This article may have been recategorised and is therefore no longer available at this URL.

You can try to find the updated link in the article archive or in the News section.


Reader Comments (10)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()


Paul Kernot
1 Posted 13/09/2025 at 01:09:18
This time next year, I expect us to see Harrison Armstrong in the midfield adding to that creativity, plus Röhl in some capacity and Dibling getting regular minutes.

Add to that a young, fast right full-back with Aznou regularly playing left-back. Branthwaite and O'Brien as our new centre-back pairing, and watch us go.

Derek Thomas
2 Posted 13/09/2025 at 07:39:05
Samuel; I presume you mean good, positive things, but with a sample size of 2... the game vs Leeds told us only bad things... it's much too early to say anything yet - especially with Röhl and Dibling yet to kick a ball.

Let's wait and revisit the topic between Christmas and New Year's Eve – a half-term report if you will.

Ian Bennett
3 Posted 13/09/2025 at 08:04:13
There will be a good base of players in 2 years time that should develop under Moyes.

Aznou, O'Brien, Branthwaite, Alcaraz, Barry, Röhl, Garner, Dibling, Ndiaye, are all under 25. All technically good players, with Mykolenko, Beto, Dewsbury-Hall still the right of 30.

Tarkowski will be around for years, as will Pickford. So looking at phasing out Keane, Coleman and Gana in the coming years – with probably new homes for McNeil and Patterson.

With money now available, the quality and competition should only be going one way.

Robert Tressell
4 Posted 13/09/2025 at 08:05:05
Stadium: tick. It's ace.

Pre-season: tick. It doesn't matter.

Beto: the main man, for the time being. Barry is probably expected to take over at some point but that could even be next season. It'll be good to see him start getting more minutes.

Creativity fixed: We're obviously much, much better – but we haven't played a good team yet. There will be games where we huff and puff due to problems which weren't fixed in the summer window. We should comfortably create and score more over the season though – and possibly concede more too (but we're not just reliant on the team defending for results, so that's no bad thing).

Dave Abrahams
5 Posted 13/09/2025 at 08:32:35
Derek (2), Your last paragraph makes complete sense to me.
Tony Abrahams
6 Posted 13/09/2025 at 09:02:59
We beat Brighton, but on another day we could have lost. It was a great day but my own view is that if Pickford, hadn’t saved the penalty, then I personally don’t think we would have held on for the victory, but we did and getting the three points was enormous.

The Wolves game was very good from an attacking point of view but, those defensive frailties were still present.

The more we open up and attack, then the more we are also going to expose ourselves to the fast counter attack, (something Brighter never capitalised on) so finding the right balance has got to be the most important thing, imo now.

Aston Villa, impressed me as much as any team at times last season, and if it wasn’t for PSR, I expected them to really kick on this season, so although it’s still very early days, I expect today’s game, will help us get a much better gauge on our team.

I’m looking forward to going today, but when I start thinking about some of our players, then because they don’t fill me with great confidence, then I’d probably be happy with a point.

Andrew Ellams
7 Posted 13/09/2025 at 09:03:37
I think a few people need to cool their jets a bit. Remember the starts we had under Ancelotti and Benitez?
Liam Mogan
8 Posted 13/09/2025 at 09:24:54
The comments that we were perhaps lucky to have won the last 2 games are apposite.

However, I'm just hoping we are picking up the knack of scoring and winning games when we haven't necessarily played well.

The Devils Rejects in their scruffy lean-to have done this for the best part of 60 years.

Danny O'Neill
9 Posted 13/09/2025 at 09:59:35
Early days. Closer to Christmas better to judge where we are. Let’s just enjoy for now.

Branthwaite is a growing concern and not his ability.

Pat Kelly
10 Posted 14/09/2025 at 10:49:17
Beto's bungling performance yesterday sums up our biggest problem. The lack of a competent striker remains and will limit our progress for yet another season.

Barry is not the answer for now and may never be. We've seen similar with Chermiti.


Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


How to get rid of these ads and support TW


© ToffeeWeb