02 Nov 2025 14:27:51
I keep sitting back for a few weeks, reading people's comments and assessing where we are as a club.
Yes, the last few weeks haven't been great.
There is no disgrace in losing 2-0 away to a Haaland inspired City, we had chances to get something out of the game. and I'll come back to that.
The Spurs game was the perfect storm of everything going wrong. that can happen to any team against anyone, it doesn't make it any less painful though.
That brings us to the issues.
Yes we need a little more cover in the full back positions but with Garner more than capable of cover both fullback positions maybe we need to look at a loan signing in January to cover RB or LB and let Garner concentrate on covering 1 position till the summer.
As for the Striker situation, it is a real problem. We can argue about the scouting system all day long but the fact of the matter is £50m worth of strikers just aren't doing the business. Barry is forgivable at the moment, he is young needs to settle etc.
I can't believe how much Beto seems to have gone backwards, for all his faults he seemed to always be happy to bust a gut for us. That seems to have disappeared of late.
We have to remember though, we have had one transfer window and the small matter of settling into a new stadium to deal with.
We can't fix every issue in one window, let's hope we get it right and bring in the right striker in January. My dream scenario would be Beto leaving and Richy and Toney in. we can dream but that won't happen lol.
My last point is when Branthwaite is back or we do move O'brien to CB, why are people talking about either of them partnering Tarks? He has made clumsy/ bad mistakes in so many games, he hasn't been punished everytime but Keane has looked so much better. He deserves his run in the team.
Things aren't perfect but there has been improvements, let's stay patient and I am sure we will be climbing the table again soon.
02 Nov 2025 15:22:45
When Branthwaite is back, or, hopefully, when O’Brien gets moved to the middle, I absolutely agree he should be next to Keane. Tarkowski has been a fantastic signing and I hope it’s just bad form, because at his best, he’s better than Keane, but not this season.
03 Nov 2025 06:30:15
Great post Duaney, good to read some sensible balanced views. Rome wasn’t built in a day.