Davefevs

No hallelujah then! ?

I’ve often said that being able to play one or two better players makes a big difference to when you have to play one or two worse players….that really what Nige meant when he said his squad lacked depth. Both James and Naismith are organisers. We missed that yesterday. King couldn’t fill that gap yesterday.

So true. I played with two brilliant keepers. One was mainly a “stayer”, the other was a “clear out everything”. As CBs we were fine with both…with the stayer, we knew we’d have to attack almost everything. With the other we just got out of his way. The beauty with both was that they were divisive. Even the stayer came and took balls when appropriate, but was loud and committed when he did so.

If only he could pull on his boots and play, eh? I actually think his playing position is largely irrelevant, it’s not him that crosses the white line on a Saturday afternoon / Tuesday evening. Do you not think he’s passed on all of his knowledge and experience, Fleming too? Atkinson has been pretty decent this season. Vyner was Vyner again yesterday but has improved over the course of this season. We had no Naismith or Kalas yesterday….and maybe Naismith has been more key to Vyner than we think. We are stuck with what we have, some might argue Nige has improved Vyner. We have imbalance in the squad, we have no money to really sort it out. When the defence is questioned in threads like this, nobody ever balances it with “but he really improved our attack”. If that is nothing to do with him, and just that we have good players…then maybe the same logic can be applied when analysing our defence? Welcome back btw.

I see the second goal as being one he couldn’t do anything about. The first and third he is as culpable as one or two other players. First one, he back-pedals and stops. If he continues and tries to punch, there’s a good chance he puts Trusty off as a minimum. Third one, great delivery, but what is he doing, that’s his all-day long. There is no doubt in my mind: he is better than O’Leary he is capable of making fantastic saves, and does so regularly he is a totally capable Championship keeper for where we are currently but, he doesn’t command his area, and I think that creates a lack of confidence in those in-front of him. As for the OP, Frank Fielding suffered from exactly the same problems too, as does Max. For me the best keeper we’ve had since we’ve been back in the Champ was Maenpaa. For me he had the perfect all-round “game”. Was big too. He didn’t really need to make big saves, just calm and composed. It’s a shame Lucic didn’t put the effort in, because he was a great build too, good with both feet and had that bit of confidence too. If so the OP is insinuating Bents is my favourite player, I’m not sure what they’ve been drinking / smoking. I agree with @LondonBristolianthat there is a gap for a better keeper. I hope Bajic can fill that gap. Its a shame the best two keepers in Lg1 (Cooper and Walton) will be out of our budget range.

What does that mean? I just merely pointed out our keeper’s name.

Daniel Bentley

Flat as we were 1st half, I thought Brum were pretty poor too. Second half they played better and created more in open play.

I don’t think Harry has done any FFP calculations. I suspect that by the summer our playing wage bill will be inside 90%!

It is only this season we are in any danger of busting FFP…and that seems unlikely bearing in mind there’s been no news so far. The cycle to end of 23/24 still includes the £38.4m loss from 20/21, but remember it’s coupled with 19/20 and halved. We’d have to be miles over the £39m in the cycle ending 22/23 to be in danger of busting 23/24, so I can’t see that happening. If we are projecting that bad a position, we’d know about it…surely. Results out soon anyway, so we ought to be able to adjust our projections. As you say, there are amortisation costs saved to the tune of £5m+ as it stands next season too, so coupled with wages saved, we can be shrewd with recruitment…whether we execute shrewd recruitment is another matter. Of course FFP goes away if Antoine or Alex move on anyway!

Think we are in a difficult position with having players on wages too high for the current climate, and no player is realistically gonna take a pay cut until they really have to…which in some cases will be next summer. And they’ll take their chances on which club will be the best fit for them - which £££s being a big factor. So, we are left in an uncertain position re squad, and can’t really plan. It’s a ball ache. If we just assume for the mo’, Scott and Semenyo stay for another season, we are in for another summer of scrimping in the market, maybe some low value fees for lower-waged players…but it doesn’t get you very excited does it? I think you are right, there are several players where you really think they are much of a muchness with potential players we could bring in. Nor is it greatly balanced, even ages are young and old, little in between. I wonder if that is why Nige is talking about how important recruitment is. Its just one big compromise at the mo….not sure I see that changing either!

What you point out there is that in our good run, we were gradually improving availability, so that we had a collective competitiveness. Semenyo was back, James returned, and we then had options, players fighting for keeping their place, others trying to get in. But in the back of our minds we knew that if we lose a couple of key players then we look frail / frailer again. Despite defeats at Norwich (where we could’ve won w/o Pukki’s lethal finishing) and Burnley (more defensive), with our “best” (ish) 18 keeping each other on their toes we looked good value for where we were. But it was always gonna be tough to maintain, almost flukey to avoid injuries and suspensions for long enough. We lost James, then Naismith. Suspensions too. It highlights the lack of depth of true quality. Up top is the only positions two players missing wouldn’t leave us looking frail. Thats why I don’t take any win for granted and probably the same with a draw too. In terms of “Pearson Out” it’s a pretty easy shout if you look totally at results. There will also be a reason to frame sacking the manager, a few winless games, conceding crap goals, etc…if you’ve gone all-in on that viewpoint. But there is a much bigger picture at play here, and that directly influences the strength and depth of squad we’ve got at Nige’s disposal…and that’s the finances. Ill happily bet that if we can get James, Naismith and Kalas back, possibly Klose too for the vast majority of games, we will play more like we did in our 8 game unbeaten run than we have in the latest 5 game winless run. Not all of the 8 during the unbeaten run were great, just like not all of the winless 5 were shit too. A change of manager doesn’t change the resources available. And it will cost us to get rid and replace. I’m not saying that is a reason not to, but I’m pointing at patience…because there are no guarantees the replacement is better and can get more out of the group. Plus how attractive are we. To see a thread with Chris Wilder’s name is fantasy land. If we are shopping for free transfers for players, where do people think we are shopping for managers?

Han was awful today. Agree re statement to Han. No doubt he won’t be keeping Joe Williams out on Wednesday! Re Vyner, he tries his hardest, but you can’t change the player or character he is. He has done okay this season, bar the odd mistake. And in many respects it’s just as well he’s stayed fit.

Think he might’ve been referring to those who stayed on at h-t, not necessarily all 90. FWIW I though Dasilva was crap, I thought Massengo was and Sykes too…and I mean in terms of putting in the required effort today. Conway and Wells were tactical….they were neither good nor bad, they had no service to prove that one way or the other. I thought a couple of others were poor, but not from lack of effort though.

Worth a read…

Just saw this too.

Someone said in the u21 games he comes for a lot. I did some video of him when he signed….and he did come for everything, albeit is rash. Having said that, I’ve akways said I’d rather have a keeper who comes for everything, because as defender, you know and can react accordingly. It’s the ones that are indecisive that are the issue. I haven’t really watched today’s goals back, but the third was too close to Bents for him not to claim it???

He got conned all afternoon didn’t he? I find those refs so frustrating, they spoil football matches.

Some might look at what Matty James brings when fit.

Brilliant post. Many of us have said similar…when everyone (almost everyone) is fit and available we good enough to play a competitive and evolving style of football. I had a spat on twitter the other week when Nige made that depth comment…today was proof that Nige was right. It’s a squad game over the course of a season, and ours isn’t strong enough overall. Yep, Nige to take some blame too today, but as you say he wasn’t going overboard the other week either. A time for calm heads….luckily our manager has one.

Sykes and Dasilva have both been v.poor today. Someone else said earlier Sykes has pulled out of 2 50:50s today....I agree. The first one he might've been clean through.

Nige said "10 days" I think.

Why? Is the whole poor team performance (and several individuals too) down to Nige picking King at CB? We've just been inept all over the pitch, that's not down to one selection is it? Who is warming up?

Its on hesgoal (I'm on RTV but had two crashes already, normally faultless). So got that in background, just in case.

Brom certainly haven't set-up to play direct...but I do expect the game to have a high tempo. I hope we can control that, and get our passing going.