deep blue

And yet he could be in our next match. All it takes is for him to be selected. How frustrating to know what a talent is being ignored.

I felt that Bilal and Buenanotte were ineffective last night ... not through any fault of their own nor for lack of effort. In past matches there've been spells where we've put together some good intricate bits of forward-going interplay, usually involving them, but it was absent last night. My explanation is that there was even less cohesion and purpose and resolve in the team last night so it was a bit like passing into the wind for our two more enterprising young stars. The more they tried, the more they came up against brick walls, and they ended up trying to do too uch themselves. Such a barren environment in which to develop good young prospects like them.

I noticed that too. I was disgusted!

Sorry, but can show no respect for fans who spend (waste ) a lot of time & money travelling to watch such dross. If they didn't do it then the penny might drop with the club management much sooner. In fact, think what a loud statement it would make if there wasn't a single home fan at the next home game. Something even our management couldn't continue to ignore.

"We are going down, the club made that decision in January" That implies there is some football knowledge within the club management. I doubt it!

But can you endure game after game like this till the end of the season?

Is it really that bad?

Agreed we don't ... we need to work at it to earn our place. I went over the top there, but I was trying to counter those who say we don't deserve anything better because our rightful place is as a yo-yo club and anything else is overreaching ourselves.

You present no evidence for this view. I'm a fan from the 50s. Am gutted at the decline in the club over the last 4/5 years. I also believe in continual progress in the club and was very annoyed that some had the attitude that we were achieving above our level and should be grateful for the recent tropies. I feel we have had such a wasted opportunity. Hopefully a reset will come about , even if it takes a few years, and we will regain our rightful place in the upper echelons of the game.

Just looking at that team, you could arguably improve on that now with Coulibaly at RB, and maybe even McAteer or VK replaced, but for me the key ingredient is Coady & Vesty as the CB pairing. Hard to see how that worked, and I think it's hardly been tried since, but obviously it did work in that game so why not try it again?

Maybe. We're had our share of duds recently, and anyone coming in has such a mess to sort out, that it's hard to know what's the right way to go. I almost feel sorry for Top

Mads JJ Coady Vesty VK Ndidi Soumare Bilal McAteer Buenanotte JV is our starting XI that somehow beat West Ham 3-1 earlier, under Ruud, I think. How did we manage that? Even Daka came on and scored later. Could we repeat it with a similar side? Notable the CB pairing; not tried for a while.

Everyone is "unproven" until he's given a chance to prove himself.

Thomas would be an improvement from a defensive point of view, and he has quite a good forward pass so is likely to link better with Mav.

As bad as our defenders are, and as woeful our forward options, I think our biggest weakness, going back to the early Rodgers years, is for a dominating box-to-box midfielder in the mould of Izzet. Most Prem teams have one. Tielemans and Maddison were fine together when the team was dominating, largely on the back of Ndidi's ability to protect our defence, but when the going got tough they couldn't cope. This happened eventually in our relegation year after Rodgers had neutered Ndidi by trying to get him to play a more box-to-box role. Since then we've lacked that pivotal sort of player because Soumare didn't fulfil the expectation we had with his signing. And the key thing that we miss is protection and relief for the defence. So I think this is the key signing we need to make.

What I clearly suggested is that if his current club managed to convince him to settle for a CB position then it's a failing on our fault that we didn't manage earlier to reach a similar agreement with him.

I'm aware of that. Do you not think it's a failing of the club that we didn't find a way to keep him happy and eventually get him to progress in his best position? His current club managed to do that, but we didn't.

Not forgetting that Einstein's credibility was sullied by his wise words on smart meters, too.

Bassey would certainly have improved the current team, had he been given the opportunity. Given our CB shortcomings, how we must rue not bringing him through. A solid CB who also pops up with the occasional goal, ... in a successful Prem team.

Not to mention our outstanding youth forwards who might well fare better but are never tried.

Maybe Glover also at fault, but surely Cooper said that he wanted Prem experience which is why we put Ayew & BDCR, at least, down to him. It could also explain Skipp, too.

I thought Puel encouraged youth, and assembled an excellent squad. He'd be a good DOF, I believe.

So they bring on Merino for Streling and it's as if our defence are unaware of the switch, his presence. Nobody switches their attention to him. Schoolboy stuff.

Me too. Only doubt there is Faes, but for all his switching-off moments it's hard to think that any of the alternatives would be better on balance. I certainly think it's worth gambling on an attacking formation and hoping that we occupy them enough in the opposition half that our defence isn't put under the usual pressure. When you think of the continual ineffectiveness of our cautious approach, what is there to lose?

Yes, congratulations ProjectReset. You've done a great job.