GrahamC

Pre season Wade Elliott said they had a bottom 3 budget last season, far smaller than Forest Green (!) & the two other sides with similar ones (Accrington & Morecambe) both got relegated, this season they have the smallest one. As @petehinton said they lost almost all their backroom staff pre season, I’m constantly surprised by posters having absolutely no concept of the circumstances other clubs are operating under, before saying stuff like “their results are shit”. Clueless.

Was talking a few Argyle fans walking out in midweek, they were saying they had realised already that the step up is huge. Both agreed if you haven’t played at this level for 30 years now you simply don’t have a clue as to the brutal, relentless nature of it. If they want to get excited about their occasional League One wins that just sums them up.

Pretty sure recently we have played at least one 15 year old in the 21s, those who watch those games or are “in the know” can supply more details. Elijah Morrison might possibly be the kiddie? Obvious thing to say but this lad has a lot of his life ahead yet, could pick up an injury or have other issues to deal with, but obvious that he’s incredibly highly rated to be playing for a club like this at such a very young age.

Sam Leitch was immense, Bob Wilson, etc too. Haven’t watched it in years, mind you the same applies to Match of the Day & 99% of Premiership football. Since we moved into a world of satellite television I struggle to see the point of it, you can see the goals & interviews with all these people elsewhere.

I wasn’t there (spent the day moving my daughter into Uni so couldn’t even follow it) so thanks for the thoughts of a few posters whose views I respect. I must admit I thought we had about a 10% chance of getting something today (Hull appear to have got the flukey win someone already does against the best side) so a 1-0 defeat to a penalty is about as good as I expected. It is clearly a blow to lose Vyner but we didn’t sign Dickie to have him on the bench, Weimann’s return is a plus & we also have a free week coming up. Interesting that TGH was picked out because as well as our midfield has played I’m still not sure the balance is quite right, especially in terms of scoring goals (doubt anyone expected Matty James to have scored them all so far in the league). Not sure of the timeframe for TC to return but getting him back is important, block of 3 games coming up includes another real tough one in Leeds who seem to have recovered from a ropey start, we should go into the other two with every confidence of a win, though.

There needs to be interest from someone first & the player also has to be willing to leave. This is Football Manager fantasy nonsense. Pretty sure we had the same thing from this poster about Weimann after his 22 goal season, just completely ridiculous.

His league record for us is 30 goals in 94 starts & 54 sub appearances. So even if you’re seriously suggesting he should have scored in every single City game he’s played in (& I remember Holden memorably bringing him with 4 minutes left in the 6-0 defeat at Watford, so good luck with that one, Nakhi) that is still a ratio better than a goal in 5. A reasonable person though would assume that his many sub appearances average out at playing half a game at the very most, so that’s around 1 in 4.

Not always about your ego, you have to be truthful as well. Injured anyway at present (hamstring) but he’s got a lot of ground to make up now.

First game of the season I guess NP must have thought he deserved the start more than Sykes. Who knows? Sykes might not have been 100% fit. Against Birmingham maybe NP wanted a more quicker option than Wells in Bell & also tried Mehmeti & Cornick out wide, the way we played that day I don’t think who would have mattered that much who started, we were really poor all over. I’m struggling to see the issue to be honest, if anything (like today) I think he’s deserved to start more games.

Comes across as a lovely bloke & I’m so pleased for him that he turned his career around. Assume that certain questions were “off limits” but would have liked him to be asked how he dealt with effectively being told that he could leave by Nige a year or so ago. The contrast with Taylor Moore is always the one I come back to, they were in very similar circumstances but the outcome was totally different.

QPR started the season as amongst the favourites to go down & are struggling financially. I didn’t watch last night’s game but they will be pretty happy with an away point & have managed a few decent results already. Put it this way I’d take a 0-0 when we go to Brum, our overall record against them is awful.

Plus anyone using the Norwich cup game as part of their argument isn’t understanding how we used that game, Sykes actually started the game as well. Andy King played the full 90 then & he’s very rarely even got on in the league. It was done to manage pitch time of the squad & as we won at Swansea clearly worked. FWIW I’d start Cornick over Wells today as the only change but won’t be surprised at all if we go unchanged again.

Yep- Brighton fan I know said he’s struggled a fair bit this season.

Interesting that even though Lewis Dunk missed out through injury that Adam Webster was still only named as a sub & didn’t get on. Think the likelihood of him moving on & us getting anything further for him is long past now.

I find him a pain in the arse most of the time but he’s consistently spot on there. Amateur hour.

Exactly the same thing in the Dolman. At first I wondered if the goal was being disallowed or something had been thrown at a player or there was some medical emergency. It is absolutely shambolic & cannot be safe should we actually ever need to know something vital. Total embarrassment that it has been allowed to go on this long, clearly of no importance to those that run the club.

Exactly what I see. Bolasie never really worked out with us (anyone who claims they thought he was half as good as Albert at the time is definitely lying), but this lad reminds me of the early Palace Yannick. Lightening quick, physically strong, unpredictable & sometimes a bit unfocused. His determination & work rate are something else though, gets back to support his full back & seemingly plays without fear. You’re right for a kid he’s completely unfazed by the physical stuff & puts in some reckless challenges at times. Has real potential though, fair play to the lad.

Scarr was truly abysmal, mind you the 29 (Hayden) looked to me like he’d won a competition to play, started at RB & Bell absolutely murdered him, then got switched to LB & Sykes did exactly the same thing. Wasn’t even in the same post code when he scored our third, terrible.

So true. I remember a certain podcast claim our midfield was (Scott aside) a “collection of mediocrity”. Truly clueless. Matty James is right up there with any midfielders we have had who play his role, his awareness, touch, pass completion rate of about 99% & the way he nearly always gives a team mate the ball exactly where they’d want it, just so good. Imagine being that good at playing the game, he’s a gem.

Strong case that he starts at Leicester in his place. Nakhi is on a serious goal drought & at 33 three starts within a week is a big ask. Back to Cornick, fair play to him, still think he can look scruffy at times but he never shortchanges anyone for effort & in recent away games has had a real impact as a sub.

Frankly bizarre that an organisation of this size is apparently now being run in this way. This appears to suggest that all commercial decisions are in the hands of Richard Cromwell, I mean Jon Lansdown, blimey, that’s really great, isn’t it?

Big surprise. My guess was the same as yours, Cornick & TGH both starting but nope. Shame Weimann isn’t back but better to be completely sure when he does return.

Smart tactic- get the players to think we’re the away side..

You’ll know from my posts I’m a big Nige fan, but I look at our side (until injuries to Atkinson, Conway & Weimann abate, the best 11 we have) & just cannot see where the goals will come from. Back four doesn’t have a likely scorer, don’t see any of the 3 in midfield getting more than a couple this season & up top Wells is in a bit of a drought, Sykes is probably good for 6 or 7, Bell maybe a few more than that. That’s why we need to keep games tight, look to edge it on small margins. I realise Weimann might well be back tonight & although he’s never scoring 22 in a season again that will help, but we’ll need to be cautious with him after his start to the season in terms of injury.

We’ve scored 5 & conceded 5 in 6 games, only 4 when we’ve had 11 men on the pitch. Absolutely nothing to indicate this will be other than tight.