Odds

[Birdman1811]

Ajayi is seemingly first choice at centre back. That means clean sheets will be a rarity. We don't have a top keeper in Johnstone to pull off a world class save to cover the majority of his mistakes. The other options are Bartley who is great if the opposition just lump balls at his head, Kipre who has never convinced, Pieters who needs a strong, reliable presence beside him and Taylor, a kid. Not even going to start with full backs.

Defence determines league position, ours is a joke.

[CaptainFantastico]

As it stands our striking options  must be the worst on record with only BTA. If anybody can come up with anything worse I would like to know, even when we were in the third tier we had Taylor and Hunt

Adrian Foster, Paul Williams and Les Palmer

[Sliced]

Ajayi is seemingly first choice at centre back. That means clean sheets will be a rarity. We don't have a top keeper in Johnstone to pull off a world class save to cover the majority of his mistakes. The other options are Bartley who is great if the opposition just lump balls at his head, Kipre who has never convinced, Pieters who needs a strong, reliable presence beside him and Taylor, a kid. Not even going to start with full backs.

Defence determines league position, ours is a joke.

I don't agree with the cliche that defence determines league position. That defence contains personnel that came second under Bilic, even if we rotated more than we do now. It's about getting the best out of what we have. It's easy to see from the stats that if you want a lump who's going to stay deep permanently but is error prone then you go with Bartley. If you're playing a higher line you go with Ajayi and/or Kipre, both of which will inevitably make mistakes as well.

In that promotion season we had one player that could have carried any team, that was really what got us promotion. If we do absolutely anything this season it'll be because of Corberan and the midfield.

To be honest our lack of a fit, quality, striker is probably the biggest issue at the moment. BTA is great for what he cost us, but he's not a higher championship level striker by any stretch of the imagination.

[Birdman1811]

Ajayi is seemingly first choice at centre back. That means clean sheets will be a rarity. We don't have a top keeper in Johnstone to pull off a world class save to cover the majority of his mistakes. The other options are Bartley who is great if the opposition just lump balls at his head, Kipre who has never convinced, Pieters who needs a strong, reliable presence beside him and Taylor, a kid. Not even going to start with full backs.

Defence determines league position, ours is a joke.

I don't agree with the cliche that defence determines league position. That defence came second under Bilic. It's about getting the best out of what we have. It's easy to see from the stats that if you want a lump who's going to stay deep permanently but is error prone then you go with Bartley. If you're playing a higher line you go with Ajayi and/or Kipre, both of which will inevitably make mistakes as well.

Ajayi was part of a defence that finished second because we had a keeper who would make top class saves when they fucked up. I didn't rate our defence at all that season, feeling it was often easily beaten and weak.

[Sliced]

Ajayi is seemingly first choice at centre back. That means clean sheets will be a rarity. We don't have a top keeper in Johnstone to pull off a world class save to cover the majority of his mistakes. The other options are Bartley who is great if the opposition just lump balls at his head, Kipre who has never convinced, Pieters who needs a strong, reliable presence beside him and Taylor, a kid. Not even going to start with full backs.

Defence determines league position, ours is a joke.

I don't agree with the cliche that defence determines league position. That defence came second under Bilic. It's about getting the best out of what we have. It's easy to see from the stats that if you want a lump who's going to stay deep permanently but is error prone then you go with Bartley. If you're playing a higher line you go with Ajayi and/or Kipre, both of which will inevitably make mistakes as well.

Ajayi was part of a defence that finished second because we had a keeper who would make top class saves when they fucked up. I didn't rate our defence at all that season, feeling it was often easily beaten and weak.

Ajayi was our best defender that season, and Johnstone was arguably the most error prone element of the defence.

That season Ajayi had more interceptions than any other player in the league. That doesn't happen by accident. I know you don't rate him, but to pretend that he's been permanently crap and every time we've done alright it's because others have saved his ass is just nonsense. How many times have we seen Bartley throwing his hands up in the air after fucking up?

Individually, none of them are particularly great, but it's up to the manager to get the best out of them. There's not a single defender we've had over the past few seasons, O'Shea included, that hasn't looked utterly shite at times. I remember posts on here about how O'Shea should have been kept at left back and things like this.

[Birdman1811]

I felt Johnstone got way too much abuse for his mistakes, I often then said Ajayi was in the wrong position. Positioning is the primary trait of a centre back, more important than anything. Never been a fan of Ajayi and never will be, and now he's back as number 1 choice, I'm very worried.

I was hoping him and Bartley, possibly even Kipre could be moved on and just get a couple of proper centre backs who can defend properly, if only for a season so I wouldn't panic every time the ball came near our defence.

[baggiebloke]

As it stands our striking options  must be the worst on record with only BTA. If anybody can come up with anything worse I would like to know, even when we were in the third tier we had Taylor and Hunt

Adrian Foster, Paul Williams and Les Palmer

Those were the days..

[Sliced]

I felt Johnstone got way too much abuse for his mistakes, I often then said Ajayi was in the wrong position. Positioning is the primary trait of a centre back, more important than anything. Never been a fan of Ajayi and never will be, and now he's back as number 1 choice, I'm very worried.

I was hoping him and Bartley, possibly even Kipre could be moved on and just get a couple of proper centre backs who can defend properly, if only for a season so I wouldn't panic every time the ball came near our defence.

Anyone stood next to Furlong is going to have to defend for two people half the time. Get a more defensively solid right back and we're already in much better shape. For some reason that never seems to be a priority though

[Birdman1811]

That I do agree with.

Furlong, another who gets way too much leeway.

[Gzbaggy]

As it stands our striking options  must be the worst on record with only BTA. If anybody can come up with anything worse I would like to know, even when we were in the third tier we had Taylor and Hunt

Adrian Foster, Paul Williams and Les Palmer

Those were the days..

We also started the season with Goodman and Gary Robson played up front. Creative element from Ampadu and Winstton White!