PeterSw

13 minutes ago, daft said:

There are other ways of crossing the ball that doesn't really demand a towrering target man. City cuts back into the box with low crosses to tap in or power home from close, which will make Haaland a perfect player since his movement and strength will wreak havoc. We don't have to balloon balls into the box from touch. Cutting back would probably be a better option for us even though we don't have a Haaland, but Ings would probably do somewhat better in such cases, even though he absolutely looked like a man without any power to his finishing Friday. 

We need a bit more movement to open open some more space though, low crosses or not. 

This is what baffled me. If you are insistent on width and getting crosses into the box, then surely they need to be low balls for Ings/Watkins or the other forwards coming into the box. The only only way we would of had any success with the high crosses was that maybe the forwards could get to the second ball but even that was a stretch.

I think it's the combination of the bad loss, change of captaincy and the mistreatment of Mings (and maybe Traore/Guilbert/El Ghazi to a lesser extent) that has opened this thread. The loss/performance alone was bad but many probably would have gave him the benefit of the doubt to turn it around but the other things have got people on edge as these are the sorts of thing that can result in losing the dressing room and once that happened, its hard to come back from.

I think we'll see Chambers in for Konsa defensively.

Interested to see the changes he makes in attack, hoping our home tactics are different to our away tactics and we play a more attacking game. Can't help but think that it will be the 4-3-1-2 with Ings and Watkins up top.

3 minutes ago, SuffolkVillan said:

Considering his recent comments, could he have already lost the dressing room? I normally advocate given new Managers time but in this case I think sack now and replace when the right fit becomes available. Gary Mac and Critchley should be able to continue without things getting even worse......hopefully!

It wouldn't surprise me. I think Mings is a big big figure in that dressing room. Players probably would have been annoyed by stripping him of captaincy, but dropping him AND those comments after the game... might have pushed a lot over the edge. Next couple of games will tell us alot. 

27 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Christ - should Liverpool sack klopp? We are 1 game in. It’s absurd to be talking manager change

I'm still 'Gerrard in' but it's more than one game. It's been 25 odd games and not much by way of style and performances. 

By the time the WC break comes (a sensible time to change) we'll be 17 games in and another season down the drain. 

If there is no improvement by the WC break he should be sacked. Problem is, will Purslow sack his mate?

Hopefully the owners will step up and insist that he goes. They do appear to be quite ruthless 

Hopefully Crichley has a set of nads on him and actually tells SG that this 4321 isn't working and the squad is better suited to 4231. Better to change it after GW1 rather than 1/4 way through the season. 

Mings will be desperate to go to the World Cup. If he's not in the starting XI by the end of the month, he'll be out of the club. Can imagine him and Coady at Everton doing a good job. 

If it came to it, I'd rather SG out of the club than Tyrone

Looked slightly better when we went 4231 in second half but who's plays on the left of the 3? Coutinho doesn't have the work rate to play there.

Hudson-Odoi on loan might be a decent option now that he is available. 

Callum Hudson-Odoi wants out of Chelski. Wonder if he will be looked at before the window closes

1 minute ago, maqroll said:

The collective body language looked weird and tired and confused.

Not a good early indicator

Maybe the squad wasn't too impressed with the captaincy situation?

Didn't throw the players under the bus for once which tells me one thing.. Gerrard knows he's had a stinker this week. Maybe, just maybe, he might actually learn from this and do something about it. 

I won't hold my breath though

That's him off then surely. Wonder if we'll ever find out why Gerrard doesn't rate him

3 hours ago, DCJonah said:

I don't think we need 3 cm players when we have the attacking quality we could put out with a 3 behind Watkins or ings. 

They'd be awful at marking taller players at set pieces too 

Ings and Watkins are a good interchangeable combo to have in the match day squad. One replacing the other after 65-70 mins in a game is a good option for us to have. Imagine a good few teams in the league are quite envious of it. 

For me:

Mings club captain as he's a great leader and person on and off the pitch. 

Martinez VC as he's also appears to be a big leader in the dressing room and is likely to play every game so can naturally take over from Mings when he doesn't play

2 hours ago, useless said:

That's twenty-six players, so one player over, and I think it's pretty obvious a number of those won't be with us next season, Steer, Guilbert, El Ghazi, Sanson and Davis will likely be playing elsewhere, then question marks still surrounding Luiz and Traore as well, there will be plenty of room for more new signings and our own academy players.

Pretty Sure Steer has a long term injury and won't be available until January 2023 at the earliest 

Urghhhhh I like it bar the added detail at the bottom of the Cazoo sponsor

Hope he signs a new contract with us. Think he will be great in the 'number 8' role

23 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

I half expect to see him feature against Walsall as Martinez and Olsen won’t be back until next week. 

Yeah him and Steer will probably get a half each?

Don't know anything about him. Doesn't look over 7ft though so he's not for us

I got last season's away and 3rd and have to say.. both lovely shirts

13 hours ago, CarryOnVilla said:

Writing this has given me the cravings to start this…  

Yeah can't see them wanting to join new materials onto the old material from a building point of view. Surely makes more sense longevity wise to just build one new stand.

Good to see Ash sign on for a year. Experienced head in the dressing room and around the place. Good role model for the younger lads too.

I wonder if coaching badges and a place on the coaching team next season was added as a sweetener to the deal