Attacking wise based on the squad I would say we really should be looking for 8th to 12th, maybe better than that if Cantwell and Duberry turnout to be as good as hoped. But defensively we look very fragile. We are so dependent on two things really in my opinion - 1) Is Toth a good Championship keeper 2) Can Carter and Hyam stay fit and Hyam recover his form from the season before last Those two things feel quite tenuous...

Feels possible to me - think Gueye, Ohashi and Cantwell will all get that number. Dolan, Hedges, Sigurdsson, Wiemann all have a shot at it. The signs are we will exceed the goals from last season. My concerns are much more on the goals conceded side.

Think we look well covered now in every position except centre back. We're short in numbers there and injury prone.... Would feel better if we had one more loan young pacy cb.

Keeper is a real massive punt. Hes got great stats but playing in a poor league. It's really strange that after getting so burnt by Leo that we have gone a similar route again. With Eustace being after Ruddy and other experienced keepers all window I really wonder if he wanted this one. Very odd to me. Hope it works out.

Could we get Hill? Hes not going to play for Bournemouth... Would be ideal pacy cover at the back (though not left footed which is a shame).

Is this serious???

Yeah - that's something that's faded from the game but Luton were brilliant at bringing it back. No defence is ready to handle two proper physical strikers. I am a bit surprised no one else has copied it. If we could find another Big Mak and play them both up front it would be a very good move.

In today's football Gascoigne would be a number 10 all day long. No one would play him deeper than that. He'd also probably be made to play wide sometimes as an "inverted winger" as is the fashion so they could shoe him in with a couple of other attacking mids.

Hmmm i'd say Bohinen and Dunn are number 10s too. 8 is a box to box player... Maybe Dunn early days was going box to box but most of his career he was purely an attacking player. My examples would be 6 (deep midfielder) ; Tugay, Wharton, Batty 8 (box to box) : Travis, Rothwell, Sherwood 10 (attacking midfielder / second striker) : Dack, Dunn, Cairney

Problem with that (and we did try it) is he can't head or compete for the ball in the air which is an absolute requirement if you are in a back three.

In terms of his raw capabilities he's very good for this level - great feet, decent delivery, reasonable pace, good engine, not bad in the air for a full back... But seems to get caught out of position a lot, and gets beaten in one to ones when he is isolated or running back. Pickering is much more limited in his abilities (slower, technically less good etc) but he does seem a lot more reliable to close down the attack. I think if we got the stats up on where we concede crosses from it would be much more down our right side.

If JRC was fit I'd be okay with it. But he isnt and he could be like that for months as far as we know. Seems some sort of chronic issue that's slowing him down.

I always though Nyambe was great defensively. Probably the best one on one defensive full back we had since the prem days. Very poor going forward though and really weak under a high ball. Id still have him though on the bench to shore us up defensively. When we drop deep we struggle to stop opposition wingers getting to the byline or into the box.

Watching the Blackpool game and how slow Fadz and Baath were I am really concerned if Carter gets injured... Hes the only cb with decent pace. If he goes then we will be dropping very deep. One long term injury there could completely screw us. Last year having Hill and then Chrisene helped us a lot. Id say we really need one loan there with pace, ideally a left footed cb.

Um isnt he saying 4 across the whole week. So Beck, Toth, Cantwell and one more, not two more. Would be impressive anyway. Struggling to believe it.

Really? For me Wharton is very much a deep lying playmaker in the Tugay or Michael Carrick mould. Can get forward but gravitates deeper to control games. Cantwell from my memory does seem a lot more like a number 10 playing in behind the striker(s). Would be great if he was a deeper playmaker, as that is what we need the most to improve our play in my opinion. But I think he will be coming in to play at 10 or as a wide player who cuts inside. Edit - it's a shame really as while he is obviously a good player better than what we have it addresses an area of the pitch where we have our best set of options already (Sigurdsson, Ohashi, Dolan, Hedges, JRC, Buckley etc). Maybe we could try and use him deeper, but he doesn't strike me as someone particularly open to having his natural game deprioritised...

I hope he can play deeper personally, we need quality more desperately at centre mid than number 10.

Yeah my guess is we are using part of the transfer budget to pay additional wages. £1.5M equates to an additional £15k over 2 years. Does feel like this will go the same way as McGuire and Obrien.

Blackburn or Gran Canaria - it's a toughie... Las Palmas get good crowds and play in La Liga

Yeah it's very true that spending more money has quite a low correlation with the player actually working out. Applies in the premier league or the Championship. Most of Rovers' best players have been relatively cheap (Tugay, Friedel, Nelsen, Bentley, MGP, Samba, Szmodics, Armstrong etc).

It does seem like we are just going down the same route as Wahlstadt.... strange with all the experienced keepers we have been linked to.

Mad whats going on at Burnleh... Shows like us it just takes some poor administration and everything can fall apart very quickly.... In terms of the game I guess it will be same team as Oxford but bring Gueye in for Ohashi and JRC definitely needs to be taken out. Personally I think Id bring Buckley in for JRC, move Dolan right, and play a 433. But think Eustace will stick with 4231 so he will just straight swap JRC for Wieman.

I think JRC last season is a centre mid but there is some sort of physical issue with him... Hes definitely a yard slower and isnt moving well.

JRC had an incredibly bad game.... Hes looked so off it. Something not right with him at all. Thought Buckley did pretty well, and Gueye. Carter and Pickering had solid games. But the rest it was pretty bad. Duru good at beating his man but his delivery was not great and defensively he looks very suspect under the high ball. Fadz has a real Sunday league way of playing about him.

Id say its hard to have a clearer penalty... Great build up. Think Gueye gave their keeper they eyes. Like the look of Duru, and Buckley has been very good imo.