Lionel Fessi

2 - McNeil 4 - Otegbayo, Palmer, Iorfa, Horvath 5 - Everyone Else The last time I remember seeing an outfield player directly at fault for 2 goals was Odubajo vs Preston a few years back…I actually thought McNeil gave the ball away for all 3 of theirs today. Probably a glimpse into why he isn’t playing regularly, really poor zero awareness. Another dreadful performance, we’ve got absolutely nothing in this side. We look bad all over, Bannan is even struggling and was careless with the ball. Hard to take positives, we’re lucky Bristol seemed happy with just 3 goals, felt like they could have had more. Atleast Charles & Bernard back in a few weeks should limit these performances!!

Trying to keep this just about the players, manager & performance so just bare that in mind. 6 - M.Lowe & Bannan 5 - Everyone else The first full match I’ve actually sat down and watched this season. I thought we were pretty bad and could have lost that 4 or 5 nil. We are a complete shell of ourselves vs this time last year. We have problems all over the pitch. Horvath looks exactly like a 4th choice keeper, we have zero structure still in defending set pieces and going forward we are completely void of ideas, apart from pass it to Bannan. Players like Ingelsson, Kobacki & Cadz I can’t decide if I think they’re any good or if they just work hard and run around a lot…lacking end product so often. Similarly J.Lowe is a complete passenger, I still don’t know what he brings to the team.

Sounds absolutely mental doesn’t it? But I’d agree.. If by some miracle those 11 players can give us ~40 games we might have a chance, still a poor poor side but they’re capable of grinding away a few wins. Maybe we get lucky and a youngster like McNeil or Charles has incredible breakout season? In reality though that defence is a major worry, it was already under Röhl and we’ve lost 3 starters from last year plus plenty of experience… Palmer & Otegbayo are not good enough, Lowe could be off, Bernard is still injured and Charles is a massive unknown.

Even if those 11 stayed fit all season, still a bottom 5 side. On the upside there’s plenty of potential in there - Charles, Otegbayo,Cadz & Kobacki are all still very young and could all be hits. Plus there’s quality in there and players capable of putting in good performances, how consistent the likes of Ugbo, Svante, Chalobah & Iorfa will be is going to be crucial I’d even put J.Lowe into that mix. If we have any chance at all in staying up they’ll need to be fit & firing when it counts.

I always go back to that first season he came in and assembled a board of advisors at the club - Glen Roeder, Adam Pearson and Paul Senior. Lasted a few months then they all vanished. We never had a form of leadership at the club other than Chansiri since. No board. Big big problem. No other club in the football league operates like this.

I’ve been in this camp, as one of the best players at the club we’ve held him in the same light as Bannan. Expected to be 7 or 8 out of 10 every game and when he’s not, we probably don’t win and he gets a lot of stick. Fickle fans aren’t we? But that comes with the territory of being a good player. Especially one with the attitude & swagger Windass carried around. He’s been very good for us, nobody can argue with that. The attacking returns, THAT goal at Wembley and how instrumental he was to our success under Röhl - more so than probably any other player. But…he’s had his flaws. Injuries, consistency and at times he’s just the wrong side of selfish. As good as he’s been, let’s not pretend he hasn’t frustrated us all over the years and he could have been even better. Sad to see him go and even more frustrated it’s for nothing but thats all down to our shambolic owner. Best of luck to Windass, the type of player any side in this division would want in the squad.

Can’t see him at a game unless there’s a drastic uptick in our situation. Regardless of what you thought of him before this summer, it feels like he’s actively gone out of his way to sabotage the club these last 3 months. So so many issues across all levels - leadership, strategy, academy, training facilities, stadium, legal, players, financial, manager it’s actually quite unbelievable what a mess we’re in. I’ll give it 10 games, when we’re rock bottom with 5 points, zero signings and we get embarrassed by United, after that it will turn really nasty. It’s going to be a horrible toxic season that could quite possibly be one of the worst in the club history. Depressing, just at a loss for words now.

The only positive we can take it atleast the players have experience with eachother & Röhl, after everything we’ve been through this summer any game we avoid getting beat 4-0 I’ll take… Think we’re going to see a totally different style of play this season. If we have any chance at all of staying up we can’t try and replicate how we played with the likes of Windass, Gassama, Smith, Charles…impossible to replace them with bottom of the barrel loanees. Charles Valery Otegbayo Iorfa Lowe Palmer Bannan Svante Chalobah McNeil Ugbo

Utterly depressing no other way about it. On the verge of what might be one of the worst seasons of my lifetime. Windass Gassama Musaba Charles Smith Those 5 were our best attacking players last season and they’ve all left, with the exception of Bannan probably 5 of our best players from last season too. Really really depressing, the only positive is players mutually terminating contracts might lead to action from the EFL to force Chansiri out.

I always think this should really be ‘when they don’t play, who do we miss the most?’ To which, Bannan would win every single season, there’s a case again for him this year too. But, Shea Charles has been magnificent and without his influence in the middle I worry who could have stepped up. Bannans impact for certain would have suffered. Windass very good too, 17? G/A is hard to argue against and goals are by far the most valuable asset in any team. 1-Charles 2-Baz 3-Windass Interesting also, Musaba now has more goal involvements than Gassama…despite playing 1500+ less minutes. Food for thought on how valuable he is when fit. Not quite POTS candidate yet but Valery has been impressive as well, suits Rohls system really well and so good on the ball. Very clever player.

What’s the story again? A fan group cobbling together ideas for a takeover that may or may not have made contact with some wealthy individuals?! I’m a big fan of the Radio Sheffield team and I think this season the coverage from journalists like Rob Staton has been excellent. But fans need to remember, they’re professionals and they will be doing their own research through trusted sources to see how credible the story is before bringing it to a wider audience… Similar to some of the coverage for the protests & Chansiri drama this season, due diligence & fact checking drive good quality journalism. Not reactive scrambling jumping on a bandwagon story from a fan podcast. The Owlstalk vacuum in full swing once again.

I am bloody good aren’t I?!?

That spell between 2015-2017 with the 2 playoff runs was the best 2 years of football I’ve ever seen at the club in my lifetime. It’s also the most ‘success’ we’ve had in the last 25 years.

Ihiekwe an 8, don’t think I’ve disagreed with you since one of your Fessi takes @Holmowl!! I think my 4 was maybe abit harsh, but he’s SO poor with the ball to feet especially when pressured, felt like after Lowe went off United clearly targeted him on the ball. Plus how many headers in the box did he win, but fail to get the ball on target? I’ll admit though, we probably need to curb our expectations given he is our 4th choice CB and isn’t ideal for Röhl’s system. Small margins but against the best in the league our weak links stood out. Ihiekwe was one of them.

4 - Ihiekwe 5 - Windass 7 - Smith, Hatsuse 6 - Everyone Else Copy & paste of how many home matches this season? Created more chances, missed the best chances and gave away a sloppy goal. Pretty solid all around performance, consistent across the board but lacking quality in both boxes. Smith, Windass & Svante all have to score those chances. In the end their multi million pound squad made the difference, £4m keeper made 2 top saves and a winner scored by their £40m striker. Annoying. Hard to pick apart the team when we played pretty well (again). Defensively we need big improvements, not organised and beaten so often individually in 1on1 situations. Ihiekwe is awful with the ball and completely torn apart when he’s got space behind him, although part of that is due to how attacking we are.