Hobsons Choice

The vision of some of Ross’s passes yesterday was sublime. We scored a couple of goals on the break, but also showed great patience on the edge of the box for the first. RB and Jack give us the ability to exert pressure in those areas because they are both so great on the ball and can recycle it effectively. I’m delighted we have Ross, I think he was the missing piece in midfield we weren’t sure we needed.

This. I think we will drop off toward the end of the season simply because of the depth issues. That’s where we’re a WIP. It was always going to take time to transition a Championship squad to a Premier squad. Just hope fans don’t overreact when that inevitably happens, cos I think we’re on the way to building something quite special here.

I have a lot of time for Hendrie.

He’s a Chelsea fan too. You’d think there would be no love lost with Arse.

I can never tell if Souness is a really bad pundit or he’s taking the piss. Could be Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest creation.

Shame, though. He was one of my favourite players growing up. His work rate was incredible.

On the basis of that xG we should have won.

We did. We got beat by Stoke’s reserves. Seriously, though, this is a recruitment issue. I think we all thought during the window that we needed a few extra bods in. For whatever reason that didn’t happen. Now I’m not going to be overly critical, because I’m pretty certain even as a layman that player procurement is not easy. At all. But it’s certainly something that needs to be addressed in the medium term. Look, the objective for this year had to have been to get a first team that will comfortably survive the drop. That would be progress. Assuming that is what we now have, the next step is to ensure our stay in the nosebleeds by developing a solid squad. That either comes through recruitment, or more organically through development of youth. Thanks to FFP, though, neither is likely over the short term. We’ve made a great start, but we’re still at the moment an (at best) competitive mid-table side. That is a huge achievement after last year, and hopefully we’ll continue to make solid steady progress. I dislike Leeds and Bamford as much as the next man, but in the long run that result is meaningless. UTV!

Bloody Leeds. There’ll be no living with them after this.

You mean the first person to wave a hand within 10m of his general vicinity so he thinks he’s been crippled?

Astonishingly Lawro predicts we’ll lose. I’m acting surprised! Actually that’s a good sign we’ll win! UTV!!!

Were they great, or are they now notorious?

He still has nice hair

Where’s Lansbury?

FTFY

Someone should tell them to calm down.

Page 1058 on the Grealish thread, when we played them last year. There is lots of talk of Leeds having targeted Jack. Bielsa era.

Yeah, I saw that too, but there is nice, then there’s committed, determined, and finally shithouse. You need to be determined without the shithousery.

Spot on. No ‘great’ sides have been dirty.

Would you be happy if Dean sent a side out to hurt a player on the opposition?

For all the talk of Bielsa masterclasses, they were dirty buggers last time we played them. I’d not put it past them to properly try and take out Jack early doors. Fwiw, I have time for Bielsa, but as Clough showed, you can’t take the Leeds out of Leeds.

It’s all pretty unbelievable, Jeff.

Boo!

Only side in all major european leagues with 100% record!!