joey_big_nose

At least Tavares is off... Not sure how it will work in midfield? We'll get even more overrun if we dont give Tronstad some support?

Well... Id say from a season perspective its pretty important we can show we can dig in now and at least not get turned over if we can't scab a draw. Travis is such a big loss when you need to compete in midfield like games like these.

I was worried before the start of the season but Ive seen enough in the games so far to think we wont go down. Terrible first half today though, hope i am not revising that opinion!

Doesnt have Travis redeeming off the ball qualities either. Id hook him for Montgomery. Hard to argue with that red, and were quite lucky to just be one down.

Tavares is a real problem for me. Lazy off the ball and loose with it. Were getting overrun in the middle because he isnt making an impact. Kargbo is having an absolute mare too.

Well in terms of the numbers of players signed this window has truly surpassed what I thought we could feasibly do in a summer. Too early to say if theyre good players but we've bought the right positions anyway. Maybe one more midfielder to round things off.

Ah okay, that makes more sense. But what is the cutoff? Is there an official age where the minutes dont count towards this self imposed target? If we think its just say sub 24 year olds only Leonard is going to subtract from that.

I guess it makes sense in a "we have taken them as far as we can" perspective. Whether they are backing the academy will come down to if the younger lads do get game time.

Yeah agreed. Always want Rovers academy players to do well, but saw very little from Leonard that would suggest he would make it even if fit. Someone like Buckley made a much bigger impression but struggled. Would love him to kick on at Posh, but him leaving does seem the right call.

I guess we have Tyjon, Carter, Wharton and Montgomery still. 3000 mins is 33 full games between them (average of 8 games each) over the season which doesnt seem totally ridiculous.

Hmm... I think Travis was really underrated, particularly since he came back from Ipswich. He was superb for us in spells. That said we've lost bigger players for us like BBD or Szmodics and gone on to be fine. No player bigger than the club etc. Its possible Tavares or Baradji will put him in the shade. All we can do is see what happens.

Given the vast turnover in the squad replaced by players we have never really seen before I dont really have any expectations. I don't really know how any can to be honest. If we do challenge for the playoffs it will have been some absolutely sensational work by the ever changing scouting team, thats for sure.

Im not writing him off, just some early thoughts. De Neve and Henricksson have both been much worse than Tavares, but same as him i wont come till any conclusive judgements until christmas time. So many examples of players who started poorly but improved significantly as they settled into the league.

I guess Morishita could go straight in against Norwich. In an ideal world we would want a few impact options from the bench. I guess this would give us Morishita and Gueye. Feels like we need a couple more. Another perm striker it is very good to hear we are chasing and I wonder if we will take a punt on a prem loan winger as well?

The Big win last Saturday settles the team. To be honest I am good with everyone in that starting XI except a bit concerned that our midfield is a little passive with Tavares in there. Hope he grows on me but seems to let the game go by him too much for my liking. Feels like he could be a good when we are on top, goes missing/becomes a liability when we are on the back foot type. Will watch him with interest.

Because we have five players who can play wingback (Alebiouso, Miller, De Neve, Pickering, Riberio) but only two who are wingers (Kargbo, Hedges).

I agree that we played great, and will continue with 4231. But looking at the squad we are going to play 343 at some point.

Yeah - people still describe him as an attacking midfielder but he's an out an out striker since his second season at Rovers where he started banging them in. More like Adam Armstrong or a Championship Craig Bellamy than any midfielder I can think of.

Yes... obviously we have spent less than incoming, but I was under the assumption we would not try and spend anything really so we could use the money on operating costs, but we have paid decent fees for players (if reported accurately, but I can't really see why it would be inaccurate). I guess the idea is to save a lot of money on wages, and hope to develop and sell on some players.

We do seem to be spending a bit on transfers but keeping wages low. On the surface of it seems like we are equally financially unsustainable as before, we have just spent the money we can't afford on the fee rather than wage? I guess built into the financial model is a % of these signings will be hits and sold for at least 2x what we paid? And presumably quite quickly - like next summer? Would quite like to have a look at that spreadsheet whereever it is. I guess on Pasha and Rudi's laptops? If we do well with only one signing with any championship experience (McLoughlin) that will be interesting, and confound a lot of conventional ideas about what you need to succeed in this division.

Everyone was loving him when he was playing really well turn of the year. Then he had a bit of a dip, then Eustace left in early feb, and since then under Ismael Gueye hasnt had a single good game. On form hes a great asset, but its not surprising hes getting brickbats when he has been really poor for a long time now. Certainly seems like Ismael isn't a fan which doesnt help. But then again we dont seem to be signing a striker so maybe he does a future?

Yeah... Funny really we've turned over 3 managers and 80% of our squad in 18 months. But we look remarkably cohesive. The real championship doesn't properly get going till we get into the November to February 2-3 games a week madness so too early to say the wheels wont come off. But have generally looked like a really well coached, defensively solid side across the three league games. I expected us to be in disarray tbh.

Can say the same of Alebiouso. Tactically we haven't changed anything, just comes in and plays as Brittain did.

Thought the real standouts were Alebiousu , Hedges and Cantwell. All were really superb. McCloughlin looks a top addition as well both from today and the two prior games. All in all despite us as fans mostly jumping off the deep end its hard really to look at the first three games and say the squad quality has decreased really. Alebiousu looks a superb alternative to Brittain, McCloughlin has give us what Batth did. Toth looks better than Pears, Kargbo to me looks a similar sort of level to Dolan albeit in a different sort of way. Only area that worries me in terms of being weaker than last term is central midfield where I think we did miss Travis' energy when Hull got on top for a bit in the first half. Tavares its way too early to conclusively judge but I am not at all convinced. He seems to want to dictate more than get stuck in and him and Tronstad make an awkward pair imo. Figuring out the long term partner for Tronstad is key. Hope Tavares can up his tempo a bit and grow into the role as he obviousy does have some quality. But he's going to have to get a lot fitter. Obviously we need a bit more upfront too. Ohashi's workrate is immense and he deserved his goal, and Hedges had one of his best ever games, and Kargbo played a lovely pass for the first goal. But Gueye was very poor again when he came on and Henricksson is not looking like a big impact player so far. We probably need two proven attacking players who the opposition would really fear coming off the bench.

I think Kargbo has done well. Hes a threat every game and had a great assist. Cantwell has been great. But he and Tavares do look loose in midfield. Hes lost it centrally a few times through too many touches and i would really like him to stop doing that!