Alessandro

I’m not into writing players on or off ever - thought Bakinson was decent first half, but as I said on match day thread, he was wasteful at times and loose with possession early on IMO before he found his range a bit. What I’m increasingly thinking is that the fans, have got Bakinson wrong, as a player. Perhaps it was the comparisons to Viera when he first came or perhaps it’s his stature. But I just don’t think he is the defensive Viera/Fernandinho player some think he is. The defensive side of his game isn’t great, but it also shows a lack of experience. By comparison, I don’t think James (don’t hear many complaints about him defensively) is necessarily miles better physically than Bakinson but just has the streetwise experience to place himself better positional/read the game etc. I think recently we the squad we have, whilst also missing James and Williams, the likes of Bakinson and HNM are sometimes having to play a role in the team that just doesn’t suit their natural game, as I write that, I remember NP saying something similar about Bakinson. If we’re on the front foot, he can look very good, if he’s forced to defend when we don’t have one of our holding midfielders alongside him, he will be exposed despite his best efforts. So for me, it’s as much about how we use him or how he fits into a NP style team rather than simply is he good enough at this level.

3 points is 3 points. It was good at times today, poor at others. Just tired in the second half and lost discipline at times, but we had the goal and defended it. Home form slowly turning around, another step to getting through this season and we're moving, slowly, in the right direction, now closer to the top 6 than the bottom 3 in terms of points, with only 3 points separating 8 teams between 10th and us in 17th.

We’re set up well today, pressing high and pressing well. Semenyo spearheading that is having a good game. Nice finish from Scott on his left peg, confidently taken first time from the age of the box. We’re good value for the lead but it should have been more - again, guilty of a lack of quality in the 3rd. Martin, Weimann and Semenyo should have done better when well placed but we’re creating chances at least. They may have had more possession (?) but 90% of their possession has been in areas where they’ve not threatened us. Not sure Bentley has had to make a save. But the old classic cliche, will we regret those missed chances in the second half? Early on Bakinson and Vyner most guilty of being wasteful - Vyner seemed nervous perhaps and Bakinson’s technical quality doesn’t match his speed of thought consistently enough. Improved as half went on though to be fair. Massengo better today, a bit tighter. COD has made some excellent runs in between the lines. I think we look a better team with Atkinson, who has their most tricky player to deal with and has done well so far.

A sobering analysis there Dave. I'd add, that purely from a non-statistical, fans emotional view point, every transfer window I also think about the players i'd be worried about losing - I genuinely wouldn't be concerned about losing any player this Jan from the first team squad, bar perhaps Kalas. You might have said Williams but now he's out till Jan I can't see him going. (I'd be sad to see Scott or Benerous go but I don't think we'd be pushed into selling them anytime soon)

For me, the top level structure of the club absolutely needs looking at. Under MA he was seemingly board member, chief exec, head of operations, DOF, head of recruitment etc etc all rolled into one. Little seems to have changed, we have a small board of directors (5?) and two of them JL and SL do so remotely and in JL's case, what does he do? Every other comparable club to us, Brentford, Brighton, Burnley, Norwich etc, that we aspire to be like, have larger boards with a broader ranges of commercial skills in addition to people in important day to day positions such as head of operations, DOF's and head of recruitment etc. I feel we are at least 3 appointments light in senior managerial positions at the club and it only adds fuel to the fire that SL likes to run a 'dictatorship' and with MA, he very much got hoodwinked, before he took advantage to his own "personal gain" before jumping ship before the realities of his performance set in.

Think it’s pretty harsh, and lazy to be honest, to use the poor standard of the Latvian goalkeeper to have a dig at the woman’s game as a whole, without acknowledging in this game in particular that quite a few of those England goals were well taken - certainly finishes you’d be impressed with at Sunday league level, given that was mentioned earlier.

I admire your ongoing passion on this subject @Harry - feels like you’ve been saying this same thing repeatedly for many many years, as long as I can remember in fact!

Who fits in that category? Preston City Millwall Blackpool or Luton? Middlesborough? Of that list i’d think Preston as £100m I would imagine is a little low for us. But it could well be.

Tough half. Very much second best. Conceded way too many chances that half and not surprising with our midfield today being sliced through or bypassed at will. Think the defence did well generally to keep the ball out the net but the marking went missing for their goal and Brewster didn’t waste the extra space. We just can’t keep the ball and when we do have it we’ve been very sloppy. We had a short 5/10 min spell of territory, with a couple of corners, one which give Martin our best/only chance of the half which was well saved. Too many players off their game today, Massengo, Bakinson and Martin wasteful, Benerous, Scott and Weimann very quiet. Subs/tweeks needed for me - Semenyo and Wells running would give them something to think about.

When foreign ownership goes wrong...

Williams unavailable for Sunday according to NP.

No doubting Dasilva is superb on the ball, probably one of our most skilful players in that respect. The problem with Jay is he seems to have been 'found out' - perhaps the writing was on the wall when in those games earlier in the season teams just targeted the back post on the left and IIRC outmuscled him on several occasions for goals. It was almost too easy. It doesn't matter how hard you train, that will always be the weakness for him.

Sorry you're right, Wells 11 in all comps and Fam 10 in all comps.

R.E Goals scored - worth adding also that we've lost and not really replaced our top goal scorer for the last 3 seasons in Famara.

If you employ a builder to repair a fire damaged house, and all he has to work with is recycling and renovating undamaged or slightly damaged structure without the budget to buy the new materials, you don't blame him when progress is slow or hits a few snags....

I’ve never thought we’d go down and accept this as a transitional season - play like today in the majority of the rest of our games and we’ll be absolutely fine IMO.

Well that’s a pretty good first half there. Much improved all round. A committed team performance, pressing and tracking well, defending solidly in numbers and creating chances which is good too see finally. Some excellent deliveries from Scott. Vyner solid. Williams superb. Benarous growing into the game nicely. COD I felt showing how too often he’s reactive rather than proactive, making a few poor decisions, but is looking dangerous and drifted into space to create the chance for the goal in which he showed good footwork to get the ball under control and a slice of luck as his low shot deflected over the keeper. Blackburn like working the channels and look dangerous on the break, especially Diaz off the shoulder needs to be watched. Let’s hope we keep pushing on for the 2nd and don’t sit back too early.

Great to see him back and on his feet. Doesn’t look like any resignation or shuffling out is imminent…..

I’m not calling you a liar - but I find it astonishing that a club employee would be so loose lipped in such a short conversation with a stranger. If that is the case, I’d say the problem is with that guy.

That's fair enough, I wouldn't say I was impressed. But i'm just realistic about what he can say at the moment. It's not going well on the pitch, you can't sugar coat that and he didn't, he was honest and generally fair in his assessment IMO - he suggested Jan may see some investment = good. It's a complex situation off the pitch with NP - he didn't make any promises, which is absolutely fair enough as the club need to give him some time. There was no speculation and he doesn't IMO need to discuss plan a or plan b or even plan c for the fan's sake. They will rightly and respectfully be doing it in house.

Quite surprised to the reaction of these interviews. Yes he's not the best orator, but actually for once, that for me is the interview of someone not lying to me. It's the same in politics, so many people are desperate for definitive answers and solutions for everything, soundbites, they'll listen and suck up a complete lie if it's packaged right. I'd much rather that Gould interview than some Mark Ashton style media packaged nonsense statement or something that will later on down the line be used against him if ends up wrong. In this case, Gould can't give a definitive answer because he doesn't have one yet and as Peircy writes in his article, that is probably fair enough, in a very unique situation.

This thread could age well…. Get better soon Nige!

I can see what you're saying - but to be honest in my opinion it's kind of a pointless debate, because it's all hypothetical. What if this, what if that. Positives and negatives. Whose to say "going for it" would have worked, even for a season? I think my over-arching feeling r.e SL is - despite the many mistakes made and all the money wasted, there are 2 main thoughts I have, which aren't hypothetial 'what if's: 1) The club is in a better position than when he arrived. Certainly off the pitch and generally in terms of average league position on the pitch. 2) SL has never IMO, unlike Allam at Hull, Morris at Derby, Tam at Cardiff, Venky's Blackburn, Dr Xia at Villa etc etc etc list goes on - gambled with the long term future of the club or been reckless financially. For that I applaud him. Even for one season in the big boys league. That's just my opinion. Everything in between i'm happy to debate till the cows come home, and there's plenty to debate!

I didn't say any Cardiff fan would swap with us, of course not! I just mean't, in our position, at what cost would you have a few seasons of success? In reference to Hull's ongoing struggles and seemingly Cardiff's increasing issues on and off the pitch.

According to transfermarket, we have the 10th oldest squad at average age of 26.1 and the 8th oldest starting 11 at 26.7. The spread of age is, as you've shown, a point of discussion. 7 over 30 but 13 under 24 and how many of those are under 20/21?