Nottingham Forest v. Sheffield United, 2023-08-18

Which particular points?

The impact of Mangala. Some of the defensive observations. Trying to remember now, but there were a few occasions where I just didn't see the same things.

You know the world has spiraled out of control when ingbot gets 14 likes on this web Mong site as the voice of reason. The cnut still owes me 12 quid. (And a Croatian shirt…)

Chicago: watching society crumble.

It's not massively insightful but I thought Mangala was carrying a lot of hod on Friday night.

I'll admit I was pleased to hear that some others saw the defensive worries about Aurier on Friday night. He put in some great crosses, but looked totally out of place defensively on multiple occasions.

This is my ongoing concern. Nice delivery for two goals well done. Now about those times when he wasnt even close enough to Rashford to be left for dead by his pace, where Martinelli was taking him inside and outside etc. An upgrade defensively is no bad thing.

Isn't Rashford playing centre forward now? Biggest concern must be how he's going to destroy McKenna if he's playing.

He has been, yes. But they've been quite poor their last two games and and expected to change formation (potentially moving Rashford back to the left).

Plenty near where I was sat in the BC stand were having a go at his lack of tracking back with his man.

Aurier being good going forward and weak defensively with our somewhat ponderous back 3 failing to cover the wide channels was a fair analysis. He was still better than wrong-side Neco.

Agreed. I really want Neco to be good but I'm not convinced he is. I think he needs a run at the position he was bought for in order for us to make that determination, but the arrival of Montiel probably makes that unlikely.

I don't want to be all "you had to be there" .... But I think you probably had to be there. It's the periods where the camera wasn't anywhere near him that you found yourself thinking what the fuck are you doing.

I think I have to have a mentality shift. In the Championship it's OK to like players because they aren't always going to get brutally found out. I suspect Russ is right about Neco but I would like to see him get some games to stake his claim. But if we want to remain a Premier League team, tough decisions have to be made. There's also another side to it where someone you love but suspected would be out of his depth turns out to have found their level. I give you Ryan Yates.

I've spent most of today arguing in our family WhatsApp that Kienan can still do a job for us.

He can’t. And I’m not sure about Djed Spence either. It’s sentimentality…

Nor the loony.

Oh, wait.

Quite. Maybe Neco will make it but not as a defender, on either side. The Worrall/McKenna keystone cops routine would have been punished by the majority of sides in this division with two goals. If we are forced to play them both this weekend, then I fear the worst.

On Ryan Yates: he did really well when he came on and made a difference at the back end of the season. But if we aspire to retain the ball and have possession stats >20%, he still has a long way to go to be relied on to run a game. So, I don’t agree that he has “found his level.” I realise I’m in the minority of one around here so have donned my flak jacket.

Death to the heretic.

The thing with Yates is he may have found his level but we aren't consistently (at all?) there yet, its not him dragging us down to his level or into a game that suits him, he improves us. So I'm not sure what the problem is, strikes me as some anti-localboydonegood bias.

I don’t think flak jackets are required. Many people thought Yates would be found out in this division, but were proved wrong (just as they had been in the division below). However, even the most avid Yates-o-phile (& I’m a big fan) would surely not dispute the fact that “he still has a long way to go to be relied upon to run a game”; I suspect Yates himself would not dispute that.

He has exceeded expectations and shown himself to be worthy of a Prem team struggling to avoid relegation. If we aspire to become something better than that - and it appears that we do (the owner certainly does) - then we’d need a better centre mid than Yates to run the show; it's hardly a secret that we’re trying very hard to find a centre mid who would be a step up in class. Assuming we land one during this window, it remains to be seen whether Yates is the player who find he has fewer opportunities as a result. Even with a Sangare (or whoever), we’re still going to need a ratter to win the ball back.

In the long run, assuming we develop as everyone wants, Yates will probably find that he is no longer of the right quality (though his mentality seems to be such that it won’t be for want of trying). Personally I doubt our midfield is suddenly going to be that good this season; better, yes, but I bet Yates will still make 30+ appearances in some capacity (assuming fitness).