Davefevs

I’d rather he started…and for those games I’d pair him with Semenyo.

We weren’t. The sting had gone out of our attack before Martin came on.

My mate text me that night “getting that effing wheelchair off the pitch”!!! ???

It is possible retrospective action could be taken…but I wouldn’t hold your breath!

I hope we get to see it…and at least observe whether it makes a difference. We saw pre-season v Cheltenham (yeah, yeah, only Lg1) how his bustling wing-back play can really work for us against deep-lying teams.

No, I know you’re not….it’s the others in here that do.

Ref made Alex Scott come to him, after Scott ignored him a few times. Egan ignores him several times, he runs towards him. PL v EFL recent history in a nutshell.

I think that is the nature of the squad we have. We need to have a good number playing well / near the top of their game to really compete. When they do we can beat anyone. We actually made 3rd place SU look poor last night. We normally play well against the better side, but they still normally carve out chances, and it’s a bit more helter-skelter, but last night we dominated, which is quite rare for us. Most players, played above their average. On the flipside, when we don’t have enough players playing well, we get Reading (a). When we have a couple of players not really putting it in we get Birmingham (a). Those are the games we are trying to cut out. We aren’t a million miles away, but we really need quality from better players, rather than expecting players to have their A-game most weeks. Thats where the squad quality is lacking. All players are good on their day, but our squad’s “average” day is mid to lower half. As you know, I’m quite into “big chances”, xG > 0.3…and those have dropped off in recent weeks. Why? Not just Naismith injury, but we aren’t playing through the lines quickly enough, not penetrating enough through the centre of the pitch…which is where you get Andy / Antoine running at back-pedalling defenders, Alex able to link, etc.. what we are doing at the mo’, is playing more pretty, patient stuff, going from Centre-back to outside centre-back, to wing-back, but without penetrating. Semenyo had a good chance, dragged wide, a combo of Wells not getting enough contact on a cross and Dasilva not able to force it in at the back post after his glanced shot. Weimsnn’s volley. We did look like scoring imho…without Weimann and Tanner’s woodwork efforts. This is where we need to be careful. We have wiped out cost…not wages, although that has been cut too. Amortisation was a huge annual millstone, down from £14m peak to £6/7m last year and this, to £1m next year. £13m off our cost base in amortisation, plus wages next season will make investment in players easier in the summer. But, yeah, it’s not £13, off the wage bill, not on the football side anyway.

I guess my biggest issue is when we lose / fail to win….is it always Nige’s fault for some posters. Why is the first point of blame to the manager? What did Nige himself actually get wrong last night with what he had available? We played well, we just didn’t bloody score. If you go beneath the manager, then it’s “who is the scapegoat”? Seems Chris Martin is last night’s fall guy. I’ve just sat back and watched the last 32 minutes of the game from the point Tanner hits the post. It isn’t Martin’s fault, but the “we need a plan b” brigade moan they don’t like this particular plan b, so their lazy rhetoric is to point the blame at him. There are good posters on here who will at least explain the rationale behind why they form their opinion, but too often it’s “throw away” comments with no basis. Context, they scored an offside goal. Context, they should’ve been down to 10 men It’s bloody frustrating, but finding individuals to blame is effing tedious. And the flip side, for us so-called “Nige lovers”, I didn’t see any of going OTT on our decent run, we were all pretty calm, realistic of a thin squad, tough league, form, injuries etc. Basically, there are a number on here who love a good whinge.

There are a number of leagues that run a summer calendar, e.g. Norway and Sweden, so that could be an option to explore, if players are OOC?

No, the offside comes first.

I watched back the 19:55 post-Martin sub earlier, of which only 8:11 was ball in play! I’m not saying he played well, but I don’t think it changed any momentum. Just watched the preceding 12 mins for comparison. Momentum had already been sucked out of the game. Heres what happened from the point Tanner hit the post 67:50. 70:45 Foderingham down injured, trainer on, play resumed 72:15 (1:30 lost) 73:35 City passing move from the back. Ball into Wells coming short, mis-controls, but ball ricochets to a Semenyo in space right hand corner of box, chips to Conway, but it’s too far ahead of him, keeper claims. 75:10 Wells hopeful 25 yarder from right side, straight at defender who heads away. This was on the counter after N’Diaye had broken through the middle but Pring got back, and N’Diaye left the ball behind him. 76:10 Long kick from O’Leary into Dolman touch. 76:15 Basham goes down, trainer on, subbed for Clark. Walks off wrong side of pitch! Ball back in play 77:50 (1:35 lost) 79:15 Williams on 79:41 Martins on We had one decent(ish) passing move in that period. The Tanner shot was the last bit of real pressure after a good move. Post the sub, we probably did a tad better, Weimann shot, Martin shot, a couple of half-decent crosses, a couple of crap ones too. FWIW I would’ve probably kept Wells on (thought he had a decent game), but I see why chasing a game we thought mixing it up a bit was a reasonable option. The delivery from deep, O’Leary and Vyner in particular was too short, meaning whoever it was aimed at, not, just Martin, was trying to flick on whilst moving towards the ball.

and as you say the little nudge too. Re the nudge, I think you get away with it, but VAR rules out for offside. It makes no odds what Vyner does afterwards, the offside is first.

You can see my Joe leading the teams out with Alby.

That wasn’t his role on Saturday….he was the lane blocker, not the presser, playing behind Conway / Wells.

But it wasn’t a scissor tackle, that’s a very different thing. That was a mistimed block tackle. It was reckless because he was susceptible to getting it wrong and his body would follow through. Which was the outcome.

I don’t think there was any intent in Tanner’s other than to make a full-blooded tackle. Yep, more mistimed because McAtee just nips it away from him. I still think it’s a red though. Nah, even in your picture below, you’re showing the point of impact, not the point where he tried to win the ball. That’s a subtle different. He wasn’t trying to scissors him, that’s just the way his body ended up. It’s mistimed, yeah, you can describe that as reckless, but in o way was the intention to scissor him. That’s the speed of two players moving towards each other making it look worse. Two cars hitting each other at 30 mph each is 60mph impact and will look worse (and is worse) than if one car is stationary. Im not disputing it’s a red, because the red is for what actually happened.

….or PL interest is quelled by his recent form, and he signs a new extended contract here instead???

Just for clarification, pre-contract in January is only allowed if it’s for a non-English FA club. In HNM’s case that of course could be very likely.

I bought it, waiting for delivery.

Chris Martin comes on, we lose our momentum, or… ….The momentum had already been lost 10-15 minutes earlier, because of Sheffield United’s play acting, time wasting, aided by a referee…as they hung into their 1-0 lead. Stop trying to find a scapegoat in a red shirt every week, least of all a bloke who only came on in the 80th minute of which there was only about 2 mins of ball in play in the 19.35 mins that followed. Some may have missed that he did win a couple of headers, got in at the back post and had a shot in that period.

Enjoyed that. Reckon it must be windy pitchside, ball looks to swirling, yet can’t feel it in the stands.

He might be back tomorrow, unfortunately with me ???