joey_big_nose

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!

Got a lot more pace though.

We certainly look to have signed an ideal replacement. Id definitely bring Montgomery on now. Tavares is completely blowing.

Is Ohashi the hardest working Rover of all time? Hes got to be up there.

Ah yeah... There we go. Probably need to give him a go. Think hes really struggled at full back but at centre mid hes got to be able to up the energy. Id make the change at HT.

Not convinced myself. Tavares has a nice Ngozi style languid neat one touch, but Travis in the last couple of years made some really good forward passing which I haven't seen from Tavares yet. Tavares needs to moving 30% quicker. Hes trying to slow the game down to his speed but you cant do that in the Championship. He needs to up the revs. But not in this game as he'll get sent off. Issue is Henrickson looks a card machine also, and i think hes more of a ten. Hmmm....

Think id get Tavares off... He's booked now and Id fancy him to get sent off. Not at the pace of the game. Not sure who comes in though? Henricksson?

Overall really good performance so far. That said set pieces still shocking. And without Trav we do look like we dont have much bite in the middle.

Hedges has started the season really well to be fair.

Really wish Canwell took less touches. He get needlessly robbed. Great goal by Hedges, with lovely through ball by Kargbo.

I agree that we have not actually played that badly so far and have been pretty unlucky not to have any points. In terms of whether the team is any good... Too early to tell really. Signs are good defensively but lacking ideas going forward. Really need Abeliousu, Ohashi, Kargbo and Cantwell to find some effective link and patterns between them as all our attacking play will come through them. Hope they've been really focusing on that all week in training.

Well we have an option so in effect he is contracted to us to 2027 if we want him. So we have voluntarily pre-agreed a transfer value with San Diego. It's a bit of a puzzling one - what is there in it for us to pre-agree a transfer fee? His wages won't be massive so it's not like we would be desperate to get him off our books? If he goes and has a stormer and his value goes into 7 figures we have to accept the lower fee. If he has a bad time he gets sent back. Confusing.

If we really would accept anything around £2M i am sure there would be a lot of clubs interested. The question is if there is anyone willing to pay £3.5M+ as I am sure that is what we will want. Hes a proven performer in a division where a lot of clubs are spending money so id be very surprised if we dont get north of £3M. Just a matter of waiting for the bids to come out of the woodwork.

Yeah a distinct lack of realism has been a consistent feature of Venkys from trying to sign Ronaldinho, to not being aware of relegation, to promoting Steve Kean, to letting our players go for free. How they made any money in business is beyond me.

I think where we are right now with strategy is the owners would rather finish 14th but have a higher squad value due to young players who can be resold than finish 7th with older players coming to the end of their careers. Is a strange place to be as a competitive football club.