Excellent point and brilliant to see us get a late equaliser after a debatable penalty. Funny old game, had we beat Hull and lost today which I would say would have been par, not many eye brows would be raised. Just the one point but today in the manner that we got it and the reaction is probably greater. Today showed again how brilliant a job Eustace is doing. The attack is so poor, Hedges works hard but offers nothing, Dolan offered nothing and also didnt work as hard/diligently as Hedges, Weimann was anonymous as were both Ohashi and Leonard. We offered nothing going forward. The organisation and structure of the team is absolutely incredible though. Batth has been an unreal signing, a goal topped off a colossal display. Hyam I still dont think gets the credit he deserves for how good he has been this season. Beck returned back to his best after 2 poor performances and Brittain has gone from a defensive liability to a totally different player. Tronstad is brilliant too even though Baker is a downgrade on Travis. Pears dealt with the little he had too once he got rid of his slippers. The results have turned from 6 wins in 6 to 2 points from 4, the issue is we are so reliant on clean sheets due to the lack of attacking quality. Its not sustainable to keep a clean sheet every time though so now those 0 againsts have become 1s and 2s those finely balanced games go against us. He badly needs and deserves backing but likely wont get it. Big challenge on Saturday after the massive workload today. We need to add some attacking quality but Cantwell seems unlikely to be back (and has struggled lately) but ACD should at least start.

If I was a Plymouth fan and my side was just appointing Everton mates/former players then I would be fuming. Phil Neville would be worse than Rooney.

Drab side, no pace, no flair, no goals. Hard to see past a comfortable home win but hopefully can be proven wrong. Need Cantwell and ACD back in the side at the weekend.

Presumably running around for 90 minutes knowing that any reduction in physical endurance will be taken advantage of by your opponent?

Those players wouldnt be in Ferguson sides, definitely not for very long. Dont doubt the other stuff but I also think their players just arent as good as people assume. De Ligt and Ugarte maybe are good examples, Im guessing youve seen little if nothing of them before but we just assume they are quality coming from big teams. There does seem to be something rotten although I dont think Sancho is particularly good full stop. Slow and predictable.

His turning point was the game before he kicked one into his own net?

How much of Ugarte and De Ligt have to seen to know that they are good quality players? They havent looked very good so far. I dont doubt that Mainoo and Garnacho have some ability but they have been massively overhyped. The latter seems to have an application issue too. As I said, I dont doubt that there are well documented issues surrounding tactics and potential attitude as well, compounding their hilarious woes, but the players individually are not as good as people seem to think. Anyone would look good if you chucked in 4 top class leaders like you mention. Forest, Bournemouth, Fulham etc dont have Keane, Vidic, Ferdinand or Van Der Sar.

My point was about quality, the media puts it down to application etc but many of their players carry a reputation far exceeding their ability. Even the players you mention. Mount is a waste of time. Garnacho had a bit of hype but in the main flatters to deceive. Mainoo is massively overrated. Dalot, not very good. Ugarte looks lost. De Ligt looks like a bug lump that Juve and Bayern didnt want. Forest are a better organised and drilled team so naturally are getting more from their side. But equally, I bet if you asked someone to put a joint team together, most would mainly include United players.

Amidst the hilarious situation at United, a strange thing to say is that I dont think that anywhere near enough focus is put simply at the lack of quality. Obviously there are issues with work rate, effort, and then questions about the manager, issues around ownership etc but most of their players just arent very good. Its unfathomable but take Forest, is it just bad form/tactics or would it be reasonable to say that Gibbs-White, Anderson, Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina, Sels and Wood for a start (maybe Elanga and/or Hudso Odoi) would all walk into the United side? Ten Hag signed a load of players who might have done well in the Dutch league but just dont seem to be very good. Hasbeens like Casemiro and Eriksen, players like Ugarte, De Ligt etc who were seen as not good enough by big teams, and then domestic players and/or graduates like Rashford, Garnacho and Mainoo who have been hyped up to ridicilous levels at various points but just arent that good. Fernandes is their best player and even he wouldnt get into the best teams, and flatters to deceive in the main at major tournaments.

Of decent quality too, ideally at least a couple for decent fees. That should be the expectation but wont happen.

I dont think it did, it ensured that a small profit was made, so no losses to offset by raising share capital. Championship owners have to accept regular losses as par for the course at this level, knowing that a solitary promotion can offset a series of losses. But either way, the key to trying to be as self sustainable as possible is player trading. So there is no justification for not spending any of the Wharton money, its not just one of those things, any other club at least spends a % on players who you can benefit from and potentially profit on in the future. Our squad doesnt have any sellable assets anymore. Obviously its about who we sign. And just as obviously, having more money gives you a far better chance of signing better quality. The most likely outcome is that we will spend little to nothing, and our play off charge will again run out of gas. So the budget to be spent is not interesting, its really annoying.

"Miracles" dont surprise you?

A club record sale just all going to the owners and that being accepted makes the rest of it immaterial. It still isnt acceptable to not reinvest any and leaves us with a squad lacking in assets. I wouldnt then define whether we spend £0, £200k, £500k or £1m of a slither of the Szmodics money (also mainly pocketed by the owners) as "interesting." More depressing.

I dont think we will spend half of that.

Your comparison is a bit skewed understandably due to your public opinion on Broughton. We also signed Hyam, Brittain and Szmodics when we had some money and Tronstad when we didnt. There was some dross but for the most part absolutely no money. Are Telalovic and Ennis for the money paid worse than Gueye considering we spent a million on him? I wouldnt get excited about money being spent until it is spent. Surely we have learnt our lesson.

They are better than us by a fair margin as the table proves. One off games, anything can happen and that includes the two games upcoming, we might win. But they have a bigger chance than us.

Obviously they can, its a game of football. But equally, Leeds and Burnley have more chance of beating us than we do of them. They are better teams than us, objectively, look at the league table. Doesnt mean they definitely will. But understandable why people fear they may well.

You are admitting that you cannot see things without bias if that is the case.

Clearly you cant and never have been able to even understand anything other than opinions purely focusing on positives. As I said, in the last 3 seasons our points accumulation has considerably gone downhill post christmas. We have struggled to sustain how we have started seasons. So when we get 1 point from 3, I understand why people might fear another slide. Its not about fearing the 2 upcoming games, but they are objectively the favourites in both. There is more chance of a loss than a win. Doesnt mean we WILL lose. Leeds have 13 points more than us and Burnley have 10 so both are clearly stronger.

I can only see a home win. Leeds have such strength in depth (Soloman, James, Piroe and Rothwell were all subs tonight) to freshen it up and we obviously dont have that quality, and our form has turned. Obviously its not impossible to get a result, but probability is strongly in Leeds' favour. Pears Brittain Hyam Batth Beck Tronstad JRC ACD Cantwell Weimann Ohashi

Where are they saying that?

Surely you can at least understand why people think that the signs are there of a death spiral, and are pessimistic going into the next 2 games. We have in each of the last 3 seasons seen results nosedive in the second half of the season. Our squad is underfunded and lacks the depth that others have. The owners also refuse to provide the funds for reinforcements when January comes around. Those 2 variables are very likely to remain. So its natural for people to fear what has happened before to happen again for the same reasons. Also, we go into the next 2 games against 2 of the top 3 as clear underdogs. (I know we beat Leeds on the last 2 occasions and obviously football isnt as straightforward as that, but equally we should have beat Hull at home and couldnt) Our team isnt as good and our form has dipped in the last 3 games, with the really poor defeat at home to lowly Hull fresh in everyones minds. There are signs of our core group of players looking leggy and we have just suffered 2 big injuries, especially our captain. People are behind the team, but it doesnt have to equate to thinking that we will win every game when chatting on here or down the pub.

I thought Wolves should have kept Gary O'Neil?

Not good enough today and really poor to be losing at home to such a bad team. Gueye is a pathetic excuse of a striker summed up by that shot he did. Cantwell is a talented player but missed a sitter (not for the first time) and needs to do far more in the final third. Dolan did nothing, ACD was our only real threat and actually runs at players and excites. Eustace's changes felt like throwing enough shit hoping some will stick. Buckley is a waste of time.

But how could we have given him them minutes without taking one of the other 2 out?