joey_big_nose

This is where I am a bit blurry on contract law - wouldn't he have to pay up his contract to Rovers out of his own pocket?

To bargain for what?

I guess one option no one is talking about is they could just refuse to let him go... Then what happens?

Ultimately well beaten by Wolves but we acquitted ourselves reasonably well. Thought the centre backs, centre mids and the new signings played well. Toth and Cantwell were absolutely shocking. The subs couldnt make any impact. As long as Eustace doesn't quit then I feel like we will have more to offer at WBA than I expected based on today game.

Is that definite? I thought we are still in rumours?

Quite fancy seeing him in a two with Gueye. Looks an ideal partner for him, if he can get in the box more. This games already over but looking forward to WBA..

Dont think Ive felt this positive about losing 2-0 before. Keeper is terrible but Dennis and Kargbo look like very good acquisitions who fit exactly what we need. Think if everyone's fit based on what Ive seen Cantwell gets dropped. Hes such a waste of space.

All the new signings look decent tbh. Haven't had a player line Kargbo in a long time. Toth looks very similar to the keeper we had last year, no confidence at all and slow reactions.

I think things have changed a bit since Eustace joined. The key difference is the court case has hugely reduced investment is now completely evident. JDT came before that kicked off, and I think Eustace may have understood the court case would be cleared up in the summer when he joined. I think decent managers will be a lot more wary now after (if Eustace does go) 2 managers walking out due to lack of investment and lack of leadership at the club.

Derby are in a bind at the bottom of table at the moment... The only way I can see Eustace going for it is if he has assessed that Rovers have been cut completely adrift by the owners. But... we just paid over a million for Kargbo and 20k a week for Dennis. So while the overall engagement of the owners is non existent the lights seem to be on. It would really be a massive statement to take a job at the other end of the table.

In what context do you mean this?

It would be really something and make a big news impact if a club thats 22nd gets a manager from a club thats 6th... That cannot have happened many times before. Enough to make someone in Pune notice? Also if Eustace leaves under similar circumstances to JDT its not going to help new manager recruitment... That said if this all moves us closer to Venkys selling the club I am all for it.

Yeah I agree its a fools game to predict where we will end up this year. We go on winning runs then losing ones. We've got a chance with the new signings, players coming back from injury, less intense schedule etc we have a decent run now. Next season worries me as I can't see how we replace the players we lose. But this season looks okay enough to just see how it plays out. Think Eustace will go at some point in the next 18 months as well. We are one bad managerial appointment from being in the real doo doo.

I don't think we accept any of our players being poor in their own right because of whose around them. Good players find ways to impact games. If he was making great passes or good movement and other players aren't linking up I would have some sympathy but he isnt.

Yeah, Szmodics had his role last season and Cantwell this season. Mind you Cantwell has been so poor maybe if Sigurdsson was fit he could have challenged him... But hes been crocked. Not surprised we've left him out. He just hasn't played nor looks like he could be relied to in future.

You do seem to have an incredible ability to go to the games where we play the worst!

We won and looked pretty good against Preston, generally have been playing well. Last night we got well beaten but overall think we have been pretty solid losing quite a few games marginally (Bristol City, Coventry etc). We'll miss out on top six but should finish top half. The big question the club needs to ask itself is how to update the squad to win mid week games over the November to February period. It's our absolute achilles heel - if we could solve that then we might have a chance of top six. We need more high energy high fitness players - these relentless games are not won by quality (although you need a bit), they are won by who is the least exhausted and the most fit when you have played 8 games in 20 days etc.

Massively agree with this.... QPR were tactically well setup dominating the midfield its hard to see what a better call would be though. Sort of game where JRC in his pomp could have kept the energy up but he's been so off it. Maybe Kargbo and Dennis will do this for us now, hopefully with better end product. I'll be interested to see how industrious Woodrow is too. Hedges and Dolans final ball is so poor but they do a lot carrying the ball into the final third. ACD and Cantwell cant do that, real luxury players who offer very little in the midfield.

I think Buckley has and continues to contribute a lot more than Cantwell. At least he holds the shape, gets his foot in and on his day can pass the ball well. Cantwell I still have absolutely no idea how he intends to impact a game of football. I feel like we get significantly worse when he comes on - looser shape, lower energy, less threat... He drifts around doing so little except slowing down the play and losing the ball. We've had over half a season of Cantwell now and I think he's quickly moving into the lost cause category. Hopefully the new signings can bring a side of his game out we have not seen yet. I do think him and Gueye are very poorly suited to one another as a pair - maybe Cantwell and Dennis could work better.

Well we definitely deserved to lose that one. Not that many games this season where you can say that decisively but we were definitely the worse team today... Kargbo looked pacy in his few minutes which is good. Hard to really pick out any Rovers player who had a good game, I feel like we were beaten tactically, QPR owned the middle of the park and we couldn't get our way of playing together. Buckley and Travis owned the midfield against Preston but they had no grip at all today.

...

Started looking okay, got the penalty... But the sad fact is since Cantwell has come on we have lost all control of the game.

Lucky to be still in it. Very even first 15 mins with some good moments from us but from that point QPR more and more in control. Probably should be 2-0. Needs some sort of formation intervention. Need a third man in midfield as we are getting out gunned there but also have someone close to Gueye... Tricky one. Probably Cantwell and Kagbo on for Wieman and Hedges? Ask Cantwell to sit in midfield and tell Kagbo to get close to Gueye?

Right call by Eustace to leave Cantwell out. He needs to come on and show why he should be in the starting XI.

In a straight choice I am sure given their comparative records 95% of people would choose Armstrong over Dennis. Since 2018 Armstrong has 70 odd Championship goals in 130 appearances. He's one of the great recent scorers at this level and still only 27.