5waller5

I think if we re-wind back to the first half of the season we were really good at crisp passing through the middle… however that may have been against sides that weren’t sitting back so far

Chelsea recalling him and not then playing him seems like the definition of a lose-lose-lose deal. What possessed them to do it??

Exactly…. Or overlapping full backs

The last three games the opposition has double banked our wingers. Instead of finding a bit of space to operate in both wingers have had a man constantly challenging and another ready to challenge any break out. The opposition are making our wingers look poor because they’ve identified it’s our key attacking threat, and they’re right. This should have led to a tweak in tactics to exploit the gaps left by that extra defender, we seem to be finding that difficult atm

It’s certainly make or break time. Two huge games coming up. Three games ago I was roundly disagreed with when making the point that we were running out of steam, and the fresh impetus, potential new tactics, fresh legs and psychological boost to the squad of a fresh player in January may come back to bite us yet again. It was seen as an unwarranted attack on Rudkin. If Enzo can’t turn this around I have a feeling it’s the first item on his list of what went wrong.

He often turns his back when tackling or half backs out… as a kid we used to constantly get told to commit to a challenge fully or you’ll get hurt. Coincidence that he’s either playing and bottling challenges or out injured?? I’ll caveat this by saying I didn’t see how he got injured today… so he may have reinforced my point or not!

He had a Sunday league game today. I’m not sure he knows what’s expected of him sometimes

He’s a country mile ahead of Taylor and Hollowhead (Ie. way worse) for me. They tried their best and failed as they lacked ability. Rodgers couldn’t even be bothered to pretend he wanted to be here. However…. I couldn’t feel more pleased / excited / thankful that we now have Enzo, and as a comparable, I have very similar feelings when I see Enzo at the touch line as I used to with Big Nige there!!! (This is HUGE praise)

I’m really looking forward to this! Unfortunately this is generally a bad omen!!

Of course!!! Wow!! We really have crammed it in!!!

Presumably the list is 1 club that have, in the last 20 years, won: Premier League FA Cup League Cup Championship Community Shield

At least they’ve highlighted their lack of knowledge - saves you ever listening to them!

Really impressive for a young keeper.

Nacho!!! Anything could happen!!

I thought he looked decent

Praet really doesn’t give a sh1t

No. They didn’t plan for Casadei to be recalled, which would rather lead you to the conclusion that whatever we had committed to pay him until the end of the season was now available to spend elsewhere. January was another mess and is at the door of our DOF. Ultimately we could really have done with that extra body in midfield, my point isn’t to re-debate how shit Rudkin is though …. It’s to make the point that we look tired and the boost of a signing (like every other club in the league managed to do) would have been a useful fillip

I thought we looked dog tired for the last 15-20 mins of the game (as we have for the last few). We desperately needed subs to bring on that could add some energy and see the game over the line.

It’s coming, because it’s absolutely blatantly obvious

What you are proposing is that the Director Of Football isn’t responsible for negotiation of player’s salaries, lengths of contract, buying players, or selling players. Ie. The budgets and trading activity of the football element of a football club. If the above is true (it isn’t) then you’re right, the failure to strengthen the squad in January isn’t his fault. If the above isn’t true then please explain what the role of DOF does involve, because it seems you’ve made it entirely redundant. Or maybe I should just stop trying to be popular and not mention how terrible Rudkin is at his job

They don’t look awful, they looked knackered. If you think we don’t look fatigued too then fair enough, we see the game differently

Watched the Saints yesterday on their equivalent of Foxehub. They looked tired, passing was off, lacked energy, running back, getting first to the ball etc etc. Their partisan commentators were saying that the long run of wins was like watching a different side and concluded that they look exhausted. An easy parallel to be drawn to us. The psychology of whether you feel tired, I think, will have a big part to play in the run in. Saints won’t be in the mix for top two now, and one other team will fall away feeling fatigue. A player signed in January to provide a bit of freshness is really important for the squad mentally. Like a well placed family member / supporter for a marathon runner … that little boost that gives you the second wind. I wonder how many more January windows we’ll need before Rudkin learns?

24 WINS FROM THE OTHER 28 GAMES

Maybe that he got us that 17 point lead, and we’re still top by 6 points. I guess??🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Terrible referee. Leeds could have had 6 more bookings. We were desperately unlucky. Leeds incredibly lucky. We will still win the league.