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Post by philb on Mar 14, 2024 7:06:43 GMT
Smaller crowds nowadays, not such a big issue anymore.
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Post by philb on Mar 14, 2024 7:04:55 GMT
I’ve got mine this morning at 3am but they don’t have any coach tickets left. Do they usually put on more coaches?
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Post by philb on Feb 1, 2024 20:50:19 GMT
He has been, he was crap the game before too. Well that’s your opinion He did ok the game before. Thing is wi tomo he plays out of position has a bad game he’s shit. Anyone plays out of position and plays shot “oh well he has played out of position “ Now I know what agendas are There’s no agenda. He just isn’t a left back and shouldn’t be playing there full stop.
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Post by philb on Feb 1, 2024 12:16:04 GMT
Player at CW just turned up in a people carrier with two others with him. 100% not Manhoef from the photos I've seen of him. Must be a big pizza delivery if they need a people carrier and three people to deliver it all!
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Post by philb on Jan 31, 2024 9:41:02 GMT
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Post by philb on Jan 31, 2024 9:38:27 GMT
It’s probably been mentioned on here already but I do think us doing anything in the next 2 days depends on us offloading a couple first. Not for financial reasons but more for numbers wise. Makes sense as it’s already been mentioned early in January that players were available. Sadly as usual no one seems to want them due to wages, contracts etc.
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 19:46:09 GMT
I meant available, sorry. Is he not available then? Probably needs a holiday break 😏
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 19:45:29 GMT
Here here, I think we will give Leicester a really good game. I think we will but be a case of Leicester taking their chances and us being unlucky again Well we’ll probably have Mmaee back up front so…….
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 19:43:07 GMT
The stadium. We moved from our historic home. First mistake. Our first game was a half arsed cup game against Rochdale. We sneaked a win. Sir Stan was asked to hit the ball in the net from the halfway line on our first official league game. He was in his 70s. The ball didn't make it. We lost the game against Swindon setting the tone for the season. We then proceed to get relegated in our first season in our new home. After years of obscurity we get to the premier league. Stadium is a fortress. We expand said stadium and get relegated. Its a fucking jinx of a place. We need to move back to stoke. Surely we can find a small plot and start again. Wonder how much it would cost to buy Trentham Gardens and build there 🤷♂️😂
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 19:36:50 GMT
This close to the window closing, the information drip feed is worryingly zero.. I’m sure they’re trying to get some deals done but worryingly I hope they don’t just bring in panic buys/loans last minute that turn out to be no better than what we’ve got.
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 15:30:03 GMT
Yes but at the time fans were wanting us to sign a free agent defender as we were so short on numbers 🤷♂️ I want a 30 goal a season striker but I aint getting one. We needed someone to tell Mr Neil at the time what a wank idea signing Clark was. Yes but as I say we needed a defender and Clark was probably the only one worth taking a shot on.
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 15:28:39 GMT
Yes we do have to give it time, but we’ve been here before, over and over again. Some fear that we are just repeating the same cycle again, the same mistakes. I’m undecided but I’ve got to say I’m not really seeing much to convince me. We’ve just had a thrashing. We are very likely to follow that up with two more thrashings. Depending on other results we are quite likely to be properly in the relegation mire after that. 3-1 away from home against a team comfortably above us in the league, sitting just outside the playoff places, does not constitute a thrashing, especially when you take into account we had more possession (58%) and nearly twice as many attempts (15 shots, 4 on target compared to their 8 shots, 5 on target). We didn't play particularly well in that we missed a load of chances and made some mistakes at the back, but it was certainly not a thrashing. For me a thrashing is either when a team puts 4 or more past you without reply, or those games where you struggle to create anything as the opposition completely nullifies you, or both (see the games where Bayern Munich and Real Madrid visited Manchester City last season).
I'm sure we'll struggle against Leicester, so things are likely to get worse before they get better, but we were never going to magically turn things around and go on a winning streak - we started the season with an imbalanced squad, a huge number of changes, a shaky defence and no real goalscorer. We're going to have to battle it out until the summer as there is no way we're fixing all the issues in this window. We are in a relegation battle yet again, but I think we're unlikely to go down and I do think we've picked the right manager for the job.
To be fair Sunderland did actually score 4 😜
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 15:24:28 GMT
The signing of Clark should never have been sanctioned, it was out of desperation and a complete waste of wages. Yes but at the time fans were wanting us to sign a free agent defender as we were so short on numbers 🤷♂️
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 15:20:40 GMT
I wonder what reassuences the owners gave SS when he signed up. Surely he must have expected some backing this window. Of course he will have backing. He’s already said they are talking to a number of players. You still have to identify the right player and they still need to want to come to the bottom end of the Championship. It’s going to be a hard sell to attract the quality of player we need. We only have a vision to sell, the reality is very different And the problem with the hard sell is that we only end up signing players that add to or improve the squad rather than the starting eleven, which is obviously where we need the most improvement right now.
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 15:16:40 GMT
Everything was already doom and gloom. The issue is the other way round. An “unbeaten run” that was actually mostly a series of dull draws was seen as the dawn of a shining new era. It wasn’t. Obviously. We’ve now just reverted to type. We are on a slow downward spiral and have been for many years and sooner or later we are going down. We CANNOT play the way we do and turn in the results we do and not go down at some point. We haven’t come anywhere near to going down that’s just hysterical nonsense. We have a younger higher potential squad than we’ve had for an eon. It needs more work but we’re not restricted by too many long and expensive contracts that make trying to solve a few more of our problems seem burdensome. It’s a work in progress that I have far more confidence in than previous models. To say we haven’t come anywhere near to going down is ridiculous. Yes in the end we got enough points to stay up at the end of the season, but for most of the seasons since we got relegated we’ve definitely been in precarious positions at different points in those seasons. Even now with 17 games to go we’re only 7 points off relegation and that could be 4 by this Saturday evening. It’s definitely a downward spiral that can’t continue much longer or as history shows it will eventually end in a bad way.
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 12:19:20 GMT
3 out 3 in. I think we could get 2 attacking players with Campbell and one of Wes/Gayle going I’m really hoping for a dynamic left back and left forward. If we can get some pace and power down that flank, I think we’ll do pretty well. Still won’t help us to stick the ball in the net though will it 🤷♂️
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Post by philb on Jan 29, 2024 12:16:27 GMT
Place yer bets…. It’s 9am Friday 2nd Feb, have we signed: A left back A Centre back A striker 1, 2, or all 3 of the above? 3 out 3 in. I think we could get 2 attacking players with Campbell and one of Wes/Gayle going Which League 1 or 2 club is after Campbell then? 😉
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Post by philb on Jan 28, 2024 10:09:22 GMT
Our "summer reset" is looking more and more like a complete shambles with every week. Only Burger, Junior, Jun-Ho and (to a limited extent) Vidigal have really had any kind of positive impact on our season. I would probably add Gooch onto that list as well. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Our central defenders are average at best and we only have one senior left back at the club. We have looked extremely poor defensively in the last couple of games. At the other end of the pitch we have very limited creativity and no one capable of scoring goals on a regular (or even semi-regular) basis. We cleared out lots of deadwood in the summer and managed to replace them with morr deadwood. Of the CBs I think that McNally is the worst on recent showings in the case of Rose and Wilmott I don’t think they’re that bad but together they’re just to weak as a pairing. The way Rose got beaten to the ball for the first was really poor. One of them needs a big bruiser in the mould of Huth, Ryan or Schtaniuk next to them. Then they’d be a lot better. Someone like Lascelles or similar would be perfect or Cresswell. The two centre backs would benefit with having regular decent fullbacks alongside them. We’ve been a complete shit show in that department for ages now. How bad are things that we are currently playing a right footed central midfielder in Thompson in one of those spots.
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Mmaee
Jan 28, 2024 10:02:39 GMT
Post by philb on Jan 28, 2024 10:02:39 GMT
He’s the best all-round striker we’ve got at the club.
That says everything…..
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Post by philb on Jan 28, 2024 10:01:29 GMT
Always injured and when he is not looks knackered and struggles to make 90 mins. If we can get some good money for him, might be best for both parties to move on - probably needs a new challenge. That said, if our new manager can get him fit and in form then we could have a decent striker at this level - and as we all know getting one of those for our transfer team is seemingly impossible. Good money? We’d be lucky to get 500k for him at the moment! And I despair that Schumacher classes him as a striker. He’s a wide player always has been always will be.
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Post by philb on Jan 28, 2024 9:57:22 GMT
And this is why I would always play a fit baker, he scores goals. Where are the other goal scorers from midfield?? When you have a player who can score from 18-30 yards out defenders and midfielders know this and it means it creates space for other players. Why didn’t Baker play yesterday? Maybe he’s one of the one’s not trying/messing around in training that Schumacher alluded to 🤷♂️
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Post by philb on Jan 25, 2024 22:16:21 GMT
The fact that people say we need a dominant centre half but turn their nose up at Souttar doesn’t surprise me, in fact nothing does on here🤦🏼♂️ he’s a massive upgrade on anything we have currently..it may or may not happen but I for one would be absolutely chuffed if he returned. UTP🔴⚪️ I for one would feel a lot safer with Souttar and Wilmot as our two centre backs than Rose and McNally
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Post by philb on Jan 21, 2024 10:20:26 GMT
We look a lot better side between both boxes now. The problem is we’re still as bad in those boxes. Can’t defend and can’t take chances. Some of the build up play yesterday was excellent especially second half. We need a commanding centre half and I was a bit surprised Wilmot didn’t start as one of the two. We did though look so much better as a 352 when Schumacher changed things and IF we’re going to keep relying on Mmaee he definitely needs someone up there with him ala Campbell. If he carries on with the same players then he may well see us as better off 352 than 433. Personally I hope we can bring in another forward and a couple of defenders and can stick with the 433. Mmaee doesn’t do it for me.
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Post by philb on Jan 4, 2024 9:23:45 GMT
34. About the right age for Man Utd strikers 🤣
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Vidigal
Jan 2, 2024 10:55:10 GMT
via mobile
Post by philb on Jan 2, 2024 10:55:10 GMT
He looked frighteningly slow yesterday. He definitely seemed quicker in September. Running on empty? Definitely lost a yard of pace since his injury problems.
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Post by philb on Jan 2, 2024 10:53:50 GMT
Thought the whole thing was weird with their goalkeeper. He literally wasted about 5 minutes just standing with the ball at his feet.
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Baker
Jan 2, 2024 10:38:17 GMT
via mobile
Post by philb on Jan 2, 2024 10:38:17 GMT
Thought he was just ok tbh. He did provide a few shots from midfield which we’ve been lacking recently. Don’t particularly like him anyway and think he’s an arrogant tosser at times. I hate how he points to other players all the time telling them to mark someone he should be marking half the time. Like I said though I don’t like the bloke so I’m biased 😜 Don't let your personal dislike affect your judgement of yesterday's performance I’m not I thought he was just ok. 6.5/10 for me. Got some shots off from midfield that we’ve been missing, but for me he wanders too much in games and goes missing at times when the opposition have the ball. I saw on numerous occasions players glide past him and him make no attempt to recover, whether that was due to his lack of fitness or not I don’t know.
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Post by philb on Jan 2, 2024 10:32:51 GMT
Best midfielder we’ve got at the club by a country mile. Hopefully he hasn’t yet had that many amazing games for anyone to be interested in January 🤞
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Post by philb on Jan 2, 2024 10:30:07 GMT
He was offside, by about 6 inches.
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Baker
Jan 2, 2024 10:28:44 GMT
via mobile
Post by philb on Jan 2, 2024 10:28:44 GMT
Thought he was just ok tbh. He did provide a few shots from midfield which we’ve been lacking recently. Don’t particularly like him anyway and think he’s an arrogant tosser at times. I hate how he points to other players all the time telling them to mark someone he should be marking half the time. Like I said though I don’t like the bloke so I’m biased 😜
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