joey_big_nose

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.

Anyone figured out how to do the red button on Now TV web app?

Freudian?? (I bet he's known by that name by many!)

Hmm... it's a weird really that Szmodics left but number 10 is still probably our strongest position (Ohashi, Sigurdsson, Wieman all available for that role, while JRC, Hedges or Buckley can all fill in there if needed)... think I'd spend the money on gk, wingers, centre mid or even a backup for Big Mak before I went for another number 10.

Jackson didn't say he handed in a transfer request, but did say he basically made it clear he wanted to leave on the Podcast, I was really surprised we let him go after so much good feedback from his loan. Essentially Jackson implied Gent wouldn't sign a new deal at the terms we were willing to offer. Wanted first team football. So good on him to be honest, always respect a player who wants to play.

Before loans I think we are probably slightly larger as a squad. In terms of who Eustace plays I think hes basically saying "last year I had literally no one who could impact a game off the bench, now at least I have who has not started out of Ohashi or Gueye and also Wieman " I am surprised we haven't loaned anyone at all yet. We'd usually have a couple already on the books with two more coming in close to deadline day. Thinking about it maybe what we are doing is spending the loan budget on the one year contracts (Fadz, Batth, Wieman) instead?

Is there anything solid in the Travers rumours?

Only thing is Vallecano are quite small - get slightly smaller crowds than Rovers - and finished one spot above relegation last year. As he is a UK based player it is within the realms of possibility (particularly looking at the careers of Raya and Kaminski) that he might go for Rovers as a better launchpad for him.

Yeah - I agree with this. We are still knitting the team together and have a small squad. I'd try and keep 8-9 as recognised first teamers and put in 2-3 fringe players. I would say something like : Pears Duru. Carter Hyam Pickering Travis. Buckley Vale. Weimann. Siggurdson Gueye

Yeah, agreed.... But those writing off his finishing, thats something that can be worked on and improves hugely with confidence. We've seen incredible improvements in the scoring feats of the likes of Szmodic and Brereton in the past, and Gueyes has the capability to repeat it imo. What I like is his movement is very clever too. Often a big dominant player like him will just wait for the long ball, but he has a nice way of drifting and dropping off and finding space.

Not looked at the XG but I would imagine Oxford battered us on it... They missed some really presentable opportunities. When Gueye came on we got control. Hes so good, definitely on his way to the prem imo. Won everything in the air, laid the ball off well, and has pace and good feet to run the channels. Its a very very rare combination to have all of that at our level. I think broadly we played pretty well except central midfield. Its a problem for us - without the ball we're too light in there, Travis and Tronstad (who had okay games individually but exposed in the system) get played through too easily. With the ball we are so wasteful. We need someone in there with more quality on the ball. I really do think we should shift to a central three. Great to have 7 points on the board and have scored so many goals but I wouldnt say we look convincing at the moment. We wouldnt even need to pick different players, just drop JRC alongside Travis and Tronstad (think deeper will suit JRC anyway) and move Dolan on the right. JRC can still get forward, just have a deeper starting position to firm up the midfield....

Frustrating game from Dolan, does a lot right then terrible final ball.