Bachmann, Ngakia, and JP all need to start. Probably would stick Tufan in as well - was abject against Leeds but in his defence the team structure was a mess and we managed about 12 passes all game. Can’t judge a progressive midfielder on that s*** show.
The Beatles are probably my favourite band, but I can understand if all they play is the early Beatlemania stuff like She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand instead of Ticket to Ride, Paperback Writer, Strawberry Fields Forever, never mind the best album tracks of the later 1960s albums, you'd get sick of it.
We have several players who are not as good as we need, but I would say most of them are trying thier best most of the time. We have one player who has the ability and we need him to perform near his best most of the time to give us a chance to complete in the Premier league. Unfortunately Sarr has put in virtually no effort or commitment to the team in the last two games, only playing near his ability for about 20mins in each game. We must find a setup that encourages Sarr to perform near his best for most of the game to stand a chance of scoring goals and getting points.
Hate the Beatles , they are like the s club 7 of the 60’ Would like to see our two new talents Sarr and JP run rings round richarlison , only trouble then is Everton will try and buy them. not many clubs I dislike more than Everton (well ok scum , Liverpool , muff, Man City) , i have to be honest though can’t see this going well (and I’m a happy clapper) heart says 0-2 new manager bounce CR works out how to get a tune out of then Brain says 4-0 we all start to wonder what a 70 year manager can really do in the prem And I like foster , but he needs to **** of now , he is no HG who is a certified club legend
Like I said, I can sort of see why they might be compared based on the Beatles’ early stuff (although even the songs I mentioned from that era show far superior song-writing craft than anything S Club 7 put out, if Never Had a Dream Come True is any indication, plus apart from a few very early covers the Beatles wrote all their own music), but songs like Helter Skelter, Yer Blues, Something and even Here Comes the Sun are about as far removed from teenybopper stuff as you can get. BTW, I’m surprised Never Had a Dream Come True wasn’t edited for single release (maybe they played a shortened version on the radio, I don’t remember), because while not that bad a song, it’s played out long before it actually ends, and they might have taken out that god-awful cliche of pop music, that truck driver’s gear change.
Back on topic, I think this and the following few games will follow a similar trajectory to the Mullins/early Pearson games of 2019/20. Confidence must be quite low, so I think we’ll see a battling performance at Everton without creating much, losing 1-0 or 2-0. Then we’ll draw 0-0 against Southampton while being the better team, but yet again failing to take advantage of a winnable game, but without being adrift. We’ll play well but lose at Arsenal without taking our chances as we tend to do at the big teams (Man City apart) as our struggles in front of goal continue (amazing that we’ve ditched Deeney, Gray and Success and got all those attacking players yet failed to score in all but three of our league games - whose fault is that?). As it turns out, we have Man Utd at home again next in this sequence - who knows what could happen? Hopefully Ole will still be in his job by then.
Not for me Jeff. The most over-rated city in the UK. Not least because everybody believes their own hype and thinks they are a comedian.
We should of won time before last (not including the Lg Cup). Kabs lost it despite us leading 2-1 in injury time.
If that works out as you say, I'd imagine the Italian Riot Act has obviously been read out to Big Ben and I'd reckon that Foster has sufficient nous to accept that he's over-stepped the mark massively this last week including the tickets fiasco and the Salah nonsense. In footballing terms I do think that is the right decision (a close one mind) but he must now know that a failure to perform quickly and move away from the relentless, ridiculous and childish gurning on his Cycling GK/Fozcast is also part of this deal, otherwise his pro career could hit the sidings in a week or two. Sorry to say that Bachmann looked way off the pace in his last match against Wolves (rooted permanently to his line) and has yet to convince in the step up to the Premier League. He might appear the happy-go-lucky goalkeeper but I'll bet (hope?) since Saturday early afternoon he must have reflected hard on lots of this. And even without 'big dog' Troy in the dressing room to explain his failings I'd be surprised if others haven't voiced their criticism (probably not WTE though, he seems to be blinded by the same nonsense). If I'm completely wrong on all of that, I'm sure Ranieri will ditch him very quickly and will be lining up a keeper replacement for January and getting Bachmann and Elliott into the starting squad until then. Strange and unsettling times so early on.
I don’t care if Nkoulou is only at 5% of his fitness/abilities. I’m at the point where I’d rather see that than Cathcart or Masina flailing about again. The one saving grace to all this, is that I genuinely believe we have a manager now who will be vocal with Gino about what he needs - whether he gets it is another thing. But you’d hope having a relationship for 30+ years must count for something right?!
Correct. The only other place we've played at moderately regularly and never won is Valley Parade, Bradford. (About 10 visits I think.)
I haven't seen it anywhere else so I'm claiming it as my own! I had a helping hand from @WillisWasTheWorst reminding me that Ronaldo is CR7.
And they’ve never won at our place either! Not a club I miss TBH, apart from those bad results and invariably poor performances at their place, they seemed to get ideas above their station during their very brief sojourn in the top flight (that open-top bus parade after their very lucky survival after they went up with us was ridiculous).
I'm afraid they won at Vicarage Road the last time we played them in 2012. OK it was the League Cup, but if you don't count it then we've never won at Old Trafford. To me Bradford City are a strange club. Despite their ancient successes, since WWII they've only had two shortish spells outside the bottom two divisions, which is pretty poor for a club from a place that size. Plenty of competition in Yorkshire, I suppose, but almost all those others have outperformed them over that period.
Unfortunately, I think your optimism has blinded you to the fact that the club has been a complete and utter shambles when it comes down to discipling players. I don’t even think good ol’ Ranieri has the power to put Foster in his place as the club seem to favour player>manager in most cases. Poor Ivic was effectively sacked for being “too harsh” on the players. Yes, results wise, we weren’t good enough.. but the players downed their tools by that point anyways.
Notts County are like that, a club you feel should be doing far better than being below the top two tiers all this time since 1995 (and are now in their third season in non-league) - still get decent attendances for their level from time to time. Yes there’s competition from the other side of the Trent, but it’s not like it’s particularly strong (they finished 3rd in the Prem the last time Notts were in the second tier, and have only survived in the top flight once since then).
No Doucoure, No Calvert-Lewinn Townsend has already used his season quota of "stepover, stepover, cut in from right, long range shot goals" I think a clean sheet and 2 goals , one from Sarr and King eventually to get off the mark.
