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Reply | Chaotic team selection, chaotic outcome as R's slip at West Brom - Report
at 14:44 31 Dec 2025
Amongst all of the tactical changes, one of the ones that was really noticeable from where we were standing was that Poku was rarely wide on the right and seemed to essentially be playing in an inside forward role. It seemed very deliberate and didn’t seem to work well as it meant he was either feeding off scrappy second balls, or getting it with his back to goal, not his strength. I think it also limited our ‘out’ ball on the right. |
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Reply | Esquerdinha and his usage
at 10:35 30 Dec 2025
Agreed - although I thought he was poor, I think he needs a chance of a run of games, even as sub - dropping him in for the odd away game when half the team is rotated and the shape is changed can’t do much for his confidence |
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Reply | Julie
at 10:30 30 Dec 2025
The fact that you call him ‘Julie’ leads me to not take anything you then state seriously. The fact that you then use words like ‘bile’ and on other threads ‘bitter’ and ‘lothing’ (you should probably also use a spell checker) without a hint of irony or self-awareness is astonishing. |
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 10:26 30 Dec 2025
I would have ripped your arm off last year for a calm mid-table finish. As I was sitting in a 30 minute traffic jam outside the Hawthorns I was less well-balanced, but what I’ve liked this year is that with 1 or 2 notable exceptions, we’ve been in with a chance in the games that we’ve played.
It’s obvious that we struggle when we don’t have our ‘strongest’ 11 out, it’s also been obvious for years that when we try to play that 11 relentlessly (Beale era for e.g.) we end up decimating the team through injuries, often long term ones. So, we have to rotate, and that’s when some of the combinations look questionable. Esquerdinha looks exposed at the moment, particularly behind Saito. That said, some of the players who’ve been picked every week, e.g. Varane were looking very leggy.
I think this is probably a familiar story for most teams in this division [Post edited 30 Dec 2025 13:33]
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Thread | Full backs and Wingers
at 09:35 21 Dec 2025
Might be obvious to some, but I feel that a very significant contribution to last 2 home performances has been our 2 full backs. Mbengue gives his winger absolutely nothing, and RN-D in a slightly less showy way is also stopping any team making any inroads down the side. When you compare the joy that our wide players are having this season, it feels pretty significant. It also means that our centre backs are not being pulled out of positions and exposed through a lack of pace. |
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Reply | Christmas in Surrey
at 09:15 19 Dec 2025
Black Bear Burger in Westfield is popular with my kids. Need to book though |
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Reply | Idiots that leave before full time….
at 11:01 10 Dec 2025
Connecting train at Clapham - difference of about 30 minutes, But who am I trying to kid, I can’t forgive myself.
I also stayed for the 5-5 draw against Newcastle. |
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Thread | Idiots that leave before full time….
at 07:52 10 Dec 2025
That was me last night when they equalized. Only ever time I’ve done that in 50 years support was the 6-0 defeat to Newcastle.
Had just come to the end of Ellerslie Road when I heard the roar
Reading about ‘Stairs’ and the ‘Roof coming off’ is not improving my mood |
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Reply | Ilias Chair
at 14:25 27 Nov 2025
The same Sheffield Utd that defended Ched Evans for ages.
The same Leeds that had Bowyer / Woodgate in pretty nasty attack with racist overtones. |
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Reply | If You Can't Talk Proppa - Learning New Languages
at 08:27 27 Nov 2025
Duolingo in Spanish is good but uses a lot South American rather than Spanish. Been doing it for the last 18 months - it’s great up to a point. I’ve also started doing a course at the local Adult Education Centre which again is not bad and more structured which is good for grammar etc. Just got back from Tenerife having done an intensive language course which was very good. Nothing beats being wholly immersed and no-one saying anything in English.
I grew up in a french speaking environment, and am as close to being bi-lingual as you can get although getting further away as I get older. What a few other posters have said really resonates - if you want to get a decent accent, listen and talk to the language as much was you can. If you learn from what’s written you’ll end up pronouncing everything with a very heavy English accent
Couldn’t find your Duolingo profile! |
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Reply | Football - lost its sparkle?
at 08:09 27 Nov 2025
Still love it. Still playing vets football at 61, just started playing walking football. Season ticket Holder in Ellerslie Road with my 2 sons, still love watching pretty much any game and chatting shit about football in general. The only real difference is that over time I’ve become (slightly) less miserable if we lose - 1 day funk rather than 2 or 3 days. With all it’s faults, still the beautiful game [Post edited 27 Nov 2025 8:27]
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Reply | Left wing/Right wing English clubs
at 07:44 28 Oct 2025
This is the real issue for me - over 150 billionaires in the UK. One of them worth 35 Billion!. That’s 35 Thousand million. Of course they don’t want us taking about it. There are lots of overpaid jobs maybe, but to class anyone earning 6 figures in the same place as these is exactly what they want us to do. |
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Reply | Their Thread
at 12:44 5 Oct 2025
Stayed in Bristol for the night - love the place. Talked to some pretty fair minded City fans about the game. They felt that both teams are mid table ability wise but thought the difference was our pair up front. They were seriously impressed by Burrell. One thing we agreed on was their ability to get behind our full-backs but their strange reluctance to do much one they got there. I was seriously worried on occasion, but their final ball or lack of it was noticeable. |
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Reply | Stephan stands by team selection after QPR draw and gives Clarke-Salter update
at 09:17 3 Oct 2025
I’m going to give the manager the benefit of the doubt. I really liked Marti, and was a bit of a fanboy, but hindsight (I know) suggests that he had 2 modes - 1 the mode he really aspired to, lots of quick, technical players playing very progressive football, the other the very stodgy hard working midfield 3 (any of Varanne, Field, Colback and Morgan) - gave us results and the odd performance but could be a hard watch.
I think Stephane is trying to find a better balance (with in fairness an improved squad) -Progressive if he can, I think his use of Madsen is a good case in point, but has also been pragmatic with moving away from the pissballing at the back.
Can I also add that his desire to rotate the squad seems entirely in keeping with a desire to a) test out a few theories b) keep the whole squad motivated and c) not overload players. |
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Reply | RND
at 12:36 2 Oct 2025
Yes, I also thought that. What was odd was that in the first half, their winger tried to take him on from quite far out and RND completely took him for pace. Might be a case of he hasn’t got the pace from a standing start, or possibly not (yet) confident enough to really go for it |
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Reply | In Advanced Talks With Edwards
at 09:12 31 Aug 2025
In all of the post-game chat, no one seems to have mentioned that although Morrison and Mbengue were Ok on the ground, they got pretty much beasted in the air by Leaburn. A lot of our ‘midfield’ problems stemmed from the second ball from those knock-downs. I did wonder whether moving Dunne into the middle just to compete against him might have helped, but I can see teams targeting us if that’s our central pairing |
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Thread | More travel advice requested
at 09:09 27 Aug 2025
Apologies - non Rs related..
Me and the Mrs are travelling to Northern Spain in 2 weeks. Train straight down to San Sebastián, then following the coast using local trains. Have got Bilbao / Santander / Ferrol / Gijon / Pravia / A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela on the itinerary so far - nothing set in stone. Any other reccomendations (or suggestions for removal)? |
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Reply | Books
at 18:13 26 Aug 2025
Just finished Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan. Found it really compelling on how power seems to work in London. If only some of it is accurate it’s worrying |
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Site Scores| Prediction League: | 35 | | TOTAL: | 35 |
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