Andy

I reckon this exact sentence might be the most written thing in this forum's history

You won't get any argument from me that he shouldn't be there, but clearly the answer for the most part (this season at least) has been it was a last resort.

Krafth is one of those players that will do a solid enough job as a defensive fullback, but your team as a whole looks worse for having him in it. Fullbacks are so important to building attacks these days.

The font is almost as invisible as Ramsey

Howe clearly wants his right back to push up into midfield, Miley is far more suited to doing that than Krafth IMO.

I'd definitely trust him there ahead of Murphy.

From my perspective, it's less that I was expecting him to do more, and more that he's done exactly what I was expecting him to do so far. My opinion on Ramsey prior to arriving was that he was inconsistent and prone to being invisible for long spells in games. His best form historically has been in a position where we're realistically never going to play him. I felt we either needed a midfielder who could offer more creativity, or an outright DM, so was never really behind this signing from the get-go. That's not Ramsey's fault but I'm yet to be convinced that he's a good fit. He was decent on Wednesday so hopefully he can prove me wrong long term, and maybe Howe has a different vision for us that will suddenly get the best out of him, but I don't see that one performance on Wednesday as being concrete evidence that everyone casting doubts on the signing is wrong. Although I did say him and Elanga were going to be mint when I was drunk after the Liverpool game, so I am clearly an emotional mess when it comes to judging our players

@Rich is probably at fault.

Not really sure what your point is here. Criticising them both as our least effective signings isn't the same as saying Ramsey is being lumped in to the criticism "by association with Elanga" IMO. Most people are judging Ramsey on his own merit. He's made 13 appearances and not done very much, to the extent where I was surprised he'd been on the pitch that many times. This was a common criticism of him at Villa.

He was good in 22/23 (mainly playing from the left as you say), then very stop-start from then onwards. Don't think Emery ever really fancied him.

Fair enough

The intensity and attitude was much better, we just need to show we can maintain it. Having a reaction to scathing criticism is one thing, making it routine is another.

The crowd were right behind him at the start of the season, every time he got the ball they were roaring him on. I agree groaning at him doesn't help, but at some point he also has to do more to help himself. Being sloppy in possession even when playing "safe" and not really showing any intent on the ball will always get you moaned at, at any ground in the county. It's a vicious circle because he's already lost a lot of our fans and he's not really giving them any reason to change their mind.

At some point he has to try to do the right things to dig himself out of the rut he's in though and get the crowd on his side, driving into wide open space with the ball is such an easy win and it's meant to be his strongest asset.

To be fair, they groaned because he had a huge amount of space to drive into but instead turned back and played a negative pass at 1-1. A winger is never going to win the crowd over doing that.

Fair enough, I haven't other than some bemoaning his injury. The reaction to his couple of on-field performances and his "fit" for the team in general seems to have been largely positive to me.

I don't agree that he's been lumped in with Elanga personally, in that case surely Wissa would be in the same boat too? I'd like to think most people are judging him on what he's done in his career as a whole, what we need in our midfield, and what he's done on the pitch for us in his 13 appearances so far. Last night was the first performance where he hasn't been largely anonymous. It was a foundation for him to build on, but personally I'd still need to see a lot more from him to convince me he isn't just neat and tidy and not much else, which is the impression I largely got from him at Villa.

Excellent. Makes a huge difference.

The question is can they keep him quiet

Thought he was steady but a bit overly safe again. However, probably his best performance for us so far overall and it's good that he got a full match under his belt.

He was excellent. He took some pelters for their goal but I thought Murphy was to blame tbh.

Energy levels were much better than Sunday. Still a bit iffy in terms of quality, but if we'd had that fight and intensity at the weekend we would've likely won, or at minimum the fallout would've been nowhere near as vitriolic if we'd lost. Let's hope this is an actual turning of the tide this time rather than just a one-off reaction to the criticism.

Much rather this than how we set up on Sunday though.

Murphy didn't track the runner.

Miley played a half there the other week, so it's definitely possible he starts there.