How about a few long balls to Benteke plan B he wins most in the air and stop all the fiddling around in our own half.

To an extent I concur with braunstoneagle as with our outlay in the last few windows, coupled with horrendous injury problems, it's amazing we aren't where Norwich are and although it is frustrating to watch at times I do believe Roy should be lauded for what he has achieved. Where I differ is when it comes to recruitment. This is the third window in a row where we have left it late only to see deals fall apart. This strikes me as very naive to keep happening again and again.

If Andros had been fit and in form this season I truly believe we'd have at least another 6 or so points, as due to a lack of transfers we have been left completely lopsided and with Wilf up and down form wise Roy has at times been left with Ayew as the only player carrying any real threat. Meyer has failed to deliver when given chances and Bentenke is just awful now. Camarassa still remains a mystery, but aside from that what were people expecting Roy to do? Everyone could see we were overloaded with central midfielders in the summer and yet this window gone SP/Freedman once again failed to deliver width. Since we've been in the PL our key strength has been fast wingers who can get us up the pitch quickly. We only have two in the whole squad. Given Andros has clearly been struggling this year the failure to at least get someone, even f**king Jordan Ibe, is a joke.

Since Roy has been at the helm we rarely lose to teams below us and we still have some quality players so I think we'll be fine. I also think with everyone fit the football will improve. Even if we do stay up though I will still look at this January window and think 'What if' given our opportunity to challenge for at least a top 10 finish.

Although I agree with much of what Braunstoneagle has said, I agree with you on this. Unless I am mistaken this is what we did when we played Liverpool and our wingers (especially Andros) kept their full-backs occupied for a lot of the game.

What is frustrating is that our midfielders first thought is to pass back/sideways. other players, therefore see little point in making runs. When Meyer plays he tries to pass forward but often players aren't making the runs they should be making. I think back to last season and the number of times Batshuayi tried to make runs and wasn't seen by the player on the ball because of the overall negative approach of our defensive and midfield players.
it is about mindset and Roy's tends to be too safety-first. I'm not suggesting that he should go but that there are games where a more positive plan B would be more productive.

I agree. Riedewald tackles well and is comfortable with the ball at his feet, but his startling lack of mobility certainly does not give us a flying wing back at LB.

Why not try him in a CM creative mould, like Jan Molby?

PVA is not better going forward.
If you asked anyone in the ground what the most predictable pass is in the entire game before it's even begun, they will say PVA passing back to a CB or keeper. It's just boring and getting tiresome. We must waste 20 mins per game just giving it to him so he can pass it back again.
Reidewald has proven he can defend and attack efficiently.

Dropping him was just one of a handful of criminal decisions Hodgson made yesterday.

I think the time has come and we need fresh ideas. Hodgson's tactics and up-to-speed thinking is clearly non-existent.

lets look at this whole academy player thing in isolation for a minute, we want to get a manager in who trusts academy players...

look at this article i found from november this year about academy player minutes in the PL this season...

[Link]

lets discard chelsea united arsenal & spurs from the conversation as their resources far outweigh ours, and are not
comparable.

norwich had the luxury of being able to blood those players in the championship.

the only teams on our level who i can see have played & trusted kids this year are

brighton - connolley
newcastle - obafemi

we are potentially starting to blood thru peirrick, and it would seem we are trying to now sign younger players, ferguson & bowen would have been a right step in that direction but they wernt to be.

a task this size wont happen overnight and i would suggest it will be the beginning of 21/22 season before we actually see this come to fruition, we cant just dispose of the current players as & when we like, it actually takes team to want to take them off our hands so we can replace them, like i assume we planned with PVA situation for example.

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway