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I think he has always seemed to have those when playing. What I think he has been lacking has been any vision and awareness of the game. He has seemed bit like he would play blind-folded. That might be harder to change especially in short term, but I'd be really happy to be proved wrong by him

I say we win. We have been improving lately even during DFs time and the new manager boost will add to that. It will be tight for sure, but I dare to believe that we can do it

Cannot wait for the match to start! Really excited and anxious to see first steps and adjustments made by new head coach. Anyone else feeling the same?

Or maybe we start to do it proper way!

Especially as we dont have many natural wingers in our squad... 😉

Don't see Pukki replaced any time soon. I actually think he is one of the few who can be totally sure of their starting spot. Our other forward options are 1-1,5 league levels behind him and getting in a player that is around him in quality level is pretty much out of our budget reach. I would guess that getting proven forward of his quality would likely be worth around 25-30M€. And if we want to have someone who is clear upgrade to him... we could not likely even pay their salary

Well, he has been bossing midfield also on international matches. He has actually been best midfielder on ground even against the teams like Italy, so for sure I think he can make it in EPL. As long as he is not expected to score goals! 😄

Yes for me. In my opinion he was the best option of those who were brought up as main options in the media or here. Maybe Favre could've been bit more exciting, but of those that were seriously considered he was the one I thought would be the best for the job.

This one pre assist was worth to mention though, as Pukki totally robbed ball from opponent with his head inside the box to setup the goal! It was also fun to see that farther the game went, their CBs started to get very nervous when Pukki came even close to them. So even though he could/should have scored a goal or two, it was still very impressive performance.

Interesting to see how he will do. Personally rate him a lot higher than Lampard so much happier if this goes through. Can end up being better or worse than Farke was for us for sure, but lets hope he can at least provide the famous new manager boost.

The gamepass cloud is also great. Been using that to play the xbox version of FM22 on my iPad! I think you could actually do it even if you dont have xbox, as long as you have gamepass ultimate.

If its Lampard, I think it will become even more painful season than it has been so far. Don't rate him at all and has had his both earlier teams underperforming so far. Just hope it is not long contract so that we can have a proper manager for next season in Championship.

This is shady business, as I was announced to have that exactly same position couple hours before you! Already managed to snatch a point from Chelsea with my mighty gegenpress.

Don't rate him at all and would devastated to have him. Seemed very mediocre everywhere he has been so far.

Sounds a lot like first half of match against Leeds. Only missing passes to those timed runs. So on good track already and just keep going on with it. 😉

Gotta admit that not been his fan either. When we had Emi, Todd and Skipp last season, it was hard to see what he adds. However, my reaction was more on lots of people being against him when others have not been able to really offer more. The traditional, everyone who is not playing is instantly better thing. More like, as long as coach sees that he is best option, lets not toss him into trashbin until someone proves that they earn the spot more. Either in training field or when coming in as sub. Looking his stats this season and comparing our other midfielders, he has been really anonymous offensively (excluding number of shots taken). Defensively he has been quite average. Only exception is aerial duels in which he seems to have been our best midfielder this season. Which might be the thing where Farke sees his value. If we are now hopefully going towards back to more possession and passing oriented style, I could see him possibly being replaced by Gilmour though.

I am actually getting bit sad and even annoyed of constant negative talk about McLean that seems to be so popular these days. Sure he has made some mistakes, but he is not the only one. He is hard working and doing everything for the team out there. In Leeds match he was also pretty active offensively as well. In addition he is capable on pulling key passes and creating scoring chances every now and then. He is playing for reason and is a warrior that this team needs now. I'd rather praise what he gives to the team instead of constantly putting him down.

1-2, doppelbock

Interesting thing in this is that lots of those players seem to have good qualities and I can see all of our new signings doing well in Championship. In many ways they are sort of small improvements to those who left (with Emi as exception) and possibility to reach higher level due to their age. Many of them will not hit their peak in couple of years still and I can see all of them being able to be successful in PL during some point of their career. Somehow this makes me wonder that even though the goal has been stated to stay in PL, would the purchases still have been made with plan of being possibly in Championship next season and then having bit younger and PL ready team if we make it up from Champs again. Other option would be focusing on getting two or three more guaranteed PL quality players with less development capacity (which would likely been bit safer bet for staying in PL), but that would have likely been bad business in longer term. Might be just silly thoughts, but just been popping to my mind when thinking about how this team can progress compared to earlier if we take another visit to Champs and then are able to get back to PL.

I think we were pretty well up for the challenge in the Leeds match until they scored their second. We were active, winning the balls and our transition game was actually pretty good in both offensive and defensive transitions. We also had lots more variety in our offensive play compared to previous games including running with ball and dribbling that helped us to get them overnumbered locally. In many ways it seemed like massive improvement to previous games (even to the ones where we got the draws). It was just lacking the quality in final decisions that kept us out of scoring positions and conceding a shot that should've never gone in. I do agree that Gilmour is more likely to be able to help with that final delivery, but it really means that he has to be prepared to pull out as hard working shift as others did in last match. I have no doubt that when he is considered capable of doing that, he will be back on lineup. Currently it is hard to say who he should replace. McLean brings high work rate there and also can have his moments of flair, so playing in his position likely would not be good option. Normann is engine of the team at the moment and is covering lots of ground defensively as well. Rashica could be one option, but he actually did pretty good shift defensively and has threatening pace (even though lacks his final decision making). Sargent is also working his socks off and is pretty important for counter pressing, which is something Gilmour was lacking when he was playing. So if we replace Sargent then we would have to drop active counter pressing, which would likely make us lots easier to play against. Maybe Dowell is the one that could be replaced by Gilmour and still keep the balance. Then it comes to matter of opinion which you would prefer to see on that position Dowell, Gilmour or Tzolis. The best option in my opinion would be Cantwell if we could just get him back. But that is something that I and others can have opinions about, but management can observe competition for that spot continuously in training sessions.

For sure they would likely be more of use in those matches. On case of Tzolis we can maybe evaluate a bit as he played over 20 minutes there and rarely got into game during that time. I think I mentioned that I think that both have qualities to make something happen, so I agree there to some extent. But if they are not either willing or capable yet to do the work also defensively then there is also a chance that they would cause more problems than bring into game. When working hard and having active press, it needs big work rate from everyone in the team and mentality to dedicate to defensive duties and tracking back opponents. If there is a single player that does not do that, the system can break up completely. Of course I cannot say that it is about that, but based on Gilmour's earlier appearances, tracking back is something he was not often willing to do. When looking at the team that was starting, we can clearly see that all the players we had selected are very hard working players with both pace and stamina. That is actually something that we have seem to have been looking for couple of games for now. PL is likely the league that has highest tempo & skill level combination that there is and if you want to be competitive you need to be able to respond to that demand at least on tempo. After that, you can add some flair. When thinking teams outside of very few top teams of the league, there is not a big amount of players that are not doing that work (can think only one or two). The luxury players that are not leaving everything out there also defensively, are usually something that only very top teams can field as they can control the game with sheer overall quality to maintain massive possession and have some truly world class defensive players covering them. I trust that Gilmour and Tzolis will learn to adapt to those demands in time and will come good. And hopefully they will take the steps very soon as we really need some better delivery and flair on final third.

There are many voicing loud that Gilmour is such a great talent that he should be starter for sure. He was at first and was dropped for a reason due to his performances, now he has to fight his way back there. Bit same as with Tzolis, lots of people ranting on his playtime and when he got to field on last match he was totally invisible. I'm sure both are full of talent and have that extra flair to have magic moments, but it is also likely that it is easier to flourish in environment when someone else is taking the burden to do the hard defensive work for them. Based on their performances with us so far, I'd say that it is something that Farke is trying to teach for them now. Hard work and earning their place in the starting eleven. I'm sure that both will at some point get more playing time and come up with much more effort and fighting spirit, which will be big development step in their career.

I would not say that he has been terrible, but I agree that he has not seemed to be in level he was year or two back. When fighting against relegation, you really have to take some game savers every now and then and I really don't recall those lately. When you take a look at keepers of lower midtable, there are quite many that are ahead of him. Don't still think him as a disastrous and what I've seen from Gunn so far, I'd say that Timmy is clear starter. Still, I'd say that he currently isn't really making the difference in the tight matches that would be needed for keepers on this level. In many ways his current performance level is on same average than most outfield players.

Will be hard, but the fighting spirit in the last match was something that I have not seen before this season. So I have a small positive feeling in back of my head that with bit of a luck the things could be turned around and pull ourselves back to the fight. Maybe there are some goals to be scored in next couple of games and even a first win of the season waiting behind the corner.

I think he is really good player. Really good all around in his game and has good selection of passing. Now we just need him to get to same page with Pukki and we might start seeing some goals.