deep blue

I've been more for than against Nacho up till last night, but I thought his complete lack of involvement last night was disgraceful, showing complete disrespect for his teammates, the management team and our supporters. Just when we were flagging, needing an injection of energy and relief from their pressure by some pressing of the opposition defense, he comes on and just strolls around the pitch offering no intensity or commitment. To me he almost looked to be trying to distance himself from the action.

Do you actually believe that our government doesn't contain any "extremist" politicians, then?

In the game situation at that point it was absolutely Hamza that we needed on, someone who would put in a tackle, show some commitment and drive. Every time I see Casadei on the pitch the thing thar sticks out is that he doesn't have a clue how to put in a solid tackle.

I couldn't believe Nacho today. A total disgrace. He never broke sweat or attempted to put their defenders under any pressure, but just wondered aimlessly and very slowly round the pitch. We needed utter commitment from all the players as Ipswich stepped up later in the game. (Casadei also lacking in commitment; the 2 subs were what dragged us down).

This keeps running through my mind. What a wasted opportunity.

..and a car park full of tractors?

Blimey, where did you forage to get that statistic from? You're dead right, though, it's obscene how Man U are seen as an entity apart from any other team, no matter how crap is their play.

Problem with that scenario being anything other than fantasy is that, so far, we never get to 2-0 after 80 mins of turgid football. It's a catch-22 situation we're in, which might also might explain why we haven't seen the likes of Cannon on the pitch yet either.

Awful situation for Ukraine is that any attempt to take back those towns & cities that the Russians have occupied will result in further devastation of those same places. The total rebuild will be at an horrendous cost (though nowhere near the scale in Gaza) when the dust settles.

Ulloa & Dyer

Not sure why we lost our intensity as we always needed a bigger gap in the bank in case Holland should score again. Maybe Scotland improved, maybe we thought it best to hold what we had and concentrate on not allowing Scotland a goal (but that very nearly misfired). And to be fair, even in our less dominant period we had a few very near misses ourselves. At the end of the day it was unfortunate to rely on the last game where the Dutch were against their friends from Belgium whereas we were faced with the hairy Scots. Never mind ...

Baffles me too, like the red wall areas being seduced by such a charlatan as Boris. I have this feeling that there's a masochistic, feudal, tip-your-cap instinct in a fair number of people in this country that seems to accept that it's their position in life to remain downtrodden at the will of "the elite".

Assuming he's as good as he looks, I absolutely agree with this. The best time to "speculate to accumulate" is now (Mahrez is the prime example, where we were similarly looking good for promotion, but Fofana is another good example of a Xmas signing that cost us a lot but still had v good payback in the medium term). We definitely need to be looking to (a) cement our promotion and (b) preparing ourselves as well as possible for the Prem. Having said all that, unfortunately rumours such as these rarely come to fruition.

Vesty will get his next yellow card v shortly and be suspended for 2 games. Could be Souttar's chance, but then Coady maybe more likely to get the nod. Of course, there's the FA Cup game coming up fairly soon so that's another opportunity to give Souttar a go. Personally I'd like to see him given a shot as I agree with the view that, of our current CBs, he might be th one most likely to be able to step up to prem level next season.

The report I read suggested that the reason for signing him was the concern about Ricardo's injury record and his fitness for matches, implying that he's been unavailable for a few this season. I didn't think he'd missed many this season so that argument surprised me, but there is his age to factor in too.

But by the same token, so must have Forest. But now they have him, they find he's not good enough..

Having 2 players to pass to makes it more difficult because he had a choice to make at lightening speed and, as already pointed out, he had to contend with being pulled back at the time. He had the strength & determination to manage that, made the right choice at exactly the right moment and, no matter that there was ample space to pass into, he got the angle & strength of the pass as perfect as it could be. What more do you want?

Casadai's with Chelsea...

But if he can't get a game for Forest ....

Thanks for that. Reassuring feedback.

It will be interesting to see, as we get towards the latter stage of the season, whether this approach from Maresca enables us to last out the season better, physicality-wise, than the teams that have pressed much more. If so, we might find we have a very profitable run-in. (Oops - put this comment in the Wednesday thread but it really belongs here)

It will be interesting to see, as we get towards the latter stage of the season, whether this approach from Maresca enables us to last out the season better, physicality-wise, than the teams that have pressed much more. If so, we might find we have a very profitable run-in.

Go on, tell us how to do it?

I suspect he's not being rushed back because Enzo is aware how a return from such a serous injury has to be managed very carefully, which is a welcome attitude compared with the carelessness of the previous regime. I hope that Enzo regards him so highly that, especially given our weakness in the number 10 area, he will gradually work his way into first team appearances after another month or so.

Ah, have just used Google maps and see that Greenfields Cricket Club occupies the space that used to be the football pitch attached to Mountfields School, where I spent my early years and first learnt the rudiments of football..