Harry

I don’t think there is anything surprising in those stats. It’s the game I saw. People need to realise that we are simply not a possession based team. We don’t have talented enough players to play possession dominant football, so we instead set up to allow the opposition the ball and try to make the most of counter attacks and set pieces.

I’d heard some decent things about Aaron Morley, so I took a keen interest in watching him during this match. I thought he was very good. 21 year old centre mid with over 100 first team appearances already. I believe Cotterill wanted him last summer too. I didn’t realise he had that sort of goal in him though. Excellent strike. I understand he’s out of contract this summer. I’m gonna watch a few more Rochdale games and get a good perspective of him.

Amazing isn’t it. Yet, when there is a goal, the stewards move at the speed of light to line the perimeter to prevent people having a moment of joy

Yeah, I don’t wanna give the identity of the individual to be honest, probably not right and fair to that person who, as far as I know, isn’t in the public eye, and likely isn’t actually to blame!

That’s a normal game for Weimann!

I’d be happy if there was a rule whereby players had something similar to diplomatic immunity. If a pitch invader is heading their way, they are fully licenced to give them a 2 footed tackle around the knees and not be penalised.

Fair play to Brum - Millwall. They actually stopped the game. ?

Nope. Even less of a ‘football’ person than O’Leary!

He did ok today. He certainly wins a lot of aerial duels, and I’m sure DaveFevs will have the stats to back that up. I was thinking the other day about his inclusion this season. I’m really rather surprised that he has started EVERY game (and I think only be subbed of 2 or 3 times). That’s more minutes than I thought he’d be getting. But - I think I know why. Our main attacking tactic is to get throw ins and launch them in. It’s generally Martin who is the target of that throw (as we’ve established, he wins his fair share aerially). I think that without him, we lose any ability to win these aerial throws. Also, I note that our set up at defensive corners has him as one of the 3 ‘key’ men. We line up with Martin, Kalas & Atkinson (or Baker if he’s in) along the 6 yard line. We then have 4 ‘blockers’ attempting to prevent the attacking runs. The 3 on the 6 yard line are essentially the main ball-winners and those expected to defend the corner and get their head on it if it’s in their area. I can see why Pearson is so keen, as he’s pretty much key in both those areas. And whilst I don’t actually like our defensive corner set up, I think I’m right in saying we haven’t conceded from a corner this season? Fevs?

? indeed. I can fill you in a little. Nors used to play at Forest Green a few years back (I’d actually done a number of scout reports on him back then, 2012-14). I’ve got a few contacts from those days who are still in touch with Nors, as well a couple of folks in the industry who are very close to Paul Cook. I’m reliably informed this evening that there was a fair bit of interference in the dressing room - not just from Ashton, but another person who is close to Ashton (not Werhun, someone else). Not a ‘football’ person either. Oh, and Andy Rolls is SERIOUSLY not liked!!! Can’t wait to hear some more ?

Might be a different incident then. I was going in at about 2:45-50 ish. And there was only 2 stewards when I got through - don’t know where the 2 lackeys had gone! Whole thing is a joke. As I said on the other thread last week, why don’t they target individuals. All the old folk queuing near me were clearly not a terrorist threat! Not we’re all the mums and dads with kids.

Yes. I was in this queue. Took about 10-12 minutes. When that group of lads casually walked to the front, I was about 25 yards back and felt as if I was the only one shouting at them. If everyone had joined in maybe they’d have listened. 3 more buffoons did it a minute later too. Felt like I was the only one shouting at them too, apart from a 75 year old behind me! When I got to the front, there were just 2 stewards doing the scanning. Laughable. I said to them “you could’ve had another steward here stopping people pushing in”. They said “there aren’t any more stewards”. ?? I said “piss off, there’s ******* hundreds”. Guess that’s society these days. A couple of people speak up and every other ****** doesn’t join in.

Great game of football that. Question is, for Fulham’s equaliser, why was Christie marking Aderabayo!!! And, what exactly has Marco Silva done to Fulham since he arrived - looks to me like they play in exactly the same way they have done for 3 years. I can’t see that he’s changed anything, just carried in playing the way Parker was.

The quote below is from an interview with him in September, saying he hopes that by January he will have put in place a larger recruitment department. “I can see, by Christmas, us having four or five people in that recruitment department who are both data driven and scouting driven. “They have to be of a certain type who understands what I want and what Paul wants and who can work with us to prepare plans for the future.” Note he specifically says “what I want”. No, it should be what Paul Cook wants. My only hope from this quote is that he would take Gilhespy and his gang up there ?

Vaccines have been great. But your post seems to place increased mortality rates solely on them, and conveniently omits huge improvements in hygiene, general healthcare, improved working conditions and much more.

On reflection, my idea doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world! ?

Re credit. I’m not buying beans off of a competitor in the same industry and my purchase from Aldi doesn’t have any cash flow impact on Asda, Lidl, Tesco etc. I’m also not in financial difficulty and having to rely on selling something I own in order to pay for the beans. Transfers should be paid for upfront. No money, no deal.

100%. This is something that should be applied across the board. If you’re gonna pay £20m for a player, you pay it now. All of it. Upfront. Not spread across 5 years or whatever. I don’t leave the supermarket with 4 tins of beans and say “I’ll pay you for one now, cuz I’ll be having it tonight, I’ll then pay you for the 2nd tin next Sunday, then the 3rd tin next month etc”. Transfer fees should be paid in full, upfront. That’ll solve cash flow issues if you haven’t got the money you can’t buy the player.

Yep. That was the one main flaw I had in mind when I was thinking about this earlier. But I guess there’d be some kind of balancing, as most clubs in the bottom half would all be after the same players and the same clause would have to apply to whatever team Dennis signs for. And generally, most teams in the bottom half have at least some reasonable chance of relegation. So Dennis would have this clause whether he signed for Watford or for Southampton. Ultimately something has to be put in place to adjust this within the players contracts as opposed to clubs simply just getting more cash for failure.

Ideally, your last sentence is what would be installed. A relegation clause MUST be added to all contracts. But failing that, I guess my idea was ultimately what boils down to a 1 year contract, with the club having the option for a compulsory extension if they stay up or have to renegotiate the extension if they go down.

As I said; there are exceptions. But those are generally the higher quality players. I qualified the Hartley situation earlier. Odemwingie was a short term loan - so we were not gambling with our future on him. You mentioned Cisse. Who was 26 when he signed. Elliot & Wilbs were both signed in league 1. So the only one of your examples that stands up is Hartley. And I’ve acknowledged that some players are less of a risk than others - ie, still an international for a reasonably well regarded national side. I’ll stand by my statement that old uns coming to a Champ side are a hard one to get right. Personally, unless they are of a clear outstanding quality and don’t have a history of injuries, I’d much rather sign someone under 30.

I think my thoughts are that this has to be included on every contract, not just the promoted teams. So if someone is signing a contract with Brentford it would still need to be added if they were signing for Newcastle or Burnley etc. Also, there is the ‘get out’ for the player too. If they don’t renegotiate down, they can leave.

I haven’t thought this through in any detail, just off the top of my head now, but is there some way of incorporating something into a players contract. A clause that MUST be legally added to all contracts. If you get relegated, and there is no relegation salary reduction clause in the contract, then the contract should be renegotiated, and if no renegotiation can be reached, the contract can be cancelled immediately. So promoted teams can still sign someone on £100k per week on a 5 year deal, but if they go down, they have to restructure the contract to, say £40k per week, or completely cancel the contract and the player becomes a free agent. As said, not thought through in any detail, but there surely must be a way of putting this back on the players heads - otherwise they are essentially being paid ridiculous wages for failure. Get paid loads, get relegated, still get paid loads. Surely there must be something that says you must reduce the wage in line with projected income.

I agree. 2 in CM, especially when the 2 are HNM & Baks is suicidal. Versus Blackburn the system worked well for the first half and we played well. But we had Williams in there. Having someone like him makes that system a whole different kettle of fish. Mowbray said he was surprised by the set up and he made half time adjustments and they were much better 2nd half. So I didn’t get too over-excited by our performance in that game. I just think, by the very fact we had no James or Williams, we needed to get more bodies in the middle and I’d have gone 4-5-1.

It was sieve-like in a 5 as well. 4-5-1 would’ve been the correct strategy on Sunday