joey_big_nose

Fair play to him... when he ran down his contract on a free I don't think anyone - even his biggest fans - would have said he'd get a crack at the top leagues. He seemed a good championship player, but not much more than that . It's another in quite a few who we have written off only to be surprised. I think the main thing to take away is supporters generally (myself included) are not actually that good at judging the quality of players.

Not from what we've seen so far... Where he fits in is a bit of a puzzle to me. I think hes billed as a number 10 but the way hes played hasnt really suggested that, doesn't seem to have the technical skills to do that role? But early days obviously. Any of our Scandinavian supporters able to provide an insight?

Yes he didnt have a job and they are hard to come by, so he would have agreed to anything really to get the contract. Like JDT and Eustace though if he performs well and attracts interest I would expect his acceptance of the situation to completely change. If he does well i dont think he will lie down and take another window like this one.

Eustace only won 4 of his first 18 league games....

If we had kept Hyam and Travis I think there would be an argument that we could be stronger or ateast the same. Mori, McCloughlin, Alebiouso and Gudjonsen all look very promising. We look to have mitigated Batth, Brittain and Dolan well. Hopefully Gudjonsen can do the same for Weiman. But Hyam for Miller and Travis for Tavares/Baradji is a huge stretch.

Why did that happen??

My view is play both Gudjonsen and Ohashi. With Alebiouso overlapping all day Ohashi can do that role on the right which will utilise his ceaseless pressing off the ball and he will get in the box when we're on the front foot. Think it will suit him more actually than being the lone man up front. Means you have Gueye as the change striker but Im okay with that.

I just cant see the sense in dropping real performers like Hedges or Ohashi and keeping Tavares on the pitch. Sends completely the wrong message.... You've got to reward the best performers with starts.

In my experience moving an attacking midfielder deeper doesnt really change how much they get injured, but open to being convinced. On the numbers of players we have a lot of forwards but only really Tronstad as a proven midfielder, while Tavares has struggled, Baraji is injured and Montgomery and TGH yet to really show what they can do. If Cantwell can perform there it gives us an extra mid which we really need imo, if not now then certainly when we start getting into 3 games a week. Ive seen enough from Todd to suggest he can do it.

Yes agreed... probably worth £250k a year at least for him to stay in the Championship. No one at the end of their career, when you are literally talking about two or three years, walks away from that amount of money.

I am not sure I follow - why would Cantwell be more likely to get injured in a deeper role?

Cantwell offers a lot more of a tackle than Tavares imo. I have been quite impressed with Cantwell this season in terms of getting stuck in... born out by the stats so far this season (average tackles per game).

I am going to this one... gone from considering us having no chance to quite hopeful after the last game. I think Ipswich will want to play on the front foot which will suit us as we would like to counter. I am pretty happy with all our players at the moment except Tavares who seems a liability at present in terms of the way he loses the ball and misses tackles in key areas. I anticipate teams in their preparation will start to really target him as he seems to want more time than he really has, and struggles to compete physically. He could grow out of it as he acclimatises to the Championship, but with Gudjonsson staking a claim creating a lot of competition up top I think it's a great opportunity to try Cantwell out deeper. Team for me : Toth Alebiousu Carter Wharton Riberio Cantwell Tronstad Ohashi Mori Hedges Gudjonsen Subs : Pears, Miller, McLoughlin, Pickering, Tavares, Kargbo, Gueye, Tyjon, TGH

I am hoping Hearts can finally do it. 1985 the last time a team that wasn't Celtic or Ranger won it. The old firm have won 85% of all league titles in 135 years. Why anyone watches it I have no idea.... But my cousins are from Edinburgh and big Hearts supporters so got my fingers crossed for them!

Its early days but been impressed with all the signings except De Neve, Henricksson and Tavares. Plus obviously Baraji is injured. De Neve and Henricksson are a bit strange as its hard really to see where they fit in as there are so many players ahead of them. I guess once the game frequency picks up theyll get a game. Mori, McCloughlin, Alebiouso, Miller all look the part. Only seen a tiny amount of Gudjonsen and TGH but signs are promising. If we did manage to keep the squad quality similar to last season it would be incredible recruitment work considering we have no loans and no short term experienced players.

Ohashi for me is very like Hedges. Maybe nothing special on the ball, but absolutely first class off it. Those sorts of players get very underrated. A big part of why we looked so comfortable all game imo is the vast amount of pressing work those two get through. Ohashi also linked up really well with Mori and Cantwell. They are both undropable at the moment for me, though obviously Gudjonsen needs to come in somewhere. Id still put Cantwell deeper and drop Tavares, put Mori at number 10, Hedges left, Ohashi right and Gudjonsen up top.

Carter has always been real quality when fit, could conceivably play in the Premier League. Just a question of how long he can stay off the treatment table. The big unknown is how decent is Miller as a CB. My best guess is given Wharton and Carter's injury records Miller is going to get at least 10 games this season at CB.

I don't know, as a similar languid style and likes to play one touch. Very reminiscent to Nzonzi for me stylistically. Just unfortunately he keeps losing the ball and missing tackles. That said, as others have mentioned, it does seem to be a pace of the game thing. Could improve over time. But I wouldn't have started him today, and wouldn't start him next week.

Hmm, neither Travis nor Tronstad are sitting players, both get forward. And conversely from the looks of it Tavares seems more of a deeper player. So not really sure what you're saying here?

WTF - is that from Elliot Jackson? I like what he does a lot personally (unlike many on here) - like the podcast etc - but surely crack is involved somewhere in that assessment? Anyone got Tavares down as having a good game?

Have to say we looked really good. Only player id swap in from September 2024 was Travis. Obviously we are riding our luck on Carter and Wharton staying fit. But like the look of the team. I hope Tavares can get up to speed and improve as he was a total passenger. Not good either on or off the ball. But ive seen players (e.g. Tronstad) who look a completely different player after a few months. Toth, Tronstad, Wharton, Carter were all so solid today. Foundation for the rest of the team. Thought all the attacking players did well, Cantwell is consistently better this year. Gudjonsen looks very very promising.

Hmmm Tronstads been great... How has he come off and Tavares is on???

My definite feeling is apart from Travis we have adequately replaced/backfilled the players we have lost. Need half a dozen more games to really know, but feeling quite positive.

Pretty amazing that 3 players came off and not one of them was Tavares...

Well we have Gudjonsen... Not sure after a great performance like today I would change 3 players and the system. Hmm....