Beefy is a legend

Gibson will surely start against Burnley. Especially when we play a 3 man defence I think Farke will want to use Gibson so that the LCB is a natural left footer. I think with Hanley and Kabak. Aarons and Williams wing backs for me for this game. Williams needs to play because we need someone decent aerially against Burnley. Normann, Mclean and PLM. Sargent and Pukki. Not a chance I'm leaving out Sargent who has looked one of our best players so far this season.

GJL - the above is exactly what I think too so I won't bother to reply.

I certainly think we should fight tooth and nail. I just take the view that sacking the manager is more likely to be counter-productive. I would prefer to give DF time to work with the new players and improve us. I still think the sample size and toughness of fixtures makes it far too early to draw the conclusion that DF can't succeed at this level. The other issue is that getting someone 'better' than DF would be very difficult. They would have to have more premier league experience presumably, be willing to work under a DoF model, be willing to accept that they have to play academy products, work within a self-financed model and play an attractive brand of football as stated by Webber. Good luck with that search. I think we have the right man for the job here already.

Because I don't believe that sacking managers is a path to long term success. Certainly not for us under this model. If we aren't good enough I'll be disappointed. But I won't turn against Farke and Webber. They've presided over a considerable improvement in the club's fortunes over the last 5 years.When they came in, just being in the Premier League was a pipe dream.

Admittedly that is true. However I've seen little evidence yet to suggest that the stadium is ready to turn on the manager en masse. I agree with you that it is going to be a little ugly if we lose to Brighton and go 0 from 8. Lose to Leeds and go 0 from 10 and I can see there being some negative chanting etc. I'm just unconvinced that Webber will really be swayed by all that. It is going to take a sustained run of really horrendous results and performances for them to even consider it, in my opinion. And personally, I'm pleased about that.

Webber will ignore the noise.

Yep I think it would take something absolutely ridiculous like 0pts from 15 games for them to contemplate it.

I have to say that I don't think Farke is anywhere near the sack. I don't even think it will have crossed Webber's mind because Webber sees them as a team with joint accountability. I'd go so far as to say that it will take a decision from above them for Farke to go. And if that decision came, Webber would resign.

Profile picture of 4-4-2 advocates.

Yes. We should give them at least TWO games before casting the first stone...

Iwan, Vrancic, among many others all had poor starts before improving. Let's not be so fast to rush to judgment.

You compete as best you can with the resources you have available. To be honest there are probably at least 25 clubs in the UK with more resources than us - there are many owners bankrolling clubs even outside the top flight whereas we self-fund. Being in the top flight is a decent effort for NCFC. Our task is to be competitive at this level. That will be difficult for us but not impossible. And there's a long way to go this season.

We don't have rich owners. They are good people that care and want the club run in a financially sustainable way. It causes us problems in some respects but it has also forced us to invest in our academy which has been a huge positive. Coming from an amateur club background, personally their approach is something I'm extremely proud of. They aren't the worst owners in the world though, are they? If we hound them out, I'm sure Derby County would take them. Maybe you can start a protest in front of the City Stand next home game. You might be a little lonely though.

Yeah I agree with all of that. I definitely think expectations have raised a little too quickly. Some of the booing in the Barclay toward Farke at the end of the game is so incredibly disappointing. Is there no loyalty anymore? I've just watched all of the goals carefully and I don't really even think you can blame Farke for the tactical setup in relation to any. The first goal Rashica fails to close down a cross and Kabak is stationary letting Dennis get the run on him. The second, Normann just doesn't track the channel run and then Sarr gets across Hanley. The third, McLean shanks a clearance horribly and there's a marginal offside and a shot saved which breaks kindly. Individual mistakes for me over and above a tactical issue in relation to the goals today.

The trouble, LDC, is that everyone wants to stay up THIS season. They want to beat Watford TODAY. There is no patience for a more longer term gradual improvement. Which over the last 5 years we can confidently say is what is happening. For those calling for rich Chinese investors etc and the ejection of the 'Stowmarket Two', that is particularly galling to take when you consider what has happened to Derby County in the last 24 hours.

It would be pure speculation to try to value the early 90's side by today's standards so I won't bother to try. What we can say is that the value and quality of our playing squad has increased dramatically over the last 5 years that the current management have been in charge.

It isn't failing. We are improving year on year. We just aren't good enough to stay in the PL yet. But there's 33 games over 8 more months for that to change. I'm not convinced that it will, but that doesn't detract from the overall positive direction of progress.

I completely agree. I've said before on another thread. I know that everyone is desperate for us to go up and stay up, but the fairest yardstick to measure the management of this club by is to ask whether they've improved the squad each year. If they've done that, then they are taking the club in a positive direction, even if we still aren't good enough to survive this year. Subjectively I don't have any doubt personally that the squad has improved every single year. Objectively, TransferMarket demonstrates clearly that we have the most valuable squad (worth c. £180m) that we've ever had.

The idea that you can just bring in Hughton or Allardyce and fix our defensive issues is completely absurd. Do you know what they would do? They would advocate a much more defensive set up. Farke is capable of doing that himself. His choice is not to. It's not to throw out his ethos. It's to get better at implementing it. And there are still 33 games to go. People calling for Allardyce as a defensive guru makes me feel like I've entered some sort of weird parallel universe. All off the back of 5 defeats, most of which were fully expected.

It's nonsense because you don't know what each coach does at Colney on a day to day basis. So you are not in a position to evaluate their performance in those roles. Webber is. If he feels that the coaching staff needs improving, expect him to act.

Sorry but I find these type of comments a total nonsense. You have no idea how Farke coaches on the training ground. The idea that he doesn't understand how to set up defensively is ridiculous for a top level professional coach. All styles and systems of play have their advantages and drawbacks. Farke chooses to play a progressive, attack minded system. That will inevitably leave defensive weaknesses. You cover those as much as possible but at this level the opposition are that much better at exploiting them. What that doesn't mean is that Farke has no understanding of defensive set up and that he and his coaching staff 'need help'. How do you even know whether Riemer etc are defensively minded coaches? Are coaches even recruited on the basis of one facet of the game only, such as defending or attacking?!

Spot on. Rupp is being scapegoated and is nowhere as bad as some want to make out. He's a good Championship level midfielder, and a squad option for us at this level. I don't see him starting many games from hereon in, but I do see us using him as and when we are defending a lead, and in the event of a couple of injuries.

I've said before. Delia and Michael aren't the best owners in football. But they are nowhere near the worst. To be honest it's pretty sad to see what is going on with Derby and Forest. Good football clubs. Similar size to us. If we'd sold off the club to the highest bidder we could easily be in their position. Sometimes I think we don't realise how lucky we are to have people in charge that care about the club. When you consider the clubs that are a similar size to us that are doing better than us, I would list: Leicester Palace Southampton Wolves Brighton Burnley Then when you list the clubs similar sized to us that are doing worse than us, you have: Fulham WBA Boro Derby Sheff Utd Forest Swansea Sunderland Portsmouth Sheff Weds Charlton Ip5w1ch (used to be similar sized to us) In the overall scheme of things we are doing ok.

I think the point is that Rupp isn't going to be starting many games for us this season. He started yesterday for various reasons already mentioned. I think we all know in a couple of weeks Normann will be in the side along with, most likely for me, McLean and PLM/Gilmour. It wouldn't surprise me to see Rashica and Tzolis starting regularly behind Sargent although there may be games where we can play 4-2-3-1 and use Dowell in the 10 behind Pukki. But to answer the OP's question, Rupp is getting in the side more because at this level we are playing against much better opponents, hence moving from the more expansive 4-2-3-1 to a more defensively oriented 4-3-3.

Maybe DF hasn't heard of the phrase 'Netflix and chill' yet...