Tomaszk

There's confidence issues at the moment as well. Plenty in our team don't think themselves that they're good enough. Couple of wins will change that. Sheff U have had the veil of doubt lifted by duffing up a few sides. That's why wolves was so annoying, the performance v Liverpool should have spurred us on. It did for Sheff U after they lost late on in even worse circumstances than us, with their keeper throwing one in. Something has to click. Grealish can help us massively as he doesn't seem to feel pressure and demands the ball at every opportunity.

Never stood out to me Bowen, and nothing today makes me think he'd shine for us. Prem is a big step up. Good goalscoring record. And prefers to play on the right which we need.

Smith said fit.

Not a fan of Conor, consistently flatters to deceive. I think Monday is a game for him though. I think we'll get around their box a lot and his ability to grab goals is unquestionable. Luiz didn't do enough v Wolves.

We need some leadership Jacko. Show them how to play.

Biggest game of the season on Monday. Must must must win.

Been saying since the crap run last season this should be looked at. Though we were shorter on CBs then. With that losing-run experience, Smith should have used pre-season to try out a different system. Or have a run with it in training. Maybe he has, I don't know. But knowing how we died a death with no Jack last season in that shape, it would have been sensible to prepare for an alternative.

We just need a win to get back in the mix. Newcastle could go 5th by beating us! We can only go as high as 15th, but it'll bring us back into the silly land of mid-table where everyone is in touching distance.

Anything else is a very bad result.

He's not slow once he gets going. But there's no initial zip. And he looks like he cant dribble. Or kick a ball properly. Or head.

The club should very much be putting the messages out we're not after anyone. Keep current players happy and don't raise the price for anyone who knows we're desperate for a striker and winger.

May not make too much of a difference this season but Cameron Brannagan is tearing up trees from centre mid for Oxford in league 1. Real all rounder. Be good to pick him up cheap and leave him there for the season.

Something that's perked me up a bit... According to this fantasy football chart, we've had the hardest fixtures in the league so far. It's obviously weighted so Liverpool have more "easy" games than us, because they're better than hs. What's nice is though, we've got results in almost all games we "should" have. When you add in the fact we threw away points at Arsenal (maybe Liverpool as well), and we're robbed of a point at Palace, I'm feeling quite positive. The Wolves performance was such a kick in the shaft, it knocked me back. Going by this though, Newcastle should be right up our street... Anything other than a win is a bad result I'm afraid.

If we go to AZ Alkmaar with a bag of cash and see who we can get from Stengs, Boadu and Koopmeiners, we'll do OK in January.

Don't care about media or coverage tbh. I'll never ever watch MOTD if we lose a game. I won't watch any football all weekend if we lose a Friday night or early Saturday match. Getting the wins and performances v better teams will bring me more joy than one v a Middlesbrough or Wigan.

Michael Oakes? Never really #1 but played fair few games.

I'm afraid this is where we are right now. Probably some of the same who were claiming Neil Taylor was a "defensive full back" trying to find positives. Excuses don't have to be invented all the time. You can just say he's been crap and you hope he gets better. I certainly do. We all should! Desperate for him to put in a performance v Newcastle. It's going to be very hard to win matches with him playing as he has.

Absolutely can't believe that appointment.

How he's not been in the Ireland squad I don't know.

Not sure our our scouts have any previous record? They're Suso's two contacts I thought? This is their first job and the summer was their first big test. Wesley doesn't look anything like a £20m player.

Well done John boy. Can't hurt to keep his confidence up. He probably hasn't had a trickier time as a villa player than the last month or so. We had the smelly run when Jack was out, but he was our best player every game even though the results weren't coming.

Sounds like they're joking there to me?

That's incredible. A current Premier League manager going on a fan podcast. Where have you seen that? Some of his decisions this season I've found pretty frustrating. The same errors being repeated is even more annoying. One thing he always shines in though is interviews. Always speaks sense and points out rights and wrongs in the side. I just want to see him try another bleeding formation!

The reason he gets tired is because he sprints round for the first 30 mins on his own.

Good for us he got some minutes. I'd be playing Kalinic v Bruce aerial onslaught.