joey_big_nose

Nothing lasts forever... Might be one year, might be ten but it will eventually.

It's genuinely the strangest thing I have ever seen in football. My guess is probably it's just sunk cost fallacy. They can't bear to write the £250M investment off, so just keep sinking the money in with the vague hope we will get promoted. At some point the wind will change and they will decide to cut and run. New leadership on the Venkys board, financial issues in the company meaning they need to cut costs etc. It's sure a matter of time. Don;t look forward to it on one hand - we will go through huge financial turbulence like Bolton etc. But on the other if we found new owners who had some competence in football and some connection and affection for the club then we could rebuild.

I was for 352 earlier in the season but think we have to commit to a system now. We can't keep flip flopping. We got turned over by Preston in the 352 so Im not sure going back is the answer.

Hard to get enthused after a diabolical second half against Rotherham.... humiliation so complete I think there may be quite a few changes come Saturday - I imagine Dolan will come in, Vale dropped, can actually see Morton being benched if we are allowed to... and after really struggling to get up the pitch all game at the New York stadium I could see Ayala being rested so we can play higher up. All assuming Hyam is fit and BBD available to come back in. Kaminski JRC Hyam S Wharton Pickering Buckley A Wharton Dolan Dack BBD Gallagher No idea the score.

If we get less than £5m for him we may as well keep him tbh. He may spark into life.

Sorry I meant Paul Gallagher! Like Ronaldinho compared to Sam Gallagher.

Paul Gallagher was really more of an attacking midfielder/number 10. I think culturally there has been a real focus on producing technical attacking midfielders rather than proper strikers across football for a long time. The volume of number 9s coming through is so low across the leagues. But think the tide is turning a bit. Players like Toney, Pukki, Watkins etc are really the ones who will get you promoted, and clubs are waking back up to it. We have to absolutely have find someone like that. Our entire scouting framework should be focused on it.

Yup.... especially since tactically we are all about through balls, and he takes all our set pieces. Needs to have a rest. But I think Liverpool have agreed he has to play every Championship game when fit.

I'd drop Morton for a game (if we are allowed to by the loan terms, which I doubt) and start Buckley and Adam Wharton. I suspect we will improve. If not we can always bring Morton on from the bench.

Yeah... there's a lot of folk who have already decided that JDT and Broughton need to go etc, but realistically they've only been here 5 minutes. It will take time, that's just football. You can appoint a manager who transforms the club overnight and you end up getting promoted (Cooper at Forest last season being a prime example). But that happens incredibly rarely, so if that's our target we will be turning over the entire structure of the club every 6 months until we strike gold, and to me that sounds more like a recipe for relegation than promotion if you havent got the resources to pay off the entire staff and hire new ones like Chelsea or Watford. Results are definitely bizarre, win games we should lose, lose games we should win. No draws. Definitely a challenge in creating and scoring goals.... First real test of the management for me is if we come out on 1st Feb looking like a team that can score more and make a comeback in games. If we are much the same team on 1st Feb as on December 31st with no progress, then that will be my first genuine concerns.

Yeah, with strikers it really does come down to you dropping levels till you start scoring... For Vale his only real route to making it at this level I can see is to become a poacher. He needs to figure out how to find space in the box. Hes way way too deep to do that, partly as we play way too deep to help him do that. He doesn't have the pace to play on the counter.

Jack Vale is a likeable busy player, whose tidy enough and works hard.... but his role we need players who score goals and worry centre backs. He just doesn't do that. He was supposed to be our centre forward on Saturday... how many times did he actually get in the box or get on the end of through balls? He caused the Rotherham defence zero worries... We need more dangerous forwards on the pitch.

Morton had another game yesterday where he did little that was incisive and lost the ball a few times. Not our worst performer, but no one looked at that performance and thought thats what a premier league midfield needs. As it stands he wouldnt get into Sheffield Utds midfield, let alone Liverpool's.

First half I was okay with, thought we played reasonable and looked dangerous, although we couldnt finish. Rotherham scored a good goal. Second half was totally unacceptable as we couldn't create anything at all, and our defending totally fell apart. There was no focal point to our attack. Weve got small wide forwards coming out of our ears. We need something different to change our approach. One quality central striker will transform the team.

For me if we had a decent central striker we will have won this game. As it is all six of our forwards who have dont want to get in the box... Need to find someone who can physically compete in the air and on the floor, and is all about goals.

Centre backs a bit different though. Scott Wartons a talent but I wouldnt say Carter or Ash Phillips are ready to start. Centre mid Buckley, Adam Wharton and Jake Garrett all are good enough to start and Morton is taking a space. It just seems a massive no confidence in those three to bring in an experienced player. One of them will seize the spot for me.

Gregg comes across so well... and I agree with everything he says tbh. What's the point in signing experienced players to block areas of the team where we have a lot of young talent (such as centre mid for us).

Why would we sign a player for £2M when we have a lot of pretty decent cover in the wide forward area (BBD, Dolan, Hedges, Szmodics, Markanday, Gallagher can fit in there too), when what we obviously need a proper goal scoring central striker.

I don't think we need a centre mid at all personally but if we did sign one I wouldn't be signing another young player.

I think a loans a good shout for him, but I don't thin he's finished at Rovers. I can see him having a good spell at Charlton and coming back into contention with us next season.

If Dortmund sign him Ill eat everybody's hats. To move to a CL club you would expect him to be unreal at this level. Hes looked competent, but nothing special...

I don't think he will ever make a CL player, if he does happy to eat my hat. Might - like Buckley or Adam Wharton - make a bottom half Premier League player. He's a bit like someone like Cleverly who came through at Utd. At a top club from the academy but drifted down the league.

Morton is very very similar to Buckley for me. Almost identical players really who sit relatively deep and tick the game over, and try to find the right through balls on the half turn... Adam Wharton is also similar is maybe a bit more of an attacking mid who will end up as a number 10. Anyway - if Morton became unavailable (Liverpool recall him, or he gets an injury/suspension) I don't really think we would see much improvement or deterioration by having two out of Buckley/Garrett/A Wharton in there. In the few games where Morton hasn't been in the side - such as last weekend - I haven't been sitting there thinking "what we really need is Morton on the pitch..."

Dack I think has massively improved in terms of his pressing and dropping into support the centre mids. I expect us to dominate midfield in this one. Cant agree on Travis, he so far off it at the moment and easily our worst performer on the weekend. Id be really surprised if he starts.

We've tended to win games against struggling teams with JDT, so hopeful we will continue that trend. I imagine Hedges will come back in, and Gally should be fit. So.. Kaminski JRC Hyam Ayala Pickering Morton Garrett Hedges Dack Diaz Gally Pretty good team that... Front four all offer a goal threat, maybe the best pair of CBs in the league and top keeper. While not ideal full backs have improved a lot last six games or so.. And centre mids get a lot of flack but I think theyre pretty good and improving. We really should win this one.