Srg

14 minutes ago, Anon said:

Lawrence isn't in the Wales squad because he is still injured.

Fixed that for you.

28 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

He won’t do this, but based on how potentially crap our defence is, we really should just go for the whole, ‘we’re gonna score one more than you,’ attitude. 

that could be a lot of fun, and we’ve got the attacking players to do it. 

2 at the back with Rice screening them, and every other bugger on the pitch running at their goal, playing in their half of the pitch. 

Basically, yes. We should be looking to blow some of the smaller nations away. But if you look at the last 2 tournaments, we've really struggled and relied on set pieces and penalties, which laughable with the quality we have in the final third.

6 minutes ago, David said:

Bellingham, Trent AA, Trippier, Foden, Maddison, Wilson…..and Mount, Saka borderline.

They are up there as key players in their respective teams.

Basically a starting XI, bar the centre backs - which is obviously why Safegate plays 3 of the b*******.

1 hour ago, Sean said:

Cybulski is still on loan at Matlock

Pretty sure he got extended just for their last game so he should be back. 

18 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Exactly. So why does Southgate get so much criticism?

Because he still doesn’t use them properly. We 100% should have beaten Italy. But he reverted to type and tried to defend the whole game, didn’t even make a substitution. It was pathetic. That’s after defending his way through to the final. We should have battered several of those teams. Russia was no better, but he gets a pass for that one as the team just needed bringing together after turmoil prior. 

It’s like when we had Nigel Clough. Could see the talent in the team but he was never going to take us up in a million years. Now, I know McLaren didn’t either, but the team took a huge leap when he came in and played some unbelievable football. 

4 minutes ago, JfR said:

Born to be Wiiiiiiiiild...
...smith

Has to be something to Wild Thing

16 minutes ago, TaahnRam said:

I agree it's stupid but they sing the same about Cashin too (no matter how it originated) so how is it racial stereotyping? Just unoriginal 

Correct. It’s sung about a lot of players up and down the country. Not very exciting. With Cashin, especially, I’m surprised the Harry Maguire song isn’t copied where it talks about the size of his head. 

He scored in the game too. 

Nothing stupid at this point. 1s and 2s win this game. Don’t get caught trying to hit a 6 when you’ve already got 6 off the over. 

14 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Only seen it once but was Collins close to being offside for his goal ?

He would have been offside if it was us who knocked it over to him, but it was Bradley Johnson who did it which meant he couldn’t be offside. The linesman initially flagged but the referee, rightly, overruled. 

In serious danger of not getting out the group. Southgate in serious danger of wasting one of the best attacking groups of players we have ever had with his awful, defensive football. 

His selections are odd. He cites form as the reason to pick Maddison, then form as the reason to leave out Abraham. So what about Tomori? Maguire? Won’t take Reece James due to injury but he will Kalvin Phillips. Guy is just contradicting himself all over. 

Tactically, we struggle when Kane drops so deep because we don’t have Son like Spurs do to run in behind. We have players like Foden, Grealish etc who want the ball to feet. That’s why he likes playing Rashford or Sterling to try and stretch it, rather than making Kane stay up top. Hopefully he goes with just Rice and Bellingham in midfield too, and didn’t go 5 at the back which just means we play an extra player from our weakest position group. 

5 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

There’s no sibley enigma. We know what we get from sibley, there are few surprises. We even expect an exceptional goal every few matches. 
 

But what there is is a weird fan enigma when it comes to sibley. He turns up most weeks and plays a sort of ok game, whether or not he starts. Then all his godfathers on here rabbit on about how he can ‘drive forward with pace’ (pace !!) and blame the manager that he’s not playing like Mason Mount. That’s the enigma

Because the stats, particularly early this season, showed we were simply a better team with him on the pitch. There was a point a month or two into the season where we hadn’t scored unless he was on the pitch.

Could he improve? Certainly. He could do with becoming more rounded because I don’t think he has the pace necessary at times, so doing better defensively or knitting play together will help him. He does however, provide someone who can drop a shoulder and get a shot off - something we sorely lack over the past few years. 

The reason he had such vocal backing was from the sheer refusal of Rooney to give him any minutes despite the state of the squad, and that seemingly continuing in large parts with Rosenior. Thankfully, Warne seems more willing to use him and hopefully a run of games will do him the world of good because although you might think everyone rabbits on about it, it was born out of really odd avoidance of game time of previous management. 

No one is asking for him to play week in week out regardless of form. What it would be nice to have though, would be the same leash everyone else seems to have. 

Just now, RoyMac5 said:

The chairs are having a great time! ?

Trying to figure out the words to it. So far I’ve got Mendez-Laing, Sibley in attack, something someone at the back, with Hourihane, Warne will take us to the top. 

Been saying for a few weeks we need to stop leaving Korey Smith at the back from corners. He’s far too slow to stop any kind of counter. It’s finally bitten us on the arse. 

How many penalties this time after the 5 given away on Wednesday?

Vas Borbokis

13 hours ago, Chellaston Ram said:

I can’t believe an MK Dons and Swindon player have been selected for the World Cup ahead of Tom

He's injured still, isn't he?

7 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

Isn’t the double-jeopardy rule along the lines that the penalty is deemed punishment enough, and a red card would therefore be too harsh a punishment. I may be wrong on this, and it has been known!

That is right, but there’s 2 other factors. Firstly, needs to be last man, and secondly, needs to be deemed not a legitimate attempt to play the ball.

Prime example of this rule would be Curtis Davies at Accrington. It was given as a penalty and he was booked. If it was given as outside the box (which it actually was) then he would have got sent off and it would have been a free kick. 

Wasn’t last man. Was obvious at the time. Everyone quoting the rule book on Sunday conveniently leaving out the fact Forsyth was right there. 

Any chance we can get the result rescinded as well?

Scored in time after the added time should’ve been up. After a red card which was a yellow. So Derby it’s embarrassing. 

Just now, Andrew1 said:

No challenge for the ball - red cad

silly challenge

Yeah, if he was last man. He wasn’t. 

Wasn’t last man. How was that a red card?

1 hour ago, duncanjwitham said:

You can't just take passing and tackling completely out of the context of the match though, both your own team and the opposition.  You don't want players just throwing themselves into tackles all the time.  If you aren't pressing in a structured way (hunting in packs etc) then you're just taking yourself out of the game, it's easy to play through.  You either press with enough bodies, or stand off and funnel back into shape.  Sometimes not tackling is absolutely the correct thing to do.

Likewise with passing, you can only pass the ball forward if there's somebody there, in space, to pass it to.  Too often with the back 3, we end up with a near back-5, and 3 sitting in front of them and very few forward passing options.  So it becomes very easy to block off passing routes to the forwards, and we either end up playing it sideways, or forcing passes that aren't there.  When you have more options in forward areas, it's much more difficult for the opposition to stifle us.  And likewise, it's easier to control the ball if you're under less pressure from opposing defenders. 

And the way Bristol Rovers played was a major factor in both of those things.  Very few teams come to Pride Park and try and play progressive football from the back. The majority come to sit deep, stop us playing and nick something on the break or from a set piece.  The way Bristol played gave us ample opportunity to press them high (because they were dawdling on it at the back), and made it easier to pass through them because they had more players in advanced positions, leaving more space in behind.

I genuinely don't think there was *that* much difference in effort between the Exeter and Bristol Rovers games, it's just that against Bristol, which used that effort much more effectively, and the opposition allowed us to.  I expect tonight to be much more like the Exeter game, especially if we end up putting Stearman in and going to a back 3.  Although obviously Morecambe are a much worse team than either Exeter or Bristol.

The effort and application was night and day. A lot of words there, but we fundamentally don’t agree. But I’m not surprised given your thoughts on Warne. 

11 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Don't you think it's easier to 'compete' and play with purpose when you a)know what you're meant to be doing and b)are comfortable with what you're doing? We're better with 4 at the back for a reason.

No. If playing with a 3 at the back means you are unable to put a tackle in with aggression or play a pass with sufficient pace and have a good first touch on the end of it, then you probably shouldn't be playing professional football.

It could, however, mean you're getting overrun in the would-be full back positions, or your most dangerous player is receiving it in his own half far too much. 

Again, doesn't affect basics.