mendieta420

I wasn't against making him manager.. I actually thought 'why not?'.. But, I didn't think I'd find him as likeable as I do now.. his passion in interviews, how speaks about the area after the game when he goes over a puts an arm around a player that's had a tough game - whereas Pulis would slate them on the radio for all to hear .. which leads me to.. his decision to make Fry captain and treat him as the pro he is - not stick him right back and waste his potential.

First 15 was pretty good, went ragged from there. Reading were just like every other team that we've seen.. long ball over the fullback into the corner and the big lad chases it. Second half was a bit of a slugfest. Draw might've been fair, but the amount of times we haven't got what we've deserved this season you'll take the W move on. Feels good that the club is coming back together.

Woodgate today "gone are the days of spending 5m on a player" yikes

It's a load of ***. They only offered 8m for Fry in the Summer and are now supposedly willing to pay 9m for a lad that's never played a proper professional game? Nonsense.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/10/death-of-diabolik-fabrizio-piscitelli-lazio-football-ultra Here's a fantastic read on Piscitelli - former leader of the Lazio’s Irriducibili - shot dead last week.

I seem to remember it being reported at the time as 4.5mil.

The weird thing about the Gestede sub is it seemed completely out of place.. All our success comes thru clever play around the box and quick feet. So bringing Gestede on to go long didn't make sense. We'd have been better fit bringing on someone like Tav or Walker. Speaking of Tav when is the lad going to get a chance? Complete waste of talent there. Wide/Forward may not be his best position but he's a much better option than Browne as things stand. One of the gripes I do have about our play in general is how often Clayton picks the ball up centrally but has no pass on. It's every game, you'd think this is the kind of play they'd hammer out during the week.

The game kinda sums our season up.. playing well at times and probably deserve a bit more than we've got. But at the end of the season that will be seen as a good point.

Said to a friend the other day without Ayala we'd be in a relegation fight this year and this happens..

Whether Britt is the best value for money or not, you still need to give the ball to your strikers in dangerous positions, which we are not. How many times was he screaming for the ball only for it to be go back out wide or spooned over the bar?

I like him and believe he knows what he wants to do. Whether he'll be able to do it with this group of players and recruitment team.. we'll see.

Thought Bola was badly exposed by Browne in the first half. Much better in the 2nd. I guess that bad attitude we were warned about with Browne is true.. Shocking player. That said I don't think the set up was right from the start. They were telling Fletcher to stay wide like a traditional right winger, which blocked Howson from getting down the line. Moving Fletch to the left gave Bola better cover and allowed him to bomb on as Fletch came narrow. Same on the opp side with Marv n Howson. Not sure where we'd be without Ayala, he's been outstanding for me.

He was fantastic on Saturday, IMO our best player. Some of the 50/50's he went in for were properly full blooded. He'll be a real miss.. Bola and Shotton on the left sounds like a recipe for disaster.

What game were you watching? We weren't playing a high-press at any point. We had a flat back 4 and 2 holding mids sat deep on top. We spent the entire game sat on the 18 yard box trying to defend the long diagonal ball to Gallagher - it was like being teleported back to the Monk days. I really don't know where we go from here. Shotton, Dijksteel and Lewis Wing shouldn't be anywhere near the starting line-up as things stand. Marvin Johnson has probably had his chance now as well.

They didn't bother policing it retroactively, which would've been far easier, so they're not going to use VAR for it.