joey_big_nose

I don't disagree I'm just saying I want to see a reaction. We've switched from having Mowbray as the head honcho to having JDT and Broughton and to a lesser extent Remi as a package. They as a collective need to show they've got the nous. Looking at the fixture list over the next 15 games till Burnley they've got to show they can win ugly against physical experienced teams. Part of that is players, but also under resourced teams need to be well setup to grind our results with what they have. They collectively need to show that.

While today and Reading were absolutely terrible I'm at the stage that JDT is still figuring things out. His managing experience is at the most resourced team (Malmo) in the league he worked in. He's not really got the experience of handling better resourced teams. On top of that he had an incredible set of results first three games so carrying on in the same- maybe naive - vein is forgivable. That said we've had our wakeup call now, so I'm hoping to see from him, Greg and Remy a bit of a plan on how to make us competitive in games where we can't play the way that suits us. We can't just give it a go like today.

Yes to be brutal should have been a few more. Same at Reading..... Some of thats the players we have out but tactically I'm a bit worried.

While I don't think realistically we are at threat of relegation (assuming we sign a couple of players and keep/replace BBD) we are looking very mid table. A big miss I think is Rothwell, and not just for his running from deep. He also covered a lot of ground and became quite effective defensively last season. Our midfielders struggle to cover enough ground. Also I hate writing players off but I just don't see what Sammie gives us that Dolan didn't already.

Yeah, I think it will be 343 but wouldn't be that shocked if it's 4231 with Edun alongside Travis and Buckley playing 10, or 433 with Edun on the left of a three in mid.

Could be 343, 4231 or 433. Hard to say atm...

Depends on the system with him imo. Brilliant deep defender, but he can't handle playing a high line at all due to no pace l

I agree with you, but in the last few months we've signed Sammie, Hedges and Markanday on top of BBD, Dack, Dolan and Gally already here. So if we're signing a forward at least one is going imo.

Yeah would be a quality lineup Kaminski SVDB JPVH S Wharton Brittain Buckley Travis Morton Styles Hedges Brereton Subs : Pears, Ayala, Pickering, A Wharton, Dack, Gallagher, Sammie Squad : Phillips, Markanday, Edun, Dolan, Vale, Garett, Carter, Would be a good team & bench with promising squad players.... Robust enough to play 4231, 433, 343, 352. If we could land SVDB, JPVH and Styles I think that would be an excellent window. Find the idea that we are lining up a loan forward a bit weird considering we have too many attackers already, unless it is getting ready for BBD to go.

Whoah that's some real inside info - 100% solid? £7m seems a bit steep. Drop downs from Prem U23 to Championship usually somewhere around £2-4 M (e.g. Tosin, Reed). I can't see anyone paying anywhere near £7m. Don't think there is anyone interested except us also?

We do need a LB/LWB though....

Still personally don't think Pickering is that bad, the way things are is there is one player whose picked out and everyone piles on for a while and he's that guy at the moment. For a while last season Travis was getting a lot of stick... it moves around. Two of the goals yesterday from Reading actually all came down our right, and only one from the left. Would I like a better left back? Yes. But he's not like Douglas who was a total liability.

Sheffield Utd have played three at the back all this season, and like under Mowbray I can see playing teams in 343 or 352 is going to be a big issue for us. We tend to be very top heavy with a lot of attackers, and what Reading did so well was strangling us in midfield and across the back line. The players up front were isolated, and not physical enough to retain the ball the few times they got it. It will be more of the same by Sheffield Utd I think.... We really need to match them up in my opinion. We can just about do it with the players in the squad but it means 1) leaving quite a few attacking players on the bench or out of the squad, 2) hoping no defenders get injured as there is literally no one to come on... Kaminski Phillips Ayala Pickering Britain Buckley Travis Morton Edun Hedges Brereton Subs : Pears, U23 defender?!, JRC, A Wharton, Gallagher, Dack, Sammie/Dolan Already lack of flexibility in the squad very clear

Will be very interesting wgat we do against Sheff Utd. Mowbray would probably stick with the same system despite the one loss... I wonder if JDT and Remy will go for an instant switch? I think they will want to. I'm sure Utd will mimic Readings tactics, they've got all the players to do so.... Only got two days to prepare though. And no defenders for a 352/343. Tricky

Yeah - I think that's probably what will come out in the post mortem... Probably Morton should have come on to have an extra body in the middle to compete. Issue with 532 though is we've got so many forwards (8*) to just play two leaves a lot on the bench. The temptation is to play 4231 to get 4 forwards on at a time. And as you say we would be sacrificing one of those established forwards to play Pickering at LCB... Tough sell. *BBD, Gallagher, Hedges, Sammie, Dolan, Vale, Dack, Markanday

Yeah - him, Vale and Dolan identical really. Relatively small, not that quick, couldn't get the ball to stick. Playing all three of them at once seemed odd. With Sammie I am a bit surprised we signed him given he is a very similar player as far as I can see to Dolan - while Markanday and Vale in a similar bracket also.

Agree Vale looks a long way off, but thought Phillips looks solid personally. Not worried about him.

Really poor performance all game. Terrible. That said tactically we struggled all game. We never got any sort of control in midfield - Buckley and Travis totally crowded out but we never game them any additional support. We definitely improved second half but never could be said to be in control of a spell of the game. The concern from me is how we respond, every team we play now will watch this game back and mimic how Reading setup and dominated us.

Totally got the tactics wrong.... Dolan, Vale, Smodics all very similar, the ball not sticking to them at all... Gallagher and Hedges on. Also feel like maybe we need to match them 343. Kaminski Philips Ayala Pickering Brittain. Travis. Buckley. Edun Dolan. Gallagher. Brereton

Did he come for less money though? I don't think he did. We paid him a competitive wage as he moved into our first team squad while he was still viewed as an U23 player at Spurs.

I know I've said it a bunch of times, but I still don't believe Spurs pay their u23s significantly more than our first team. If we want to pay him as a first team player I think we can compete with Spurs. It comes down to do we see him as someone who will start for the first team regularly, and pay him commensurately, or not imo.

Well if he plays 30 games now to end of season that gets it up to £1.5M (£250k basic + 30 appearences) To be honest I still think if give him first team football we have a chance of keeping him.

Its obvious give what happened no one would pay money for Nyambe. Bizarre as he was a quality players for us, but he could only barely give himself away. Still don't get it. Must be something more to it than we can see. Lenihan though I am sure we could have got quite a few million if he was on a contract .

SG was defo given a first team contract by Southampton- after his loan spell with us coincidentally .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Gallagher_(footballer,_born_1995) AA made11 appearences for Newcastle in 2014, so again was a first team player and would be compensated as such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Armstrong_(footballer) I don't think either are indicative of the level of pay Spurs will afford a youth player who has one game in the Championship during an injury crisis.

Do'h your right, I was calculating 10k for some reason.