Brighton @ Home, Sunday 21st

Hamstew

Embarrassing performance.

Fortuneseeker

So Emerson is the new LB, need a creative CAM by the 31st but would DM take weeks to play him?

MIAHammer

Will be interested to see our pass completion rate. At first glance we have been giving the ball away a lot.

yoyo

I've said before that IMO we over achieved the past 2 seasons. Although there's no reason why we can't be a consistent top 6-7 Side I think it's always been a big ask to expect it to be so.

MIAHammer

Lukerz said:

13 defeats in 22, I mean it’s a concern, this team will know top six is light years away

After the good start to last season, the other teams figured out how to play against us and we’ve never been able to come up with a plan B.

Lukerz

Last two seasons are gone. Need to stop banging on about it now. It’s a fresh season, last seasons efforts are gone. You’re only as good as your last game. This season we look shocking so far. 3 games (one against a newly promoted side & another against a mid-table team at home), 3 defeats, 0 goals, big turnover of players, captain left.

Lukerz

What I would say is not sure how Moyes can say the side needs freshening up & yet play the same 11 for the first 3 games. He should have made changes at half time today & once again has been outclassed by Potter.

Pengeman

Terrible. Reminded me of Norwich from last year - shipping goals and not looking like scoring. Three games, shipping goals and not scoring. Not sure why Benrahma was taken off. We needed a change of formation to 3-5-2/5-3-2/3-4-3 to match Brighton bur Moyes did not. So far, we have not looked sharp in any of the four games. The omens for the season are not looking good.

Lukerz

We started ok and then Zouma made that horrible pass & Kehrer didn't bail him out. After that it was easy. If Zouma has an issue, get him off and operated on. He looks like he can barely move. We need Ogbonna and Dawson back ASAP, which is bad in itself given their ages. Missing leadership as well as quality.

buffybegood

As others have said, despite the new signings, this, bar Kehrer, is exactly the same team we were fielding most of a very disappointing second half of the last PL season. It's one of the reasons I moan about not doing business early enough in the transfer window, we're just asking for a poor start to the season (last year being an outlier from the last half a dozen). It's the 3rd time in the last 6 seasons we've lost our first 3 games.

Fortuneseeker

There were some who pointed out that there was loads of time to get players in when complaints were being made about how long it was taking to make some signings. 😉

Slacker

That’s probably the title gone for another year innit?

chicagohammer

That performance worries me more than the result itself, it is still very early in the season and we really should have something on the scoreboard from the Forest game so it might not seem as bad,overall, but there is no hiding from todays performance.

Not talking about a relegation scrap yet, but today, WHU have once again forced me to manage my expectations.

Unless we regain some confidence real soon, this is going to be a tougher season than I was hoping for.

Ho hum

MrsGrey

Can we keep this thread for discussion of the match.

OldCastleSwift

Season started on 5th August. Not 1st September. We should have got the majority of our priority business done before the season started, IMO. The problem is that we had too many priorities because of what we didn't do in the last two windows.

Moyes talks about the team being stale and changes being needed, but played 10 of the same 11 that have been struggling. How long until Scamacca and Cornet start? And then Emerson and anyone else that comes in?

And, of course, leaving things so late means that any players that may be on the fence about joining (e.g. Vanaken) may look at our start and think, 'nah, you're alright'.

Huge week for Moyes and the players.

MrsGrey

Apparently not.
😂

chicagohammer

MrsGrey said:

Can we keep this thread for discussion of the match.

Only if we can have a 24hour swearing holiday :-)

jay_in_cpt

Mrs G …..,Do we have to 😜😜…
It was so poor , not one player can hold their heads up with those performances, even Rice IMO…
But , let’s pray it’s simply a slow start and we’ll come right….
Sadly not convinced 😡 ⚒️

BubblesNeverDies

It doesn't matter what side Moyes puts out, he still has them playing the same way.

When we're out of possession we don't press the ball enough, and when we do have it we just give it away by hoofing it upfield.

Is Moyes too rigid in his formation and they're afraid to change it if it's not working until he gets into them at half time?

With the players at his disposal we should not be in this situation. We have won just 7 out of 22 PL games since the start of 2021 and not scoring a single PL goal this season is a disgrace.

I know it's only 3 games but the performance so far including the struggle against Viborg has me genuinely worried for this season. Moyes needs to start earning his crust as much as the players need to.

Still at least Chelsea lost.

ASLEFshrugged

Lukerz said:

What I would say is not sure how Moyes can say the side needs freshening up & yet play the same 11 for the first 3 games.

He didn't play the same 11 for the first three games

Lanzini replaced by Benrahma v Forest
Kehrer for Johnson today

Bowen and Rice were poor again, neither would get an England call up on their current form.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Big calls to be made from Moyes, it's gone stale and it's his job to try solve the issue

Coufal and Soucek need some time out the squad for deffo

Perhaps a formation change? Get Scamacca and Antonio together

Maybe get Cornet on the pitch for his pace which we lack

But it's Moyes job to sort this out, as this has been a sorry start to the season

Lukerz

Anybody reckon if we got knocked out of Europa on Thursday Rice may hand in a last minute transfer request? Maybe he’s thinking about the World Cup.

Lukerz

Soucek needs to come out of the team, he’s just not with it. Downes at CM, Lanzini, Kehrer, whoever.

Pengeman

4-4-2 hasn't worked for us and confidences has been drained from the players. Moyes needs to change it to 3-4-3 for the next few games, just to try something different that the opposing teams may not easily guess.

Areola
Zouma - Kehrer - Ogbonna
Johnson - Rice - Fornals - Cornet
Bowen - Scamaca - Benrahma

We seems too predicable. Need quicker forward passing, not slow sideways and backward.

Lukerz

Areola
Zouma - Ogbonna - Kehrer
Johnson - Downes - Rice - Cornet
Fornals
Scamacca - Antonio

Bazshuayi

I got in at 230am, set alarm for 6am, woke up and switched on the TV and its the last thing I remember. It may have been the best choice I'll make today (reading the thread comments).

The only positive my brain tells me to consider is to pretend we've only played 2 games worth of points (and basically put the Man City game mentally further on in the season). Its not working at the moment

epsom_bubbles

My only feeling of consolation is that - didn't Arsenal (my mate's team) have a similar bad start to.last season, with everyone calling for Arteta's head? If you take out the last two seasons, this might be an average start for us. Yes, I know we should do better, and maybe the World cup break might help the newbies to gel, but there are 35 more games to win......alright, I'll get me coat 🤪

Hamstew

Soucek was abysmal today. And has been for ages. Bowen is constantly facing the wrong way. Creswell was so so bad and even Rice was off it today.

Lukerz

Newcastle able to give a game to City

OldCastleSwift

Hamstew said:

Soucek was abysmal today. And has been for ages. Bowen is constantly facing the wrong way. Creswell was so so bad and even Rice was off it today.

Three issues from the last two seasons. No genuine competition for any of them. And yet here we are, three defeats into the new season still with no serious options.

The lack of planning in resolving these problems is, IMO, very poor by the people that manage this club.