The Fish

Mostly plays on the right of a midfield 2 or 3. More advanced and with more attacking freedom than a 6 would traditionally play. If we had an out and out defensive midfielder, you could play them side by side I guess.

Altrincham host Gateshead in the fourth qualifying round. Another local team I might pop along to with the boy.

Not particularly great at the defensive side of things, is he?

I'd like us to sign someone more mobile and less Hollywood-passes all day long. I want Bruno further forward, but I don't want Shelvey parked in front of the defence, so I guess it's time to bust out the blood money.

Fat chance. (pun intended)

He's actually doing really well on paper. Needs to turn a few more of his chances into goals and a few more opportunities into assists, but it looks like his confidence is growing. He might have scored if Wilson hadn't snuck in (it might have come back off the post mind you), and like I said before he had a copuple of opportunities where another player was offside and thus robbed him of a chance. But he's doing good if you ask me. Certainly isn't the one I'd definitely drop from the midfield. Dunno who would be dropped though.

I did not, because I have never heard of him. >4hrs there, 50 minutes of the match before he wants to go find a play ground, >4hrs back, spunking best part of £200? Nah, fuck that. Age, cost and distance are three excellent excuses, thank you very much.

Arsenal mate was wondering whose is the bigger redemption story, Joelinton or Xhaka? I'd say Joe because Xhaka was decent before and is decent now, he was just unpopular with the fans. Whereas Joe's gone from £40m flop of a striker, with people doubting we'd get a penny for him, to one of the best destructive midfielders in the league.

Not until he's older, want him to endure the shit, before experiencing the good.

League 2 football, you Sky Sports fan! Went with a mate and his son (lads go to the same nursery) and they entertained each other with clapping and shouting "Come on Stockport County" at random points during the match. I'm not planning on taking him to a big stadium until he's 6 or 7. Even when Stockport scored (which is apparently a bit of a rarity) the noise kind of spooked him.

Well, on Saturday I was at Edgeley Park watching Stockport smash the slugs from Walsall all over for 75 minutes until the little lad grew sufficiently restless and wanted to go off and run around a park for a bit. As far as he knows, the blue ones won and the ones in black didn't score an against the run of play equaliser in the 88th minute. Then I came home and between putting him down and Match of the Day I watched the full rerun of the Fulham game and had a browse of the spreadsheets and stats. Because I'm a fucking legend mate.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

He was on the bench against us, didn't your eyes pick him out then? Unless you're telling us they all look the same to you? Disgusting.

In this post you've just told me you think Adama Traore plays for Barcelona, when STATS WILL SHOW he plays for Wolverhampton Wanderers. (6 appearances, 1 goal in the league cup against Preston)

Numbers is hard brrrrr

I think you're right for most teams, but with this Man City side, and this Newcastle side? I think our best chance is to double down on the tactics that paid off at St James'. Plus, by the time we face them, we'll have strengthened again.

You try a low block against this Man City side and they will absolutely gub you. The movement of Grealish, Foden and Haaland with or without the ball will find pockets of space even in the tightest defensive shape. The best way to limit the chances falling to those players is to stifle the supply line. It doesn't have to be a particularly high line, there just needs to be a lot of pressing. Don't let them settle, don't afford them space, hunt in packs and close off the escape routes. They are supremely talented footballers, so force them to play at their peak, rather than letting them stroll about unmolested. That's how our under strength team almost took all 3 points from them at St James'. Pressure, pace and pkicking lumps out of them.

Think this shows that with Wilson and Bruno returning to the starting line up and getting closer to full fitness we have the start and end of the answer tot he problem posed by a low block. I know Fulham were poor, but even before the red card we were getting in behind them. Then, when we had the man advantage, we made it count. We could have scored a lot more and I think as players like ASM and Isak get back to fitness, we will. Despite getting some criticism on twitter, I though Willock played well. He created a lot of good opportunities, got 2 assists (even though 1 was really just an attempt at goal itself), he broke the lines well and probably would have scored at least one goal if players around him made better choices (e.g. Fraser was offside and if he'd left it, Willock would have been clean through). Shame we conceded and the fault there lies in the player who didn't stop the cross (Lascelles) and the player who didn't track the man (Lewis). Proves to me we should drop all defenders whose surname begins with L.

Take some consolation, I took out Almiron for ASM because I am unbelievably stupid.

Yeah I doubt we'll sign another striker for the first team squad, but more of a goal threat from our wings is definitely on the cards.

To be honest, the only way to stay in the game against this Man City is to press them relentlessly. As Man United showed, you can't sit off them no matter how good you think you are, they'll punish you. If De Bruyne is afforded any time or space, he'll create a chance and with Haaland playing like he is, that chance is getting buried. I think we can go to the Etihad and press them, especially when we've got Joelinton back and ASM posing them problems on the break. Wonder what odds I'd get on Haaland missing a relatively easy chance and the commentator saying "Well, he is human after all"?

Makes total sense, even though he's made of glass. Plus, he's good enough to help younger strikers with their movement, and finishing.

Exactly. The criticism of his ability hasn't changed in over a decade; no identifiable style, mish mash of ideas, poor defensive organisation, poor attacking movement, no balance between the two and no control of midfield. When he gets a job at Derby and takes them from 8th in League 1 to 18th, it'll be the same complaints; fans were against him from the start, injuries, not enough money spent, not enough time to get his ideas across.

Read something on the Atheltic about their latest loss and was looking for some paragraph that sums it all up, but I'd have to copy and paste the entire article, such is the breadth of criticisms. He is laying the groundwork for blaming the fans, mind you;