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Possibly, with Rudoni and BTA there, it’s quite hard to have Esse there too. Esse and Merkalo’s shot maps are v similar, both like to cut in from the right hand side to their left foot. When Esse plays AM, it’s mostly at Palace who play a system similar to ‘the box’ under MR, it’s somewhere in...

Disagree on MVE, that point gets parroted without any supporting data. Most of MVE’s assists this season have been without Sakamoto playing… Esse is first choice and not buying the idea we’ve spent €5m on a winger to not be in around the starting 11 so Sakamoto either drops down the pecking...

Have you ever considered that it’s Sakamoto who’s probably falling down the pecking order? It’s quite funny because even when we brought Esse in, people were insisting it was competition for Sakamoto and until recently the idea that we was ‘arguably’ better than Esse… Sakamoto is a cult hero...

It’s an intensity thing, for the first 50-60 minutes last night, he was good and won the ball high up the pitch. If we had a more physically dominant player than Allen, that’d suit the system v well. The tactical instruction is to clearly try to win the ball high up the pitch and if the...

It’s just a ridiculous thing to say. Neil is a good player but 2 goals and 3 assists last season doesn’t necessarily strike me as being a huge game changer. He’s better than Jack Taylor imo, so upgrades their options. Looking at Grimes v Neil head to head in 24/25, Grimes is the better player...

I’ll reserve judgement for now but you’d think we have a plan for him and potentially other players. My gut feeling is that I can just see Sakamoto being moved somewhere else. Maybe LW or even AM, why else sign 2 RW? Since Sunderland away (2-2), I’ve wanted to see him play LW (or even LWB in...

When you have 3 strikers in double figures for the season, that’s probably a constraint…

You’re tripping.

Dan Neil isn’t better than Grimes or Torp… Jack Taylor has been distinctly average in a v good setup. Neil improves them but not us. We need a player like Matusiwa who is physical. I’d argue he was one of the key difference makers in both fixtures against us.

Equally, I’m sure Lampard and the recruitment team have a plan and priority of positions. It was reported before the window opened that we were after a CM and LB so it’s almost definitely being worked on. Left back, I’m a little less bothered about because KKH can play there and felt he did...

Makes you wonder what the plan for Sakamoto is, you’ve just gone out and signed two RWs as well as Minny. After Sunderland away last year (2-2), I was convinced Sakamoto could fit in well at LW.

You can pursue multiple transfer at once…

Has decent numbers in the Swiss league but I have no idea if that translates well to the Championship.

I’m concerned about our away form, nothing else at this moment. Ipswich have been bottle jobs away from home, their away record is comparable to ours. Likewise, Boro have got to come to our place. I’ll begin to worry if we lost v QPR and fail to beat Oxford. At that point we could genuinely...

Apparently BTA can’t be banned because the ref gave a foul for the incident… let off!

We’re 8 points clear of 3rd…

Literally still at 2 points a game. Honestly, half of this forum become like toddler having a temper tantrum when we lose a game. We're 3 points above Boro and 8 ahead of Ipswich, talk of impending bottling is premature and frankly, After QPR, we have Oxford and Boro and even if we lose on...

Hellberg has only just got them up to 2 points and they went on a 4 game winless streak around Xmas, he's behind Lampard's record for us so not really buying into his hype just yet. Hull and Ipswich, in comparison, have been better than Boro since he arrived.

He's 31 this year and been a captain at this level for several years, has more experience than just about any Championship player. Having a real 'older head' is just a bad cliche because it doesn't magically correct miss big chances or make basic defensive errors. That was the difference last...

We literally had the better chances... A quick watch of the highlights show that.