deep blue

Interesting. I've seen the occasional comment on here regretting the loss of JJ. Yet he got the same pelters last season as Thomas is getting now, and mostly it seems to be that he isn't coping in one-on-one situations with the winger. While I'm not trying to excuse Thomas (and I particularly dislike his pathetic attempts to rugby tacke or pull back his winger rather than making a better attempt to block him or to chase back) I do feel that our set-up seems to leave our fullback badly exposed. We keep complaining that our wingers only receive the ball when they are stationary and doubly marked, but the opposition wingers are often receiving the ball when on the run and only have our fullback to beat, and having to start by backpedalling isn't the best way to defend. I can't out my finger on why that's happening - is it our formation, or that our wingers don't drop back to help, or because our midfield is so weak and appears outnumbered?

I just get this feeling that the formation makes us very vulnerable in midfield - only 2 genuine midfielders - which makes it easy for us to get overrun if the oppo go hard at us. We need the wingers to cover back a lot better than they are at the moment. It doesn't help that throughout the whole team there's a lack of will to compete strongly for the ball, to be alert to picking up the loose ball, and to support each other over the pitch.

Not quite as far as Fatawu's goal but better, in my view, because the goalie wasn't that far out of his goal as the ball was struck, so the speed and accuracy of the shot had to be absolutely spot on. Incredible technique. A very hard strike, too, for someone small and not at all strong-looking. Also, he was much more alert to the initial interception than our dozy first-teamers.

I can't help thinking that Vestergaad is now our biggest problem, and the sooner he is replaced the better. He doesn't have the right physicality to cope with balls or players that come on him quickly (why we are so vulnerable to counter-attacks) and I feel sure we wouldn't be so welded to this slow, no-progressive passing style if he weren't at the core of it. Imagine someone more mobile, with quicker feet and mind, and with a more direct clearance (quick pass, or lumping it when necessary) in his place and you can imagine something much better than what we have at the moment.

I didn't manage to watch the game, but reports make it pretty easy to see how it played out. What I can't get my head round, and a similar thing has happened several times this season, is how we are often caught completely cold at the start of a half. This, for me, is unforgiveable in a professional team. Last night the home team, down by 2 goals after the first half, were absolutely nailed on to come out and at us as soon as the second half started, and with their supporters to cheer them on. What other alternative did they have? Yet it appears that our team were totally unprepared for it. That's it. I am simply gobsmacked.

Aluko

Iversen played a blinder for Preston. If only ...

Newport looked rubbish, so disorganised, Braybrooke a class above anyone else. Although he's getting valuable playing time I don't think his development will be helped with such poor teammates around him. I think he'd be better off back in Leicester now, as long as he can be guaranteed a reasonable amount of playing time.

For anyone who wants to see Braybrooke in action I assume he'll be in Newport County's team who feature (v Boreham Wood) on BBC1 at 2.15 today.

This opinion keeps popping up on here, but is it really true? What verification do we have? You say "I'm told ... ", ... but who has told you?

My personal view is that flat living is extremely undesirable because of noise and other issues of living so close to others. Also, problems arise with responsibility for the whole fabric of the building (you only have to think of the dilemma caused by cladding). l suspect that most people in this country would agree with that view and that many of those who live in flats do so not out of choice but because their financial situation gives them no other option. But who knows? It would be interesting to know what percentage of people in this country would prefer to live in a flat rather than the more conventional housing.

Unbelievable. To have signed him for that length of contract, and price, they must have assessed him as being crucial to our midfield and the first name on the teamsheet every week.

This is spot on. I read the news items given online by the government advertising the initiatives they are funding. OK, you can interpret it to some extent as government propaganda, but they do genuinely seem to be trying to set in motion strategies for addressing our nation's future needs (strategy being badly lacking in the previous Tory governments). But (a) how many people read about these initiatives and (b) how many would give the government the time for these strategies to start to bear fruit? So many people are happy to continue in ignorance and simply complain about policies not improving their lot in the immediate short term, which is a recipe for a populist party to be voted in next time... and what a disaster that will be.

Aluko was stupid .. but he's young. After his first yellow, did anyone notice our senior players having a word with him? He definitely needed a stern warning, or taking off.

They would if they cared...

So had we gone for a new stadium after our title win the timing would have been great for the period immediately after Puel. Hindsight, and all that, but what could have been ...

This does my head in too. So lazy & brainless, no thought of progressing the ball.

So so true.

Hamza was pushed into an emergency CB role 3 years ago in a very weakened side that nevertheless beat Liverpool. Hamza played excellently and was singled out for praise after the match by Rodgers ... who promptly dropped him for the next game and I think that experiment hasn't been repeated since. Make of it what you will.

Have always thought he's the most likely of our title-winning team to make a good manager, and wished he'd have been contacted by us before now to have a role in the club, with the hope of him eventually becoming our manager. I hope that our owners/board might make a belated approach soon with that in mind.

You're right, the word "precarious" was a bit too strong, but the potential was there for it to fall apart (though Tater did it in rather spectacular fashion). The break up of the team had already started; Heskey had already left, Collymore broke his leg, Cottee was near the end of his career (and Guppy not much younger, I thnk), Walsh probably past his best, and Lennon was always likely to follow MON to Celtic.

MON was a great motivator and created a great team, but left us in a precarious position for his own self-advancement. Nige built a great club and left us, not of his own volition, but with the club in a wonderful and solid position..... providing a real springboard for what came next. Both great managers, MON probably edging Nige for in-game management, but Nige had much the more constructive ability for the club as a whole (which is the sort of manager we desperately need at the moment).

You've forgotten the LibDems and the Greens, then?

"Page looked lost" earlier in the season... Of course he did - it was his first game in the side, and in a dysfunctional team. He will surely improve game on game. ""Briggs hasn't played a minute of first tea football". This is a catch-22 statement which applies to every academy player; it will always be the case until they are actually given a go. etc It's not asking for 50% of the team to be untried youngsters playing the full 90, but of introducing them gradually, giving them the opportunity to adapt and grow over a season. If we aren't prepared to do that there's no point in having an academy at all.

It's the finish that matters?