Preposterous that we got 86 minutes of the latter and 9 minutes of the former.

There can seldom have been a footballer luckier to have made it to 86 minutes of a game than Ryan Hedges tonight.

Cantwell thinking he's prime Ronaldinho when he was doing his triple sombrero trick, in our own third, with 10 minutes left if injury time is kind enough, 2-1 down away. And predictably launching it to a blue and white shirt, must think we're at home.

Struggling to think how Hedges has made it to 83 minutes, and possibly the whole game, without coming off. My theory is he's been so anonymous that JE has forgotten he is on the pitch.

Kargbo warming up, what I wanted to hear 20+ minutes ago. Forshaw warming up, what I didn't want to hear. QPR making it 2-1, what I definitely didn't want to see.

Fucking mystified that Hedges has stayed on the pitch, he's been utterly useless every time he's had the ball.

Fuck my life, get Hedges off NOW

Why is JRC warming up, but not Kargbo?

I assumed he had gone ages ago after previous transfer rumours.

Stats aren't everything. Things deteriorated since the original post from you though, tbf. They've definitely had the better of the half, but a pasting it isn't, hence the scoreline. We should have had a goal by now.

All of it, think that's pretty clear from the post you were replying to, that's why I didn't waste time replying.

That was a very daft free kick to give away when we have already conceded from one in a similar position on the other side. Beck was it? Pulling the shirt excessively.

Hard disagree that that's the ratio but I'm not going to argue with you.

Nah we've had several worse, and feels like someone says it's our worst half of the season every week. Probably shouldn't be losing this one on balance of play. Frustration is colouring your view.

Literally assisted the opener in our last game. Has put in some brilliant crosses lately, did another earlier that could have led to a goal. He's unpredictable and sometimes frustrating, but he can make things happen. Hedges absolutely can't.

Well done Hyam, great defending

Not as much of a passenger as Hedges.

That should be a penalty really.

Who?

Fuck, should be level there. Bar and then a good save. Got a feeling this is gonna be one of those games...an unfortunate loss and 1 or 2 injuries, like our last trip to London.

This pitch is awful, like ours a few years ago.

Well that didn't take long.

I'm a bit concerned by the exact same lineup when we played fairly recently, but looking at the bench there wasn't too much choice in the matter. Cantwell clearly isn't right yet, I suppose it's too soon to start Kargbo (I mean, it's not, but I get the thinking of bringing him off the bench first) and after that there's not much you could do differently. Though personally, I'd have swapped Hedges out for ACD. My main concern today and probably at least until Tronstad is back, is Travis. He went down 3 times in the Preston game (although one I think was just cos he was knocked down rather than feeling an injury) and the personality is he, I know he'll have told the boss he was fully fit when he's not. By God we need him, but I am gonna keep worrying about him getting an injury.

Transfermarkt shows him as playing 9 times last season as LW and 2 as RW, with 6 at CF, so nearly twice as much on the wings. And pretty much the same time on the wings as CF the season before, plus a couple of games at AM. The season before, more games at RW and LW combined than at CF. So I don't know why you think they have him down as not playing there a lot? FM seem to go off the most recent season/s, and they probably picked right over left for their position suitability as he's right-footed. Course, all a bit complicated by the way wide players are used these days...he's actually down on FM as AMR primarily, which is further upfield than traditional 'wingers' played, though has 'Winger (Attack)' as his most suitable, but not necessarily best, role (rather than position), followed by 'Inside Forward (attack)'. The lines between wide players, wingers and forwards have been blurred a lot in recent years so I think we can forgive the discrepancies, but something like pace is a pretty straightforward assessment. Albeit the general category of speed on FM is broken up into pace (max running speed), agility (how quickly you can shift direction) and acceleration (how quickly you can go from standing to max speed). The point really was just that he's assessed as being pretty rapid, by a game that goes quite far to get broadly accurate assessments of players and has even at times been used by professional clubs. I expect him to be quick, although since he's been out of action for so long I don't think we will see all of that right away. Oh and I expect whilst here he will primarily play CF, although that may depend on how long Gueye's form continues. He may have to play wide to begin with when they're both on the pitch.

Looking a bit more closely at Dennis' career, he seems to be a roughly 1 goal in 4 games striker. Over his whole career he averages less than this (verging on 1 in 5) but on the whole I'd call it 1 in 4 (when you factor in that some of those games he was very young, and that he has spent most of his time in top tier leagues including the Prem and Bundesliga). His spell last season with Watford, he got just under a goal in every 4 in this league, so I think that's a fair expectation to apply. I'm not sure that's quite enough tbh, but if we extrapolate it, assuming he played every game he would notch 3 or 4 goals in the remaining 15 games (can't play tonight), if he played every match. If that's right, and hopefully he proves this wrong and bags 7 or 8, I hope they come at key times to win us points. He may also add more than that in terms of his general play of course, and we need pace like he supposedly has, to stretch teams for tactical reasons. Side note, FM 24 has him down as being quicker than Kargbo (85 acceleration and 90 pace, out of 99, compared to 80 acc and 75 pace). That's really rapid tbf, and I know it's only a computer game but they do their research, consulting fans and scouts, and aren't usually too far out. Those are easily his stand-out attributes on there, followed by bravery (80), agility (75), then aggression, flair and penalties (all 70).