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DE.

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Everything posted by DE.

  1. Sadly we're seeing a lot of 80s wrestlers pass away in their late 50s - 60s in recent years. The roids, alcohol & coke diet of the era was a lethal cocktail for sure. Frankly it's amazing that Ric Flair is still around. On another note I was in tears of laughter watching Raw the other day. I don't usually laugh like that when watching wrestling, but WWE deciding to call one of their new, supposedly threatening invaders "Slapjack" just killed me. Every time a commentator mentioned his name I started giggling again. I don't think it was their intention for Slapjack, with his homemade Jason Voorhees mask, to be funny... but at the same time how do you create something like that and not realise that it's completely absurd? Mace and T-Bar admittedly aren't much better names (all three sound and to some degree look like villains from an 80s cartoon), but Slapjack... poor Shane Thorne. Come to think of it, I also burst out laughing when King said something like "T-Bar... that stands for 'That Boy Ain't Right'" - I mean, again, are we supposed to be taking these guys seriously or not?
  2. Being serious for a second re: Garbutt, he's rubbish - worse than Bell. Avoid.
  3. In fairness I saw a lot of comments from Wycombe fans post-match talking about how good we were (mixed in with the understandable disappontment of being thrashed and comprehensively outplayed).
  4. Arma's best moments on the wing have been where he cuts inside and smashes a long-ranger into the net. Otherwise he's not very good at crossing, not great at tracking back to help his man defensively, not very good at holding position (always drifting inside) and his pace is only useful if up against a very slow fullback as he doesn't have the tricks necessary to beat a man on the flank - he can only knock it past them and beat them for pace - and he's almost always trying to cut inside which makes him predictable as a wide man. When he plays centrally, however, pretty much all of these weaknesses are negated. He doesnt need to worry about crossing. He doesn't need to worry about tracking back to defend. He doesn't have to worry about holding a wide position. He doesn't have to worry about using tricks to beat people, as his job is to get behind them and leave them for dead with his speed. It won't work against every team - there will be times when we need a target man and that's when we are going to need Gallagher to step up - but more often than not Arma will cause defenders nightmares with his speed and movement. It's a very useful asset for a team like us to have - particularly if we can get the likes of Rothwell, Dolan, Buckley, Dack and Holtby playing smart passes behind the defence for Arma to prey on.
  5. You're forgetting how atrocious the standard is in that division. Even when we played like crap we won most matches comfortably. From recollection Bell was named in the League 1 team of the season! For £250k he's been an OK signing. I've got nothing against the bloke as I think he tries to the best of his ability - it's just not enough to match our ambitions. We need better.
  6. Last season against Sheffield Wednesday. Beat them 5-0 at Hillsborough in January.
  7. Top half for me. I think our thin squad depth will ultimately keep us from getting into the top six. If we were extremely lucky and went through the entire season with our best players staying fit, suspensions at a minimum and Dack coming back looking better than ever and slotting into the side without a problem - then top six would be a distinct possibility. Oh, and no playing Gallagher on the right wing. Also Bell would need to be replaced.
  8. Bell is League 1 standard and will never be any more than that. The lad is 26, he's not going to suddenly become significantly better than he already is at this point. Much like Lenihan people seem to think Bell is a lot younger than he actually is. These players are pretty much coming into their prime years now, development is pretty much done. With Bell at LB we will have a massive weakness down that flank the entire season and it will be a huge hindrance. If we signed nobody else at this point other than a decent LB, even on loan, at this point I'd take it. We can make do with the rest (although I'd be pretty worried if Kaminski or Armstrong got injured).
  9. Just what we needed after a couple of results which didn't really reflect how well we'd been playing. Yes it was only Wycombe, but you can only beat the teams put in front of you and we did that today in style. A shame that BB didn't manage to net but his overall play was good and he contributed in more ways than Gallagher could have imo. Dolan looking like he could become a star here. Early days but he's confident, positive and making an impact. Keep it up! Rothwell had an excellent game as well, but he needs to find some consistency and produce against the better teams as well. Arma picking up where he left off last season - might be some serious interest from other clubs in January if he keeps this form up.
  10. If performances stay at the level they have been at and results are also good it's going to be hard for Mowbray to go back to the stodgy 4-2-3-1 which has never really looked convincing and relied heavily on Dack to work. It does present a problem when Dack returns but it'll be a good problem to have.
  11. It's not often we get to celebrate a win like this, even against newly promoted teams, so let people be giddy if they want. With Rovers you can guarantee it won't be long before we crash back down to earth, so we might as well enjoy these moments when they happen.
  12. Tbf Wycombe are about Bell's level. Assuming we win today, which seems very likely now, the announcement of a decent LB on Monday will make this an excellent weekend all around.
  13. I don't think even a Mowbray HT team talk can lose the game for us now. Wouldn't surprise me if it ends 3-1 or 3-2 though, as traditionally we have one good half and one bad half - and that was definitely the good half.
  14. Yep, they'll need to learn from this as they don't have the quality to play this openly against Championship level teams away from home. We've had three shots on target and scored all of them.
  15. Arma with his shooting boots on straight away this season, which is vital for us. Sounds like we are teaching Wycombe a harsh lesson about the quality needed to step up a league.
  16. How did Preston let Dolan slip away? The lad looks immense.
  17. According to this he's shorter than a fair few in the team today!
  18. Would have given Davenport a start over Johnson. If he isn't even trusted to start at home to Wycombe when will his time come? I guess when either or both of Holtby & Johnson get injured. Our bench certainly highlights a lack of squad depth. Not many (any?) game changers there. Chapman at a push.
  19. Of the outfield players in the team arbitro posted, this many goals were contributed last season (according to Transfermarkt): JRC - 0 Lenihan - 3 Williams - 3 Bell - 0 Holtby - 3 Johnson - 3 Rothwell - 2 Dolan - N/A Brereton - 1 Armstrong - 16 So... yeah, going to stick with my view that we are massively relying on Arma to score. He netted more goals last season than the rest of today's team combined. If Arma has an off day we'll be lucky to score more than one, especially if Wycombe come to Ewood with a defensive mentality.
  20. Most of those players have played far more than two competitive games for us. Unless you think they've undergone a radical transformation over the summer most of them will be at a similar level to last season. I genuinely hope your optimism is justified and these players all of a sudden start banging in goals and creating assists, as that would have us at the right end of the table for sure and make Dack and Travis' absence a lot easier to cope with. Also worth remembering we typically struggle in games like this against 'easier' opposition. Anyone who thinks Wycombe at home is a given has a very short memory. We should be able to beat them, but fool me once...
  21. Who in that team scores goals regularly other than Armstrong? For me to have a strong team we need Ayala beside Lenihan at CB, a new LB (hopefully coming Monday), much better than Evans/Johnson beside Holtby in midfield, much better than Gallagher/Brereton up front and Rothwell needs to show some consistency. If you rate these players higher than I do, no problem. It's just my opinion.
  22. I have to say, to me that is quite a worrying line up. A very weak defence and GK who is still bedding in, two crocks in midfield who can play but could break down at any time, Rothwell inconsistent, Dolan unproven, Brereton usually useless. Relying massively on Arma to score as there aren't many goals in the rest of that team. Hopefully Wycombe aren't up to much, as I don't foresee that team posing much of a threat to decent Championship opposition.
  23. Perhaps Mowbray is just preparing for what feels like Nyambe's inevitable departure at this point.
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