Most clubs are getting away with it. In the top ten goalscorers in the league this season only 3 of them are centre forwards.Piroe, the lad who scored against us for Watford with 8 goals and Adam Armstrong who has played wide aswell this season. It would be great to find a decent centre forward and I'm not arguing one is needed but the championship isn't awash with them and goals for most teams come from others rather than a striker

A loan or 2 will still happen imo.Did the Indian judge ok the raft of new improved contracts recently signed or sigurrdson signing permanently? If we were struggling to keep the club going then I don't think we would have been seeing as many renewals,I don't think the players would be keen to put pen to paper either if there where doubts we could pay them going forward

I still feel the squad is a top half squad.I just believe that with the exception of a few clubs 7 injuries would be felt by most clubs. Iv had a quick glance and Hull for example have a decent enough 18 after that it would be kids,similarly with Sunderland ,Bristol city etc. And looking at the squads there is hardly any team with a 3rd choice goalkeeper with experience.We usually do bring in 1 or 2 in January so I'd expect it to happen this year also.

How are you not having it?Do you really believe the majority of clubs in the championship have 7 players with championship experience not making their bench every week?Even 4 or 5 Do you really believe the majority of the division have 25 man squads filled with experience?Iv just shown you Sunderlands bench from yesterday looks pretty weak to me and that's without any injury issues And I have answered because we have 4 important squad players to return with the likelihood that 1 or 2 loans will happen. In the previous 2 seasons we didn't have these injury issues in the first half of the season.

I disagree, if other clubs had that list of injuries then there benches would be shit too.Obviously I'm not talking about all the squads but take Sunderland and Hull as 2 examples as both in the top half ,if they had 7 first team players out injured there benches would also be filled with kids. Do many championship clubs have third choice goalkeepers with senior experience,I doubt they do. And we have 4 players with championship experience in Gallagher,JRC, Dolan and Hedges to welcome back for the second half of the season and likely 1 or 2 will arrive on loan . This was Sunderland's bench yesterday ,take 7 players away like we had yesterday

Broughton also said in the summer that experience was needed and wanted.The owners put a stop to Batth and probably any other player over 30 we showed an interest in. It's new owners we need not a new manager.

If other clubs apart from the one who came down or had the list of players out that we had yesterday,their benches wouldnt look good either. Brittain ,Pickering ,JRC, Gallagher,Hedges and Dolan .Now some of those we might say are shit but a lot of clubs have similar on their benches or in their starting 11

A lot of our players came through the academy tho so there wages will reflect that, doesn't mean the quality isn't there tho.A.Wharton ,Carter and JRC would be important players in a lot of squads in this division.Hyam wouldn't have been on big money at Coventry doesn't mean he isn't an excellent defender at this level.Szmodic again came from Peterborough so his wages would not have been big doesn't mean he hasn't been one of the better players in the championship in the last 12 months. I'm not dissing JDT or saying it would be terrible by him to finish in the bottom half, but it really isn't bottom half squad when comparing with others. From last season's squad only Kaminski and Brererton can really be counted as losses on the pitch as Dack ,Ayala and Phillips played minimally. Hill has been better than Phillips and Szmodic has taken the goalscorer mantle from Brererton. If we had a little bit more experience we would have more points.That second goal should not have been disallowed yesterday either and we have been on the wrong side of a few decisions this season.

In the last 2 seasons did we have as many long term injury issues? They might not be world beaters but Gallagher is an experienced Championship player and Hedges experience has been missed also. Dolan was in good form when he got injured , Costello was on a run of assists and goals. Maybe we will experience more injuries as the season goes on but we have those 4 to come back and the squad will be better for it.1 or 2 loan deals in January.When I compare our squad to others imo it's a top half squad and certainly not a relegation squad.I even seen one poster say we have a worse squad now than we did under Owen Coyle FFS.

But most championship clubs have similar ability wise players as gally hedges etc on their bench or even in their first 11. And apart from the big budget clubs I don't see these squads with multiple goalscorer options ?

Agreed we need experience and the squad needs more depth and quality to sustain a promotion challenge . But I don't agree the squad needs 3 or 4 signings just to make the top half of the table.Up until Watford scored we were 8th and have spent a good portion of the first half of the season in the top half. So like I said agreed the squad needs more for top 6/promotion but i don't think the squad is as shit as some make out when we go through a bad spell.Like people talking about relegation earlier in the season which to me is complete nonsense

Why is top half of the table unrealistic? We are having a tough spell now due to so many injuries and the players having to play every minute. Costello,Dolan,Hedges , Gallagher should be fit for the run in. We also had Brittain and Pickering out yesterday added to those mentioned above and we're the better side for 80 minutes and had a goal to take us 2-0 up wrongly disallowed.

Does every player we have need to be with a view to sell on?Personally I want us building a decent squad not looking to sell every player on.The majority of the money doesn't get put back into the squad anyway, and if any of it does it's usually 12 months down then line He as at least shown he can get into goalscoring positions and more often than not has put them away . Usually we are losing our goalscorers every summer,Szmodic signed on till 27 and we now have Sigurpdsson under contract for next season too

What's the point in signing another striker for small money from a lower division? We have already taken punts on Ennis and Telalovic.Surely if little in the kitty the most logical plan would be to use the loan market and look for another Cannon and Archer, then even if they ain't a success they can go back to their clubs Rather than handing out another 3 or 4 year contract like we have with the 2 mentioned above.

After 22 games last season we were sat third in the league on 36 points.So we are only 5 points off what we had at this stage last season. Considering the injury issues we have had, the failure to bring in any experience in the summer ,losing the experience of Dack and Ayala from the squad and Brererton and Kaminski in my eyes JDT is doing a fine job. Days like yesterday will happen , hopefully we will see a reaction next Saturday in another tough game v Watford. Absolutely no chance we get dragged into the relegation mix imo, and with the return of some of injured players and hopefully a bit of help in the transfer market in January then 6th is still obtainable.If we finish anywhere from 10th upwards then JDT can hold his head high in my opinion, considering every team around us was given money to strengthen in the summer.

We have the top scorer in the championship.We are also nowhere near the bottom of the league in the goals scored column. I totally agree we need better strikers but I'd say at least half the league are in the exact same boat.

Moran has played poorly the last couple of games.We should just forget about the good performances he has put in though? It's his first season playing senior football and generally he has done well,5 assists and has created a number of chances.He along with others are running on fumes due to the small squad JDT has been left to work with. Not saying you ,but a few on here predicted a relegation fight this season but we ain't near a relegation fight despite quite a few players being out for long spells , Hedges, Dolan, Gallagher, Hyam,JRC.Sigurrdson taking time to get fit .Ennis never getting fit. Perspective is needed we are what we are a mid table championship club whose manager needs investment if we want to be near the playoffs.

Sky reporting Michael Beale set to be appointed Sunderland manager

Yeah.Its 10 bookings now

Stoke have been a shit show since they got relegated from the premier league. In my opinion it is not a formality that JDT would take the Stoke job.I don't see the upside to it.A club in a higher division, a club challenging promotion I could see but I wouldn't be so sure he would accept the Stoke job with a poorly balanced squad and not shown much this season. The Coates back their managers with more cash than the Venkys do and are obviously better owners than ours but Stoke have been poorly run for a while now, a succession of managerial appointments not working out and their recruitment has been fairly poor.They signed 16 players in the summer is a new manager going to have a large kitty? His reputation is on the up surely he sees the season out and has a look at opportunities in the summer?Rather than taking a stoke job that countless managers have been sacked out of since Pulis

Alex Neill sacked by Stoke

Yeah

No.Its through illness like I said.Our bench is littered with kids who haven't made a league appearance so no we wouldn't be dropping the club captain from the match day squad

Travis out of the squad due to illness

It's a one year extra from the contract he signed last year is what he meant, obviously with a pay rise