joey_big_nose

Well the new lad is on there... Hope he has a goal in him. Wing backs look really really poor, and in the system we have they are the most important players. De neve has the engine but no defensive awareness, and TGH I am not really sure has the lungs for it. Feels like we could get absolutely battered. But then again felt that way a few times and we've done okay so hoping to be surprised again.

He'll come out and say something on his podcast when he's clear on it, he likely made a mistake like everyone does. Theres not any point putting anything out there till you are 100% on it as why risk being wrong again. For me he does a decent job in difficult circumstances. Certainly prefer his output than many of his critics (not all!) on this board.

Personally I like Morishita a lot and playing the RCM 352 really suits him with how he can combine down the right with different players. Was becoming very effective before his injury.

Yeah and leaving a club 8th in Ligue 1 which you are starting for, to move to 20th in Championship? That makes no sense.

Key thing in that wing back role is can you relentlessly cover the length of the pitch for 90 mins. I know Donnum has played rwb a bit but I suspect doing it in France is a bit different to how ridiculously physical and draining the Championship is. Few players can. Hedges being able to convert into is quite rare as he is very athletic. Id hate for us to sign a player to play a role, find out they cant do it, and then be unsure what to do with them.

Does the new Danish lad go straight in?

Good to go for a player with a solid goal scoring record. Much rather that than someone at a higher level who hasn't scored recently.

Does anyone have a clear idea who is back from injury? We need Gudjonsen up front desperately, and it's really unclear who will play left and right wing back? I guess with Cashin coming in alongside McLoughlin and Atcheson enables Miller to move out to RWB, but no idea what we do at LWB. Powell? Or suck it up and play players we know can't do that role (Riberio, Pickering, De Neve). I guess midfield we will play Baradji, Cantwell and Tronstad. Toth should come back in.

His complete lack of effort this season has been totally unforgivable, and he has to move on. But the right manager could have got a tune out of Gueye I think. Sure Allardyce would have for example. Not a good fit for Eustace or Ismael though who prioritise pressing from the forwards which he is hopeless at.

Well, we've turned them up before for little money (Szmodics, Adam Armstrong etc). I think we need to look at League 1 and 2 and take a punt on a couple of forwards with good goal scoring records at that level. I doubt loans are going to help us, or players from abroad. January loans tend to not be motivated, and players from abroad need time to get up to speed.

Tbh we look okay through the back and middle third with whatever combination of players (we must have played an absolutely vast number of different combinations across defence and midfield - around 8/9 different centre backs and around 6/7 centre mids?). I expected us to to get ripped apart today but we completely held our own. The issue is final third we have very very little. If we did find some quality up front we'd be fine I think

That forward line is hilarious... Hope the young lads can surprise us (as they have many times this season).

I am not sure I have ever seen as big a no confidence vote as that xi and squad and Riberio and Pickering! Really both of them need to go this window as clearly have absolutely no future with us. Will be interesting if it really is De Neve at LWB and Powell further forward or the other way round.

Anyone know if he could play wing back?

He would be pissed off if he had got good results and attracted suitors like Eustace and JDT but as he hasn't and no one would touch him with a barge pole at the moment he cant afford to be pissed off. How amenable the managers are to the bizarre way the heirachy run the club is directly linked to how well they are doing. The better they do, the more they look to leave as they have options.

Also we are nearly out of the mad run of games so we might be able to keep them fit. Plus Alebiouso back. Theoretically if we got all of them back we'd be back to an okay starting XI except for left wing back. I would like to see Powell get a go as its patently clear Riberio and Pickering just dont have the engine for it, and De Neve is a total defensive liability.

Depends if he is fit and motivated. A very small % of experienced player who drop down from prem to Championship are.

Normally I would agree but our squad is in absolute pieces. I'd play the few first team players who have not had much game time - Toth, Montgomery, TGH, Pickering, Riberio, De Neve. What's amusing is half of them are left backs, which is also Powell's role.... so we can probably only play one out of Powell, Pickering, Riberio, De Neve? I guess we could line up something like : Toth O'Riordan Atcheson Pratt ????? TGH Montgomery Powell Henrickson Joseph Higgins Could implode, might surprise us. I suspect though Ismael won't go for this sort of thing, and will keep flogging Ohashi, Cantwell, McLoughlin which tbh is a perfectly reasonable thing to do as it's madness to send out the kids. But then again it's madness to take risks on more injuries to our few remaining experienced players.

I don't think Tyrone was saying it's a reason that we have been exceptionally impacted, it's that every club is suffering and the quality of the games is as a result getting worse because there are so many players out with injuries. I agree with that. Anyway - thinking about it as virtually every club in the Championship is losing money hand over fist it's unlikely anyone is going to vote to lose 17% of their matches (8 of 48 games) and all the associated income (gate, TV, food) to go down to 20 teams.

Probably the Championship needs to go down to 20 teams... not a fan of that idea at the moment though as Rovers risk of league one would massively increase.

Pleased we managed to get a point from 2-0 down. Must be a long time since we did that. Defensively we looked woeful though. 3421 puts so much athletic pressure on the wing backs - and we had two who just couldnt cover the necessary ground. A better side than Charlton would have absolutely buried us. Ismael took a long time to get to 352 when we did have the right players and now seems to not want to change when we dont.

Where we are today highlights why Venkys are so bad for the club. Team shot to pieces, dwindling attendances but from their perspective its unlikely they are even thinking about the club until the review every year or six months. And when those reviews occur they are unlikely to know how to or particularly care about improving things. Yes they've put a lot of money, and great they have, but an owner engaged and involved in the day to day would be driving the leadership team to solve the issues. Absentee landlords have never been a way to run anything well. Id rather have half the money each year but an owner proactively thinking and acting to solving the problems the club faces. Not sitting around for half a year and half the world away for them to then have virtually zero useful input.

Our left is an absolute joke. We are going to concede through a break down there...

Bit bemused why Pratt has gone off. I dont think he did much wrong? Just had no cover from Pickering or the midfield.

We have absolutely no defense down the left...