Dack has shown he can do the business in this league without a doubt but as I stated in the Player of the Year thread, he really needs to knuckle down. He should be winning that award, he won it in League 1 but was quite a way back from DG this time around in my opinion. I just think he needs to grow up a bit - the whole community service thing kinds of shows that he is a bit of a kid really. Dont want to see another football career that doesn't see its full potential.

Most of us called it and he rightly wins it. As Stuart pointed out though, he shouldnt be such an obvious choice. DG is far from being the most technically gifted striker but he won simply because of his consistency, determination, leadership and professionalism. Dack would have won it easily if he could maintain some consistency. Really hope Dacky boy starts to realise that he has a real talent but that alone is not enough. Football careers are short and he's already halfway through his - if he really has ambitions of playing at the top level, just graft a bit more, get yourself in the best shape possible and push on. He could learn a lot from DG who HAS played at the highest level.

I still have high hopes for Davenport. Burton fans were raving that he was one of the best players to ever play for their club when he was there and that was two seasons ago in the Championship. One of the most highly rated from City's academy too. Think this injury has really knocked him back and its been really unfortunate but i think he'll be competing for a starting spot next season.

poor officiating. At end of day, yes players should have played to whistle anyway but that Leeds goal was offside anyway. A good linesman could have saved all this drama.

More like it

That Damau must have the most uninspiring YouTube highlights reel I've ever seen.

Hope theres more to it than TM going to these matches and seeing if theres anyone of interest. Hoping he already had an eye on one or two and wanted to see them in the flesh.

You always got the feeling that when Rothwell got that monkey off his back that the goals would flow a little easier. He was having plenty of attempts, hitting the bar, post and keepers pulling off good saves. I'm excited to see what he can do with a full season of being a starter - which is what he has to be now in my opinion. Him being on the pitch would benefit Dack too as it gives teams two dangermen to worry about. Teams learned that if you stop Dack you stop us and so would double/triple up on him at times but this will ease once they realise they have Rothwell to worry about as well. Armstrong/Chapman on the other side as well. We certainly have the players now in the three behind that can give teams nightmares. Just no more of this 2.5 attackers please for next season, lets go for it a bit more.

Just please dont let us finish 14th. 13th, 15th or whatever, just not 14th. Not sure I can take being told by Chaddy all summer that he predicted we'd finish 14th at the start of the season.

Why are we even comparing them? They both primarily play two different positions. Shots, passing accuracy and all that jazz will be different for each position. Rothwell has played some games in midfield while Dack is essentially a striker in reality if somewhat deeper. Rothwell will have better passing stats while Dack will obviously have better shooting stats. Anyhow, pointless comparison if you ask me. Just be thankful we have both of them and that TM is now actually starting to play them both in the same team. And Dack at 5 million laughable too. Sure, his second half to the season has not been as good as the first (correlates with our teams performance as a whole though) and his value might not have climbed much higher than the 15 million we rejected from WBA but it wouldn't have fallen either.

Anyone know much about this guy? Not heard of him before.

Good stuff Mr T

Think they'll be shopping in a bigger bin to be honest now. if they did come back for him, I wouldn't be so keen to take their money even if it was large - we dont spend money at the back, its been bad enough as it is, and we'd be losing our best CB.We'd probably buy some more CM's to play back there or shot slot Bennett in there or something.

Whats the opposite of a hindsighter?

Exactly, by being braver with our lineup and tactics - our defense has benefited greatly. Previously we would line up with 2 x DMs and just pass it around before lumping it up to DG and hoping Dack he can pick up the pieces. By simply removing those two DMs and having Travis/Reed and Travis/Rodwell that are far better on the ball going forward and by playing a possession based game without the 2.5 attacker system so skillfull/pacey gamechangers, Dack, Rothwell, and Armstrong - we're basically pushing teams back rather than inviting them on to us. It's no coincidence that our defense has been better because of this - Lenihan coming back is also massive. More of the same please, let teams worry about us and not the other way round a bit more.

Bre-Emer-ton

I am the same, not his fault we paid so much money for him. I've never been on his back and always hoped he would do well - glad he finally got his goal. We have not seen much of him let alone in his favoured position so i've kept from judging him too much on his performances as of yet. It was the transfer in itself that was the issue for me. So many glaring areas in the squad that needed strengthening - which could have been substantially with that money. Yes, I wanted a CF to ease our reliance on DG - but I wanted one that would be ready to challenge from the off (especially for that kind of money - in fact, I'd want one to start over DG on that money). Its done now though - so lets hope that he comes good and perhaps next season he can become that man.

Big decisions to be made on Mulgrew then. Stats go against him, Lenihan plays better without him. Can score plenty of goals from set pieces but I dont think thats enough when you look at the win/loss stats when he has played. Lenihan for me should be captain next season - not sure Mulgrew will like it and might want to be off. I cant see him as anymore than a backup CB for us now sadly.

Its progress so cannot grumble too much - but I do get the 'what could have been' feeling when I remember where we were in January and had the opportunity to strengthen and push on. We came out the window weaker and then were struck with injuries after sending a CB off on loan. We played Derby off the park and beat many in and around the playoffs so just feel like we could have been there ourselves. Would have taken where we are at the start of the season though.

Luton had that 'bounce' from being promoted the season before which seems to have lasted. Very good achievement from them tbh. Their fortunes are the opposite to Sunderlands.

Great stuff Accy!

it's not easy of course but their expectations were to get promoted much the same as ours were. They are performing below expectations and TM hit his targets and rightly deserves credit for it. That said, both teams really should have got out - the fact that Sunderland are not finding it easy suggests there's some real problems there. To drop two divisions in two seasons and then if they dont get straight back up - it would be pretty disastrous stuff. I imagine they thought they'd walk it much like us and Wigan but its not until you get there that you realise you still have to perform. Took us a few games for our players to realise this and start playing.

That Vlap looks very handy - good feet for such a tall guy. In Holland it just seems that Ajax snap all the talent before selling them on across the world so would not be surprised to see him there next.

problem with players from abroad is whether they can setlle, adapt to the English game etc but I'd much rather go looking for the next Pukki or Benrahma (or whoever he is) than signing some guy TM managed at an old club or once had a good game against us with Delboy at LB.

Crab-like players like Evans, Smallwood and Lowe will get a goal every three seasons or so and they're either deflected ala Evans, total once in a lifetime flukes ala Lowe, or in the case of Smallwood a sweet strike when he actually ventured forward for once. Look at how Travis plays, seen him get of more shots in the last two weeks than Evans has all season - a couple were from inside the box too (Evans would be getting panic attacks).