tomsdubs

Callum Lang?

It's poor football at times, Bird's neck must ache like a bitch watching all those long balls bypass him overhead every game. It's effective but only when we are high on energy, soon as we drop off you can see it going wrong. The period before the equaliser we couldn't put 2 passes together for 5 mins it was genuinely awful. John-Jules was poor all game, link up play just never came off constantly rolling around for fouls that never were. Warneball feels like it's all or nothing to me, either really effective driving teams back or total loss of control. Had an OK first half then after 2nd goal went in the levels seem to ease off and we let them right back in to it. When we finally started whipping proper crosses in things started to fall, one thing I can't stand is floated crosses. Fair play to Hourihane though he stepped up that last 10 mins and pushed us forward.

Quality player but in our financial position we have no choice but to accept a lower offer of 2m, all the best.

Triggered? Alright buddy. Not sure what this calling fights after they have happened jibe is all about. Only one person losing their head in this conversation and started being mean. But since you insist for some reason I only call fights after the fact....

I didn't get why Smith thought he could stand and trade with little foot movement just bobbing his head but then again he's never been a mover in there. Bivol on the otherhand has elite footwork. I'll give the press conferences a miss though, they'll be horrendously boring! I was interested to see how Beterbiev looked as he's getting on a bit now but he still seemed fresh, not had many wars I guess. I remember watching Callum Johnson drop him, his performance looks far better as time goes on. I'm leaning towards Bivol but I kinda need to see how Bivol reacts to Beterbievs shots, I feel like Beterbiev might be a bit too rigid/flat footed to get to Bivol though.

Saying a heavyweight is vulnerable to a puncher is literally a nothing statement, there isn't a single heavyweight that can take clean shots to the chin for fun. That's the nature of the division, especially against the heavier handed guys. Alvarez's camp are super dilligent and definitely did know what they were taking on, have you ever watched an interview with Eddy Reynoso? Bivol was not an unknown, I saw him first when he KOd Broadhurst, he then went on to beat Barrera, Chilemba, Pascal and Joe Smith Jr. I was just being nice rather than trying to dunk on you for casual viewpoints but if you want to be upset someone dissagreed with you then fine. Years of watching boxing lets you see the tropes and false beliefs people can be lead in to. Fighter hype and special aura always gets exposed at some point just like it did with Canelo. Don't take things personally, boxing is all about opinions and conjecture.

It was also confirmed by a local journo there also. And since sunday mirror editor: Pinch of salt obviously but quite a few journos saying it now.

I feel like Collins is massively undervalued honestly, playing as a lone striker where service is everything putting in a shift for 90 mins week in week out. Decent goal return as well and he's one of our most vocal players out there every game. I have more beef with our wide men and centre mids, no one ever gets up there to support Collins up against both CBs. Mendez-Laing has an off game and we look pedestrian at best.

AJs chin is absolutely fine, he ate Wlads biggest shot and got up, took clean shots from Usyk and kept standing who is an underrated puncher. Other heavyweights that sparred Usyk said he had them hurt and he punches way harder than people realise, he's just very smart in varying his punch power during fights. AJ got caught with a temple shot against Ruiz and that is much harder to recover from if you get your equilibrium taken. Took Whyte's biggest left hook and recovered plus many more cleans shots in his numerous world title defences. Fury got hard dropped early in his career by an unknown and Steve Cunningham who was a cruiserweight. Which HW chin do you put above AJs? Personally I think Ngannou fought well but we saw a classic Fury performance of looking crap against lower skilled fighters, done it his whole career. Ngannou moved in straight lines and punched with Fury, if AJ uses his feint catch counter it'll be a brutal KO. I don't see it comparable to the Bivol situation, I consider myself to follow the sport closely for many years now and I had Bivol to beat Canelo. Felt like Canelo had been cherrypicking a bit at the higher weights eg Kovalev who was way past his best. Bivol was a prime technical operator with elite skill level and a bigger frame.

I am really not a fan of the playing style in all honesty, when we don't play well it is horrendous to watch. Think we get battered in the Champ if we go up playing this way. I am hoping he proves me wrong obviously but we've been here before on a good run, needs midfield energy ASAP.

I feel like the role Bird has doesn't suit him, his assist & good play yesterday kinda showed you he wants to play higher up. I think he would provide far more supporting the striker more directly, he's good around the box doing the intricate stuff. Surprised Fornah hasn't featured more but maybe Warne isn't that impressed with him so far?

He clearly still wants more pace which seems to be more a crucial part of his playing style, Bird and Hourihane dont seem to have the legs to get forward and support the striker like he wants. Hence the amount of aimless crosses we saw early on hoping Collins could outjump both CBs. He's prob 3 or 4 players away from playing his way to full effect.

His service has been woeful though for a long time and he's been dining on hopeful crosses lumped in to the box. Most of the time competing with both centre halves because we dont have the midfield legs to get in to the box and support. Now we are getting a bit more quality in there with Wilson supporting you are seing a return.

Hourihane's legs clearly gone, he's got good quality but even against bottom half opposition he's getting run all over. I remember this lad looking decent, be a good loan.

We need to strengthen with a couple if we want to challenge for the autos.

Our lack of quality in possession ultimately cost us today, they just had more athleticism and movement. Made Hourihane look like a statue. We can't win set pieces and bang in 100 crosses a game if we dont have the ball.

There are plenty of regular male refs we have that would have totally lost control of that game, from watching at home I got the feeling the people in the ground were getting caught up in a shared emotion that did not reflect reality. Hourihane should have been sent off IMO, extrmemely lucky, thought she did well in an ugly game. If Derby played the way Wycombe did i'd be absolutely ashamed.

I think finally settling on a preferred starting 11 and gaining some consistency has helped, less aimless crosses in to the box. Jan window is massive for us, need the firepower upfront and if we lose Cashin then we need to be prepared. Hopefully we can get the loan back for the season if it happens, i'm just hoping we get a good fee.

Not getting promoted with this squad and the Jan window with money available would be a pretty big fail in my eyes. It's good to be able to scrape wins away at Port Vale but a bit more football sometimes wouldn't go amiss.

The fact our other wingers aren't performing is putting more pressure on him to come up with the goods. Barkhuizen seems to be in decline to me, very poor this season, Wilson looks way better going forward and he's a wing back.

Will we stop being Mendez-Laing FC? Does Warne know his best side? Does Warne know his best formation? Can we be consistent in levels of performance? I will say putting a winning run together is a big step this season but whether we can go on an unbeaten run we need to get promoted i'm not sure right now.

Good win but hasn't answered any questions really, his Jan signings are going to be crucial and I think it'll define his managerial period with us.

Might be something to do with a manager that admits in interviews he can't motivate the players, who knows.