The Swan and Cemetery

Frustrating performance which think is broadly reflective of the season to date, ie frustrating rather than awful (or good). King will get blamed for the two goals, which is fair up to a point, but he was distinctly hindered, rather than helped, by his team mates, including Max who I think delivers quite a low percentage of saves from eminently saveable chances. If enough wages freed up, think a GK might be on NP’s priority list. Also think we need to get more clinical at creating good chances, we often get into good positions, but create half chances or no chances from those positions. With this system, I’d drop Weimann as playing him too far out of position for him to contribute effectively. And not sure he’s the ideal captain as seems to get frustrated with refs (admittedly today’s was awful), rather than try to win them over or understand what they like/don’t like. Overall, season to date, think we’ve seen both enough promise and enough weaknesses to think relegation is unlikely, but so is getting to the top half. Very few teams in this league are consistent, maybe only Burnley, and a lot of that is do with reasonably evenly matched teams, meaning results are often determined by an incident here or there, rather than total domination by one side or the other. Don’t really see that changing either positively or negatively for us.

Don’t think it’s a long term solution and we need to avoid him being exposed one on one given lack of pace, but shows the significant benefit of having someone to organise those around them. Whilst would good to get Wilson playing RWB consistently, for now I’d push Tanner there when Vyner’s back at RCB. RWB isn’t a natural position for either Sykes or Weimann and think it shows. Think that gives a pretty solid set up, but with enough dynamism and quality to cause teams problems. Preferable for Naismith to be on the left than central, as less exposed and gives a bit more licence - some of his passing yesterday was top notch, including doing apparently simple things well, eg timing his pass in line with the timing of runs from Conway/Wells etc, eg the ball to Conway just before their goal that Conway should have done better with.

However it compares with previous seasons, 8 points from playoffs to relegation at close to halfway, feels reasonably tight. Seems as if we’re playing a bit of whack-a-mole between attacking and defensive success, maybe because of Naismith increasing likelihood of goals at both ends (so far at least). Think perfect scenario (albeit optimistic) would be decent money in Jan for Semenyo and maybe a couple of others off the payroll and then spend some money bringing the bench/squad up a level. Less dreamy would be mega bucks for Scott. Given we’ve not done well against some of the middling teams, but played better against higher quality (even if not winning), would be tempted to persist with 3 in midfield as standard - James in front will also help provide balance when Naismith is back. Whatever happens against Rotherham, I’d persist with NP, as becoming increasingly clear what the problem is (squad depth) and that’s something to try to support the manager with (finances notwithstanding), not change the manager (unless Elon Musk agrees to be manager and pay us £10m a day for the privilege).

Tend to think that having lots of all rounders is a dangerous game, as can risk folk feeling, unconsciously at least, that there’s always someone to cover for them, so become complacent. But in white ball cricket, England have players who are top quality at their main reason for being in the side and then pretty good at other things as well, so works well. 10 first class centuries batting at 11 shows the depth. Stokes has become an issue for opponents in pressure situations, as they know he’s very likely to find a way. Hugely impressed with Curran and Rashid in particular, wouldn’t have fancied chasing much more against the Pakistan attack. And others have said, Buttler’s captaincy, together with setting the tone with his batting and much improved keeping, brilliant.

Heads you lose, tails I win.

Get that he’s rich, but he’s not a trillionaire.

Seem to recall, back in the day, we were in something called the first division and in that division, we had a win percentage of 27% or so (I know right?!?) and yet the manager at the time (Alan something or other?) was considered to be doing okay and was with us 13 years-ish. If we could just have got rid of him when he’d been with us a year or two, we’d surely have been destined for greater glory? As a minimum we should have replaced him with someone with a decent win percentage in the Western League.

Agree with this. Struggle with the view “he’s got a squad that should be further up the league”, seems pretty clear that’s not the case. However we have got a first XI that are good enough to be further up the league. Therefore a) can we improve availability of the first XI (possible, but optimistic to think we’ll be injury free for months) and b) can we improve the quality of the squad so that when (say) Scott or Conway aren’t available, the drop off is minimised? Some of this needs money we haven’t got currently and then good man management to keep decent quality reserves happy. January conundrum might be: Scott out for a monster fee, enabling improvements to the ‘next best’ contingent - but is that net better given the loss of Scott from the first XI?

Thought we were going with “… the South Bank sing, a new king’s born today, his name is Stevie Bull, he was born on Saturday”… or something like that. Generally occurred during/after a hat-trick… so every time we played them.

So biased, embarrassing, but usually the way.

Suspect it’s been mentioned elsewhere, but wonder if we’re having a bit of Man U’s travails when they had a grey shirt and complained they couldn’t see each other (Southampton away?) and so sacked it off. Whilst we should be looking to improve (and sure we are) we’ve got a rag-tag bag of youngsters and cheap/free signings, plus some left over from previous era. Fact that most of the time we look like a team and a half decent one quite often, seems pretty remarkable to me. Some of the goals past couple of games have been poor and cutting out mistakes is a laudable goal, but through October’s games, we’re also able to cut out playing against teams likely to punish our mistakes, that makes a big difference. If we improve our defending in the international break, we’ll be winning games comfortably thereafter. I’m more, or at least as, concerned as to whether we can keep our goal scoring form going, albeit, again, defences will be lower quality than we’ve played against recently.

I agree, but the respective distances plus Burnley having an extra day to recover, might allow us all to pause for breath before moaning/groaning too much. Admittedly not many doing that, but there are some!

A day extra to prepare for a relatively short turnaround makes a decent difference. Thought we were more lacklustre than in previous games as a result. Didn’t play well, but kept plugging away and thought they were the best we’ve played so far this season, solid everywhere + some threat. They were really good on second balls, which is Prem sharp minds. Goals were disappointing, but not in the camp of thinking we’re likely to cut out errors and never concede again, particularly against teams who punish those mistakes. Potentially the two toughest games of the season done and dusted within four days of each other. Happy with what we’ve seen so far, but as ever, lots to work on.

He just needs to cut out errors, that’s relatively simple for a professional footballer. Checking stats he’s the only championship player to have made an error since 2008… I agree with your points above: when the ball comes towards him he needs to ask himself “am I about to make an error?”, if yes, smash it into the stands, if no, bring it out and play a gorgeous diagonal. Simple.

For the 2nd there’s learning for all involved, but they haven’t been playing together for long. Vyner maybe could have stepped up quicker to avoid playing Pukki onside; when Naismith steps forward both Vyner and Atkinson, as well as Scott/James need to be alert to ensuring cover, etc etc. But Naismith playing safe or in a different position are choices that will take us backwards in my view. Top scorers and equal 3rd worst defence. Of course if would be great to concede fewer, but I wouldn’t change much, just keep working hard.

Let’s move Naismith to screen in front… oh hang on, now the wing backs need to be full backs… we don’t want that so let’s make Naismith 1 of 2 centre mids… oh hang on, now his passing angles are completely different and he’s spending his time looking backward as much as forward… his first mistake is a bad one, but every CB on our books will have made that type of mistake, the second one is more Naismith specific, but so are all the positives. Naismith sans errors is Baresi/Hansen playing very well (or something like that) and I never spotted either at the Gate. Replying to you, frustrated with some others!

Doesn’t take much of a memory to recall when 2-0 down, at Norwich, after 23 minutes, was a case of “how many?”, this time we came back and kept coming back. No genius needed to work out there are things to improve, but you need to be reasonably churlish not to be able to see the leaps forward. And folk who can’t see the connection between Naismith and our goal scoring (which includes some risk taking, shock horror) are either being disingenuous or are livid we haven’t signed Hansen/Baresi in their pomp. We’re going down more of a McCullum/Stokes approach and that won’t always work, but it’s a lot more exciting than going at 2 an over and losing every week.

Agree with this and don’t think the Met will be making significant requests from other forces given such a short time period involved. So think it will come down to football authorities being comfortable with London clubs (and their opponents) getting behind more than the rest of the country, as Met likely to say they can’t police other events until after the funeral, but doesn’t seem insurmountable. Football is the big outlier, eg was at the Oval today and hardly any police presence.

Don’t have anywhere near the FFP knowledge of Mr P/Dave, but aren’t we getting close to a positive self fulfilling prophecy for our finances, ie either: - we get promoted; or - we don’t and therefore are bound to sell a starlet or two? Ie the development of Scott/Semenyo/Conway has solved our financial problems (along with lots of other judicious work by RG/NP). Realise probably overly simplistic (they could all get injured, go downhill etc), but way off the mark @Mr Popodopolous @Davefevs?

Same as others have said, strong underlying progress is the key - great that we’re 4th and scoring lots, but won’t be too worried if we head into the international break off the back of some more disappointing results. Away to two parachute teams, with limited rest and both Norwich and Burnley having an extra day to prepare than us, is a big challenge with a relatively small squad. 12th was my pre season prediction and remain happy with that, whilst hoping for better. Fixing the finances, develop a way of playing that aligns to our strengths (and it’s entertaining), bring the youngsters through etc - lots of praise deserved for NP/RG and plenty of others. Still loads to do, but the foundations are so far removed from the state we were in a couple of years ago, it’s pretty significant progress.

Don’t see much of the young un’s, so hoping a bit of an off day. Sheff Wed looked toothless, but so did we, not sure many will be thumping on NP’s door demanding a first team place based on that. Klose solid enough and good to get 90 mins. Generally lots of poor decisions when we had the ball and a lack of energy (playing in a big, empty stadium can’t help). If based purely on performance, wouldn’t have subbed Backwell off. But guess a win’s a win.

Frustrating that both Norwich and Burnley get an extra day to recover after their previous game than we do. Makes a very tricky few days even tougher.

Yep. Before today’s games we were top, clear by 6 points with 20 in the first half table. Second half we’re 13th with 8, so worse, but not disastrous. So far this season we haven’t had this problem at home: but still conceding late goals away: As you indicate, if we’re ahead, away from home, it’s likely that our opponents, egged on by their supporters, will become ever more attacking late on. As their attacking subs come on, we could choose to stay as is with our formation, but maybe exposed to criticism if their overloaded attacking intent succeeds? Sensible that we keep working at all things that aren’t optimal, but somewhat less concerned when at least indirectly caused by the thing we’re very good at, aka scoring goals/taking the lead. Tables from soccer stats.com not my Excel.

Not sure the last time we had a fox in the box, but Conway adds that option (Wells seems to operate slightly wider and maybe Weimann could be if played slightly differently but adds so much behind the strikers). Can’t remember who the last fox in the box was for us (temporary maybe Tammy? Perm?) but they’re worth their weight in gold. Accept though that TC may go through a dip, albeit he doesn’t seem impacted when he misses chances.

If you could fill in the intersections with some comedic words think we’d all be grateful.