M_Afro

Spot on. Poor from Mings

I have given Dean some stick recently but we were much better today in my view, albeit against a truly woeful team who were there for the taking. There were green shoots of a half decent performance in there. Difficult to tell how much of it was down to WBA being awful and of course we failed to win again!! I still think that there’s hope for the next match after that. Although, I just can’t wait for the season to end. There has never been another season in my lifetime so polarised by quality of first half/second half.

Not great but not awful either. If they hadn’t got such a soft penalty we would probably have been cruising. Mind you our penalty was soft too. Very much in the balance this one. They do seem to be a bit more up for it. Think it will end up 2-3 based upon very little. Let’s hope I am wrong! UTV

Interesting selection. Looks like Dean wants an open game. He will certainly get one with that midfield. A lot will depend on whether we get awful or awesome AEG, Ross and Bert. Two of those turn it on and it could be really fun. Two of the three don’t show and it could get ugly. Almost certain that both teams will score today.

He does look really good. Fast, strong, skilful and only 19! I would be very happy for us to take him as a development player at the right price.

Well said. He has also come into a team struggling for any kind of form. Stick Bissouma behind him and Dougie and we will see a world of difference.

I certainly have my doubts over Deano. It annoys me that each season we have had long spells of terrible form. It annoys me that he is very resistant to change. His subs annoy me. His love of McGinn annoys me. His Pep love fest the other night really annoyed me.......but.. I loved our 10 game winning run. I loved the play off final. I loved Liverpool. In fact I loved everything up until new year. I love that he is one of us. I love that he is decent. I love his relationship with Jack which is so crucial to us. It is not black and white. There are shades of grey everywhere. I think the fact that he is one of us just shades it for me at the moment. He deserves the start of next season. I think we will play better and win tomorrow. Hopefully that will start a period of better form. UTV

I would go for similar but swap Bert for Ramsey. We do not have a single player capable of running with the ball other than him (Jack excluded). Bert has been ropey for sure but he does at least carry a threat. Nobody else does. We need to be more direct too and pick up second balls in the final third. I know it’s prehistoric and I don’t want it ever to be the norm but our inability to get in the final third in any other way is killing us.

Yep. It’s a straight shoot out between Targett and Emi I think. Harsh on Jack of course but he will probably end up missing a third of the season.

I would be delighted if we can sign 3 better quality players rather than 6/7 of lower quality. One centre mid and two wingers. Play Jack as a 10. All of a sudden the quality of the whole team would be raised. We also need to start trusting some of our better youngsters. It will be easier for them to play amongst better players where the pressure is off a bit.

I agree with this. Does anybody know how to find the team running stats? It would be interesting to see if the lads were covering more ground pre Covid. Not just Dougie. They all seem to be cruising

Totally agree with this. I have rarely seen a more lethargic performance from the team, than what we witnessed last night. They looked dead on their feet. This kid could run all day long. Hopefully he would shame some of the others into upping their efforts!

I said a couple of weeks ago that we could finish below Wolves. That looks inevitable now, particularly if there’s no Jack! I would be surprised if Palace caught up though. Either way, as you say, it would look and feel very much like a failure and I suspect our owners would feel the same way.

There was a moment in the second half that McGinn actually managed to get goal side, ahead of their midfield, with space to run into ahead of their defence. He turned back towards our goal and let city reset. He should have been bursting forward from the centre circle but his first thought was turn back towards my own goal! He then gave the ball away! This sums up his performances and our whole midfield performances for months. Poor decision making, lack of awareness, lack of energy, no urgency, sloppy execution.

I have no confidence in us to beat anybody at the moment but we do always beat the Albion......don’t we?

There’s not that much we can do with the poor form of our players. Maybe try a five at the back and two up top. Be a bit more direct.

I thought that too. He was clearly unhappy about something

They were Nick. Watch it again. They chased and harried and harassed for 90 minutes. I agree that City could have scored a few but Leeds had 10 men for more than half the game. We are desperate for someone like Phillips.

Rightly or wrongly if we continue like this until the end of the season, Dean is going to come under immense pressure. I would not be surprised if he got sacked to be honest. We need some good wins and performances to change perception again.

He made a very rare mistake but he was still very good. Only he and Targett get any real credit tonight. The rest were awful.

You are right to a degree Nick but the reason they were on fire partly was down to us not being aggressive in our press. We just let them receive the ball in acres of space and move it on. I too watched the Leeds game and Leeds were much more aggressive when chasing down possession, even with 10 men against 11. I don’t think you can blame the manager for that. Surely that is lack of intensity from the players.

Pretty sure Leeds beat them.

I have been critical of Dean recently, quite rightly in my view, but today was on the players not him. They had lost before they even took to the pitch. We did not stick a glove on them. Really poor. You almost feel that they were relieved not to get spanked despite actually losing. I hate watching that. Absolutely hate it.

He is a big problem for us. He is one of Dean’s favourite players and I don’t see that changing but he is way from good enough on his current form. Awful without the ball much worse with it. He looks so out of condition too.

A lot of that is true of course but we did not even try to win. There was no energy, desire, pressing, spirit, nothing! We had nothing to lose but did not even try. It was so easy for City. I simply do not understand that performance.