For the U21s or the first team?

Fun tho, innit?

The Josh Windass deal shows you how Dolan is really thought of in the Championship. Walked out of his contract with Sheffield Weds midweek - already signed up for Wrexham (pending a medical) with Norwich and Coventry trying to hijack the deal.

Bye-bye Jake Garrett then.

Cantwell suffered because he had nobody to pass to (Dolan and Hedges have no pace) and he ended up getting frustrated and coming deeper and deeper for the ball, taking him out of the play. Later-day-Dack used to do that too and it completely neutered him.

I can't say I enjoyed the blind, suicide pass to Toth if I'm honest.

I think it's partly because most of us are realistic - we're simply not bringing in that many players so, as fans, we're prioritising.

Another sub 6', slow CF? No thanks.

I think he'll have to drop down a level and will need to go to a team that doesn't ask him to run too much. I could see him being a big success in L1 and reigniting his career in the right set up.

Forshaw would be the same as Garrett / Montgomery for mine - a bloke you bring on for 15/20 minutes when the starter is tired. I wouldn't want to start him.

I think it's a stretch to say we're down Woodrow and Dennis. They contributed the square root of fuck all - which admittedly was part of the problem.

Like any good manager he's adapting to the players that he's got. Ribeiro and Pickering are quite slow, but steady at LB. If you gave him a Rak-Sakyi on the right wing, for example, he'd tweak the tactics to get the most out of him. Ex-Arsenal btw - the ex-Leicester lad is a CM (apparently - I've never seen him play).

I want a RW that scares the crap out of the LB, not another defensive winger. You're on easy street when Hedges lines up across from you.

So you think we're stronger than when we had a 27 goal forward on our books? Fair enough.

Sadly it seems Pears is injured rather than on his way out.

Honestly it depends how much they're willing to risk on Wharton. Hyam, Wharton, McLoughlin, Carter - with (what looks like 3) Academy players backing them up is fine IF you think Wharton can hold up. As Ismael has repeatedly mentioned that Wharton has only played 4 weeks of football in a year and Carter picks up multiple injuries every season I suspect they're going to look for another CB.

I'd say he's a decent (but honestly not great) shot stopper - but the rest of his game just isn't professional standard. Positioning, handling, communication, distribution - just poor all round. I've no idea how he's carved out a professional career.

It's encouraging, but I wouldn't go overboard. This was Academy kids keen to impress v PL players getting minutes into their legs. If points / a place in the next round was on the line we'd have seen a different result. Nobody looked out of place today, but Everton clearly had another gear. Did Montgomery et al?

Having watched the game today the two glaring problems for me are starting RW and backup CM (assuming Tavares is actually any good). We can probably quite happily alternate DeNeves and Kargbo on the left (with Leonard / Ohashi et al rotating in there as the season goes on). On the right though you simply can't go into the season with Hedges as your starter - he offers nothing going forward (but yes I'll concede he works hard to protect his FB). At CM, especially playing this system, you're going to run into the same problem we had at around December last year - we're going to run Tronstad and Travis into the ground. We need two good backups - let's say Tavares is one and Forshaw / Montgomery (I doubt it to be honest) rotate as the 5th option. You need another good player in there who can start midweek without a second thought from the manager - whether that lad from the Swiss league is it I don't know. Buckley needs to be shipped out. Bonus points if you can also snag a striker who can run in behind.

As in before the transfer window closed, or literally 19 July 2024?

I don't want to put it all on Pears, cos we had other problems last year, but how many points did he cost us last year with his basic mistakes? We'd have been in the playoffs for sure. Hopefully Toth is a safe pair of hands going forward.

Absolute crock - has cost him a PL job I think.

Never gets old either. Red and black, green and gold, pink and black etc etc.

I think based on that display today, baring a rash of injuries, we'll be a dogged mid-table team. There's really no magic in attack that will turn that 1 point into 3 or rescue a point when you're losing. We're not as slow as we used to be though, which is a big plus.

Ask me again in November when several players are injured and we're playing away at Watford on a Tuesday night.