isn’t like when Cooper wasn’t playing Fatawu or RVN was ignoring Buonanotte. Cifuentes rightly gets criticised for his omission of Nelson and Aluko but they are more defensive options and not so much attacking game changers - after that, criticising him for not playing 17 year Page or 16 year old Evans is a bit of a stretch. So he generally selects our best creative talent but can’t get them to perform and this reflects very badly on the squad quality but also on his ability to motivate, cajole, encourage or inspire this team. He’s basically like an informed fan. He can select the best creative team and he can call out the failures in our games eloquently after the game but like most of us fans, when it comes to the crunch, he’s not shown he’s able to manage a group of professional footballers to change their mindset and play even to the levels of this league never mind the Premier League level that many of our players think they should be at. It looks like we have a poor manager (at least for the type of mentality we have in the squad) managing a very poor side at the moment. I don’t think he’ll get the time to be able to bomb out the bad eggs and bring in the type of player that he might be able to manage better and prove everyone wrong, which is a shame because he’s a more likeable manager than the last two!

I wouldn’t play either and I don’t agree he’s better than Soumare.

Bumped this thread to seeing as Skipp’s lack of game time appears to have enhanced his reputation. Have a read of his exploits to remind yourselves lads…

That last paragraph also describes Skipp ffs.

You need to give one of them a run of games. Daka has had his chance(s), Ayew has had his chance, now it should be Carrenza given extended time to try and build partnerships. It isn’t looking good for the lad but there’s no realistic alternative until January.

Let me think. No striker, no full backs, no number 10, no strength in depth, players who don’t want to be here, no money to spend, a manager that can’t motivate players, an impending points deduction… The answer is YES!!

You said ‘Skipp is a better player than Soumare.’ He isn’t.

Skipp is the latest player to drastically improve his reputation by not actually playing. The lad has been useless in a LCFC shirt. Soumare is not the answer in midfield but unfortunately Skipp is definitely not the answer in midfield. Therein lies the problem. We have Winks and James and that’s literally it for senior midfielders that can put in a shift.

Deserves criticism today BUT he got into position to have 3 good chances in the box - one of which he definitely should’ve scored. Most of our lot don’t even look like scoring except from 30 yard ‘worldies.’ If he can take a positive from today it’s that!

That was 100% going in

Genuinely can’t see what we can do with this one. Yeh bring in Aluko and Nelson but realistically it’s a big ask for them to come in and change the mentality of the squad. It looked to me like James was feeling his knee before he went off. We know Skipp and Soumare are simply not good enough. We know similarly this is true of our centre forwards. Hamza can’t be trusted to cover at right back or midfield. It’s also becoming increasingly obvious that Cifuentes hasn’t got the management ability to polish a turd (though tbf to him I’m not sure many could manage this lot.) Boro losing 3-0 will be a shock to their fans but they shouldn’t worry as Dr Leicester are seeing them next.

Enzo preferred playing a centre half in Doyle or a right back in Justin over those pair. Personally yeh I’d play Aluko. Not sure Choudhury would be any better tbh.

Enzo bomb squaded VK and Thomas as soon as he joined. Now they are our only senior options. We are league one standard in that position.