Dusty

Yeah the number 9 shirt at stoke is what all kids dream of.

I think passive is a little unfair, most passes for us today and most tackles. The tactic doesn’t suit him, and that’s partly because he has a very defined way of playing, but I think he’s a really important, composed player in the middle of the pitch.

Also not sure I agree with this. Both Justin and Kristiansen have surprised me with how well they’ve done. Thought they both won the majority of their duels and had skme nice touches on the ball. Neither of them are brilliant and if you’re a side above 15th then you’d want to upgrade them, but for a side aiming for 17th then they’re what we have to expect - they aren’t the problems with this team/tactic.

It’s funny but I thought it was the complete opposite, I think he looks brilliant even at this level. Compare him with wharton and it’s obvious why the top 6 are chasing him, he’s really good. But winks is a really solid player too, very good option for the clubs outside the top 6. Him and skipp are a good duo imo and keep hold of the ball really well, but they’re not creative which is why we need players around them that are. Neither of the full backs create, ndidi doesn’t create and nor does ayew so I think that’s why we look so blunt. If you put buenanotte in front of them and ricky at rb I think we can really dominate a lot of teams in this division - Palace were there for the taking today for example.

I thought he was pretty decent, definitely not our worst player. Just checked who scored to see what rating he got there and was a 7, our joint highest. And on sofascore he was a 7.5 and highest rated player in the match! I know these are based on stats so are flawed as the stats can’t cover every aspect of the game - but it shows he generally won his tackles, kept hold of the ball and created a few chances. I actually came away from the game feeling pretty positive about him. If he plays like that every game and is our worst player, we’d end up comfortably mid table. Much bigger problems to worry about imo.

They’ve tried hard and got stuck in - a few players are looking good namely winks and skipp in midfield. But we’ve got nothing going forward, we look like we’ve got attacking players that can’t score goals, and that’s exactly what ayew and ndidi are.

Kick off might be the furthest forward that team gets.

It sounds obvious but I think the only way we can judge it is at the end of the season. This is window where we’ve signed players to try and stay in the league. These signings won’t help us that much in the championship and there’s not much sell on value in most of them. If we go down I’d say it’s a pretty disastrous one, with the only benefit being we’ve loaned a few young players out who would be ready to come into our starting 11 in the division below. The different approach would have been to invest heavily in young and undervalued players from across Europe, who would be happy to take a season in the championship next year to be better placed if we go up again. And I think I prefer the one step back for two steps forward approach as it seems inevitable to me that we will go down. Whilst prioritising premier league players I’m not really sure we’ve improved last years starting 11 at all, and I think it’s got worse with the loss of KDH and the exclusion of Ricky. BDCR, Ayew and Edouard are all not bad players but none of them are game changes and none of them are consistent in their output. This seasons going to be a real grind. I think Ipswich have gone with the second approach of building a team they think will be successful next year, and accumulating some sellable talent whilst having a couple of prem loans too, but I don’t think there’s enough quality there to see them stay up and I think we’ll finish above them. Southampton have gone with the first approach of signing premier league players to try and stay in the league, and they’ve invested wisely so that they’d probably make some good money on their sales if they go down to allow them to rebuild again. But Brussel will get them relegated much like Kompany last year and I think we’ll finish above them too. So that leaves us, Everton, Brentford, Forrest and Wolves imo as the most likey to go down and we are clearly the worst of those. However, I think there’s still a chance we can do it, we need a really solid home form and we need lots of players to chip in with goals as we don’t have anyone of quality to consistently score. But I am ready to be let down again - up the foxes!

Got to be the fewest goals per appearance in a starting 11 that we’ve ever put out

Are we parking the bus against Tranmere?

Thought vestergaard was actually colossal last night. Him, mads and winks are a really important trio for us and all had good games last night. They give us something to build from.

Don’t think he lost a duel in the second half, a couple of excellent balls into the box as well. More of the same please.

Not entirely relevant but it’s amazing how far we’ve fallen. Every single one of those spurs players starts for us - and I know that sounds obvious but it really does make you appreciate how tough this year is going to be. We’ve got very, very little quality to rely on. We used to have prime Vards, Ndidi and Ricky, then Madders, Youri, Fofana etc - we used to go toe to toe with these teams. It’s a real shame, might not happen again for 20 years or more.

Don’t hate that lineup tbh - it’s probably the most balanced one we could put out.

They were quite keen to show the shirt sponsor in that video 😂