I agree. I don't think we had a poor first half. We dominated it. But the two chances Reading got (through our appalling defending) they scored.

I get a feeling Mowbray may drop Smallwood on the weekend and play Rothwell central. He didn't seem happy with Smallwood at all today.

It's criminal that we were 2 goals behind. We've been the better side throughout by a big distance. That said we were two goals down to appalling defending from Mulgrew and Lenihan. So we only have ourselves to blame. Rothwell looks a real find. He's clearly going to be a big player for us. Lots of allround quality. Nyambe, Evans and Bennett all very good. Think Nuttall has done really well also since on too. Personally I'm not convinced by Bell. His final ball seems very poor. Maybe just caught him on a bad day. Another should have won, but great performance in second half to get back level. Shame two spots of terrible defending killed us.

It's odd we are offering so much for him. Mowbray must think he's an absolute certainty as a top player. Guess it's one of those where you have to ask do we trust the manager, and the answer has to be yes. All of his main additions have looked the part. I wonder if the fee is highly contingent on appearences, a sell on fee and paid in installments over 3 or 4 years. That could explain why it is taking so long and why we can afford the fee.

If he continues in the same vein the only way we will keep him is through promotion. So that's what we need to do!

What sort of player is Davenport? Is he earmarked for this role?

What about Davenport. Not seen him yet? Does he have any bite?

It will be very interesting to see if Travis, Bell and Rothwell all get a shot. Also as others have said Armstrong is an option through the middle too. Maybe the squad isn't as threadbare as thought. Need to see if they really can step up though.

What if he registered 10 shots per game but we were well beaten by Colombia in the second round? Is that better? You can't have a go at someone on tactics of they got a generational best outcome using those tactics.

----------------------------Raya Bennett----Lenihan----Mulgrew----Bell -----------------Dack-----------Evans Armstrong---------Palmer-------Rothwell -------------------------Graham I'd give that a go if we are sticking with 451. Still think we would be better with 343/352. Too many square pegs in midfield in 4231.

Don't know how anyone who got us to only our third world cup semi in history can be described as awful. Lucky with the draw obviously, but still we had a great tournament. He did very well with one of our worst squads ever. No pleasing some people.

This sounds more likely to me than Wickham. There's no way we could afford Wickhams wages, probably could only manage around a third at most.

If we do go into the season with this squad I think it's incredibly hard to predict how things will go. We've got maybe five top half championship players (Mulgrew, Dack, Lenihan, Graham, Palmer). One or two others who have quality but have struggled in the Championship when they've played (Raya, Armstrong). Rest of the squad is bottom half Championship or relegation standard. A few injuries and a bad run of form and we will be struggling. But then again with little cash it's hard to see how we could have done much better. What we can hold onto is the Championship has shown repeatedly even with mediocre players you can make the playoffs if the team spirit is right and you have luck with injuries. So we can always dream.

Fair point. We had Chapman but he was mostly injured. I guess we could go 4231, but it seems daft when we don't have the personnel. We can go ultra narrow with Palmer, Samuel and Armstrong filling in, but it's square pegs. Just think if we were serious about 4231 we would have signed at least one wide player.

Why do you think that? We've got loads of number 10s and no wide players beside Conway. Plus we've got a signing sitting on the bench in Bell

Nothing personal but don't get this at all. How can we play 4231 when we have only one wide player in Conway and he is really struggling. We'd need to sign 2/3 wide players to persist.

Why?

I don't know, he's a superb allround player, and I think he could offer more if played deeper with the licence to get forward. He can drive the whole team. Only way to accommodate a true free role for him is to play Armstrong and Palmer wide which I think really under uses their strengths.

Agreed, but think with the lack of signing proper wingers, and the need to utilise Bell we are heading in that direction.

I don't know. Probably suits us with the players we have. I can't see how we play Williams, Dack, Palmer, Armstrong and Bell unless we go 352/532. To be honest leaving out the likes of Evans and Samuel can only help us. And I think Dack and Palmer both have the physicality to be effective from deeper positions.

We could take a leaf out of England's tactic book? --------------------------------Raya ------------Lenihan----Mulgrew----Williams Bennett-----Dack-----Smallwood---Palmer----Bell ----------------------Graham------Armstong

You know what think you're into something there... But maybe more like Raya Lenihan Mulgrew Williams Bennett Evans Smallwood Bell Dack Graham Samuel Think that will suit our players well.

I think Armstrong has a lot of quality. The goals he scored last year showed that. Good finishing, good pace, technically decent. I think he can be a success if we play to his abilities as others say. Certainly deserves 10 games or so in the Championship to see how he fares before we write him off.

A bit of a weak link for me, maybe I'm being unfair?

What's the first choice XI as it stands? --------------------------Raya Bennettt----Mulgrew----Lenihan-----Bell -------------Smallwood-----Rothwell ---------Samuel ------Dack-------Palmer ---------------------------Graham Good enough subs to come in : Williams, Rothwell, Evans, Davenport?, Travis? We look very light up front and wide mid and right back. Also no decent keeper backup for Raya. Also not convinced by CB reserves. Mid table championship team, but very vulnerable to injury.