Admiral Nelsen

Indeed. Although sometimes players just don't have it in them to add certain strings to their bow. For whatever reason, he definitely didn't get any more threatening, even in Mowbray's last season when he was ostensibly a wing back.

He's not terrible, he's just a victim of how the game has changed. He's not too dissimilar to Jordan Rhodes in that respect. Rhodes was unbelievable at putting the ball in the net, and a total liability in other aspects of the game. Fine if you play 442 with wingers and a hard working strike partner. Unacceptable if you play differently. Same with Nyambe. He plays in the 90s or earlier where his first, second and third priority is defending against your winger then there's no way that he'd be slumming it in Derby reserves. But he can't attack, so he is. It doesn't make him terrible though, or even bad. Just more one dimensional than he can get away with.

That's how I saw it. Decent dribblers but bad ball carriers: Hoilett, Dolan Decent ball carriers but bad dribblers: Rothwell, Nyambe

If he's a previously undiscovered average Championship standard player who doesn't throw one in every five or six games, then he'll play for us before long.

Definitely was a weakness of his, although my increasingly unreliable memory was that he was getting better at it as time went on. My thinking was that you could get away with having one of the three who wasn't dominant aerially if the other two were strong in that respect. And he's that quick that it allows the team to set higher line. Maybe you're right though. He's just too one dimensional to be a success at this level.

In the modern game, he'd be very handy playing on the right of a back three. Just not threatening enough with the ball. Brittain has already contributed more in three league games this season than Nyambe did in almost 200 appearances, which tells its own story.

I'm probably more on your side on this, but he was a long long way away from stealing a wage! He was probably paid a pittance to begin with and was a decent defender. He just got a nosebleed in the opposition's half.

JRC had an unbelievably poor 20/30 mins against Blackpool. But he's played there before and been pretty good. Really good in spells actually. I like him as a player but I'm not convinced playing him wide on the right in our system really suits him. Having him as an option in CM might be the best way we get a tune out of him, as bad as he was the other night.

Moran last year showed how hard this league can be for players with zero senior experience. Which isn't to say that I'm not in favour of him signing - pace is exactly what we need.

Probably isn't the right thread to be returning to this, but I couldn't disagree more with that! Look at what he's done since. Nyambe was a strong one-on-one defender, but beyond that? There's no way that I'd swap him for Brittain (who admittedly has his own problems). Agree that losing Dolan wouldn't be a game changer, but he's an asset and one that I'd rather not be letting go for nowt.

I can definitely see the appeal from his perspective! I just worry slightly about his mental toughness. We've been giving forwards who have fallen from a grace chances for as long as I can remember. The successes like Bellamy, Santa-Cruz, Danny Graham etc. are those that are hungry. I just hope that Cantwell is more in their mold and less like Dwight Yorke's!

Genuinely thought we'd signed Riquelme when I saw those training clips. A more innocent time!

I've always thought that his size will limit what he can achieve. Probably the reason why PNE let him go in the first place. But he has his good points. Covers a few different positions, and he scores and sets up more than he is given credit for. If he goes for a seven figure sum then I'd be happy to shake hands and thank him for his contribution. But losing him for nothing would be a bit of a kick in the teeth. Not quite Brereton levels of annoying, but moreso than Nyambe.

I hope not, ideally I'd like him to sign a new deal. But if he sees himself as a 10 and doesn't think he's getting paid enough, then bringing in a top earner who pushes him down the pecking order isn't likely to persuade him to stay. If it's a choice between selling him and him leaving on a free, then the choice is obvious sadly (assuming there's a buyer!).

If it doesn't go well then we'll do well to recoup a penny - we seem to be getting him on the cheap as it is and that's partially because he's seen as damaged goods. If he does alright then obviously it's a different story, but if he fails then it'll be a case of someone taking his contract on a free at best, I think. That said, I'm definitely coming round to his signing. I didn't realise that he was doing alright at Rangers before throwing his toys out of the pram. I still worry about his attitude, but it's a worthwhile gamble.

Totally agree. I think some of their remaining big hitters who are linked away will probably end up staying too and may well be responsible for them sustaining a promotion push. But it's a big ask to get your head screwed on for this fixture for a Saturday lunchtime when you were hoping to be driving to Manchester Airport on the Friday afternoon. I'm certain that the Burnley starting XI (and at least some of their bench) will on paper be stronger than ours, but they'll have had some serious disruption. Some won't be properly fit, others won't have even trained with the rest of the squad. Others won't want to be there. There's no excuse for it being anything like the last time we played them, especially at their place.

Always a balance with early cup games. We have a small squad and a huge game at the weekend, and some players who will be important for us who didn't get a full pre season. Making lots of changes makes sense but I still expect us to win. Taking these games seriously and making changes are not mutually exclusive, as we showed under JDT.

Like I say, you need to be some player to compensate for being that small! Dolan's biggest problem when he arrived was that for all the tricks and flair you couldn't trust his final ball or decision making. Now I think he's quite a different player, but there are still too many games which almost pass him by because he can't get a kick. I think that's just because he's at a real athletic disadvantage and he often struggles to overcome that.

It's not really the main point of your post, but to be honest I don't think he should have shouldered too much blame for our exiting tournaments. Both Portugal exits were tough fixtures which wouldn't have even gone to penalties if referees didn't disallow perfectly fair goals. I wouldn't put the Rooney red card or the Seaman flap at Ronaldinho's free kick at his door either. I understand that I'm fighting a losing battle with this one, but strip back all the noise from Sven's time in charge and his record was actually very decent with just a bit more of a fair wind (dare I say, the sort that Southgate had) would've probably have been much better.

I think the difference between the two is that Dembele has at least shown it more recently than Cantwell, and has worked with Eustace before. Given the option I'd rather we'd steer clear of them both, but I'm less worried that Dembele would be a total waste of time. Partially - but I still think his main issue by far and away is his lack of size. You need to be a serious player to compensate for being so small in this division. I actually think Dolan has developed pretty well in a lot of ways and his goals/assists when on the pitch come at a pretty decent rate. But there are some games which totally pass him by, and I think in the main that's just a function of him being very small.

Cantwell's ceiling is quite high, but I'd only go near him if the finances are really low risk. It's a sorry state of affairs that I'm saying this but half a million quid from what we will have as a budget isn't worth the gamble for me.

In fairness, that really doesn't seem to be the case from where we are now. Let's see what this week brings, but they seem to be in the middle of losing half a squad and spending a fraction in bringing in replacements.

Get that. In fairness I'm more optimistic about this one than I have in ages so there's definitely something in the mood surrounding both clubs. It's just seems like the panic that has suddenly seemed to have erupted at your end has come from a really predictable set of circumstances, and one that didn't seem to be causing anybody undue stress until very recently. Whereas we've had a decent few results against poor teams, but I don't think anyone is believing that Rovers are going to be contenders at the right end this season. I hope I'm wrong, but from where I'm standing it looks a bit like an overreaction just now.

That's a huge statement. I'm not even saying you're wrong, but the seeming disarray that has come from yesterday's squad and result has be a bit perplexed to be honest. Selling a lot of players was always on the cards with your massive squad from last year and things seemed to be ticking along nicely until yesterday with big profits on the players going out of the door and two big wins alongside them. I take what you say about those scorelines being flattering, but surely it's not enough to make you second favourites against us in a home fixture, given where we've been recently and that Szmodics is now out of the door?

As much as Bennett was never a world beater, if he actually played in that season under Coyle then I don't think we go down. Feeney was so poor and the margin of our relegation was so small. Bennett playing in front of him would have probably been enough for us to stay up. I definitely wouldn't call him anything of the sort, but I don't find it particularly cringeworthy either. Fans of a certain vintage still seem to remember the likes of Sellars or Speedie more fondly than some of our 95 team. Same with Bellamy and MGP for those in their 30s. We all know that we had some absolute whoppers at the club in the years before Bennett, so I get why a player like Bennett struck a cord with some fans, even if he was pretty average.