What?

Nope, we now have 2 actual RB’s competing for a position. It’s not difficult, although I can see now why you’re struggling.

Why are you comparing the new bloke with JRC when Brittain played 33 times last season?

I think a question should be raised at the next Forum meeting as to what the difference is between a Fans Forum meeting and a Supporters Consultation meeting. There is a difference because the former have taken place at Rovers going back decades, whereas the latter were introduced a few years ago following measures introduced by the EFL, took place for a couple of years with Tony Mowbray turning up with tales of life in 70s Teesside, and then as with Shareholder meetings were ditched during the Covid era under the guise of 'safety' and neither have been held or even mentioned since. Perhaps Pasha, Sufi or Talbot could explain why the club decided not to resume those meetings after Covid. That's because the shysters spotted an opportunity, as they often do, to save time and money and save themselves a job by cutting those meetings and lumping everything into one with the Fans Forum

Ok so you're assuming, got it.

As per the post you’re quoting I gave the context for why I think we’re stronger. RB - last season JRC was shite/injured and contributed nothing from RB. We have now signed an actual RB who plays in the way the manager wants i.e. quick and athletic, everything JRC isn’t. It’s a clear improvement in that area given the context.

Hardly relevant in any case if/when Brittain goes. We'll be weaker at RB as well.

They love each other really.

They looked more comfortable on the ball and they created way more chances. If they could only finish we would have lost comfortably. Anyway that's my view.

The ability to run, for a start. 😉

I'm struggling a little here. How are we stronger in areas we've made no additions? Are you accounting for player development? Also at RB, our new signings being stronger than JRC is a claim. You must have seen something definitive?

RW is much more important than a CF or an AMC. Ohashi and Gueye struggled with service last year - they've certainly not going to get that from Hedges.

I thought you said yesterday you no longer responded to Mercer. That aged well.

Toth is worth 10 goals a season over Pears - it's a huge upgrade (and I'm not even suggesting he's a special GK).

And yet their GK made the two best saves of the night (from Russo and Hemp). It was simply a clash of styles - the Spanish possession style makes it seem they're in control of the game, but they didn't really carve out many chances. Nor could they handle our pace and directness - their CBs resorted to blatantly obstructing Agyemang (which the ref completely ignored) whenever we tried to counter attack. Quite frankly it's an awful brand of football - made worse by their playacting when you try to challenge them. Completely breaks up the flow of the game, especially when the ref buys every single one.

Bearing in mind most of the players signed were / are unknowns (to us), I’m not sure how anyone can argue we’ve strengthened or weakened those positions. Add in the context of a managerial change and the fact that we’re clearly not done buying or selling, I think it’s virtually impossible. At this stage last season under Eustace, we were massively weaker (on paper) than the season before having lost Szmodics. The outlook appeared bleak and no one predicted the season we ended up having, the notion of finishing one place outside the playoffs would’ve been laughed and ridiculed out of here. Now there are obvious gaps in the squad and the manger has said he wants a CB, RW and AM. To my mind, all we can do is see who we sign, review how they play when watching the matches and THEN judge if we’ve strengthened or weakened in any position?

I dont personally think that constantly typing out names sufficiently analyses whether we have enough QUALITY in any position. Id like a new striker because I would like someone who can be an alternative to Ohashi without having to change style. I want another attacking midfielder because I wouldnt want too much reliance on Tyjon too soon. Ideally one that can also play on the right if possible so that if Tyjon does a Travis (who to be fair was older and more developed) and is ready now, then the signing can cover wide right and Hedges becomes further away from the first team. Based on your linear naming of players, its just about having warm bodies. Not factoring in quality or readiness. I wouldnt want Forshaw to start any games for example.

11 if you include the ref.

I think it's a massive stretch to automatically assume there's huge improvement in either of them just because it's their second season coming up. They both performed quite creditably last season imo without absolutely ripping the Championship up, and the most likely scenario is they'll perform roughly the same again, maybe with a very slight improvement to reflect the season under their belts but again that's pure supposition. Out of the two, I'd say Gueye has the most potential for major improvement, I'd say Ohashi has been playing at more or less his limit.

On the actual game, apart from the penalties I thought we didn't turn up. It was so one-sided but Spain were woeful in the final third where it matters. Missed at least 6 good chances while we didn't create much at all. Looks as if we did more work on penalties than other team and just as well! All the drama came from the penalty shoot-out, the match itself was not a good advert for women's football. TBF, that's true of men's finals too on occasion.

How is that worrying? Looks like lots of exciting summers to me. Gestede said so.

Don’t disagree with much of that, and there are a lot of unknowns. If we go back to the beginning of last season all the talk was we were fucked because we’d lost 30 goals from SS. That clearly wasn’t the case. What changed was that we improved massively in defence, which was mostly due to the way Eustace set up the team. We got a lot of points winning games 1-0 so SS didn’t need ‘replacing’ in a like-for-like sense. In the pre-season predictions thread this time last season I made the point we’d do a lot better than the doom mongers predicted simply because of the way Eustace was going to set up. I think Derby may do well this season for exactly the same reason. This season is harder to predict as you rightly point out. VI is an unknown. There was no in between last season under him - we went on a relegation-esque run of form, and then on a promotion-esque run of form. I’m optimistic we will do well, but unlike under the very cautious Eustace I think that if it goes wrong under VI it will go dramatically wrong.

The Miracles - You Really got A Hold On Me

Regarding the strikers. Both having played at this level is a double edged sword. OK they’ll be more experienced but teams will know a lot more about them now. They won’t be unknown quantities any more.

Aside from losing regulars of Weimann, Batth, Dolan and Beck (and probably so far only replacing one of them), one crucial 'position' where I think we COULD be weaker is in the dugout, personally. Under VI we finished the season strongly, but I do think the last 5, 6, 7 games of the season can be really strange in terms of results. Eustace did a brilliant job of getting results from the outset last season, particularly up until Christmas, when the schedule (and injuries) started to bite. He made us defensively strong, and developed a great sense of unity in the group. Pre-season has been really promising, but we'll have to wait and see if VI can get consistently good results out of what I believe is a really average (and increasingly inexperienced) championship squad. There are also quite a lot of unknowns in our current squad (see Chaddy's list above). Brittain will most likely leave, Wharton hasn't played a competitive match for 18 months, Carter is struggling badly with injuries, Tyjon is 17 and barely played men's football, Kargbo is back from injury and promising but has very few champ minutes, De Neve, Tavares and Alebiosu are unknown quantities with pretty uninspiring careers to date. McLoughlin on paper looks a steady replacement for Batth. With Weimann, Dolan, JRC and Batth we've lost a huge amount of Chamionship experience, not to mention 15 or so goals from last season. It's easy to say 'he's replaced him, he's replaced him', but the experience, know-how and reliability of the squad is undoubtedly a question mark, and in my opinion, a bit of a worry.