Hats off to you guys on here, apart from Spanish you’ve stuck by your team without any real slagging off, debate of who should start which we all do. I think you deserved a better season than you had, you’ve probably got the same bitter taste in your mouth of what the PL has sadly become. It’s bought you parachute money and you should be the best team in the championship next season. The divide this season is like lasts, a huge gap between top 3 and 6th The only thing that could beat you next season is yourself, ship out anyone who thinks they’re too good for the championship, I don’t think you’ll even need to use the loan market
Stuck by them thru thick & thin for 65 yrs, the good times and the bad. Our biggest weakness is not seeing games out from winning positions. Too many dropped points, and the inevitable chopping and changing with so many injured. That said, most on here look frwrd to the championship, a proper football league.
Arsenal were just a much better side - gulf in class, but that’s hardly surprising. We defended stoutly, at times, and poorly for the rest of it. We couldn’t start any moves. They pressed us all over the pitch. Direct balls over the top were easily handled. We were swamped in midfield, wide attackers were shut down, and Hirst couldn’t bully their defence. The only attacking player that gets credit from me today is Enciso - thought he was a handful. As soon as Davis got sent off (I thought it was harsh, but tackle was reckless) there was only going to be one result. I wished we had brought on Delap earlier. Wouldn’t have changed anything though.
Beaten by a much better team on the day. Fortunate that they decided to take it easy in the 2nd half otherwise the score could have been anything. Step up has clearly been too much - 2 more injuries with Broadhead and Townsend out today. The physicality of this league is unbelievable - far greater than I thought. 5 games left, hope we can get 1 more home win and, on a personal level, would love to see Luongo play some part in the last game against West Ham as a thank you for his service
We’ve lost every home game we’ve played in 2025. Only the second goal is really a quality goal. We didn’t even put up a fight today. Why we bring on a centre back when there’s a left back on the bench is beyond me. If he’s not going to come on in that situation then why is he on the bench?
He may never get another chance to play against Arsenal - and he couldn’t do any worse than the others. Maybe he’d even put in a performance to show the others up. Let’s see some players from the academy coming off the bench.
5 games to play, what does KM do ? Will he know who is staying and who is going? Fingers crossed Leeds and Burnley go up. Sheffield United look like they have imploded. Apart from Newcastle next weekend the rest of the games are dead rubbers! Could these games be pre season ready for the championship?
Arsenal were superb today, just like a bunch of robots controlling the ball. I thought we were pressing pretty well the first few minutes but they just got out so easily. I don't think many of the players played awfully today, we just not good enough. I hope we learn a lot from this season, we'll need to change personnel and tactics if we're going to compete in the PL in the future. A couple of areas that were clearly weaknesses last season have been exposed again and again this. We're far too open down our left, Davis isn't great defensively but hes also never had great cover down that side. And however much better a player Cajuste is than Luongo he doesn't cover that side as well defensively. Last season we took the risk because Davis was lethal in regards to his creativity, that's not the case this season so it's not worth the risk. In an attacking sense I don't necessarily feel that's all Davis's fault because clearly with all the new players they're not as fluid on the ball and patterns of play not set in. He was getting some joy earlier on in the season with some decent crosses into the box but the players just weren't getting into those positions. No idea who we're going play at left back over the next few games, I thought defensively Greaves was better at LB than he was at CB, but he isn't going to offer anything going forwards. If Hutchinson was fit I'd be half tempted to play him there (maybe more as a wing back). The 2nd area we need to address is getting overrun in midfield, we need to have more control of the ball. It was a weakness last season, especially against better teams, they controlled the ball far better than we did. I'm not saying we couldn't improve our personnel in that area but for me it's probably more of a tactical thing, we just don't have enough numbers operating in those midfield positions on the pitch. It's literally been Morsy and Cajuste, Cajuste is a great player but he also plays on the edge in terms of the risks he takes, I think we probably need to start playing 3 in there or start thinking about other ways we can get more bodies in there. I thought Enciso's performance summed up his own and a lot of our attacking play this season, some moments of individual brilliance followed by poor decision making (either a poor pass or running into trouble). Watching Arsenal today also highlighted another area we need to look at. Their play was one or 2 touch, I feel like most of the attacking players we've brought in are dribblers from deep so we don't do that. We used to the last couple of seasons. I thought despite the result and absolute domination by Arsenal there were still some decent performances, Tuanzebe I thought was superb and probably the only player from an individual perspective who showed defensively and athletically he was up to PL standard. I thought CBs did okay, Morsy kept trying to do the right things all match and Hirst battled well with the CBs all match without much service or anything really around him.
Very good summary. My nephew and I were discussing players on the way home and we felt that no one really had a bad game, it’s just that Arsenal played at a completely different level. Our players played as well as they can / were allowed to but we were overmatched across the pitch. I really think CM is the main position we need to be looking at for next season. Morsy will be another year older but will be able to do a job in the championship. Phillips, Luongo & Cajuste are very unlikely to be here. That leaves Taylor along with 2 players that have been out on loan in Harness and Humphreys. Definitely need reinforcements in that area
On a wider note regarding the state of football - you’ve pretty much got to go down to League 2 to see a league that isn’t massively impacted by financial doping. Apart from Forest and the struggles of Tottenham and Manchester United - it’s the same old story at the top of the Premier League. Yet again, the three sides with the lowest turnovers got relegated. You’ve got three of the wealthiest clubs at the top of the Championship - two of which benefited from parachute payments. Luton is the only real outlier there. In League One, both Birmingham and Wrexham - the two richest sides - are first and second respectively. Even for what appears to be a football romance story in Stockport securing play off football disguises the fact they’ve spent a lot of money over the last few years. What’s the solution? Tougher regulations? Ban state owned clubs? An independent regulator? An actual salary cap? A more even distribution of wealth for all top 92 teams? How do you create more unpredictability while maintaining English clubs’ competitiveness in European competition, keeping clubs afloat, and not causing a bigger disparity further down the league pyramid?
Poor choice with regards to keepers at the start of the season. Too much money spunked on average players, 20+ million for Clarke, he ain't worth half that. Poor tactical decisions by management, I still say we would have been far better playing 442, midfield wouldn't have got so overrun every game and with Hirst and Delap up top, we could have caused teams more problems. Poor substitutions and poor timing of said substitutions KM is to blame here, I'm not saying sack him but he needs to learn quickly from this and if not....bye bye!!
Some valid points and hopefully we will all learn from the experience, and go down with our heads held high. And we will enjoy watching Town win a few games.
I debated whether or not I could be assed to respond to that,but I'll bite. Thinking too much?Not something you're often accused of!
