Petriix

Who would have guessed that a loan to a lower level would have helped the lad? I for one am completely astounded. Next we'll discover something mind-blowing about the Pope's religious beliefs...

Or, heaven forbid, having a genuine threat from the bench.

You mean "highlight".

I've got a funny feeling we might end up facing Leicester in the playoffs. That's not actually a massive worry because I think we're better than them at this point in time.

The fact that these three were anywhere near our squad and we actually gave them minutes on the pitch was a contributory factor to our poor form earlier in the season. We're better without them, but it shows how poor the squad management has been. We've got a decent first 11 but no depth and, like @Monty13 says, we should have brought in at least one loan to provide an opinion in the wide areas.

Pukki's erect nipple was objectively 5 microns offside. It was the correct decision. The worse decision in that game was when Kane was clearly offside when Spurs were given the free-kick from which they scored. Obviously VAR can't intervene with that. The implementation is bonkers. VAR should automatically highlight all off-side offences and there should be a margin of at least 10cm. Rant over.

The league table disagrees.

That's a ridiculous claim. Leicester arguably have 'better' players but lower confidence and a greater degree of mental fragility. Unfortunately our away form and own lack of consistency was a poor match up for such a side. Ipswich are a totally different proposition, not least because we're playing them at Carrow Road. But don't underestimate their resilience. They keep on playing and never let their heads drop. What they might lack in individual quality they make up for in determination and cohesion. Anything could happen on Saturday and it might well hinge on one or two moments. I know some people place a lot of weight on the bragging rights but we shouldn't underestimate our neighbours. Nor would it be a disaster to lose this one.

"Lads, remember, if we win then Ipswich stay top. Make sure you concede at least one more and try not to create too much at the other end."

I'd say this is symptomatic of our system rather than his own failings; the midfield should be covering for his absence. [I thought Nunez was culpable for the Plymouth goal because he should have tracked the scorer while the defence adjusted for the unmarked winger.] McCallum has potential and generally presents more threat than Dimi ever has. I really like his long throws too. He's definitely the one to keep.

I totally agree with all of that. The Stacey one was something you never see. I was happy with all the decisions really, I just thought we got the majority of the marginal decisions.

In my opinion there's clear contact. Maybe Gunn did pull his leg away at the last moment, but he's slid in and got nowhere near the ball.

I had a pretty good view of the 'dive' and I'm sure there was contact. Sainz also handled in our box and McLean had previously been penalised for an identical infringement further up the pitch. As the game went on he gave more and more to us, seeming to book Plymouth players for every foul. He was a proper homer.

By "best" you mean kindest to us. If I was a Plymouth supporter I'd be fuming.

I love the idea of a Schrodinger's Banana Skin which simultaneously does and doesn't exist. As for the game, here's my guess: Bali Mumba scores a first-half hat-trick (against the run of play). Stuart Webber is force to march around the pitch naked at half time while Ben Knapper follows behind shouting "shame" repeatedly. Mark Attanasio's takeover is confirmed with the club being rebranded as The Anglia Phoenix. Sargent is subbed off after 60 minutes to resounding cheers and chants of "you do know what you're doing". McLean scores a stoppage time equaliser to make it 6-6.

I think the most pertinent question is: if this leads to the breakdown of his marriage to Zoe and makes him essentially unemployable, would he be welcomed back to the club and given a free season ticket... Might he then become a snakepit divorcee?

Last time I saw him driving it was a Mercedes G-class which aren't too far off the low Ferrari price.

I think Dowell would have been a top player if he could have stayed fit. At the time Sargent was being played as a winger and genuinely wasn't an improvement over Dowell in that position. Now he's up front it's a ridiculous comparison but let's not forget the purple patch that Dowell hit (before getting injured again) when Wagner first came in. I presume he's injured now too...

So 88 points over a whole season which would probably put us in 3rd or 4th place in the final table. Does that count as success?

Was it only me that thought Sargent might have strayed offside for that pass? It must have been very close.

I think there's an interesting correlation between losing both Hernandez and Rowe and ending up with a more coherent midfield system. I think Wagner has tweaked the tactics (or they've naturally evolved) but I also think that players tend towards their natural habits regardless of their instructions. Onel likes to drift high and wide, Sara drifts narrow and deep. Yes, Sargent has been massively important, as has his partnership with Barnes, but I think the more interesting changes have happened more recently.

I was extremely critical of Wagner's midfield system earlier in the season so I feel it's only right to give some credit for the incredible reversal into what we're witnessing now. Where previously there were huge holes and regular systemic failures leading to positional errors and overloads (underloads?), now we are seeing a solid defensive structure from which we're able to transition with deadly speed to create chance after chance. Well done David Wagner. Many of us were calling for Sara to play further forwards, ideally at number 10. We weren't right, but we weren't entirely wrong. The tweaked midfield now features Sara and Sainz as the wide AMs where we previously had Rowe and Hernandez. I'm not certain how much of the change can be attributed to the personnel, but there's a significant narrowing of those midfield roles. The consequences are significant: Now we retain more control in the crucial central area and have far better defensive cover from the deeper midfielders because the attacking players are a deeper and narrower. There's a huge amount of space for our fullbacks to overlap into and less danger from doing so (because of point 1 above). It's obviously not perfect. We still have vulnerabilities, but the overall structure is far more coherent with better defined roles and consistently more reliable positioning. A far cry from watching Onel loitering on halfway. I still have concerns about the depth of the squad because the backup options are significantly weaker, but the first 11 is really good at this point in time.

There's a little trick that I do when making a post: when I get an idea in my head about something but I'm not quite sure of the details, I open up another tab in my browser and look it up *before* hitting the submit button. Hope that helps.

It's ok, your imaginary friend can sit wherever they like without upsetting anyone.

He's definitely been playing better since Wagner tweaked the midfield to make the wide players narrower (possibly this is just an unintended consequence of the injuries we've suffered). There's a little bit more defensive cover and a little bit more space out wide giving Stacey the chance to shine, which he's doing. Sara's two goals and one assist, however, made him MOTM yesterday.