AspRover

He's got the workrate at least, I guess

Ohashi at 10 behind Andri, at a guess, revert to the formation we played and did well with last season. I'm not too worried about that in principal - we looked terrible in the first few games of this season but that might just be down to getting a lot of players up to speed very quickly and chopping and changing a lot accordingly - now we've settled down it's probably OK. A huge amount of pressure on Henriksson to play in central midfield though, Tavares must be awful in training. I've often wondered about Pickering playing as a defensive midfielder, I think he has the attributes to do well there and it wouldn't expose his lack of pace which for me is his main issue as a full back. Not feeling particularly optimistic, but it's a game where losing isn't the end of the world (coming off an unexpected three on the bounce and going into an international break to regroup) and winning with a threadbare squad would feel significant. Edit - BBC have us sticking with the same formation with De Neve on the left of the back three, but I can't imagine that's right, you'd play Pickering or Ribeiro surely?

The one who played in a three all draw against Barcelona in the champions league today? Seems like our market.

yeah but I'm being petty and he's below us in the league now...

If transfermarkt is anything to go by there's slim pickings. Rui Patricio ex of wolves and Portugal is 37 and has settled status for a work permit Fraser Forster likewise 37, there's a keeper who's been on the books at spurs and middlesbrough called Glover, 27 and no senior appearances to speak of. Thomas Vaclik, 36, Czech international spent some time at Huddersfield would get a permit. Stankovic, 33, 4 caps for Austria last club AEK Athens, calculator recons work permit goes to a tribunal. None of them really inspire confidence.

Left us ten years ago, not sure I'd call him recent either at this point.

Honestly Raya seems like a lifetime ago at this point, I'd completely forgotten about him.

He's already done better in Spain than Brereton managed. In fact of all the 'stars' to have left us for greener pastures in recent years he's only really behind Wharton in terms of where he's ended up and minutes played. Fair play to the lad.

I seem to remember Pears coming in when Kaminski got injured and actually having a run of two or three games where he looked decent - there was a bit of a 'maybe he's not as bad as all that' on here. He does worry me long term in that he's always got a howler in him, but for a game or two we're probably ok. If Toth is out for more than that then I'd want to bring in an experienced freebee, even if we rotate between them to keep the pressure off Pears, but there aren't that many available that would get a work permit. 37 year olds Rui Patricio and Fraser Forster probably aren't an upgrade on Pears at this point. Lots of games between now and the January transfer window, lets hope the injury isn't bad.

Well I absolutely expected 0 points from the last three games, to come away with 9 is phenomenal. More importantly though, the new signings are coming good (ish). Alebiosu, Miller, De Neve, Gudjonsen, Morishita and even to a lesser extent McLoughlin and Gardiner-Hickman have all played a part in those three wins.

As far as the worst strikers Rover's have ever had go, Gueye is one of the best Entertaining, nabs the odd goal, occasionally doesn't seem to know what a football is

Ribeiro on, do we revert to a back 4?

It depends how wedded we are to the current formation. If we are committing to the current 3-5-2 then we need cover for Alebiosu, and probably another CB, but to be fair if we get an injury to either Alebiosu or one of our central defenders right now then we for sure just default back to the 4-5-1 with eg. Miller at RB if needed. I think that the 451 looked suspect this season due to the midfield players not being up to speed, but it worked fine last season. Honestly it's the first time in ages we've actually had cover in all positions (quality is arguable, but we have the bodies) - the squad doesn't have any massively gaping holes in it so the answer to 'what should we sign in January' is 'Anyone we can bring in who would improve the strongest starting 11, any position'

Old fashioned centre forward is Gudjohnsen - no build up, no tippy tappy, just goal

We've kind of assembled a team of 'almost pretty good' players - Yuki, Henriksson, De Neve, Gudjohnson, Morishita (and probably a few more) all look like they could be genuinely decent but then they miss a sitter/aren't in the right area/fluff a pass/give a silly foul (delete as appropriate). If one or two of them clicks and finds a run of form we could suddenly be a much stronger prospect.