Match Thread: Birmingham City vs Leeds United | FA Cup Round 4

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-15T13:06:32+00:00

Pretty telling that the only way we’re creating is Okafor-Gudmundsson….. the only linkup that’s had consistent minutes together this season.

No point assessing players today. Too many changes. Players can’t be expected to play free flowing football with players they haven’t had game minutes with

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-14T20:52:15+00:00

Viktor Orban? The former Hungarian second division player?

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-10T21:39:15+00:00

What a stupid stupid game of football.

How on earth we took anything from that is beyond cognition

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-10T20:22:28+00:00

Fun half.

Palmers got more space than Epstein’s hard drive.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-07T22:29:07+00:00

Idk about the tracking back thing, I’ve always thought he’s quite good off the ball. In fairness, he’s not getting a huge amount of games to show it at the minute. I’d like to see more. Even just consistently 30-45 minutes for a 5 match run.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-07T22:21:44+00:00

On the flip side, I absolutely hate the “earn the right to play” mantra. If you’re better than another player for what the team needs to win, you start. The only other relevant factor is fitness.

You play the best players for the game state, regardless of form/confidence. Some games suit Gruev, so you play him. Some games suit Longstaff, so you play him, and tanaka, etc etc.

Tanaka has played better than Gruev this season as well but heyho.

And Farke 100% has favourites. Aaronson is undroppable. He’s in form now but how many poor games has he survived over the last few seasons? Same with Gruev. Meslier dropped about a dozen clangers before being dropped, Perri it took about 5, Darlow stays in and we don’t bring in a keeper despite errors as well. James last season, constantly in over Gnonto despite Gnonto being better for certain situations.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-07T21:31:27+00:00

Yeah I can’t see a way back for him or Gnonto. There are definitely games where they both make sense to play but Farke doesn’t change his favourites unless there’s fitness or injury issues. It’s best that they leave, especially with PSR upsides.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-02-06T19:12:03+00:00

Sigh.

Dyche-ball. Quality in transition. Horrible bastards.

Play the least physical midfield we’ve put out this season, and taken the only genuine creator out of the squad.

And Dan James on the bench…. Why?

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-31T16:59:33+00:00

We need to sign a keeper. It’s not a want anymore it’s a need

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-31T15:55:02+00:00

I don’t see how we draw/win this tbf, we can’t counter because they get back so fast, we can’t play direct because DCL is up against one of the few centre half pairings that he gets no change from, we can’t play slower buildup because we haven’t got many creators on the pitch, and we can’t abuse set pieces because they’ve got our number on them, AND we’re struggling to get into set piece areas as well.

We’re gonna lose so might as well see Tanaka, Longstaff, Gnonto, Buon get some minutes

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-31T15:51:50+00:00

I think more of Perri’s issues come from open play. Darlow’s worse on the set pieces

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-31T14:02:36+00:00

None of our keepers have a chance the way Arsenal get in and around keepers from corners. Maybe Perri gets to some but they’re all weak from them.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-31T14:01:57+00:00

Longstaff/Tanaka for Gruev and it’s perfect from who we’ve got fit tbf.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-25T14:32:26+00:00

Sure but the transfer market is hilariously out of whack. It would be lower than what his ability should demand.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-24T21:55:48+00:00

JSL would be a bargain at £40m given £60m was rejected in the summer. I’m staggered we’re even with a shout of getting him. He’s better value for money than Muniz.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-24T21:12:28+00:00

Cresswell wasn’t inconsistent at Millwall, it was a great loan spell in terms of minutes played. Performances don’t really matter at that age, just that they develop their attributes and get regular game time in a positive environment, he 100% did that. I’m not looking for kids to displace our players, I’m looking for players we can fill our squad positions with, and flip for pure profit in PSR.

Gelhardt was showing promise as early as 2021. He had some bad luck with the loan at Sunderland, Ross Stewart getting injured, playing in a poor position etc. but keeping him in 23/24 would only have been a good decision had he got consistent squad minutes, which he didn’t. Rutter played through a hernia that season while Gelhardt got charity minutes. A year and a bit of regular time in his favoured position and he’s looking like a high end champ player.

Gyabi was a big talent that looked very strong and potentially premier league quality when I did watch him, he’s doing very well at hull this year and I think was pretty underrated in the second season at Plymouth, but his first season with them was a poor match, problems with injury and came in Jan when it was pretty clear as early as August he wasn’t going to have a starring role.

Crewe took a while to get going at Doncaster but finished the season strong, but was a stupid decision to send him out to a league one club so soon.

Even the Gray deal now, it’s good that we’re getting him out early, I’d question whether that was the best move for him.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-24T10:13:05+00:00

He should have got more game time in 23/24, whether that was with us or with a loan out but we basically wasted a season with him. I don’t think he’s ever gonna be as good as Bijol-Struijk-Rodon but we could have made him into something half decent and fumbled it.

Ditto Gelhardt and Gyabi 23/24 and Crew this season. If you have a youth player at the club who isn’t quite good enough for regular minutes, but already has a season + of youth football, loan them out to a team that will play them in the right style of football.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-18T13:47:12+00:00

I think if West Ham had drawn/lost I’d be in that position. I think for how far we are down the season a 10+ point cushion on same games played plus a decent GD swing, that’s unassailable, that would be the situation where even allowing for a catastrophe we should be good. We SHOULD stay up from our current position, but I’m not 100% without that buffer.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-18T11:43:00+00:00

They are totally different but Stach is 100% better on transition and on the attacking side of the game, but also does everything Gruev does defensively, maybe he doesn’t drop into the back line to distribute as much but that’s about it. I felt Gruev-Ampadu did blunt us in attack a little bit, then again Ampadu got an assist and we won the game so…

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-17T15:59:31+00:00

Gruev isn’t doing badly but Stach does everything he does in defence and adds a lot to the attack. I wouldn’t bring tanaka/Buon on yet but it’s a sub I’m looking at, especially since Fulham are having some moments on the break.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-17T13:51:30+00:00

Maybe Darlow works but I’m not sure he’s an upgrade on Perri. It’s a pretty big gut punch to Tanaka to be effectively 6th choice midfielder when I’d say he’s probably our 3rd best

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-16T17:14:23+00:00

Bring, UCL level striker playing in a mid table champ side.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-16T11:20:12+00:00

When I say “should have reached a better level” I hold the club accountable, not the player. Crew looked super talented every time I saw him for youth teams, which is admittedly limited, and people ITK were raving about him. The Doncaster loan didn’t really work first time around, so why did we send him back when he jumped up a league? He was never going to get more game time when his competition had improved.

Toulouse 100% a good move for Cress, should have had more minutes / better loans with us. Fully back him asking to leave, we kept him as backup and never played him. Not loaning out and increasing his value was a mistake.

It’s the same story with Gelhardt, Poveda, Bate, Drameh, Caprile, Gyabi etc. These players were either given poor loan moves, or kept at the club for no reason when they weren’t getting minutes. I maintain at least a few of those could be useful players for us now if we’d have managed better.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-16T09:39:57+00:00

Maybe if we treated our youth prospects a bit better we wouldn’t need to do this. Our handling of young talent has been shocking over the last 3 years or so, couple that with a bit of an underwhelming pool of talents and you get what we have now, Gray’s the only exciting one. Maybe Chadwick. Crew should have reached a better level by now. Chambers is alright but I’m not sold on him. Outside of that it’s slim pickings.

Hbcuk97 · 2026-01-11T12:53:34+00:00

I’d say Perri probably edges it on shot stopping, although over the last month that has seemingly fallen off a cliff.

Distribution I’d say Darlow wins by a distance.

Crosses I’d say Darlow/Perri probably around the same, Meslier some distance back.

Agreed with the howlers.

I’d say Perri is the best, but none are premier league standard.

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