Exiled_Rover

I said that to my dad last night - there's clearly still a gaping hole at #9 - it's clear as day when you watch the team play. We'd be a force to be reckoned with if we had a consistent goal scorer there who was either big enough to hold the ball up or fast enough to run the channels (or heaven forbid both!).

Not sure about the best player on the park by a country mile, but he was very good. I thought Tronstadt and Carter were sensational tonight. So was JRC until he tired.

I don't think so, but I'm glad we have him too.

This Arsenal loanee they've got at RB is fantastic.

I agree, but at some point you've got to trust S. Wharton to play in league games or you have to sell him.

Nobody has seen him play.

I thought that was Leicester City?

I think he had to come for that punch - Hyam was looking to wall his man off, rather than win the header.

The new CM pairing is no less creative than A. Wharton and Travis - they just go wandering less. Travis plays much further up the field (I guess they really don't want him receiving the ball in our own half), which leaves huge gaps on the break. Hill is much less adventurous than JRC or Brittain, but he provides us with defensive stability at RB. Until he has a shocker, or a team works us out, I'd stick with him there. I thought it was a very professional win - nowhere near as gung-ho as we've been at times this season, but on another day JRC could have had a hattrick and a better player in Dolan's position would have taken at least one of his chances.

A little bit too slow for mine.

He's a headless chicken at the moment.

JRC needs to come off, he's knackered.

Ugh, Dolan runs out for the second half and the stadium deflates. Why is JDT so averse to half time substitutions?

The problem for JRC is that he was our player of the season after Christmas - he was pulling out phenomenal performances. He's set the bar too high for himself - I think he's been good this season, but you know he's capable of more so you mark him more harshly.

It'd be offside if we had VAR - so technically it's a stellar spot, you just don't get those at this level.

If you're able to condemn Ennis and Telalovic on the limited minutes we've seen them they you're a better scout than most - have you thought about a career change?

We're essentially playing with a flat back 4 with a sitting DM. Hill isn't getting forward much from RB (as he's a CB) and Pickering can't get forward much at LB (as he's incapable of getting up and down the flank at this level). A few weeks ago we had Brittain/JRC bombing on from FB, Travis playing alongside Szmodics and Wharton trying to pull the strings from CM.

Szmodics, Sigurdsson, Brittain and JRC have nothing to play off. Dolan has been diabolical - surely Ennis can do 45 mins, if not I'd bring Telalovic on - we're playing with 10.

Did you see Sigurdsson play the ball into Dolan with absolutely nobody around him? Dolan just played it back to Pickering - he has 20 yards of space to run into if he had any awareness at all and just turned onto the ball. Maddening.

I'm glad the Markanday experiment is over. I'd rather have Brittain as a FB, but I prefer him out wide to Markanday or Dolan, so it's a case of picking our best players in positions they can play, even if it's not their preferred ones. Getting slightly worried about this Telalovic bloke though - he can't get a sniff.

This England side had no business losing the Euros final to Italy. We'll never win anything with Southgate in charge.

If we get our club back I'm ok with that. It's a zombie club.

It was the absence of Travis - we had two CMs who were comfortable on the ball today.

Hill was very good - Chair is one of the trickier players in this league. The GK conceded 0.

Sigurdsson is first choice, he's just being handled carefully as he missed the entire preseason with a groin injury. I don't think he's played more than 60 minutes this season - hopefully we'll see him finishing games after the international break. As for Wahlstedt, well he's clearly a much, much better GK than Pears... but JDT seems to have a blind spot for Aynsley, so who knows.