Hughesy

Yeah - this season hasn't done anything to make me think we can build a PL midfield (and attack) around him, which is what you would need to do to get the best out of him. And even if you do that, I don't think he's good enough to make 'that' much difference.

Not suggesting that I have no concerns at all about us going up, but the knee jerk nature of this place is amazing. Brighton have lost two of their last four, including a 3-0 pumping off one of the worst teams in the league, beat a crap McClaren team and suddenly they're an unstoppable juggernaut. No reason to think that we could be 3 points clear of Brighton again this weekend given they have Leeds and we have Birmingham.

That 'defending' for the second was fucking abysmal.

Dummett on their second.. Jesus Christ.

Think he's done worse than he should this season, but always find it a bit strange that clubs quite often sack the guy who took up them to PL against the odds but didn't manage to avoid relegation.

There are some decent players that PL clubs could take a gamble on who are on the periphery of the top 6 (although I've always been wary of that approach since the days of Smith, Geremi, Butt etc). Imagine that the likes of Hart, Sturridge and Shaw would all be looking to move this summer.

Well yeah - clearly a crucial clearance off the line and he did really well to make it, but isn't that just him being there at the time? It was hardly as if he foresaw that Darlow was going to punch the ball backwards and positioned himself accordingly.

Slightly surprised people thought Dummett had such a good game last night - he was ok, but he made a fair few errors early on (no clue why he attempted that header in the first few minutes or so - absolute suicide) and there were a few occasions where he set himself up quite badly against Knockaert, but got away with it.

I'll never understand why people get so worked up about the number of defeats we've had. Number of points is the only thing that matters and I couldn't give a shit how many games we've lost as long as the points total is ok.

That ball should never be going out for a corner in any situation.

Within the context of that league they're s***, but pretty much everything in this division is still well below it imo. I think all of the bottom 6 would beat anyone in this division. Can't agree - no way are we significantly worse than Sunderland, Boro etc, even with the current squad. Obviously we'd struggle and I hope we spend a hell of a lot in the summer, but I don't think you need to completely overhaul the squad to come 15-17th.

Think people are also overestimating how shit the bottom 6 of the PL are.

Yep - totally agree. Apparently Huddersfield were going to win every game - they have just drawn. 5 games ago Brighton were going to win every game and they started wobbling.

Just as well Dummett never makes a defensive error.

Nobby wasn't a luxury player, he did a job at right back for a while and wouldn't shirk his defensive duties playing on the wing either. He was just a quality player, technically superb and a really intelligent footballer. He is a criminally underrated player - really made that team tick with his intelligence. Such a clever footballer.

You must know goals in Belgium don't count... In all seriousness - he has scored goals at pretty much every level and he's still young, so I'm remaining hopeful.

I find it really hard to debate Mitrovic - I feel there are counter-arguments on both sides to almost everything he does. For example, everyone has seen him miss some pretty easy chances and it's undeniable that his finishing needs to improve, but I'd counter that with three points: 1) if you look at his goals last season (and let's not forget 9 in 34 games (and not all exactly full appearances) in your first season in the PL as a 21 year old isn't exactly bad etc etc), some of them were taken really well. Even the penalties were taken well, but the headers vs Man City, Sunderland, Norwich and shot vs Norwich stand out. In addition, his goals per minute for last season was one goal every 235 minutes. This compares pretty favourably with pretty decent players - Costa was 198, Deeney 253, Pelle 197, Rondon 285. 2) I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding among fans (and I include myself in that) about how likely a striker is to score a goal. I linked to this article earlier - http://statsbomb.com/2016/10/xcommentary/ - when talking about the Norwich game which discusses how 'easy' chances really are. When I heard people talking about that first chance he missed vs Norwich, I thought he'd missed from a yard out - the actual chance wasn't an easy chance by any stretch of the imagination, yet people seem to expect strikers to score that 9 times out 10. As it was, Mitrovic hit it well and Ruddy made a very good save. 3) If he doesn't have a striker's instinct, how come he keeps getting in position to apparently miss a bucket load of easy chances? I don't know basically - he's definitely not as good as I had hoped he would be, but I genuinely think there is something there.

When you aren't playing well or a striker out of goal scoring form you concentrate on sacrificing yourself for the team. He becomes an intergral part in build up play and goals go in around him. All he needs is a couple of games with back to back goals and he'll be away. I can certainly see what he's trying to achieve. Spot on. Wishful thinking all that, imo. He's never displayed anything like a goalscoring instinct. Nothing like a bit of hyperbole.

You're basically right - so I wouldn't worry.

Especially given their style of play.

Did look a lot more lively and mobile yesterday - gave the Villa defenders something different to deal with and he held the ball up very well.

They're both shit - that left hand side needs to be ripped up next season.

I do wonder how many games we played well in last time round. I reckon there are probably quite a few shite matches that get glossed over by the passage of time.

Because statistically it would be highly unusual?