Jayson

Well hes clearly rating Ranger over Harewood at this point, based on the order of mondays subs. So thats good news. Like many id like to see Loven get a chance to come on as sub and go upfront to at some point. Mainly if we're already winning.

To massively read to much into it. The "when" we get promotion is interesting, rather than if. Sounds like Ashleys very confident in what we currently have. Not the mentality of someone who'll be over the moon to spend more on strengthening. Also the whole "focus our energy on having a team that keeps us there" doesnt sound like an owner ready to sell when its achieved. Thought i dont suppose theyd come out and say that even if he was.

Smith is far better than Butt. Butt had a decent game for his standards yesterday, but still had dangerous moments of giving the ball away. None of our players did much going fowards, thats why the entire game was long ball. You can hardly put that on smith. We're playing with 1 big man upfront being marked by two sometimes, with Nolan in midfield most of the time apart for goalkicks. Hardly the game for through balls. Anyway Smith suits his role, its down to Hughton to play Guthrie for the more advanced play. Not smith to do it if Butts shoved on to.

Class that by evans

I must be one of the few finding it easy to be positive. We're top of the league, we've got young players coming through playing for their countries who i expect to improve. We've a great chance of getting back in the premier league, doing much better than i expected. Ashley looks like hes trying to leave, or had been & i expect him to in the future. Even the prospect of going into next season with this same side isnt that worrying to me, i like the idea of being back in the prem regardless. Worse comes to worse & we get relegated, then ill expect us to get back up yet again. At some point soon Ashley will be gone & everything will look far better. Worse case situation to me is us not getting promoted & losing most of our players. Thats about the only real negative i see. If we do badly next season ill worry about that then, but i wouldnt write it off now when so much about the club is still able to improve with time. We might have a great goalscoring partnership by the time we go up for all i know at this point.

I dont see him lose the ball much atall

Think thats the most realistically positive outcome. That we get promoted & then scrape a survival next season. Hopefully by that point Ashley will be gone.

He is class

Reality is though that we're winning games. Whether its down to fighting them out, or having that one player with a bit of premiership quality like Nolan/Harper in the 91st minute to get the win. We have that little bit extra that most sides in this league dont have & that can make a very big difference. Especially in our ability to get results when we play badly, which is key for any side. You just have to hope that we can improve the performances to & its far far more likely that they will than they wont when the sides winning. So i see no reason to be negative. Theres no reason to believe we wont be up there at the end of the season at this rate.

So a winger who can loop in a cross & doesnt need to do much else...looks more effective in a side thats playing endless long ball football & shoving big men upfront. The guy whos used to passing it along the floor & working in a side that has far more movement - in comparison looks less effective for us. I cant imagine why. All i care about is that the players playing in our side, make our side better. He could score 9 own goals each game for all i care, aslong as we end up winning 10-9. Focusing on specifics like direct assists/goals doesnt mean much. He's not playing for us to improve his own reputation as a match winner, he's playing to improve us as a side. Which he does, when he's confident.

As i say there was reasoning behind it i just didnt agree with it. Harewood was a strange one, but he obviously thought the guys strength/pace/height would help us out both by giving us an outlet & defensively. It makes sense logically. The main problem with that is that Harewood is playing pathetically & shouldnt be given a chance to prove himself when its so tight. The rest made sense, for the defensive set up he was going for.

Agree with that. His decision making is his main weakness, his pace/strength & control normally sorts out the rest & its far above most else in this league. He's very confident in his own ability to, thats very easy to see. That chest back to Harper last night summed it up. He has a few things to work on, but hes still young...def premiership quality. Him and Staylor are the only players for me who look completely out of place in this league, like its all a training session for them.

Probably be Cardiff, think they're our biggest threat. I see them going up this season, prob top 2.

If you havent seen him playing far better than that you're blind. And if you wouldnt want him in the side when he plays far better than that, you're clueless. He's not a conventional English winger, we get it. That argument doesnt prove much atall, just simple minded.

Obviously the tactics need to change. Hughton does change things, as we've seen before. There is some reasoning behind it, i just dont agree with it. Obviously away from home he thinks more defensive is a better idea. I imagine at home we'll stick with 2 upfront. If that pays off our best hope is that he'll want to keep that formation going. I dont feel like somethings not right though. We're winning games & we're top. Football is never consistant. Aslong as we keep winning until we improve again (which we will if we keep winning) then im happy.

He had a bad game last night Bit stupid though to say the least for anyone using last night or the last couple weeks, to come to conclusions about his entire level of ability as a footballer. I also dont see a lacklustre attitude. I just see him playing crap & looking low on confidence. He looks more like a player who isnt enjoying his football as much as nothings going for him. The masses of missed chances to score will have effected him for sure, then the long ball tactics...lack of movement around him. It all hardly combines into bringing out the best in him really does it.

I wish Enrique would have a smash every now and again, he makes surging runs he deserves to finish them. He can clearly hit a ball to, dunno why he doesnt.

Think thats our best side currently, for the way we're playing anyway.

Not when hes being marked

Id agree with that. Seems like he was just trying to keep Harewood happy, more so than there being any solid reasoning behind it.

At home with them 2nd from bottom, players should be confident. Should be a solid win, ill go 2-0.

Put in a good performance upfront, but clearly we dont create much with him upfront on his own. He tries hard, but theres nothing around him. More often than not we lose it when hes on his own. Thats why we invited so much pressure. I rate him though, Carroll will keep getting better.

Not really. Harper was diving towards the close post and had to raise his hand against his body motion to make the save. Top drawer stuff really. This is the first time I see your lot play live. So. Butt/Smith midfield was pretty awful but you probably expected that. Very disappointed with Jonas, he spent the afternoon walking around and falling on his ass every time he seemed that he was close to doing something interesting. Enrique was good, Nolan had some good patches. Carroll gets stuck in but seems to me to be a very thick footballer. Struck to me that your off-the-ball movement going forward is truely bad. Every time you went forward your attacking players ended surrounded by a cloud of Sheffield defenders, which means lots of space elsehwere in the pitch, but nobody was moving into it, or offering passing lines to relieve the pressure. Thats about it yeah. They get to nackered to run fowards, or they sit back to much expecting others to sort it out instead of supporting.

Wasnt his best game & he def didnt look happy when coming off. Dunno whats up with him, just not coming off for him. Think hes lacking confidence massively, looks far less determined.

Dont see how Harper doing well proves Krul wouldnt either really. Er, because Krul has looked a liability in the 2 games he's started? You act as if there hasnt been massively played out discussion on this before