I'd be really surprised to see szmodics available on Saturday and if he is I'd be tempted to home back until the 2nd half. Sounds as though gally might be fit as too with tronstad. I'd maybe consider the big crewe lad if there is some wear in the cbs. 5 outfield players played 120 mins on Tuesday and with the fixture list as it is we've got to careful there.

I'd go:

                   Pears

      Hyam.   Fadz.   Wharton

Brittain.  Buckley  tronstad Pickering

           Markanday   Dolan.           

                   Gally

   Subs: wahlsted, o'riordan, Billy, duru or gilsenan, chrisene, garrett, moran, siggy, telalovic

                        Pears

     Hyam.  Wharton. Pickering

Brittain moran Buckley GarrettChrisene

                 Telalovic.  Dolan

 Subs: wahlsted, Fadz, Billy the kid, Batty, duru, ayari, siggy, gilsenan, gally

I'd give szmodics the night off, I'd only give gally the 2nd half and hope we aren't out of it by then. 

Just now, jim mk2 said:

 

All very true but if we do go down Tomasson will be to blame.

The horrendous run in December and January under him has put us in this precarious position and it's clear now he was not being honest with himself by staying on at the club so long. If he'd resigned sooner we might not be in this mess. 

I'll be blaming the ownership tbh.

We were 5 points clear when he left. The let's blame JDT for relegation is a bit of a stretch. Ultimately we don't know where we would be if he stayed, we were on a bad run but we had a buffer to the relegation zone. A manger with most of his key players fit and a slightly deeper squad should keep this team up.

3 hours ago, roverblue said:

Given how bad our form has been I think results wise he has done well in his first few games.

He has fixed the defence which was the main issue with the team. The way Norwich setup we would have been murdered on the break under JDT.

It’s not pretty but I think a lot of that is down to Adam Wharton not pulling the strings. A lot riding on Buckley to fill that gap now.

His real tests are the upcoming Millwall and Plymouth home games as these are ones we have to win. 

I think he's done okay I think but Its a small sample size especially as I don't really count the stoke win as 'his'. 

I think he's bennefitted from having more experienced players available to pick from and having our best keeper and striker available is a luxury that JDT didn't really have during the bad run. To his credit he seems to be using gally better than most have used him over his time here.

We are more pragmatic, don't lose it in silly areas as much, are less liley to get countered on, offer a much greater threat from set pieces. We hang in games longer, appear more dogged, and actually look more solid the longer games go on.

But I think to say he's 'fixed the defence' is imo complete rubbish. It's still an issue for us. I thought first hour yesterday norwich should've scored more than the 1 they did. Same with Birmingham away, we conceded a lot of chances. We aren't playing a high line and norwich got in behind quite a few times yesterday. Pears has been mostly very good in the last 4/5 games which is gaining us points as much as anything.

We are giving the ball away way too much at present. At times it's aimless hoofing. Nothing wrong with direct long ball football but you've still got to have a purposes with these passes. It's frustrating, as much as JDTs side should've varied it slightly more then so should this side... if a channel ball isn't on move it around and open one up. It's painful to watch at times.

Hopefully when JE gets time on the training ground with this group he can get this refined more. I'm still on the fence with JE.

I'm not giving Eustace stoke. He wouldn't have been claiming that one if we were losing it. 

He didn't take a training session, I'm pretty sure he didn't pick the team.

It's 2 draws and a defeat in 3.

We look a bit more solid defensively but I feel we've sacrificed a lot to get that. He's got them scrapping though.

If the players stay fit we will stay up. As for progress beyond that my hope is that its a case of a manager 'building from the back first'

Buckley has come on and we can suddenly string more than 2 passes together. 

25 minutes ago, Blow-in said:

Time to start targetting games and points the way Big Sam did?

We have a few games coming up that our best 11 are not likely to get something from, just rest out better players for those ones.

 

 

Would you target this one or Saturday for example. 

Newcastle is a bit more of a free hit.

If pears, tronstad, szmodics or Gally goes down I jured and misses even half of the remaining games we are in big trouble as there roles or replacements are not replicable. Lot of games coming up in a short space of time too, in normal circumstances I'd be tempted to start the 3 outfielders mentioned on the bench. 

But if we did that it would be tantamount to accepting defeat now. With that in mind I'd rest Hedges and that's it.

8 hours ago, Ossydave said:

Funnily enough I did exactly that, I asked Suhail. He read my message but didn't bother to reply.

He gets away with a hell of a lot in the shadows, more than anyone if you ask me.

Waggott has (for what it's worth) at least shown some willing to engage with fans.

Good stuff for trying to turn the heat up on suhail. He's a shadow man who should be brought out into the open.

Personally disagree on Waggott, I think he's shown complete disregard for the fans during this and for a large part of his time here. He has a special line to a few fans and that leaks out on here but other than that he doesn't say anything unless he has to.

This is a big part of the disfunction at the club, nobody communicates anything. Waggott judging from those who have spoke to him seems to be quite a good talker in smaller circles but doesn't like and (imo) doesn't come across well in larger interviews. His nature is to withhold information. The fact he's not spoken properly following the turmoil of the last month speaks volumes.

I think for all GB's faults (his transfer record doesnt look good right now) he's shown a willingness to communicate with fans and that has been appreciated by them. If Waggott communicated the strategy clearly I think he'd find a lot of people will go with him because as we've seen a lot of fans are happy to swallow the party line.

The main cause is to remove the owners and waggott goes with them. But I really don't like or rate waggott at all and to quote kevin keegan I would 'love it' if he was removed from the club.

I think with Travis being loaned out was made with a few assumptions in place:

-Buckley had come back and they needed to free up the wage budget somehow 

- they assumed the Indian Court would allow a cash injection in mid Jan. 

-they were not planning to sell adam wharton this January but in the summer.

-they weren't planning on losing JDT

So they needed to ship someone out early in the window, Travis was clashing with jdt over playing time and didn't suit the current style of play. 

Then the money from India can't get through, they then have to sell Wharton to stay solvent. Jdt goes and they hire a manager who would likely want Travis and suits the 'new' style.

Just sums up where we are as a club. The owners causing instability within the club. It's not joined up thinking it's people reacting to changing circumstances.

For me that was the worst performance of the season. It was only the lack of Birmingham composure in front of goal that made the scoreline close. And to think telalovic should've got us a point at the death.

We offered nothing going forward. The plan appeared to be to hit them quickly moving forward but we gave the ball away so much in transition that caused no threat and the players dropped deeper and deeper. Then when we tried to build a little with the ball we looked woeful like the last 18 months never happened, just panicky and very disjointed.

Play like this regularly we will go down. Hopefully Eustace can get a coherent style into these lads quickly because yesterday was the opposite of a new manager bounce

                       Pears

    O'riordan  McFadzean.  Wharton

Brittain.     Tronstad.   Fleck.      Hedges

            Dolan.           Szmodics

                     Horse

All assuming JRC isn't fit, if he is then i would start him cm

Subs: Wahltsted, Hyam, Batty, Buckley, Ayari, Garrett, Gilsenan, Markanday, Leonard.

26 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Can't imagine we will change it up too much from Saturday. 

I'd expect the same lineup, assuming McFadzean is up to another game in quick succession, same goes for Hedges as well.

That's the concern for me. Neither have played in a long time and Hedges is coming back after a long hamstring injury. I'd be tempted to use hedges off the bench. Start the villa lad at wing back and bring scotty Wharton back in his favoured lcb role.

44 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Fantastic result! McFadz made a huge difference…was constantly talking and seemed to be in the right place.

There will be a reason why Coventry dropped him months ago but I didn't see it today. 

He had the exact qualities that we've been lacking. He's a proper organiser. That left hand side of the back 5 is pretty shaky defensively on paper but he was organising and talking the whole game. It stood out a mile as we haven't had that since ayala left in the summer. It looks like we will play with a back 5 and sit back more with a deeper line and look to play on the break a bit more which shouldn't expose him much.

15 minutes ago, booth said:

3 points, just what we needed.

Some players raised their game today. Sadly Telalovic showed he's not got the quality for this league.

 

I was about to say this about Telalovic. Felt the squad looked deeper today, not as young with more championship experience. But Telalovic looked so far off it, lads never going to make it at this level, would rather see Leonard get 20 mins.

Got to remember this is johnson taking the team not Eustace.

I'll be honest I've not seen a great deal of difference early on. It's the same basic shape with the tweak being dolan further up the top of the pitch rather than dropping deep. The other key difference is the better wing backs which make this shape work.

We've been a little bit more direct but not overtly. Lot of holes opening up in the stoke defence. I must say I enjoyed our third a lot, very simple but effective.

15 minutes ago, Roversider said:

Whatever happens to GB the Director of Football model will continue at the club. So if he goes someone else will come in.

Tbf GB should probably go, if he is replaced with another DOF then fair enough. My main worry is Waggott reassuming control over football things (not that he has a good handle on the non football side of things). His handling of contracts alone is enough to disqualify him from that kind of role. 

The one big positive about GB is that he has communicated semi-regularly what we were trying to do. The silence this week has been deafening. Do you think waggott is going to come out and front up to any of this? Nope. And if he does he'll spin some line to try and encourage season ticket sales. 

In fact, on waggott, I can't stand the bloke. He tried to sell off the training ground for redevelopment and basically got away with it. I can't wait for the day he leaves this club. 

58 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

I would not be too sure about that, that axe still swinging

Christ if GB goes but Waggott survives to run the football side of the operation again...

Is it a good appointment? - Not sure

Is he an upgrade on JDT - not for me

Is it a sensible appointment - probably yes

Does it mean the project is dead - yes

Feel like some have forgotten that the managers options up front for Moston this season have been

Harry leonard in his first proper season

Nial Ennis who even when he was fit looked really poor 

Telalovic who isn't anywhere near championship level as much as some would like him to be.

Similar issues at right wing. For a large chunk of the season he's had only markanday, brittain or moran out of position. 

Full back, large chunks of the season he's had brittain, hill deputising or Pickering. Some like to moan about Pickering buts had to play him.

Goalkeeper, he's had no choice but to play walhsted even when he was going through the worst run I've seen from a goalkeeper at ewood.

Our January transfer window we lost hill, Wharton and Travis. Now some would argue that Travis is his fault but let's be honest it was more likely money thay forced him out. 

He may have given up or not adapted to the situation unfolding around him but he's been handing a big of nothing to work with. 

59 minutes ago, J*B said:

Ultimately I decided to go so that I could say my piece and I feel like I did do. Between me and Glen we made it abundantly clear what the problems at this club were and who is at fault… in our opinion, of course. 

Personally I'm glad you were there. I feel very comfortable having you represent 'my views' and the view of the 'fans'

3 minutes ago, matt83 said:

Damien Johnson no doubt. 

Was my initial reaction with someone else brought in to help the coaching side of things. My guess would be david Dunn.

Just now, Ricky said:

J*B last paragraph is interesting. Something that they have agreed not to share yet, that sounds awfully like a manager having the boot.

I think he's said a lot by not saying a lot there hasn't he.