sgncfc

Best referee I've seen for some time. Gave the offside immediately - no arguments. Waved away the pen appeal immediately - no arguments. The pen was one you can look at 20 times and not know. You just need a ref to make the decision as quickly as possible and move on.

I don't see Idah as a goalscorer - he doesn't take up the positions necessary to be one - but he is a decent forward, in the way he runs at and moves around defenders. Hopefully he can create enough havoc for others to set up Sargent, who is a goalscorer at this level. There were two or three fabulous crosses from Dimi last night with none of our "strikers" gambling to get on the end of them. As for those who bemoan the impending loss of Pukki - we have been one dimensional for too long. This approach failed dismally twice in the EPL. Pukki scoring one in three chances (when no one else gets anywhere near scoring) is never going to work against top defenders. It worked twice before in the Champs because the defenders he was up against aren't as good, but he's lost his edge now and his conversion rate is too poor for him to be the only reliable goalscorer now. So we need to develop another way of playing - hence Idah and Sargent. I'm sure Pukki will still feature this season, but as an impact sub in the last 20 minutes or so.

Sara was my MOM, but Onel played well, as did Maclean. It seems that Maclean sets our tempo these days and when he is given some space we tend to keep up the impetus. There were still times when we slowed it down too much but overall a good performance throughout the team and for the whole 90 minutes, for a change. Sara is improving fast. No doubt there is a player in there and his flick for Dimi was reminiscent of Buendia at his best.

Poor lamb.

However much we have spent, It's peanuts compared to what we needed to. Bournemouth have just spent £50m in the January window, yet the chances are they are coming down. Even Southampton have spent £30m, and they have no chance of staying up. Don't even get started on Forest. West Ham have a squad valued at well over £400m. The players you can buy for £10m are not going to keep you in the EPL, and now it looks like they're not going to get you out of the Champs either. Burnley are a special case, where the stars have aligned, much like they did for us two years ago. But they aren't pretty. Sheff Utd started their process in the middle of last season and have gelled into an effective team. But they aren't pretty. What we have is a squad which should be competing for the top 6 according to results. But everyone wants sweet football as well, because that's what we had. No other team in this league plays that way. No one. Every team is functional and efficient. No other team in the Champs has hugely creative players or pacey, exciting players. They don't fit the modern way. It's all about workrate, stats, Xg etc. Management and coaching makes the difference at this level - getting a team ethic, momentum, support etc. We don't have that anymore. I think the "supporters" are indeed partly to blame. I guarantee that if we make a mistake on Tuesday which leads to a Hull goal, the crowd will boo and start to turn. That isn't support. Why would Attanasio put his money into a club with supporters who are unlikely to appreciate him?

We need Gibson alongside Omo, and a different winger to Onel. I'd love to see Sargent through the middle but can't see him dropping Pukki.

This is the point - the EPL doesn't need a European Super League as long as there are half a dozen competitive clubs and as long as the money keeps flowing. Other European Leagues are fast going down the Scotland path, with one or two decent teams and a bunch of also rans. France is already there. Italy and Germany aren't far behind them. Spain is the only one who might recover because of the salary cap, but that will put them out of synch at the top in terms of competing at elite level. It's a mess, and the FA and EFL are clueless.

I think Burnley fans still love the EPL and rightly so because they have generally been competitive in it, whatever your opinions about their style of play, and under Kompany it is likely they will be again. He knows that league and what you have to do. Norwich fans have a different view, and a difficult one for others to understand. We want to get promoted, because why wouldn't you? But we don't want to play in the EPL if survival means watching rubbish football, which it does for any club who don't have £300m to spend every season. So the likelihood is that we will get spanked again, even if we go up. I just spent some time on a ship with a few Burnley fans. Nice people, but when I asked them what was the point in them being in the EPL they couldn't really answer. It just is. And that's the problem - until we finally get some kind of European Super League, it is completely pointless being in the EPL.

It was all set up for him at the start of last season to be the man. He started against Liverpool with Farke's endorsement ringing in his ears. That was his big chance to prove he was the dogs and earn his big new contract by being the one who kept us up. He blew it. Not good enough. Don't know or care what he's like as a person; just know that as a footballer, he will never make it in the Premier League. Perhaps that's hard for him to take, but It's no one's fault but his.

On that performance we are unlikely to even get in the playoffs, let alone win them. We have nothing in midfield. I know Wagner is still assessing the squad but someone should tell him that Gibbs has to start.

Carlos Corberan. So West Brom can fall like a stone again.

No big surprise here is there? Klopp has been referring to this for years - with Chelsea as well. I'm no particular friend of Liverpool, but Man City have well have stolen the title on more than one occasion.

Still too early to call for Forest but signing Navas may well keep them up, and they seem to have a bit of luck going for them at the moment. If they and Fulham do stay up it means that Bournemouth, Southampton and one of the bigger boys are coming down, which won't make next season any easier. We should hope for a Forest meltdown.

Cardiff are suing their brokers, not the insurers, for failing to place the cover. It was always possible that there was no cover in place (see my comment above) and now we know why. As to whose fault that is, I guess we let the court decide, as it will depend entirely on what was agreed between the club and their brokers.

That's why I'm a bit surprised we've managed to move Cantwell on now. Presumably we are getting something for him (a figure of £1.5m has been mentioned) which he could surely have trousered himself if he'd waited until the Summer.

Hector was half decent and didn't Izzy Brown play for Wagner at Hiddersfield?

We need to get 2 points per game to make sure of the top 6. It's possible. Top two are way too far ahead for us to catch them - we would need to win every game and that's not gonna happen. Once you get in the playoffs you play to win, whatever the finances are or the state of the team. You don't get such chances very often. Defeat to Birmingham at Cardiff was horrendous - the very worst feeling. I don't want that again.

It's two games, each with 22 shots - still not enough on target, but today the ones that were went in. But it was against a Blackburn side that got roasted today by Rotherham and an abject Preston team. I'm still not sure about our quality, but there isn't much around to keep us out of the top 6. Massive improvement though.

🙃 What do I know...

If we were to scrape into the playoffs and then jammy our way back into the EPL we have to buy him, injured or not.

2-0 defeat. A long work in progress.

Some players are injury prone, some are unlucky. We seem to sign an awful lot of the former for both the first team squad and the academy. This must be a tactic of sorts, to enable us to get slightly better quality when we take that risk that others won't. Off the top of my head I can't actually think of a player who falls into this category ever really shaking it off and playing a full part.

Can't believe he's only 28. Another player who did too much too young and got burned out. I doubt he's good enough to engage in a gegenpress to be honest.

Blackburn's bid is reportedly £1.5m. Can't see us selling to a promotion rival. Glasgow much more likely, but do Rangers have £1.5m?

There's a reason it's "currently out of fashion".