LondonBristolian

You've gone and done it now. This is going to be in my head all afternoon...

I find it interesting that Pearson said to Radio Bristol that all three goalkeepers are in serious contention for a starting spot. I wouldn't be that shocked if, by the spring, Bajic was the man between the sticks.

I'd have thought it's because nobody wants people to have more treatment/injections than necessary. There's plenty of evidence that being jabbed reduces the risk of hospitalisation and severe side effects but there's a lot less evidence that people who are not in a clinically at risk group benefit from having the additional boosters - especially if they've had two jabs and a booster already. It's a bit of a misnomer that it is some sort of change of policy or that it is in any way surprising that the BBC aren't reporting on the vaccine policy in other countries. In the UK, it is only people over 50 and with additional risk levels that have been advised to take a booster this Autumn and both the BBC and the NHS have publicised that so any attempts to see a conspiracy are looking for shapes in the clouds. I have an underlying condition and had my Autumn booster a few weeks back and a flu jab last week. But that doesn't mean everyone necessarily needs it.

Forest sack their recruitment team. Looks like the board have decided the buck stops with them rather than the manager... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63225938

Given they have months to plan the date, it does seem a little bit disappointing that they have chosen a key date in the calendar of one of the country’s most popular sport. It doesn’t seem like the most obvious way to win over hearts and minds.

Given the unions cancelled the strikes around the Queen’s funeral, this is just a really, really odd comment. And nothing at all to do with the thread. Maybe take your political gripes to the politics forum?

Poor guy. Hope he manages to find a life doing something he enjoys outside of playing football.

Not going to disagree but the problem we have is that same weakness is one O'Leary had when he played last season too. Unless Bajic is able to get to speed very quickly, we don't have an obvious solution.

My view on a lot of these players is fluctuating and I think it's hard to decide who you'd keep when the club is in a spell of poor form. As it stands I'd obviously want to extend Semenyo whilst Massengo is a moot discussion unless he suddenly wants to sign. Bentley, Kalas, Dasilva and Wells would all be losses, to one extent or other, but all are likely on pay that isn't what we'd offer now and we may have to release all four and find better value for money whilst Martin and Klose are neither starting not getting younger so I imagine they may get released. O'Leary's chance has probably come and gone and I think the fairest thing for him - as well as us - is to let him go and find first team football in League One or Two. I can't honesty judge Wiles-Richards but he's young and has time to develop, if the club think he can do that. The one where I might disagree with other people is Zak Vyner. We're short on centre-backs and might release Kalas and Klose, and I think - in a summer where we are rebuilding elsewhere - there is a pragmatic decision to be made on whether we'd find a back-up right sided centre back who was better without spending budget we'd need to spend replacing other players who've left. I don't see him as a first team starter with everyone fit but I do feel he could be playing his way towards either his option being taken up or another year negotiated on a little less money, but still potentially more than he might get elsewhere.

Pretty impressive but I reckon kicking a skip from a really high building and getting it to land on a football would be even more so.

Whilst your mistake is an easy one to make, I’d say it is your failure to proofread and check the name of a player in his fourth season with the club that has undermined your own point, rather than anything any other poster has done. Going back to your point, Fielding was a very underrated goalkeeper. However he has not had much game time in over three seasons since leaving and struggled for fitness towards the end of his time with us. Bentley has done well with us but there are reasons why the often-rumoured Premier League interest has not materialised and I don’t think he would be first choice at many clubs that are better-resourced or more successful than us. I cannot agree that goalkeeper is the priority area for improvement - not least because we are so light on centre backs and need a defensive midfielder - but I suspect Bajic was bought for a reason and I would not be massively shocked if both O’Leary and Bentley left on free transfers in the summer and a new keeper was brought in.

What I find a bit ridiculous in all this is, if you rewind a few weeks to when we kept winning and everyone was convinced we were overnight promotion candidates, Pearson was the one saying “hang on, don’t carried away, we’ve got a lack of squad depth” yet three or four weeks later, everyone is suddenly shocked to discover we don’t have squad depth. And that is the reality. We cannot afford all the players we need and, in the absence of Naismith and James, we just don’t have cover who can do the same role. And so it is no surprise that we struggle without them. That is not to absolve Pearson of blame completely. Ultimately he has a very effective system when everyone is fit but it is his job to adapt when they are not. Today we did not make the changes to compensate for the missing players and tried to muddle through without them rather than get the best out the players we have. Without three natural central defenders, you can’t easily get away with a midfielder at full back, for example. But, with the budget we have, the only way for a team to succeed is to build for the long term. We cannot chuck out the manager and build from scratch every time we get a few defeats. That is something we - both literally and figuratively - simply cannot afford to do.

We've a squad lacking depth and are unsurprisingly struggling once the injuries kick in. It doesn't mean we are going to be in a relegation scrap any more than the win over Blackburn suddenly made us promotion favourites. If nothing else, the last few games have been a REALLY good advert for Matty James...

I went to watch Bilbao v Alaves in 2019 when I was on a work trip. It's an utterly amazing stadium and a fantastic atmosphere. What struck me as well was the mingling between fans. It might have been because Alaves are Basque but not major rivals but the fans mixed with each other before the game and there were a few Alaves shirts in the home end, with absolutely no issues from that whatsoever. Yet there was still an incredible intensity in the atmosphere - but without that edge of violence you can get in the UK and elsewhere.

I think the encouraging thing with Brighton is they've got better and better as players adapt to the system and they sign players that fit how they want to play. I'd really like the lesson we take to be to persist with and tweak a style of play - even as players leave and even in the event of managerial changes - and trust in improvement over the time rather than reinventing the wheel.

Whenever we lose we seem to get a string of random threads pinning the blame on entirely unconnected things that have no bearing at all on the reason why we lost. I'm looking forward to the thread blaming the defeat on Pearson wearing the wrong underpants.

I don't think it is necessarily about where the three line up. I suspect Naismith will stay in the middle - especially as Atkinson has done well this season (if not yesterday) - but another defender acting as cover can get from RCB to the centre as needed easily enough with a bit of positional discipline and awareness. The issue for me is that none of our three central defenders are natural "cover" players and all arguably play better when someone else is available to cover for them and we either need one of the three to learn that role or switch things a little, but that depends on Kalas being fit - which he obviously isn't.

I think the bottom line is that it is a brilliant idea to pick Naismith in games we've just won and a terrible idea to pick him in games we've just lost. All we need to do is know the result in advance and we're sorted!

I've got Haaland as captain and brought Foden in due to a potential injury to Kulusevski. Been a good weekend for my team!

RIP. Thoughts with his family, friends and all who knew him.

Did Conway go off 'cos of injury or was it purely tactical? If the former then I imagine Semenyo will start on Tuesday for sure...

Pearson is getting a fair bit more right than wrong but the four striker thing really bugs me. Even in the last ten minutes when you are desperately chasing a goal, it rarely succeeds, and certainly not when you do it as early as we do. I honestly think that, at any point of the game, a clear organised structure where you have players in positions to move the ball forward is a much better tactic than piling on every available centre forward.

Starting to see why it is not your favourite chant.

Not sure that would fit the tune...

At least we know who to blame if we suddenly start firing a load of shots over the crossbar…