funkyrobot

We haven’t actually been able to use any parachute payments to buy players though due to PSR. I think when you look at the squad decreasing in quality since the summer Enzo joined, now you factor in the complete lack of a striker (a fundamentally key role) or capable left back (all of the teams you’ve listed are better in these positions) and an imbalanced squad in general and then consider long term form and momentum, it’s not a stretch to see we are below the clubs you’ve listed and we are probably closer to 10th in quality than we are 1st .

It’s very unfair to compare how we are performing this season with how we were performing under Enzo 2 years ago. The reality is Cifuentes’ squad is significantly weaker than Enzo’s. No finances to refresh the squad. Vardy, KDH, Ndidi, Akgun, Doyle, Praet, Iheanacho, Casadei, Justin (playing as a left back) are all better than their replacements. On top of that you have senior players 2 years older and having experienced a second relegation. This squad is the weakest it’s been in probably the last 15 years.

Surely it’s pretty obvious that there won’t be much guilt or regret of those who have not renewed their season ticket whilst the team isn’t playing well. If we were flying high and playing great football then this thread would barely have any comments. When the team eventually start playing well again people will want to come back. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I still enjoy going even if it’s just to have a good old collective moan with other fans about the state of our attack/left back options/referees etc etc😂

In just interested in the football. What problems with consistency has Vestergaard had in The Championship? He’s been consistently good in this division under 2 managers. Deal in facts. Vestergaard is proven to be more than capable at this level. Vestergaard has been our best defender this season. I’ve not mentioned Daka and Thomas at any point btw.

Last time I looked Cifuentes played Monga, James, Ramsey and Fatawu from the start, all definitely well within the ‘young player’ category. He also brought Silko Thomas off the bench. Are you seriously saying he should be sacked for not having two extra inexperienced 17 year olds on the bench??

Not good enough for Boro - Gerrimin!

Carranza needs to be given a run of games. With our lack of options he shown enough for me to be given an extended opportunity before people can fairly start writing him off. Start him for the next 5/6 games.

Because in Austria he had an absolute beast in Haaland playing alongside him!

I just want the best players in their positions in the team. In our weakened, imbalanced Championship standard squad (that is all it is) it’s very difficult to drop our best defender in Vestergaard. Simple as that.

So you would play Okoli and Nelson? (Souttar is injured.) We’ve already seen that Okoli’s presence in this team doesn’t improve our results. Nelson can’t find a place on the bench and it’s a massive leap of hope to say that a player that currently can’t get in the squad is going to improve things defensively. You can’t just bomb squad players like Vestergaard and Faes because you don’t like them and have judged them negatively in every way because of this hate. I frankly don’t care about what they say or personalities off the pitch. I look at Vestergaard in The Championship (very different from Vestergaard in the PL), I look how he performed for Enzo in this league and how he is playing for Marti and it’s very hard to blame him for where we are now whether he’s a nice guy off the pitch or not. The problems we currently have at this level lie at left back, at cover for Ricardo at right back and particularly to the fact we have no forwards that can score goals. A lack of a goalscorer means conceding what was. only 1 goal is more than likely to result in lost points.

If we are honest when it comes to the youngsters coming through, the only one who we can feel aggrieved with his lack of first team action is Ben Nelson, having had a good loan at this level last year. There has to be a reason that we are not aware of why he isn’t - whether that’s him being too similar to Vesty or another reason we can only speculate. You could argue that due to the form of Thomas, Aluko can feel unlucky but he’s surely behind VK in the pecking order, particularly as my understanding is that he is right footed and plays predominantly on the right or right central at u23 level. It’s a big ask to play him on his less confident side at a level he has barely played as of yet. With Page, he just isn’t yet at the level of Rambo or Ayew in the 10 role yet. He showed flashes but didn’t look ready in his two games and that’s understandable considering his age. Personally I’d have him on the bench over Skipp as we have Soumare but the likelihood Skipp doesn’t get game time anyway. Monga has shown that he’s much better as an impact sub and not ready to start regularly. I’d expect Mavididi to start Saturday and Monga making a difference when Mavididi tires. Silko has been on the bench and I thought he did ok as cover for Fatawu (no worse than McAteer was) and should continue in that role. As for Evans, he’s surely close to getting some bench time despite his age (an injury to Daka or Carrenza would put him in the spotlight.) But based on what we saw in pre season he’s probably not ready.

Still think our most pressing defensive problem is at left back, not centre back.

Tbf to Vestergaard, he at least took a wage cut when he signed his new deal.

With his age, Vestergaard will leave us when his contract runs out. I don’t disagree that Nelson needs some game time nor am I against Souttar being given another go. The fact remains that we have a better chance of being higher up in The Championship by playing our better defenders. Like it or not Vestergaard is one of our better players this season and a very capable Championship player. We are currently a Championship club with zero money to spend so he has something to offer at the level we are at. There’s a danger that by not playing players like Verstergaard, our situation would likely be even worse than it is now. Certainly rotate the centre half’s to give others game time but don’t bin a contracted player who isn’t the major issue at the moment. FYI, In the unlikely event that we get promoted I’m not convinced by any of the centre backs we have on our books being overall PL standard. There’s hope for Nelson but he is not even making the bench so it’s a big stretch to say he’ll come in and smash it in the top league.

Vestergaard has been our best defender this season

Not sure how you can call Vesty and Faes a disgrace after today’s game.The loss today had nothing to do with Faes and no more to do with Vesty as it was with Okoli. If you are going to pick out a defender who failed for the 1 goal that caused us to lose it was Luke Thomas. I thought we improved significantly when Thomas was replaced with Faes playing out of position tbh.

All from Capology.com as good info as you can get. There’s absolutely no evidence anywhere that there’s been a wage cut. Quite the opposite.

His wage doubled - there was no reduction !

The penalty was massively down to him too. Telegraphing a Cruyff turn near his own box.

Yep 4 years, wage doubled. Approx £37.5k including bonuses.

When he signed his new contract his wages more than doubled btw. £15k per week up to £30k plus bonuses. 4 years…

Why will playing Okoli alongside Nelson make any difference? Opposition managers will do exactly what Neil did today. Force the ball to Okoli because he can’t do anything with it.

Ruud who played BDCR on the wing, benched Buonanotte and banished our best midfielder Winks. He was an absolute disaster. At least Cifuentes is trying to play his most talented players regularly.

Millwall man marked Vesty to force the ball to be played through Okoli and it worked, he played the most passes and he gave simple balls away.

Stolarcyck VK Vestergaard Faes Ricardo Winks James Mavididi Ayew Fatawu Carrenza