At this rate Pears would have saved it

I think pace is his problem for sure. The rest of his game is actually pretty good - he can pass, tackle, has decent on the ball technique - but he gets skinned if up against anyone with a bit of speed and opposition teams know it. I have been a bit of an advocate of playing him as a defensive mid, next to Travis, where he wont be as exposed. Problem is we don't really have a tested alternative at left back, just Batty who may or may not be ready or you're playing a right footed left back in Brittain.

I'm also pretty interested to see what players like Travis, Pickering and Dolan look like after a full JDT pre-season, I think they were all players who struggled to adapt to the change in tactics and setup a bit last season. I think that having a player like Tronstad next to him may help Travis out too if it means he can share the covering of the back line a bit and not be pulled from side to side so much during the game. A lot of movement in attack when JRC gets forward too, Dolan and Markanday can both drift around a fair bit. I'll be honest, I'm expecting a loss here, but hopefully we'll see some good signs for the tactics going forward.

Pears JRC Carter Hyam Pickering Travis Tronstad Markanday Szmodics Dolan Leonard Lot of pressure on that front line, need players to show they are ready to step up.

If we aren't signing a ton more players we need Markanday to step up this season, might as well chuck him in and give him a chance.

I guess shirt numbers are a bit meaningless these days, but I'd expect #15 to be given to someone first team adjacent. Smacks of the 'automatically assign numbers' button in football manager.

Pat Gamble given senior shirt no. 15, seems unusual for a player who hasn't made a first team appearance yet. How close to the first team squad does he look? I don't get to watch the u21s very often living down on the south coast.

Russo is playing like a striker who needs a goal, she's letting herself get pulled out of position chasing things she shouldn't be chasing. Against Haiti she got in the way of other players a couple of times rather than taking a position for a pass or to close down a rebound. I think if she scores one she'll relax a bit and get more.

All the players who can make a bit of time for the team are getting injured... Williamson, Mead and now Walsh. You need those players. Also, I know she scored the winner at the euros but Kelly just isn't very good - she's got some speed but the vision, end product and decision making just isn't there.

Leah Williamson is such a massive loss, our defence is so much shakier without her - Jess Carter keeps pushing up, missing the interception and leaving us open at the back.

Not my cup of tea on first viewing, but I can see it possibly growing on me once I've got used to the slightly odd collar. For what it's worth the online store has stock in small to large right now, so I'm not sure what happened earlier - I can at least add a shirt to my cart. Also noticed that if you want to get a player name on the back it's £12, but if you want Rankin Costello its £15, which made me chuckle. edit- and whoever Ogrady Macken is will run you £13! One whole extra pound over everyone else, must be a good prospect!

I like the quote at the end about seeing other youngsters having a path into the first team being a strong motivating factor for the youth players.

I think some people just get an idea in their head about a player and hold onto it regardless of evidence. I had an (apparently serious) conversation with someone recently about how Haaland is a 'massively overrated tap-in merchant'. His justifications were that a) the Bundesliga is a poor league that makes average players look good (he also didn't rate Bellingham for similar reasons) and b) that the City squad is so stacked and dominant that any striker would score a hatful there. I don't particularly like Rooney, but he was a top player for a very respectable number of years. Not convinced by him as a manager by a long shot.

I thought the story was that they just didn't like football or something? If so you'd think that would be a positive, something they have in common with the owners.

last minute red card for Norwich - hope he's important to their system, we need them to keep dropping points!

Yeah that's fair, but if we'd somehow got to this position this is definitely the game the wheels would fall off.

This feels like the game we'd fold under at pretty much any time in the last ten years. I might be putting too much on it but a good performance, even if we lose, would go a long way to making me think we might have a chance. Under Mowbray this would be a 4:0 get back in your lane and give up on the playoffs game* *this might not be 100% backed up by actual results, but it's damn sure where my expectations would be.

Not sure I see anything in Vale that suggests he's going to turn out good, but then a month or two ago I would have said the same about JRC. And Pears. Not going to worry about it right now. This is shaping up to be a much better season than I hoped all round.

Christ on a bendy bus we should have about seven up, this is unreal

Be hard pressed to say who our 'worst' performance is so far - couple of players who haven't had much to do, Pickering for example, but no-one who's been poor. Very solid performance.

We are second best, but not by much

Strong agree, sadly. I was very excited when we signed Markanday - Spurs fans suggesting he should have got a run in their first team off the back of very impressive performances for their reserves/u23s. A year or so in I am getting a bit concerned that he might be a prem Joe Nuttall - remember when he went on a run of something like 15 goals in 14 for the u23s? His career trajectory since then has been League 1 -> League 2 ->National league. I hope I'm wrong, but he's not even getting into the first 11 at Aberdeen at the moment - he's had about ten minutes in the last three games.

Just draws from here on out lads

Thomas is English born but a Welsh international - but yes, it's a rarity these days

We're only doing draws for the second half of the season, aren't we?