boroinbishop

I get what you're saying but at the end of it all they're the ones who are seeing them day in day out in training, against championship players, it can be quite easy to see if they're aren't up to scratch from that.

Let me get this straight, you blame him for not using the kids enough ut you don't want to talk about if they're good enough? Is that because the answer is probably no, they aren't. Also 100% agree with Humpty and BD, the first XI is good enough to compete in this league (pre January) but how often did we have our first 11 available? Or anywhere near it for that matter. Losing ELL in January was a massive blow and to be honest, probably the reason why our football was so drab in the final part of the season. Conway has his strengths but he is not a lone forward, he has no hold up ability, and a lack of pace, at least with ELL you had the option of turning the defence with a ball in behind and getting yourself up the field as he would often and either win the ball putting you on the counter, or force the opposition to turn the ball back over due to the high press we would then engage in. You do that with Conway and 9 times out of 10 their defenders get the ball without a challenge, hence a lot of the tappy passing at the back. That and losing Doak were the two biggest reasons for the failure this season. Of course selling Jones meant we had no one to fill the RW role (although i cant blame Jones or the club if he was desp to move for regular game time), Forss can play there but not in the same way as a traditional winger and was barely fit anyway. Is Carrick blameless? No probably not, but was he the main reason for failure? In my opinion, also probably not. I did also say the Iheanacho would be good signing mind, so that shows what i know!

Thanks Al, would love to be more of an active member like the good old days but just don't have the time nowadays. As for the game I think it just proves how wrong I was about Iheanacho! Conway can't keep onside and KI is no good if you don't have the majority of the ball, the last few games there has been a severe lack of an out ball. Haven't read through the whole thread as I don't have time but seen a lot of people laying it on thick on Carrick today but I kinda feel like he has his hands tied behind his back a little, playing against a big physical side without any centre backs and failing to be able to plonk the ball in behind and turn them as we have 0 pace up front now, games like today you're crying out for a ELL. Instead they knew they could press as high as they wanted without having to worry about getting done on the counter. Hence why we couldn't get out of our own half.

Tommy Conway was born offside

Hackney outstanding play driving forward from midfield

This is one if the reasons I left the forum in first place! What happened to the good old days where you could agree to disagree with someone without it coming to insults. On the Nacho debate, I get what people are saying he hasn't scored many recently etc. But he hasn't really been given the opportunity and not starting for Seville doesn't really say he's not good enough to start for us. As for saying he has proven he isn't good enough at this level, he's score 1 in 2 (often the benchmark for a decent striker) last time he played in this league despite a lotnof his appearances being off the bench. Let's give the lad a chance.

As far as re sale value goes, if he comes in and bags 30 goals over the next year and a half we could easily see him go on for 15-20m 18 months later, obviously depends on the details of the current deal. If the scouting department are confident he can do that then I'm happy to accept they know more than me.

He didn't, what we don't actually know is that the plane is actually called Rockcliffe, picked up Jude Bellingham aswell, hence the 2 players. We're really going for it this year. FWIW, can't believe the amount of pelters Iheanacho is getting, so much so a i broke my 5 year (cant believe its been that long) posting "break" to comment on this. Very similar attributes to Latte lath and many people commenting saying we need someone to hit the ground running, he knows the league and has a pretty phenomenal scoring record in it! Honestly think some of our fans want us to fail so they can have something to moan about. Would anyone rather an untested player from left field? Would very a great signing IMO.

Thought I'd chip in with my thoughts on this. I agree with the OP, I used to be a massive contributor to the board up until a few years ago, there has always been an element of silliness to the board (especially the transfer threads) which was and still is great to see especially as times for our club recently haven't been great so it's good to lighten the mood a bit. However, the main reason I stopped posting was because I felt the quality of conversation took a massive nose dive, you used to be able to have a good discussion with someone and if you still disagreed at the end of it that was that. However, nowadays on here it seems like if you disagree with someone and can't agree it just ends up being tit for tat and squabbling rather than actual discussion, maybe that's just the way social media is nowadays.

I agree, but I think the timing makes sense, if he wins the league cup at the weekend and they sack him after that it leaves them open to an unfair dismissal case, similar to the one with Conte, they brought him in to win a trophy, they can't then argue he was a failure if they were to win it while he was still at the club.

Completely agree, one of the best performances we've seen in a while from Johnson aswell.

He was key in the build up to the first goal, brought the ball down well and ran at their defence creating space for others, you don't get the kind of play from Britt. In terms of linking the play up I think he has done well. The chance where Tav played him in was difficult, the ball was played the wrong side of him meaning he was at an angle when shooting, ball should have been played inside him more centrally.

My question to people who aren't happy with the way we're playing at the moment is do you really think the squad we have are capable of playing expansive football, playing out from the back etc.? We've seen countless times this season teams trying to do just that against us and they've paid the price for it. We don't have the technical players to do it, personally i'm quite liking the tactics at the moment in terms of picking up second balls, and trying to create overloads using the CB's stepping up into the oppositions half, it stops players doubling up on our wide players as often as we have seen in the past. There was a lot of times last night Spence was 1v1 with his full back and came inside rather than heading for the byline and crossing. Not saying it is perfect, as we do need to move the ball quicker and with more purpose at times but it clearly works and is very effective at getting more out of a squad than what you would expect from their ability. FWIW I thought Coulson was shocking when he came on, when i appreciate he tried to go past their full back unlike spence, yes it didn't come off which is absolutely fine, but he kept throwing himself to the floor every time he got tackled, you can't win the ball back if you're on the floor!

Both sides really struggling to pass the ball, so many turn overs in dangerous areas, then instead of countering whilst they are out of position they check back into a deep lying CM, doesn't seem to be a tactical plan from either team atm.