Davefevs

I thought no20 was Gareth Bale initially. Aint nobody like Fran Bentley…..great name for our keeper. And an S.Murray too.

It’s going back a bit now but my stag weekend was about £90 each. Cheap easyJet flight from stanstead, mini-coach up there and pick up, 3 nights in a youth hostel type place. Spent many times that on KFC and beer whilst there though!,

Downing and Simpson too

On our last day, having done beer to death, we did the bus tour around the sights. So glad we did, well worth it. My bruv (my best man) had worked out there not long after the wall came down and he said it was an amazing place.

Did that on my stag weekend v Stuttgart.

Couldn’t agree more.

I doubt he’s got £60k p.w. this time around ???

They still have some good players, enough to field a competitive (not great) eleven, so will get the odd result….but as soon as injuries and fatigue hit they are gonna suffer. There is no depth.

Like the gambler with the big win, but never mentions all the losing bets and that he’s still out of pocket overall.

If I miss Geoff’s post-match stuff, I quite often listen back on BBC Sounds app…..for my own sanity should I listen to it? Was it the usual?

Fair play that you even bothered to reason with him / her!

I try to fairly respectful on OTIB to all posters but we have some effin belters on here tonight.

Announce Laura Kuennsberg! ???

Remember when everyone was urging Cotts to go to a back 4, and he did at Derby (a) and we lost 4-0/4-1.

Believe it is between £2-3m as that is around the amount we offset in FFP for Academy costs. So it’s doing alright in my book.

Can some of you not quote him / her…got them on ignore!!! ?

Disagree, he can write whatever he likes....he's writing for his audience in this piece, the fans....not to Nige. If he does that in a media interview that's very different. Huge difference between both channels.

Pretty much 442 imho, Scott played closed to Martin. But I actually recorded it as 4411. It’s not a 1 striker 3 forward 4231 imho. But I ain’t gonna lose any sleep over it, ok, maybe a bit ? In terms of fluidity, no surprise that Weimann often ends up centrally. Just take the goal: Martin in the Blackpool sandwich but it’s Scott the furthest forward, Weimann waiting to pick up loose ball on right side. You can see shape, back 4, King and James CM, Palmer LW, etc. King crosses, he has Alex Scott on right wing outside him, who’s made a 30 yard run wide, Vyner beyond everyone on the overlap. Weimann has run offside but attracts Martin’s marker, who lets Martin peel off the back of him. Edge of box, Palmer and King. One other thing (that I didn’t notice when doing these) is that both Baker and Dasilva are t stood hands on hip on halfway line, they are squeezing too. So we attacked with 7 players, the front 6 and the RB. Scott is now RW, Weimann CM, James box-2-box. Much more fluid from a basic set up.

I’ve read the pre-match presser transcript and i thought the questions and answers were fine. Will listen later to see if anything in the tone. But a pre-match interview is a different beast to a reporter’s article suggesting a different set-up. Nige really isn’t gonna be reading this type of article. It’s an article for fans, Gregor’s audience. I doubt he even reads the pre-match stuff. As such I have no problem with the article. Personally I didn’t quite get his arguments for the system he was proposing. I think someone earlier mentioned that Holden’s system was very different (5122) so trying to use that as a foundation might be flawed.

Agree in the main….the Man Utd game / performance wasn’t what we saw each game, some were very workmanlike, attritional victories, especially at home. They key for me was how condensed we were and able to pressure teams on the ball, and keep the pressure on when we had it. The personnel changed as you say….but those autumn months were great to watch from my point of view, because I saw a “team” and what looked like a plan.

For info, he wasn’t suggesting Dasilva and Pring as the two WBs, but one of them….then suggested finding a RWB might be easier than a striker.

One less stick to beat Nige / media team about for some.

Yep to both….unashamed hindsight as I said.

Prior to last night I wanted a mini-cup run to get players minutes, ease into the season etc. But with unashamed hindsight (?) there is a big part of me that thinks it’s perfect. Nige gets to focus on the league, focus on competition for league games only. You could argue a couple get to coast knowing they will get minutes in the Carabao Cup. Not any more they won’t. 18 shirts to fill each game, there are gonna be a good few not getting kitted up each game wondering where their next minutes are coming from. They will either react positively (good thing) or Nige will see that they aren’t what he wants…and help in determine where to trim the numbers. It wasn’t the plan but I can see it being a positive.

Out of interest, how do you evaluate that? Which chances do you recall in your opinion being better than ours?