Hillhead

I'm not sure if this is the best premier league ever but I'd definitely suggest the average say 'quality' of the top 6 or 7 teams is now closer to that of the next 7 or so teams than it ever has been before. My point being that the league doesn't actually have to be at it's best for it to be getting harder and harder for teams like us to survive in. Credit to Sheffield United.

Agreed. It seems to have been dumbed down a bit to become "Farke shouldn't be using points per game to decide whether to play Emi" but even if we look where that came from it isn't even the case. The only cherry picking I see has come from the Athletic. "Farke said, as quoted by Paddy Davitt "I am not saying this to accuse him, but it is gameday 26 and he has not scored a goal. He knows that needs to improve. "He also needs to make more runs beyond the final man. His points per game in the side is the lowest of all our wingers this season. "He can get to the level of a top, top player at this level but since his recent injury I watch him every day in training and he is not quite 100%, yet like his best periods this season. No one in this room is a bigger fan of Emi than me. "But he is a young player and sometimes I have to protect them." Thats even without whatever else Farke has said. It's without question that Emi is our best creative outlet but perhaps Farke considers to justify where Emi lacks defensively or with workrate / temperament he needs to be doing more offensively than he has been. I'm feeling positive tonight, for us and Buendia who will get his first and second goal of the season 😁 here's hoping...

I don't think that article is fair on Farke at all, I think it's a nonsense criticism more than a modest one. From his press conference on the 21st... DF: Emi Buendia is always in my thoughts. Last season we found it quite complicated to win games without him. I know the impact of Buendia. It's a different level now though and Emi is unbelieveably young. He's now playing in the best league in the world. I think he was fantastic at the start of the season, then had to wait on the sidelines for a while, but he came back with the perfect reaction. He's finding it quite difficult to come back from his injury, but that happens with every player that young. DF: If we're honest, against Newcastle Emi wasn't himself. I got the feeling before Liverpool that he wasn't completely 100%. We felt it wasn't the right moment to bring him in against the best defenders in the world. DF: It's important to be honest, it's not about statistics, it's about the teams success. It's important we can't forget that Buendia isn't playing at this level like Lionel Messi does for Barcelona. At the moment, he has to be 100% to make the difference. No one is more tempted to bring him back in the starting line-up than me, but I also have to protect him and make sure he plays him at his best. The use of examples the article gives using "Farke's Logic" include playing Lovren over VVD or Barklay over Kante. What? While I can't see the rest of the article it seems to be built around one quote Farke made in order to create some clickbait? For what it's worth I actually do think Buendia will start tonight 😀

I know very little about finances but if the £800m is correct then that could explain why he's got tired of pumping £6M a year or whatever it is he's apparently losing each season with Ipswich. Back in 2007 his wealth made a difference in the championship. Keane and Jewell wasted it and now the money required has gone far beyond what Evans can put it in. Unless you do it how we did last season. Plus the fans hated him anyway, may as well run them at around break even and have them as some kind of league 1 / championship yoyo club.

I've accepted relegation now so it's all enjoyment from here! Despite our season so far a win against Leicester and results going our way would lift the mood somewhat but It will take a few more wins after that until I start believing that survival may be on the cards Likewise a win against spurs would put us in the quarter finals for the first time in my lifetime and do wonders for team confidence - however unlikely it is.

But wouldn't the flip side of that be a team who don't create many chances in the first place but score a higher % of them? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the stat but to me this either suggests that we've been unlucky in-front of goal so far or that where we are weak is with our ability to put away chances this season - for whatever reason.

This. it happens to teams every season, whether it's Leicester in 14/15, Southampton this season or Hull in the championship last season. (to name some completely random examples) Right now we look terrible, but so do so many of these teams - until suddenly they don't. We need that change in form/belief pretty soon though. To be clear i'm still 97% sure we will go down, but who knows?

Weird how we remember things differently. I remember Farke being quite clear in his response that it's about the name on the front of the shirt that's important and not that on the back. That the players and himself were lucky to be part of the club and should work every day for it. I took that as a stern warning for NO going forward. As for Tettey's interview today I don't doubt he was asked the question first so I doubt he just randomly came out with it.

My grandfather has recently become acquainted with a Norwich player and his wife and i'm generally intrigued to know if we are talking about the same player. The timing lines up. Perhaps years down the line this thread will be bumped and we will discover if it is the same man ☺️

Carra Rud or whatever his name is in my favourite, always about on the match threads when we're getting hammered. But interesting only when Ipswich are away. Come to think of it I haven't seen him all for the last couple of months...seems to have lost his appitite a bit. Can't think why 😉

Not how I see it at all. Any signings would surely, if anything have improved our chances year this year thats not really in question. Our transfer business has proven to have been bad, we can all see it and Webber himself has admitted it. But if we are being honest most accepted it back in the summer and many thought our squad as it was would make a good fist of it. To now go back and criticise after the fact is cheap. Under our current owners we don't have much money. Thats the reality, you just an hour ago commented how even without the premier league bonuses being paid out we would have lost around £10-15m last season. While I don't know how much profit we will make this season I could definitely imagine how after we put it against last years loses it only takes one failed signing and we've pretty much wiped our profit out. I agree it may not have signed a dud at all, and I can't pretend our summer business has proven to be a success but when you weigh up the chance of improvement Vs the worst case scenario there's alot to lose.

The suggestion of Mings sums it up to me. £20 Million+ and i'm not convinced how much of a different position we'd be had we had him on board. Added to that is the fact that we're using the benefit of hindsight a) he's been decent for Villa this season and b) we were decimated in CB earlier during the campaign. Had Pukki have been injured (while Drimic was) would it be a £20m striker instead? What about a long term injury to Krul while Fährmann was out? Was another GK required as well? Not long before you start reaching Fulham / Villa levels of spending.

Are we able to? I honestly think if Villa go down this season then it could be found out that they weren't either....

I agree. I just meant in general if Buendia would clean up that side of his game it wouldn't be a question of whether he should start or not. For me right now unfortunately it is. It's frustrating for me because it's not ability holding him back, its something easily rectified. I do think he'll mature and if he does stay with us long term then imo the last 6 months or so will ultimately prove to be his poorest spell for us. He's got the potential to be a great player.

It's hard to disagree with this. What I would say though is back in August it's hard to determine how easy it would have been to improve each position and how much that would have cost. We all wanted a defensive midfielder and got that in Amadou (🤐) otherwise just so much of our team was an unknown quantity and I honestly thought some of them would have stepped up better than they have done. With Hindsight i'd love to go back and chuck as much money possible at an extra CB. But I wasn't crying out for one at the start of the season. The signings were poor this season and Webber admitted it. Thats cost us. For me the one shining light is our complete lack of spending means we should at least be in a good position to get some business done for the championship next season. We will see.

To be fair I was responding to you using the scoreline to determine how well we played during a select period of the game. Which I still disagree with. I would agree that theres little you can read into it when already 3-0 down though. Wolves can play with freedom and one of my biggest criticisms with us this year is that we just deflate when we go behind. I honestly think if you were to score every team in the prem this season on how much they diminish after a set back we are surely leading that table. Seen it time and time again this season. Why that is I don't know.

We were at our worst towards the end of the game for me so yes.

I feel Buendia negates his talent when he spends time sulking and on the floor. You say thats Farke lacking man management skills but when I try to think of how the likes of Ferguson or Klopp would deal with that I imagine it would be with the player finding himself a new club. We don't have the option and need to get the best out of him. Farke isn't accountable for that aspect of Buendia or Olivera's personality. They are.

Buendia has had some great games for us this season and I think if we were to try and put together a highlight reel of best moments from this season he'd feature on a few of them - and its these sorts of memories that stick in peoples minds in games where nothings happening and Buendia's on the bench. What they forget though, is the games where he has been on the pitch and cost us, Watford at home was one. Burnley, Palace and West ham away just 3 examples where he offered little and would leave us exposed with his antics on the pitch. We lack in ability and trip ourselves up enough as it is without having remove himself from periods of the game. We can't afford that. I hope he improves this side of his game and I do think he will. Currently Buendia's ability level wouldn't see him at Liverpool, United, City or Spurs, so if he's going to be a top flight player he's going to have to improve his attitude when things aren't going his way because any club he'd go to will be in a similar position.

I don't doubt that they care. They just fall considerably short of this Wolves team in terms of ability. We gave out a few lessons like this last season and now we're on the other side of it.

I like Emi but what do you mean by "can be awesome" It's all very well being a creative spark and taking players on but when in those same games he's laying on the floor or losing the ball in dangerous positions the net effect is negative. I think Emi can be a brilliant player but he has a lot to learn before that.

As much as I like Beundia he's done nothing since he came on to suggest he should be starting.

Agreed. At least this times its to a £100M+ Wolves team, not being thumped 4-0 by Millwall. Just don't want this game to go the way of the away games at West Ham, Burnley or Palace. Please make changes and show us something.

No one to blame but ourselves but it still shows how VAR and inept refereeing really has the power to dictate a scorline now. VAR completely bottles even bothering to look at the reason for Aarons injury That handball (or not) could easily have been given. Foul on Aarons before their corner as well. There were no British officials at the Russian World Cup. There's a reason for that.

The reply you responded to only related to Waveneys online behaviour and that wcock would rather him stay on there than here. What the hell does this have to do with who he is in real life? He's a wind up merchant on here and whether he's your bestie in the real world or not isn't relevant.