😂

I doubt anyone will sign Dack from us. Whose going to match the wages we are paying, let alone a decent fee, for a player who has had two ACLs and is yet to show he can play at this level consistently. Dack will be here till end of his contract (summer 2023 with one year extension clause in clubs favour).

When everyone's fit we will have five centre backs now (Wharton, Hyam, Ayala, Carter, Phillips) so hopefully won't be needed.

I guess you are assuming BBD is gone? If so agree on the team from the players available. Probs more of a 4231 than a 433 though. Career goals in that team must be absolutely tiny. And also we will need to pass the ball through them as we are going to get no change out of them in the air at all. I guess the hope is that Blackpool fancy attacking us in quite an open way enabling us to play the on the ground counter attacking game we like. If so we could get a win.

Carter can play there. Think he did okay at full back this time last year - though he was asked to play LB I believe mostly.

Ah okay sorry - yes six years ago

Yeah... since he left us NINE YEARS (!!) ago he hasn't scored more than 7 goals a season..... I don't think he is someone who realistically should be coming back.

Yeah it sounds pretty certain we will sign at least one, maybe two.

Reckon with Rhodes we would all be bitching and moaning that he can't physically compete and link up play... But then same is true of Szmodics, Dolan and Vale, and they don't score goals like Rhodes.

I was about to pile in on this one, but to be fair Rhodes' 35 goal season the year before at Hudds was at League One rather than Championship level, which I had forgotten.

Great ideas, but would be so difficult to get signed off by Venkys. 1- they are so disengaged so would be hard to drive them to a decision, 2-they would rather squash the whole thing anyway rather than have a hint of bad press directed at Venkys, and how could you guaranteed to them up front there would only be positive press? It's not really any malevolence or lack of resources that makes Venkys such pernicious owners... it's just how divorced and uninvested in the day to day reality of the club they are. Absentee landlords... We'd be better off with someone with significantly less resource but much more engagement, as they would try to come up with and be open to the innovative sorts of solutions you are suggesting.

Doable if BBD goes. If we got Bowler and a proper proven number 9 in that could be an upgrade on BBD. Worth noting though he scored seven goals last season, so we are going to be looking to replace the BBD goals primarily from a new number nine and other midfielders chipping in.

Crikey. Amazing effort - Wednesday night game off the back of three defeats. Wow. Hope the team can do the fans justice.

Main difference is Dykes can head a ball and physically win central aeriel duels whereas Gallagher can't.

In style exactly the sort of number 9 we need, but his scoring record isn't that good. Could see him being a perfect foil for Dack like Graham was though. But... QPR are going to want a huge fee surely? Contracted to 2024. And he's not guaranteed top quality at Championship level, he's a middling sort of striker. Hmm. If QPR wanted to get rid of him for some reason I could see it happening, but if they want to keep him can't really see how it could work.

Wishful thinking probably. Even a "marquee signing" budget isn't going to get anywhere near the £50k p/w minimum that Barkley will want (though I suppose if is viewed internally as a £2.5M "transfer fee" split across a 52 week contract that could get near the number. But a £2.5M investment for literally zero resale value at end of year). But even if it was true why would we spunk our cash on our most covered position (number 10) - we have Dack, Smozdics, Hedges, Dolan, Buckley all buzzing around a single role. Then on top of that attitude concerns, likely that he will just see as as a payday like Danny Murphy did, and the impact of his vastly higher wages will do to the dressing room. Plus doesn't in any way fit with the philosophy that Broughton and JDT have aligned to (young, hungry, cheap players). So not likely imo. But we only have to wait to tomorrow to find out!

Yeah, but at least with a back three Wharton can cover Pickering down the left. Back four Pickering has no cover.

Interestingly Hyam's right footed but seems to usually play on the left of a back three which is Wharton's side. Plus as others have pointed out Ayala has been our best player this season so far... So when everyones fit it will be interesting to see what we do. Could be back three with Ayala central, Wharton left and Hyam right? If Hyam can pass well like Wharton there's a lot of sense in that. Let Brittain and Pickering (maybe Styles?) push up.

Ayala's other reason for getting dropped beside injury is he does limit the playing style. You can't push up because he's too slow. Our great run last year coincided with playing a back three of Lenihan, Van Hecke and Wharton, and pushing up pretty high. Ayala was deliberately left out. If we want to stick to counter attacking football great, but I wouldn't be surprised if he gets left out for games when we want to push up.

What happens if Brittain gets ruled out long term? Edit - to answer my own question Carter...

Doubt we'd play Ayala on the right of a three, not mobile enough. Also surely S Wharton starts?? Probs VDB, Hyam, S Wharton as the staring three if we went that way.

Yeah he's also atrocious in the air, and you are onto a hiding at full back if you can't head. Also why I think Eduns never going to make a full back. Rather have someone like Carter playing there and being solid in the air than a JRC or Edun who can be easily targeted. Edit - scratch that, for some reason I thought Carter is left footed. He's right footed.. wrong footed full backs always a bad idea!

For whatever reason the powers that be seem satisfied with our options. We haven't been linked to any left backs at all.

We need VDB to cover right back. After Brittain it's JRC.

Team I'd go for Kaminski Brittain. Ayala. S Wharton. Pickering Travis. Morton. Hedges A Wharton. Brereton Gallagher Subs : Pears, Hyam, Sepp, Buckley, Dack, Dolan, Markanday Still searching for a settled XI and system, though the playing options definitely improving.