Mason 47

Pretty sure the Pinkun boys confirmed Johnston was a player we sounded out in the event of a late massive bid for Rowe. I suppose it depends which we would rather have. Whatever the case, Rowe's hamstring injury is on a par with Sargents injury in terms of bad timing.

In Brazil he was playing as a left sided-ish player. Though Nunez was used at times as a wing-back in Chile and I don't think that would go so well here. I've always thought we have the set to play 3 in midfield, as seemed to be the DS blueprint and I thought the basis for the purchase of those two players. Makes me shudder a bit, mind, that there might be practical application to anything Dean Smith.

Leicester score?

We'd have gone down in the 2nd Farke season even if we'd paid Emi a bazillion £/pw and had him for that year.

Picked a great game to miss by the sounds of things. Well in, Cardiff 😉

It's poised to be an interesting one. The manner of the defeat in midweek should light a fire under the team, Rotherham might be in for a battering. But, football is wonky sometimes and there always seems to be a struggling team that doubles us every season. I'm rather hoping Boro have just pipped Rotherham to that title as both defeats to them this year were horrendous.

I admit I was a little confused by RadNor saying Howson didn't make a meal of it, as I was sure that he'd hopped away and eventually landed in a heap. Glad I wasn't making things up.

I could fill pages & pages with rants about supermarket etiquette. Probably best not to.

My only gripe with Hanley is the lack of reaction to goals conceded. Little look to the sky, hands on hips, turns around and heads back to the halfway line. Obviously there's no need for theatrics but he comes across like concessions are inevitable. I'd personally leave it with McLean for this season and take a view in summer, as every player you could argue for has a decent argument against as well

Perhaps a little off-the-wall suggestion- Final Space on Netflix, which is a cartoon. Wouldn't say its near the best around, but once you get past the erratic modern humour it hits some quite thoughtful dramatic places. Loses its way the further on you get as plotlines/ concepts trip over themselves though.

The modern man's 'where do you leave the shopping trolley' conundrum.

I think it was Dean Ashton on co-comms recently who echoed the idea that our players are very good at pacy & direct front-foot football, but lack the mental skills/ concentration to sit off and control space. It's something that definitely goes back to Farke days, where if you had to put a black-and-white definition on player as there for 'attack' or 'defence' you could easily argue 8-9 of the players were the former. Even last night, I think one could reasonably say only two of the starters were in for their defensive assets (and one of those is a goalkeeper). The pressing question in the case that this is true is- why do we regularly revert to a defensive stance when we regularly prove we really struggle with it?

I think Sainz has done an overdramatic spin (footballers often do this) and Howson hasn't moved on by the time Borjas feet brush his thigh. It's probably one of the weakest calls for a foul I've ever seen given. In real time I also didn't think Howsons challenge was anything to write home about, but if you can make the point that slow-mo does Sainz no favours, Howson should get a retrospective red also. We've been conned and getting it overturned won't reset the clock to 30 mins and cruising. That's the real damage. I'm certainly not one blaming Borja. Plenty of players did much worse last night.

I don't necessarily know what I'm talking about, but to my eye we reacted to the sending off by dropping into a 4-4-1 with Sargent wide and Barnes up front. We also played very narrow to reduce the spaces in front of goal (nothing necessarily wrong with that). What this did is A: allow Boro to push their defenders higher as our potent threat in behind + press was neutralised; and B: allowed them space down the sides, whilst we defended crosses very passively. In theory I don't think it was a terrible move. But in practice it removed us from the game as an attacking force- losing one winger should not equal losing the game

Similarly however, the two foot hack shouldn't be considered null due to what happens afterwards. Although I agree with you, I'd imagine if Howsons tackle has anything to contribute it would be questioning why a light touch by Sainz is dealt with much more harshly than a high + heavy two footed Howson challenge.

As I said on the other thread, I think the referee must be absolutely certain he's seen violent intent to give a red there. A yellow and a warning and no one would have thought twice.

I think the ref should only be dropping a red card if he's certain of intentful violent conduct. If Sainz had been given a yellow and a warning nobody would have looked back at this once. If we're talking galling, it is that even if overturned, we can't turn back the clocks to totally dominating a crap Boro side. Those 3 points go begging.

If I hadn't seen it and you told me there was a controversial red card just after this...

As ever, the most difficult opponent for this Norwich City side is this Norwich City side. They do have some terrible luck, for sure. But they always have some nonsense in them to generate that luck.

I'd suspect if upheld it may well cost us more than just tonight.

Red card has pretty much ruined this game for us. Regardless however it has been a terrible capitulation since the sending off as Boro had their laces tied together and have still managed to cobble together two goals. Real shame. But definitely a continuing facet of the Wagner approach that we look good until we lose a first team player.

Sparing a thought for those posters who were gleefully loading up their clever tombola-related posts at about 7.44pm

This would be a good idea for it's own thread. Mine were Diadora and looked like they were made of latex.

This is where the nebulous intangibles get involved I feel. How much can the Sheff Utd players really give their souls for it, after failing yet again like we have? When it all looks so familiar how much can one really care? Are Luton safer as the stereotypical hard-working scrappers that PL fans ate desperate for? This is something I was talking about a while back. To get more than a fleeting season in the PL you need a top coach, an effective system that he's planned meticulously to maximise the very good players at his disposal, with the financial clout to keep the best and replace what leaves with better. And even then, a decent slice of things going your way. Every year closes the door further on clubs establishing themselves as top-20

The narrative will come for them, eventually. If we all try really hard, we can remove non-elite clubs from the top level forever