marcofisher

Sykes must have been given 60 minutes by the medical team each match

Fair enough! Doesn’t sound particularly memorable!

Weimann played in the number 10, mostly behind Semenyo and Martin, I don’t think he really ever played alone up top for us.

Weimann must be playing like Maradona in training

Selling the best young players for a profit doesn’t get on my nerves, it’s inevitable. Its constantly having to rebuild because we want to change philosophy/play style that really grinds my gears. For the board quoting Luton as an example, well they did it from playing in the same manner and sticking to their principles of play all the way through the leagues. Not exactly following that example are we.

These players with the attributes that Semenyo had are a massive rarity unfortunately.

Just saw the MOTD highlights and saw that Antoine gave Villa an absolutely torrid time. 3rd goal of the season and could have easily had another if not for a strong save from Martinez. Jenas in the punditry room was full of praise for him too. Sad we could not see him at that level with us, but chuffed to see him doing what he did so well for us in the Premier League. Iraola was highly thought of by a lot of people before joining (he was also wanted by Leeds after Marsch I believe), and plays a nice brand of football, so hopefully we see Semenyo keep progressing under him. If he keeps playing like he did today I can see bigger clubs coming in for him; players with his combination of ability, pace and physicality are a rarity.

Forget gloom, I will then need counselling if I now have to think about our transfer windows.

It’ll be all this tippy tappy stuff round the back, and will never reach the target.

Problem is the board think they know better and decide to go away from a Cotterill/Pearson type (who do know better). This entails a change of play style that the squad is not equipped for, reinvestment is required (which the Lansdowns apparently don’t want to do anymore), and therefore it is set up to fail for the new coach, who is not equipped with the appropriate players to play the style of football he wants, or just as often in the last few years, is found to be no better tactically than the Manager types who instilled some structure. Plus in the case of LJ, no better at bringing players through the system than Pearson was. I didn’t agree with Pearson going but I also don’t think Manning is a bad appointment on paper. The problem is that we spent 3 years under Pearson building in one direction, and just when he finished clearing the junk, raised some money through bringing through and developing Scott and Semenyo, and instilled some fortitude in the team, we decide to chop and change back to the Head Coach route again. Now we have to reinvest and clear the decks somewhat again to be able to give Manning the players he would need to play in the way he wants, and there is no guarantee that works with the limited Championship experience he has. For all the noises about not wanting to continuously pump money into the club, it doesn’t really make sense to rip it all up and start again when you finally had some stability in the club. Are we going to go big in January/Summer to get the players in that suit Manning? Otherwise we will be stuck with a pretty poor cocktail of a group of players that suit playing one way and a manager that wants to play another. We don’t want to pump money into the club non-stop so let’s keep ripping it up and starting again, you can’t really make it make sense can you?

Do the board even see us as a club capable of making playoffs? They obviously just said that to get rid of Nige and as they have to say that to try and keep fans appeased (even thought it has backfired massively as their lack of transparency is not lost on any supporter). This season is gone now with the injuries and squad we have IMO. If we go into next season with the same transfer policy then it will be mortifying.

High line and yet with the ball move it sideways with no intent and consistently give the ball away. What did we expect?

Comical really, you could see it happening.

I think everyone realises except the board. Usually second half subs give you fresh impetus; it’s done the opposite in this half.

Why does Cam Pring not try to beat his opposite number in attacking positions anymore?

Agreed, can see with Mehmeti in front of him he has already made several forward passes.

First half he played well, got in some advanced positions, made some good crosses and kept Hernandez quiet, who has now swapped wings because he was getting no change from Tanner. As Pete Hinton has said above, sub has killed us.

Tanner has played well, on the other hand, Weimann has been very off it and was incredibly sloppy giving the ball away in the lead up to the goal.

Tanner was unlucky, the goal itself though was not unlucky at all. Like you said, poor composure and being sloppy in possession left our right flank exposed.

Weimann did awful to lose that in midfield

Change of shape surely.

Moreover if we had another defender we could move Sykes there, who I think would then be in his best position.

Be good to put Sykes in Weimann’s position, unfortunately we would have to probably bring on Meerholz or Knight-Lebel to do this in the shape we are in now and I am not sure if they are ready?

I think it counts as us winning half of it.

Can’t wait to see Bournemouth’s Europa Conference league run with a midfield of Scott, TGH and Knight