Let's Mackem lose! (A match thread)

On Chits Wood, is he out of form or just reverting to his career norm.

I'd lean to out of form. He's been consistently putting that header away for years and years.

He's being asked to do a job he's not suited for. Running around trying to press GK & CBs on his own.
I'm thinking he may become an option off the bench rather than starter.

For a bunch of supposedly intelligent people you don't half do some binary thinking, not to mention a presumably deliberate lack of reading comprehension.

I'm not sure how to make it more clear that I have different expectations of a player that cost nearly 40M, more than any other player in the club's history, than I do one who costs considerably less. And his total body of work so far, including a 20 minute cameo yesterday when the opponent had no interest in retaining the ball and were happy to just sit back and repeatedly clear their lines, has not looked like the kind of gamebreaking capability that I would expect from the most expensive player we've ever signed.

He might well come good. Again, he's 21. But when you cost that kind of money you don't get the luxury of time.

On Chris Wood, I do think he's unfairly tarred with this brush that he's a bit shit but had a worldy season last time out.

Yes, he's played for a lot of clubs over the course of his career but has scored consistently for the three he's spent the longest period with: Leeds (one-in-two - Championship), Burnley (one-in-three - Premier League) and Forest (one-in-two - Premier League). He's also scored better than a goal-a-game at international level.

He's a very underrated footballer because he perhaps looks a bit ungainly and doesn't play like Thierry Henry. But you set up your team to his strengths and he will score. If Forest want to go in another direction, that's fine but he's probably no longer the man for us and the criticism seems a little harsh, for me.

Doesn't feel very different to his role under a Nuno to me.

I would agree with the general point but he"s still missed a couple of chances this season that he was burying last season

He's being forced to run around a lot more. Means he's more tired when he gets those chances.

I would have more sympathy with this view if he had any track record of success at this level, but Spurs' best run of league performances under him was right after he joined and the longer he went on, the worse they got.

This whole reputation of him being some kind of doyen of attacking football appears to be built on his history managing in various tinpot leagues such as the A League, J League and Scottish Premiership. He has so far in his short Premier League career appeared to be completely out of his depth. If he was called Ange Smith he wouldn't have got a look in for our job.

Suspect this is spot on. He feels like the first manager that EM has appointed for emotional rather than rational reasons.

I think you'll have to show me some FACTS to persuade me about that.

Villa losing so if it stays that way we can't be in the bottom three until next weekend.

Ahhhh…it’s good to be talking about the bottom three again. I’ve missed that.

This felt a bit premature.

Villa have now equalised.

Indeed. Nuno to send us into bottom three tomorrow night then.