That’s where I wholly disagree. We could easily get relegated this season given our dire performances against very mediocre teams. Roy gets paralysed with fear when it comes to picking younger players. He has history of it so it cannot be disputed that he only trusts old pros to implement his defensive strategy. There is more than one way to utilise a squad however and that doesn’t mean relegation is a certainty because of it.

For every Brighton, there are any number of clubs that tried to please people with your attitude, and have failed miserably . All three clubs relegated just last year could play, an tried to play with a bit of flare, they are in the Championship because they wouldn’t play to win in any other way. This season Burnley come up full of promise , and they do try, to play with flare .adapt or perish though . Even Forest at the moment, at home they go for it doesn’t happen though does it. .Every season has at least one club goes down like this ,Norwich , come to mind twice since we entered the league, both times trying to impress fans with your ideas of how little clubs should play even though they don’t have the means. The problem being , they tried to be entertaining many times to often, for clubs like those I mention and us that’s not how you stay in this league as long as we have.
We are only in this league because of never getting above our capabilities, this season so far our squad has never been able to do otherwise. Because our injuries have highlighted how close to not adequate it is. And Hodgson has had to deal with this more so than any other manager in the whole period., Go to the Championship and in no time the gates half. Why ? It’s football but not as entertaining.. My feeling is so many modern fans are more for the entertainment ,than the real game. Players know it their all frigging actors now..

Jeez, what the hell do you mean by my attitude? Firstly you have got completely the wrong end of the stick and secondly you are so into your own mindset that you are as intransigent as Roy when it comes to looking at tools at your disposal.

I’m not asking for a change in the way we play, I’m saying trust the players who are our future to play more than 10 minutes per game. I’m saying stop picking your favourites when they are clearly incapable of playing the modern game and I’m saying take the occasional risk with players who are natural in their positions rather than trying to wedge square pegs into round holes. None of that is asking for a different way to play.

I've just gone through the list of games played thus far and tallied up our attempts on target according to the BBC match stats and it appears we are averaging 4 a game. This total is enhanced by good showings against Sheffield United, Wolves, and Luton. Two games we won and one we somehow contrived to lose.
My initial conclusion is that we don't get the ball forward enough when the opportunity arises because the focus is on defence and despite the bemoaning of Edouard and Mateta they don't have much to work with. Ayew's role seems less focussed on forward play than covering for defence.
Again, I have to ask what Hodgson expects from his attack when there is no coaching in that area? For example Pulis had an average side but made sure that we were strong on the set-piece.

Edited by southnorwoodhill (19 Dec 2023 2.38pm)

The post concerns the manager and not the spendthrift owners. We all know what we have and haven’t got in terms of players but how you utilise what you have is solely down to the manager.

Fair enough, .