McRightSide

I love FF. I hope everyone recognizes that the basic engagement factors of belonging and significance are really strong for him. The moments he’s had in the past have come from when those belonging and significant cues have been missing. Without those, you see emotional and potential disruptive behaviour. With those, you see magic. We just need to need to focus on making him feel like part of our family, and feel like he’s important and the rest will take care of itself.

The calls to put van Aken in midfield are amongst the most brain dead to ever appear on the site. Taking a player who is underperforming in the easier position on the pitch - and underperforming due to agility, presence, technique, passing under pressure, speed of thought, decision making and all round general nous - and putting him to a much more difficult position is just bonkers van Aken first needs to justify a place in his preferred position...currently I’d put him behind the training dummies and the traffic cone on Penistone Road

Nothing to do with appearance money or contractual issues. Jos just prefers Pelupessy as part of his drive to lower the average age of the side. Very similar to the Westwood situation actually...if you’re over 30 and on big money then you’re at risk... Theres also a balance aspect. With Jones we would have Pudil, LWB, Reach, Bannan, Jones all as left footers. That’s going to limit our play down the left channel a little, which is exactly where our potent weapon does most damage from.

It’s not flipping Ramadan They can drink as much water as they like!

Jones was actually in decent form until he got dropped by Jos last season. The one time he gets going, he gets ousted

Whats bizarre is you thinking we’ll have a chance catching the top 6 im more concerned by the bottom 6

There were 2 guys out there flagging from the get go...

He did well, but a few people getting carried away. Long-term the LWB will be no good for him. Needs to be competing with Pudil for the spot in the team

2 games in is the ideal time to judge this.

As it stands, only Bannan and João would be worth a renewal. And Pudil providing he maintains his recent level Hooper and Lee would need to prove their fitness over a sustained period. Nuhiu renewed for 2 years

.

Baker doesn’t have 150 odd senior appearances under his belt - he’s a young player which means that his development is highly unlikely to be a consistent, upward line in performances. He’s going to have good days and bad days...that’s how it works. He was most good today, I thought. Also Palmer wasn’t scapegoated for Wigan, most of the team got panned...and rightly so. Palmer and van Aken we’re especially awful though. When I see van Aken play I sometimes wonder why I never quite made it as a center half myself...I imagine that’s how failed, wannabe journos must feel when they listen to Giddings. As for the decision to drop them, I applaud Jos for the decisive and correct call. I’m also worried by the fact that a) he didn’t figure this out before and b) he got it so wrong he had to throw out all his pre-season planning with these two after 1 game

You mean when they both said that Westwood had missed training?

I think you have called quite a bit of this wrongly. It’s a fairly lucky goal, but there were a couple of things that could have been differently. Hutchinson makes the critical error for 2 reasons. I’ll come on to that later. First the minor points... Done differently: why are JP and MF that way round? Would need to watch the earlier gameplay to make a judgment on whether that’s an error or unavoidable circumstance. But a lot happens after that anyway... Unlucky: Pudil gets a great block and the ball rebounds directly into the path of the Hull player, leaving Pudil and Fox wrong side Unlucky: after hitting the post the ball rebounds directly to a Hull player. Done differently: Baker could have been tighter, my guess is even if he tracked, he wouldn’t have been able to affect the play much Unlucky: wonderful save from Dawson and the ball rebounds directly to a Hull player. Hutch drops in behind him, if Dawson doesn’t save, Hutch likely blocks it. Critical Error: by dropping in Hutchinson commits two critical errors. Firstly he plays him onside in the second phase. Secondly, he leaves Campbell free in the OPMO...and when the lucky break happens, the rest is inevitable. If Hutch trusts his keeper and holds his line, my guess is that goal doesn’t happen.

2 in 2 is pretty shoddy