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Reply | Madsen
at 22:07 30 Dec 2025
Agree with you .
But we have to hang our hat on something .
Just to have a player , any player, who for the most part retains possession, wants the ball, and moves the ball on quickly to keep us going forward rather than finding 101 ways to go back to our goal keeper or just lump it into touch every time they get it, is going to be praised and to an extent lauded by a fan base starved of midfield players doing the very basics that position requires.
Because his team mates are absolutely awful at all of the above .
Natural that we might go a tad overboard. |
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Reply | Elijah Dixon-Bonner
at 22:00 30 Dec 2025
Sutton now starting games which is at least something |
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 21:59 30 Dec 2025
Each entitled to their own view and opinion of course but I thought he was awful yesterday , and Boxing Day .
Not the only one but he is one of a few that are lucky to still be starting matches at the moment . Which again points to a squad that’s not as deep as many have claimed it to be . |
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 18:29 30 Dec 2025
Very fair point indeed.
Madsen looked ready to collapse after his lung busting rescue mission back to our own goal line saving his own f*ck up. Then limped off shaking his head .
A large problem , in my opinion , that JS has is he has 2 players in the team that we simply don’t have cover or replacement for Burrell and Madsen.
We could though argue that Smyth could be tried in the Burrell role with support close to him.
Or the head coach could try a different system , which I think many of us hoped for looking at the starting IX. No time this time of year to train and put it into practice which is understandable . But if you can’t play this system without Burrell, which we can’t , then you have to re think .
But, we have nobody at all to fill in for Madsen.
Our other CM’s are dreadful with the ball. Varane is starting to really test my patience.
Only one close , for me is Morgan perhaps, who just over a year ago came into the side and started a voodoo which was ‘keeping the ball’.
But he is having to cover right back , because Jimmy is now covering centre back , with Field covering all over the shop …..etc. and as for the goalkeeping situation …..
In short , the squad is still lop sided and weak as hell in depth in certain positions which has been said over and over since the transfer window closed.
It’s a better squad . That’s for sure.
But this 3 game week/ busy festive period is / has become a very big problem JS needs to get to grips with somehow .
I guess winning our home games will go some way to do so but tossing off away games seems like cheating a bit . Certainly cheating the fans travelling to them. [Post edited 30 Dec 18:34]
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 18:08 30 Dec 2025
Game was made for Smyth last night . To see the 4 subs come on and he wasn’t one of them simply blew my mind . As been said above , odd things occurring at times this season which leave us all scratching our head a bit.
I said in a text conversation with my son before the game that this line up reeks of tossing it off and preparing to go full beans for the 2 home games to follow..
Well ok.
If we win those games then I think I’ll take what happened last night . Just .
But it’s a big ‘if’.
You’d bloody better win them then , Julien. |
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Reply | Esquerdinha and his usage
at 17:33 30 Dec 2025
Yes agreed.
There have been moments and times when bringing him on would have been ideal .
Last 20 minutes v Leicester. Last 15 v West Brom.
With experienced players around him , settled side and perhaps most important , the pressure off to a degree. |
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Reply | Esquerdinha and his usage
at 15:04 30 Dec 2025
Yes I think you could say that Adamson isn’t ready and where the club thought he’d be .
If you remember , he came on in the 1st game of the season and was one of the players RESTED in the carabao cup nonsense at Plymouth, so the club must have thought he’d be a squad regular at that point .
I still believe , only my opinion , that Esquerdina is the next tick on Nourry’s CV .
I think he might be asking the same questions that we are about how he has been used . |
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Reply | Esquerdinha and his usage
at 10:53 30 Dec 2025
I think the OP makes the point I was thinking about last night after the match , that it’s not him playing which is the problem but when he plays , which seems to be damaging him.
When I think back to the barnstorming , energetic, very naive of course but ultimately encouraging appearance in the first game of the season against Preston, (caveat as well is that Preston played without wingers ) I see a young player who looks to have gone into his shell somewhat.
Watching him in the DS I saw a player full of confidence who based his whole game on getting forward , jumping in and intercepting passes to his direct opponent and moving the team
In the other direction.
Now , as said before he is a wing back to begin with which means he struggles in a back 4 .
But I do wonder if his confidence has been badly damaged by the games he’s been thrown into at certain times . Last night is understandable (having players at the club who can’t play 3 matches in a week , Cook, RnD , JCS obviously is doing my nut in but it’s another discussion) but giving him the protection and guidance of a severely out of form and non competitive Saito in front and a rusty and potentially confidence damaged Morrison next to him is just setting him up for failure in my opinion.
He severely lacks pace which will always be a problem but there is a player there . I just think he’s been used pretty badly by the management and thrown in at times where he hasn’t really been given a chance of expressing himself .
I think he has so much to learn about so much of his game and our game, that this 1 game in 10 , then not even on the bench for 6 weeks is doing him no favours whatsoever.
Get him out on loan and get a left back in who can play regularly if RND is going back to Sheffield . |
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Reply | January transfer rumours
at 23:43 29 Dec 2025
Yeah I thought Hamer was Nardiesque tonight.
Even before their first goal they dropped a couple of corners right within arms reach of him and remained stationary for them.
The goal was inevitable . |
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 23:30 29 Dec 2025
In fairness , the post you replied to is me talking about the next 2 games and what worries me a little about them .
It’s moving on in a way , no? [Post edited 29 Dec 23:31]
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 23:21 29 Dec 2025
We can lose games , play poorly , toss away games off , etc .
But what my concern is, is that it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to see these poor performances start leaking into our home form .
I know we play differently at home (which puzzles me anyway) but I fear these 2 very winnable home games coming up , become infected with whatever sickness we now consistently go and play away from home with .
You can get beaten by better teams as I say , but so many away games this season have been incredibly winnable and we have stunk the place out on a very consistent basis. |
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 21:45 29 Dec 2025
Absolutely shocking all round .
Man of the match - Field under a ridiculously low bar.
Won’t fault the effort as Elbow says, but no quality from anybody.
Had to watch the first half on the WBA ifollow and apart from being completely unprofessional in their criticism of us , they did keep asking why we were “playing so differently away than we did at home?”
Well , bloody good point! That’s a question I think we should all be asking for an explanation too. |
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Reply | Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 18:42 29 Dec 2025
Blimey . This will be a good result with that line up, especially at the back .
Mbengue must be injured . Frey? Who knows .
They are in poor form, But must be licking their lips at that team sheet |
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Reply | Pompey match thread
at 18:04 27 Dec 2025
Ha ha . Yes that will be annoying .
But it highlights my point in a way that JS has to find another way for us to pose a threat, of some description , on the odd occasion that Burrell is not on the pitch / completely blowing out of his backside.
His all round game yesterday was poor . He looked absolutely spent .
Could we push Smyth up there to threaten getting in behind ?
Not sure , but he would need support from a ‘Kone’ rather than Frey.
We could probably put a shirt on a grandfather clock right now and it contribute as much as Frey is . |
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Reply | Pompey match thread
at 11:15 27 Dec 2025
Hard to give my opinion on yesterday without sounding too negative.
A point away from home isn’t a disaster at all especially with our record but I still think that was a huge chance missed .
Hard to put my finger on exactly what the problem was or is away from home but it seems like multiple things . Do the 2 in midfield sit too deep ? Does this then mean the front 4 can’t press as it’s then too easy for the opponent to get out ?
The difference in ‘the press’ from yesterday to last Saturday was extraordinary.
What is it about playing away from home turns us into horrendous footballers who literally can’t string 2 passes together ? We look dreadful every time we play away recently . Is this mentality or the way we are set up or tactics ?
Not really sure. Maybe all 3 , but we won’t win many games playing like we did in that first half in particular. The worry is it’s becoming the norm away from home .
Those thinking Middlesbrough were some sort of footballing super power should look at their recent results to see that , although they looked very good , we made them look as good as they did .
We were a shambles and we were again yesterday for huge chunks.
We have to try to be more on the front foot against West Brom or we’ll see the same again. I understand he need to be compact , but it has to be a mix . The 2 wide men were horrendous in that first half yesterday , Saito in particular, so I expect to see Smyth start .
Stéphan has to be careful he doesn’t run Burrell into the ground too.
He’s starting to look shattered and his whole game is just starting to dip . JS they need to work out a plan B for when Burrell isn’t playing and it can’t be Frey and Kone under any circumstance. |
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Reply | Merry Xmas to all on Loftforwords
at 09:05 24 Dec 2025
What a player Emmanuel Gearbox was! 😀
Wishing all a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year .
Come on U R’s |
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Reply | 35 years ago today
at 08:46 24 Dec 2025
Mentioned before that I think Tilson was extremely under rated in QPR ‘folklore’ in general.
He would have been close to being an international if he’d been around now .
30 years ahead of his time as a ball playing centre back . Oozed class on the ball which was very rare .
Both he and Darren Peacock became 2 people I really looked up to and held in really high esteem , not just because of their different playing qualities but because 2 more down to earth likeable and approachable footballers you could not find .
Tilson especially was one of the few who would openly come and find you and ask how you are which is and was almost unheard of.
There is a lot to be said for that era of our history but one of the reasons for the success was the mix of established seasoned pros and lower league , down to Earth players that were brought in at the same time . Tilson , Peacock, Holloway, Penrice (to an extent) , Impey , Les (again to an extent) , older pros who were finishing their career like Ray , Garry Thompson, bought a humbleness to the obvious professional football team dressing room.
On the coach to an away game , they were the ones who would choose to sit next someone like me (16 year old apprentice / lackie) rather the card school with Macca , Bards , Barker , Sinton , because they wanted to talk to me and ask how I was .
That stuff stuck with me . [Post edited 24 Dec 8:46]
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