KrolMong

Not sure what Dawson can do to stop that. Poor from Byers though, pitiful attempt at stopping the cross. Its been fairly even to be honest, our issue has been the ball in from wide, particularly from Vaulks, Coventry are happy to allow us to cross.

I’m not convinced by Hojlund. I can’t see an obvious strength in him. He’s not quickest, he’s not the strongest, his link up and touch play is not great, and he lacks predatory movement in the 18 yard box. He’s not helped by the utter shite that is playing wide, but, he gets bullied every game.

We know where we are short, and yesterday just highlighted that. We’ve got a monstrous goalkeeping issue that is a priority. We need two full backs, we need an extra centre half. We need a goal threat in midfield, we possibly need a number 10, and we need one, if not two, strikers to complement both Cadamarteri and Windass. A decent keeper might get us an additional 8 points between now and May and we need another player to come and score 1 in 2.

Best we’ve played this season, but zero luck and a bad mistake. Significant deflection on the first. Horror mistake from Dawson for the second. Cast iron pen on Fletcher. Lots of missed chances. Its a tough place is this league, you just don’t get away with things. You can’t fall asleep like we did on the first, and a goal keeping howler like that in this league will always lead to a goal. But, we were the better side by a mile, and I can’t name an outfield player who had a bad game.

It’s not been a great year for British Sport in terms of winning things. I’d have voted for Alfie Hewett or Johnson-Thompson because they’ve had dominant years in their respective disciplines. if people are against Mary Earps winning it for not winning the World Cup, it immediately rules out Stuart Broad for those very same reasons in that he didn’t regain the ashes. McIllroy has had a decent year and was brilliant in the Ryder Cup. I agree on Dettori, he’s Italian. Beyond that, I can’t think of any other sports where people have achieved a lot. Maybe Leon Edward’s in UFC? It’s not been a great year in British Boxing. City did the treble but the star of the show was not English. It’s been a bad year for English cricket, English rugby probably overachieved a bit. Even sports like Cycling are on the slide a bit.

In other news. I’ve heard Darren Moore is on the brink at Huddersfield.

I’ve got to say, I’m almost in agreement about Cooper. They’ve not improved and have looked awful for a few weeks now with a very expensively assembled squad. Not sure whether Nunez is the answer, but we’ll see. It’s them who are keeping the Pigs alive.

My half time changes are Paterson and Johnson for Gassama and Buckley. I’m playing Buckley alongside Vaulks and pushing Bannan behind Cadamarteri with Gassama and Musaba left and right.

Not much anyone can do about that. Diaby has to go for it. Valentin perhaps let Chair come inside a bit easily but that would be me being hypercritical. What is a bigger issue is that QPR look very well drilled and organised, and we are offering nothing in their last third.

Our next four will decide relegation or not. Today is massive, we need a win. If we win today and against Cardiff, and then get a result in the two away games, I would really fancy us to stop up because we have sucked other teams in. If we end up with less than 4 or less points in this run of games, it’s over.

Pato has largely been the problem on that side all night. They are getting behind him at will, defensively he’s been woeful.

They are just a bit too good for us unfortunately, especially with the ball and they really fancy it down Pato’s side, they keep getting behind him at will. No qualms about them being 3-1 up, we’ve actually not been bad, but they just have that bit of quality and movement that’s done us. Really poor from Dawson for the third.

Trippier at it again. Son has done him all ends up for the two Spurs goals.

He’s been quality for them. City have a lot of players out of form (especially attacking players).

Unless we get a proper foil for Cadamarteri, who has pace and power and we can bang it up to, I can understand why we can’t just launch it every time. We haven’t got one player in the squad who can win those physical tussles as a nine. I think Rohl is more likely to try and bring a defender in who can play a bit alongside Bernard, and try and get forwards in who can press and have goals in them rather than get a battering ram.

Stoke were robust, proper ale house and easily the most direct side we have faced. In fairness, we coped fine with it defensively, and we won a lot of the seconds. But, we were pretty dogger when we got the ball. We didn’t move it quick enough, our forwards were largely bystanders and it only really changed when Gassama came on as he offered pace. The pen is a disgusting decision and there should be repercussions for it. How the ref can miss the absolutely blatant shove is frankly astonishing. Rewards for Cams save but also Bannan reacting first too. The goal was the only real quality from either side, great touch away and finish from Musaba. As a note, I think we’ll look better against Norwich as they want to play and our press will allow us to get it back.

I agree. At the end of that season we had seven strikers/forwards on our books. Rhodes, Winnall, Fletcher, Forestieri, Joao, Nuhiu and Hooper. Rhodes needed someone to do all the donkey work and be a focal point. The only two capable were really Fletcher and Nuhiu. In hindsight, Rhodes and Winnall weren’t what we needed. We needed pace and power to actually get the most out of Hooper and Forestieri (although they both were in the midst of serious injury issues). We needed to be able to stretch teams.

I think Kieran Trippier is a top level full back. But last night, good lord. 3 assists for 3 Everton goals. It was an Ian Hendon-esque performance!

I’d say a minimum of 8, but ideally 3 wins. Cardiff and QPR are must wins, not losing at Stoke and Coventry and important, but I do think we need 1 away win in that run.

Haaland ran out of patience with Phil Foden last night. Villa pressed high up pitch but did leave space wide, Foden was picking the ball up and facing the Villa goal, Haaland would go and Foden would just ignore him. At times it was an angled 20 yard ball into the space behind Villa’s back four. He must have made the run 5 times, Foden tried the pass once and duffed it. Haaland got very annoyed, and rightly so.

A couple of people have told me that Rohl has been given complete control of the footballing side of the club.

Beautifully put. In short. They haven’t got a chance of stopping up, but have a very good chance of being relegated in March!

Pep has a lot of players out of form at the minute. Foden is either good or bad, and he’s struggling when he plays centrally. Doku is hot or cold. Grealish has been poor. Alvarez seems to struggle against better sides. The real is the loss of De Bruyne and the lack of ‘hit the ground running’ replacement of Gundogan. They’ve lost 20 to 30 goals and assists with those two and they are becoming easy to stop because they can’t get service into Haaland. That said, Villa have been excellent and Emery is brilliant manager. He got panned at Arsenal but his record there was very good, and his record since was incredible. Villa and Newcastle, I genuinely enjoy watching them.

Despite United having the odd moment, I thought Liverpool were in complete and utter control and didn’t really have to come out of first gear. What will have shocked Wilder was how much more physical Liverpool were in compared to United, United were just bullied at times.

Rinse and repeat. Make an offer for the club. Negotiate. Provide proof of funds. If offer is accepted, due diligence on the accounts. Meet EFL ownership regs. Buy club. Job done. No supporters trust is going to force Chansiri to sell unless someone makes an offer. I am not saying it is the job of a trust to find buyers, but they have to accept that until an offer comes in there is no change. The other side of the issue is always going to be Chansiri value and conditions versus real value and conditions. I know they are poles apart at the minute. In the meantime, there should be an element of gamesmanship being played just to ensure there is dialogue with the owner and the club. I think the supporters have every right to be able to voice concern to the owner about some of the things that have happened this season, but there is a right and wrong way of doing it, and what I am seeing from some of these groups is simply the wrong way.