Admiral Nelsen

Expectation would be too far for me. I wouldn't call it a free hit either, but they have some very good players at this level, and a deeper squad than us after for what will be our third game in six days. If we won vs Reading and got a draw from Brammall Lane I'll be doing cartwheels.

Agree that Dack is the obvious one to bring in. He didn't look particularly off the pace yesterday, albeit as a sub. He should get some opportunities to show what he can do against a lesser side. I'd definitely keep the defence the same, fitness permitting, and cross everything that Ayala can get through unscathed. Other changes would depend on how well we can recover between now & Wednesday, but I definitely wouldn't be averse to putting Dolan in. He's done well off the bench so far. Win on Wednesday and that'll already be 9 points from games that we didn't get any from last season. Not the most reliable measure of progress, but nice all the same.

Really annoying that this game comes so soon after such a big physical effort yesterday. Had we had a full week to recover, I'd be very confident that we'd get the three points. They'll be determined to put in a better showing than their embarrassment against Rotherham too. On the flip side, they're not very good at the best of times and they have an absolutely horrific set of injuries at present. Missing Joao, Meite, Ejaria, Dann, Hutchinson, Moore and others. All key players when fit, and there are doubts over Tom Ince and Hendrick. Really bare bones stuff, so if we can get anywhere near our level, this is a team we should be beating. Going for another clean sheet and a 0-2 Rovers win.

I think we have to be realistic in that any offer we make him needs to give him parity of esteem with other first team players. I really hate giving young players big contracts too early, but we need to signal to Phillips that we recognise his value and we can't do that by offering him a contract which doesn't put him alongside other established players. BUT I don't think throwing all the money we can at him is i) a good idea and ii) likely to work anyway. The biggest thing we can offer him by far is the stage to showcase his talent, so that when he does get his likely move to a top Prem club, he'll be in a much stronger position to go as a player who will compete for games rather than get farmed out on loan. That may not be enough, but if he's smart then an extra £10k a week will be the secondary concern to game time.

Not sure if you ever listen to Quickly Kevin, but there's some doubt that he actually wrote them. Some whispers that the just put his name to them to get more publicity. I choose to believe the legend though. On a similar vein, was there any talk at the time that Matt Jansen laid down a couple of tracks on an album in 2002, alongside Ron Atkinson, Ally McCoist and Frank Sinclair, amongst others. Strange days.

I thought similar - but to be fair they've not dominated possession in either of the games they've had so far (admittedly against good teams). I think we'll have more of the ball than we did against Swansea, especially being at home.

That stood out to me too, could call it the Welsh disease after last weekend! Interesting to see that he was still studying maths at 18 too - can't imagine that would be true of many footballers.

Buckley is class - and has the potential to be a good premier league player - but he's some way behind the level Dack was pre-injury. It's a good thing that we can actually include others in the conversation though. Dack was so much better than anyone else that we had on our books a couple of years ago, it's easy to forget.

It's working out which forwards play (& where) which is the difficult bit. I like the look of the defence & midfield though.

I like the idea of three at the back, especially now we have a proper right wing back and Edun might be improving. No idea if we'll actually go down this route or not but something like: TK Sepp Ayala/New Wharton Brittain Pickering/Edun Travis Buckley Hedges Gallagher Brereton Although then you're struggling to accommodate our more attacking players - Szmodics, Markanday, Dack, Dolan and Vale all on the bench or not in the squad - so maybe not.

5 in 18 last season, which is better without being brilliant. He was Forest's best player at Ewood though - absolutely dominated Van Hecke, which didn't happen so often.

I remember seeing an interview of Pochettino when he was still in England. He was talking about being manged by Bielsa as a young boy at Newell's Old Boys, and how he used to get the youngsters to do scouting reports for their next opponents and deliver them to the first team. He remembers the whole thing being unbelievably nerve wracking as a teenager, but that it was great for squad integration, and obviously helped no end with players' confidence, tactical awareness, diligence and the like. He even put it down to him eventually becoming a manager. Great to hear that we seem to be doing the same.

I'm looking forward to seeing whether this is right or not. In his first few appearances for Rovers he looked a bit clumsy and accident prone, but not a bad passer per se. This was when he was playing in a two but also when Mowbray wanted us to play like Barcelona, so far from ideal circumstances for a young centre back. I admit that since then I'm going off what others have said rather than actually having seen him play, but Pompey fans don't seem to think that he's particularly limited on the ball. Time will tell I suppose.

Looks like Callum Robinson will be their only recognised forward for Sunday, and even he is more of a wide player. Starting to get a bit more confident about this one.

Seems like you've already got your fill of young-but-talented centre backs. Think you could do with someone a bit more established to fill that last slot ideally, but then again that might be tricky if you want to find someone who can pass it well enough in your system. Is there any sign that Kompany would like to play three at the back? Otherwise, another centre half would but the new lad from City (not THB) as fourth choice? Interesting career move for a lad his age who is meant to be highly rated.

Wigan have had some nightmarish pitches at the new ground - typically blamed on the rugby when Sky pundits would talk about it - but I believe the issue there was the drainage that they had from the pitch, and that in wetter spells there was basically nowhere for the water to go. Don't think it's an issue anymore, but I could be wrong.

I suspect that the earlier post (that Mowbray will be judged more favourably after a few years) is right. Hopefully the success of JDT will tell a story of why we needed to move on from Mowbray, but also that he left us some decent materials to work with too. Unless it was the collapse that ushered in the new era! It was a completely unacceptable run of form, and his tendency to go on these spells every year was easily the most important reason why he had to go. The thing that gets me though is that he was here for so long - responsible for some massive calls both good and bad - and yet things like his demeanour in interviews or on the touch line regularly get brought up as a reason why fans are happy that he's gone. Each to their own I suppose, but I can't think of anything less important.

I basically agree, although Barnes is an extremely unknown quantity even for next season after his injury. The one caveat is that we will need another option if JDT wants to play 3 at the back for any length of time. We can assume that Ayala's going to be missing at one point or another, which means that we can only play that way with either Carter or Phillips coming in. That's fine, but it also means that we have the other unproven youngster as the only back up for three positions. If the idea is that we stick to a back four though, I agree that VDB along with what we have is enough for this season.

Wharton's the only left footed one, so that counts in his favour. Also, to be honest, he's developing into a class footballer. I can't see him dropping out of the team under any circumstances now bar injury or a unforeseen drop in form.

Covers right back too, so would be a top signing.

Just looked up the game, apparently it was the first time a British team kept a clean sheet at their new stadium. Not a bad effort. At one point we had Samba, Nelsen, Zurab, Todd and the Axe all on the same pitch! Not straightforward to break that team down. Todd was only brought on in stoppage time and still picked up a booking! Miss that team.

As impressive as Dack and the young lads were yesterday, the XI shouldn't change from a 3-0 away win. This will be a big test. WBA have recruited Swift and Jed Wallace in the summer, who are both incredibly productive players at this level. Having said that, they're missing their main striker, Daryl Dike, who hasn't been able to get going since his move. Any first teamer who plays in the cup tonight will have played twice since we played Swansea too, so there's a chance that one or two won't be at their sharpest. I think we'll get something from the game, but I've a feeling it'll be a score draw rather than a win.

And had one of the best chants going. "His name is Ludo Miklosko, he comes from near Moscow..." Mikloško of course came from the Czech Republic, and was born closer to Upton Park than Moscow.

Not now, but it was a real disappointment at the time. Treacy was getting big plaudits in the youth team (the new Duff!?) and Sparky seemed to do no wrong in picking up quality strikers for next to nothing, so there were some hope that Rigters would be the next in line.

We've had a poor run against Cov over the years, but that sticks out as such an awful game. Treacy and Rigters in particular were absolutely appalling.