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.

I think Hyam, Wharton and maybe even Sepp will be available for this. Going from really struggling to quite decent back four options. How's Brittain getting on too? Whatever system we play hopefully having at least two established centrebacks and a decent right back will make us much more solid.

Their own manager said "I need to find a replacement for free or near free" so theyre obviously being pretty transparent that theyre broke.

I liked that he scored quite a few headers... That's basically what we need. That said highlight videos mean so little as they have no context.... Had a look on the Pompey fan forums, seems they like him and are gutted he's leaving. But also not really sure he's Championship level. Feels like if we get Hirst he's not going to necessarily start, and just be a different option on the bench. Not sure that's what we need - we need someone who is the obvious number 9 and plays week in week out. Haven't had that since Graham left.

Seems a pretty solid set of defenders who should let us play a three or a four at the back. Also pretty balanced with Wharton, Hyam and Carter all play left side and Ayala, Sepp and Phillips play right side. Not having a left sided centreback last few games has hurt us. Still think surely we will get a big lad up top in? And a left back / wing back?

Realistically we won't know how we are doing until around November. Then we'll have enough games under our belt to have some sort of balanced view. It's possible one the defenders come in and we sign a striker things will come together. Or that the early trend of not generating chances and being defensively brittle will continue. I dont think we can really predict atm.

From what I saw of Adam Wharton yesterday I reckon he could do something like the Rothwell role. Carried the ball forward well a few times.

Pickering, Brittain can sling them in, and I think we would do more with crosses if we had anyone to aim at. We don't bother much as what the point with Smodics, Dack, Dolan, Vale... We need an option to play a direct aerial game if the other team sits in.

Hes turned into a bit of a dysfunctional owner specialist. Coventry, Rovers and now Sunderland.

I think Gavlars point is we never really stretched their keeper despite the time we were in the final third, which is a fair point imo. If I was a Stokie I would have come out feeling that we defended well and were largely in control despite the pressure.

Weird game, we defended appallingly first 30 mins, Stoke should have scored 2 or 3. After that we were probably the better team but without really creating convincing chances. So came out annoyed but also could see some reasons for hope Cons : defence was really poor first half, kaminski conceded a really soft goal (although he also made two or three superb saves prior), Buckley was abysmal, Dack at 9 (which I was all for to try something different) didn't work. BBD wasted a lot of really good positions on the left which is unlike him. Pros : Adam Wharton. Wow. He's going to be a huge player for us, he will start next game I think. Buckley (who I seriously rate) should be very worrief. Hedges also looks to me like he's going to be a consistently strong performer for us. Dack played much better at 10. Much as we all love to hate him we really missed Gallaghers power and physicality to stretch and shake the opposition defence. He would have made a big impact today. We need more of that, our preponderance of small technical forwards makes us unable to get any value out of crosses at all. No Scott Wharton is a big gap for us also. Overall : Disappointing defeat but much better performance all round than Reading and Sheff Utd. We were competitive whereas in those games we were not. But we need some proper defenders in, and we need a striker who can cause a player like Flint a problem through the middle up front. I just feel like we don't really know what we're doing at centre forward and that needs sorting out. We've got a great team for scoring on the break, but i just think against massed defence chasing a game we don't have the right options. So as others have said on here if we go behind we really struggle.

Kind of what I mean about why I'm confused we signed Szmodics. As far as I can see I don't really get what Sammie offers us that Markanday doesn't. All that happens is Markanday drops out of the squad, and we could have used the Szmodics money elsewhere?

On the positive side he looks leaner and more mobile than he has been for ages. So it really does look like he's fighting for his place. JDT is no idiot. He knows Dack is the one player except BBD who consistently scores goals, so I am sure he is desperate to fit him in the side. Smodics does seem such an odd signing though. We have Dack, Dolan, Markanday, Hedges, Buckley, Vale who can all d o that role in different ways. Just seems a totally unnecessary signing?

Usually we get the best out of players at Rovers, often it's after they leave us they dip in form. But King in hindsight is a player we could have got at lot more from. Real missed opportunity.

If Bournemouth offered him £50k+ when no one was after him all I have to say is they need a new negotiation team! As someone else mentioned he joined Rovers when we just came up from League One likely on a modest deal as he was a bit part squad player, and never signed an improved deal once he has established himself. He could have been on something as low as £3k to £5k.

That's some quality rumour fodder right there! Thanks for sharing.

Why do you mention him? Bundasliga 2 player, so we could probably make him a good offer comparatively.