Petriix

If he's been reading this thread, Long should be starting to understand the weight of disappointment in his ability.

Maybe he's been smoking too many Marlboroughs? Luckily he's not Hampshire or we might need to give him a Nether Wallop.

I think this is the wrong move. Healthy political debate is very important for a functioning society and, for some people, a forum like this might be the only place they experience these kinds of conversation. Social media becomes an echo chamber but on here we have an unusually broad spectrum of views, united by a common interest. As long as people aren't being abusive or inappropriate, I can't understand the need to shut down the discussion. If it's certain individuals then simply warn and ban them. This feels like a collective punishment - like keeping all the kids in at break because some of them misbehaved. Personally I am struggling to imagine why any intervention is necessary. It must be easier to ban a user or two than to delete a whole section of the forum. It's likely that these topics will seep into the main discussion rather than disappearing completely. In a way I'd prefer not to hide the politics away in a dirty corner and have it in plain sight. I suspect, however, that this would be frowned upon.

I'll take it to a point, but I'm struggling to accept being systematically exposed in exactly the same way repeatedly while simultaneously looking short of ideas in the final third as well. I don't mind a bit of end-to-end stuff as long as we're generally creating better chances than we're conceding. The issue for me is that the holes seem to be baked into our plan A, with a necessity to plug them dynamically on the fly when we're already out of shape. Wagner's system had an unrealistic expectation that the fullbacks and wide attackers could run 50% further than everyone else. It worked some of the time. JHT's plan seems to have evolved into morphing into a 3-4-3 with the ball and the players are struggling to transition in a reliable way when we lose it. Not since Farke abandoned the 4-2-3-1 and Webber failed to replace Skipp has our basic defensive structure looked coherent. There's a reasonable argument that, before injuries and suspensions, we were making it work. The compounding factor is that the other midfield options seem far worse at retaining and progressing the ball... Which, in a very roundabout way, brings us back to the topic of this thread. I actually think Crnac is doing fine, just lacking a bit of cutting edge in the final third. He diligently does the rest of his job well and will definitely improve. Forson is the big disappointment due to his poor ball retention closely followed by Marcondes for his lack of mobility; because he can't/doesn't track runs from deep, we never regain parity when we lose the ball. Bemoan the injuries all you like, praise the positives too, but recognise that the current situation demands we do something different rather than acting surprised when another couple of goals fly in.

What we need is a coherent performance where we stop allowing teams to merrily stroll through our midfield and defence. I'd take a 0-0 at this point.

A problem entirely of our own making. He was clearly below the required standard when he played last year. Sometimes I think contracts and signings are based on hope rather than genuine analysis. I suspect that Long shows some great attributes with the ball at his feet in training. He ticks certain boxes which we're looking for in our general style when we have the ball. I actually think he looks really composed and passes it out well. I imagine they really hoped that the basics of actually saving goal-bound shots would come naturally. Maybe he does ok when out of the spotlight. Whatever. He isn't good enough at actually saving shots in match situations. He shouldn't be playing. Everything else is irrelevant.

I think if we were fully fit then we'd present problems to teams and they would have to adapt or risk being torn apart. With the injuries we have, it's madness to belive we can get away with such an imbalanced setup. Against Cardiff we skewed too far to the defensive third and lost the midfield. In our other games we've been too top heavy. What we need is a proper balance. I feel like I've been banging on about it for years now. 4-3-3 hasn't ever worked for us. We need a decent CDM and to stick with a 4-2-3-1.

I think those blaming Doyle and Cordoba are missing the point... Sainz is playing in a free role, essentially a forward cutting in from the left but also operating in the number 10 position. There is no conventional left-sided midfielder to provide proper defensive cover. With Marcondes effectively playing like a number 10 (he certainly doesn't fulfill a structural block and lacks the mobility to track back), the left hand side of our defence is horribly exposed. The right hand side fares little better with Fisher tucking in narrow in the 6 position, there is a lack of cover in the wide areas and we are extremely vulnerable to direct balls into the channels. Basically we're a man short all the time whenever we lose the ball. I don't really see how we can accommodate Sainz, Marcondes and another striker as well as a high (though typically more disciplined) right sided attacking midfielder.

Starting his new life up north. Starting a YouTube channel called "goalkeeping bloopers". Starting to learn from his catalogue of errors. Starting for the under 21s for the foreseeable future.

It's helping me to feel better by coming up with things (other than professional football matches) that Long should be starting... His post match shower (at half time). His walk back to the bus. His goodbye message to the fans. His autobiography titled "how I pretended to be a professional footballer".

Yes there are injuries but our system shows a fundamental lack of respect for our opponents and a failure to perform the basic level of tactical coherence when out of possession. We look fantastic at times when we have the ball (without being able to kill games off) but as soon as we lose it we're woefully inadequate. This isn't about missing individuals who would bring the level up, it's about not having the correct number of bodies in crucial areas of the pitch at the important moments. Nunez and McLean between them were doing a reasonable job of plugging the holes but surely it's a significant problem to keep leaving those holes in the first place. Especially away from home, there's a reason why teams tend to stick players behind the ball. We're far too easy to play through and to me it's tactical naivety.

Long should be starting... his search for a different career. Ideally one with minimal responsibility and absolutely no pressure to perform. I'd suggest postman but he'd probably drop all the letters.

A bollard would have stopped that.

This is embarrassing. Absolutely amateur in terms of structure and discipline. The players are failing to do the basics of tracking runs, getting goal side and falling into a coherent shape. Playing a 4-3-3 is just crazy when the opposition don't fear your attackers enough. We're conceding the midfield and are basically a man short whenever they break.

I said we should have forfeited this game.