Adam2003

Some nice touches today - would like to see him get some minutes if Abraham goes. I am not sure he’ll make the grade but I think he has the potential to be a good player versus me just being frustrated with Kodjia and Hogan...

Eesh this is dire. Can forgive Kalinic being new, can forgive the defence being a bit makeshift, but it adds up to three goals we shouldn’t have conceded.

Haha that was an outrageous foul though.

Done more in his first five minutes here than the rest of the midfield had done in an hour. Would prefer seeing him in that midfield to Whelan.

Just a scrappy game so far - a goal in the second minute is only ever a fluke. And those on O’Hare’s back already - have a word, it’s his first 45 minutes in a year. Nothing upsetting me too much apart from Hutton at left centre back - he’s so right footed and so out of position there that even when we are on the ball we look under pressure. Don’t mind Smith trying it and guessing he wanted to see Bree at right back but hope he changes it at half time. Agree with Lansbury on for Whelan as an obvious switch.

Not even that much, even if we are paying him £70k per week (and none of us have seen the terms of the loan agreement, we might have paid a loan fee but nothing to wages, we might be paying 100% of wages and no loan fee etc) it wouldn’t be for the whole calendar year, just the season. £70k x 40 weeks is £2.8m. Call it £3m. I’d have paid £2m for Bolasie and had him on £20k a week and called it a bargain all round - it’s just how you slice the numbers. I like him, I think he’ll help get us into the playoffs and get us promoted, but even if I didn’t of all the money this club has wasted in recent years this isn’t one that worries me.

If I remember the timeline right, MON sold him at the same time as bringing in NRC, and I remember thinking then that Davis would go on to have a better career. I always liked him here, delighted he got to captain his country etc.

I have been thinking about this and I'd love to see him get a shot v Stoke if Jack's out - and for the first time in years it's not "God I hope one of these kids can save us" it's "OK I think the rest of the attacking machine is looking good, let's give this kid an hour and bring on Kodjia or whoever if it's not working out." Flipside I suppose is players like JK, even Hogan, Whelan etc (depending on how he shuffled) are all doing their bits with cameos and probably desperate to start a game, so not that easy a decision for Smith, but it's nice to think it could go one of a few ways and we would still hopefully look good going forward.

Like I say not a lot of point arguing it, people have their views. I think you are absolutely wrong. Mindblowingly wrong. And you think the same about me. To the level that I just can’t understand we are watching the same team. And likely if we had the same conversation 20 years from now it’d be the same. The GOOD thing is I think we all think Smith is the next step - whatever we think of the last one! Onwards and upwards!

Levels above anyone else we have. When we were at our best in recent history under MON challenging top four, would still have improved our squad. That we would get him in the Championshio is amazing and that we would complain about it is very Villa lol.

Convinced we are going up. Whether it’s automatic or playoffs just depends on the form of those two teams who have a pretty big lead over us already but we will close that gap over 27 games, even if the next month is tough.

I don’t think there’s any point getting into a Bruce defence point here, everyone has long since made their mind up and I am clearly delighted to have Smith and don’t think Bruce would ever have us playing like that. But that doesn’t mean I don’t also think if we had tried to play like it in the first year we were down it wouldn’t have been a disaster. I honestly believe Bruce stabilised us when this was the most toxic freefalling club in the country and he gets credit for that from me - as does Terry as captain. Now I think Smith can have us climbing just as fast the other direction.

I thought he was great today and he will do very well for us if he keeps playing like that.

Agree with that sentiment but if you make loads of chances you miss loads of chances. No-one scores five goals every week...

He’s already scored 20+ goals in a season for Bristol City at this level. I think we can all agree he has flaws to iron out and needs to improve... that’s why he’s out on loan to a Championship club. Whether with Chelsea or someone else he will have a very good Premier League career.

I suppose it depends what the discussion is here. You just named three guys who are 30ish, been in their prime and had ok careers at a variety of medium sized clubs as a comparison with a 21-year-old who has already played for England and is owned by Chelsea. Without even necessarily disagreeing that they might score more goals this season, it’s an odd comparison if we are thinking of what a player is worth in terms of transfer fees and what they are likely to achieve in the next few years.

More likely is he played (90 mins) in Zimbabwe the night of the 16th. So probably back in the UK for the 18th, so maybe one session under Smith hence just the 26 minutes against Swansea. I expect that to change and him to come in and play plenty of minutes in the coming weeks. Although maybe Smith will think he needs to work harder for his pressing game - we will see I guess. But I think Bolasie is a class player so very much hoping we get him integrated into the team.

Three months from now Bolasie will be tearing up this division. Remember fans were still saying Snodgrass was a terrible signing well past this time last year and he did ok. El Ghazi I haven’t seen enough of but hope he comes good as well.

Overloads are where you work the ball and movement to get three players going up against two (for example) and then create a chance. Fairly basic thing to work on in training whether a kids under-9s team or a Champions League side. I’d even expect Ron Saunders worked on it once or twice https://www.soccercoachweekly.net/soccer-drills-and-skills/soccer-coaching-drill-to-exploit-overload-situations/

Fair enough, I don’t think he’s declined enough in quality that he’s gone from a player who a Champions League team bid £25m for to a player who a team like Burnley wouldn’t take a punt on, but each to their own!

The title is still very doable...! Play offs should be the target though.

Again I’m not a huge champion of Nyland or saying he’s going to be fantastic but those are EXACTLY the things that take time in a new team as you learn to communicate with the defence. (Or maybe he won’t ever step up and will just be a shotstopper - also very possible!)

A PL team bid £25m for him literally two months ago.

I would respectfully suggest - and not targeting you in particular, I am as guilty of this as anyone at times - that we’d be better off not bashing people in their first 10 games or so and giving them some time to see what they are made of. I’m not saying he’ll necessarily be great, but even if he does end up that way it’ll still take some time. Hopefully new manager (jand some clean sheets) should mean fans have patience with him and the team.

But then if we can combine that with improved passing as well then we are really into a winner.