fensaddler

Good to have you back jw. Just a select few of us there tonight but we enjoyed ourselves!

I think this is just what is said in these situations. Would be foolish to comment on tactical adjustments so that the opposition can respond. It's PR speak.

Interesting. Former Walsall player.... It's a small world...

Two things were obvious. First, he damn near got a couple of goals apart from a great save and a goal line clearance. One of those he had no right to get to. Second, he is a big unit, and he gives his defender no peace. He is an absolute handful for the opposition to deal with. Enjoyed watching him play, and could quickly find a new favourite player if he carries on the same way.

3 Souprayen 2 Arslan 1 Caputo

The stats and my eyes both say we were the best team. Could have been three. Caputo was excellent. Arslan and Souprayen both had great games.

Caputo is good, but no Good or Leckie, on top of Tilio out, is pretty rough. Means we've got Nuno Reis in the heart of defence, which frankly frightens me. Can't see us getting much out of this. Really fear we're watching the end of Matt Leckie's stellar career.

As expected, kick off for this one has been pushed back to 7 because of the extreme heat. Mods, any chance you can edit the thread title?

However, the weather forecast suggests 37C on Saturday, so I think that kills the game and the crowd numbers. High chance of being pushed later in the evening unless a cool change is due?

Positives, we're at home, it's a Saturday afternoon, and we might have Tilio, Arslan and Leckie all good to go. It's still a big ask given recent form and against a very decent and well organised Nix team, who are deservedly top. Chance to rock up on a holiday weekend and back our team, for better or worse....

Hope springs eternal that we might turn up and get something out of this, but we're going to need as many back as possible, and the right formation and approach.

I agree with you to some degree. Success is never given and I would not feel comfortable with supporters who felt entitled to success. Partly this is about the scale of our collapse, and the sense of the shambolic and ill judged which surrounds it. This happens to the best of clubs and the best of supporters, so it's not existential if the club takes the right steps and recognises the root of the issues. More than the poor results, the poor structure on the field or the revolving door selections, what flags to me that all is not right is the number of players who have just decided to up and leave (Hamza Sakhi being just the latest), the apparent tensions reported in the dressing room, and the stumbling development of the latest graduates of our youth program. All of this can be fixed if the root causes are honestly recognised. Then the club needs to address its long term weakness, the engagement of its fans and the clubs identity. I won't resile from the fact that CFG made some fucking stupid, arrogant decisions when they first took over, with our colours and name, and we're still paying the price for that. This was particularly a problem for many UK heritage supporters who had no love for, or an actual visceral loathing for, Manchester City. Some of us stayed, some didn't. But it did break some of my instinctive connection with the club. I chose Heart because its colours were the same as my home town club. Beyond that, I want us to try and rebuild that connection and identity. I've got no magic wand solution, but connection to players, especially our home grown talent, is important. I'd rather be fighting to get in the six with a group of committed home grown youngsters than being where we are with a bunch of players we barely know, or who appear not to care. It's been a crap season. That's OK. I've seen plenty of those supporting Walsall. What we do now, how the problems are addressed and fixed, will be what matters.

There's something fundamentally wrong. Partly manager, partly players, partly dressing room, but it runs much deeper and higher than any of these factors.

3 Good 2 Politidis 1 Natel

Pitch is shite.

3 Young 2 Tilio 1 Fernandez

In which case drop him. Might as well give Caputo a go. He'll try not to be invisible.

Apologies to Natel. Hadn't picked that up, but still don't rate him...

Natel not on the bench. Wasn't on the injury list so assume he's either deemed not good enough (agreed) or he's fallen out with the manager, or he's got the homesickness blues.

I'm thinking that the rest of this season is about agreeing who to get rid of, and maybe working out which of the kids are worth persisting with. I've regretfully come to the conclusion that Maclaren needs to move on, I suspect with the manager he has fallen out with. Nuno is past it and Ugarkovic isn't good enough. Suspect at least one of Leckie or Nabbout will retire. Not convinced by Talbot and I suspect Galloway will also move on. Too early to say on Jeggo. Tilio unlikely to stay. Shorter list probably of the players I would keep...

That's a bloody awful website. Infested with pop ups.

He's probably helped by the upcoming fixture. Less likely we'd choose to sack a manager a week before the derby.

Positives: - Terry Antonis - We drew the second half - We've got some decent players back from injury - Victory lost Negatives: - Our defence is a basket case - Arslan out for weeks - The rebuild was supposed to be this season, but it's been deferred until at least next season - We're going to lose some players we have loved - We're struggling to make the six - Next up is the Derby - There's something horribly wrong somewhere

It's an appealing hypothesis. At least they've finally hooked Natel.

Every player on the pitch has forgotten how to play and no one knows each other.