9 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

two centre forwards and a midfielder who can drive forwards with the ball,two strikers are pretty much a necessity

I’d aim for this, then left back and then wingers (we’ll probably get none of these!)

Nick Berry - Heartbeat 

2 minutes ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

They'll be bang up for it and Ainsworth will get them giving their all for the shirt as a minimum. I'm predicting a lot of grit not a lot of quality and a hard to watch 0-0 

On another note I wonder what Sunderland fans think of Tony's first death spiral.  They probably don’t even realise they’re in one yet in fairness 

Boiling frog syndrome?

2 minutes ago, broadsword said:

Compare and contrast to the people we have to endure now 

‘Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must’

Coventry take the lead - death spiral in full effect?

If we don’t go up, which positions do you think we most need to strengthen for next season’s starting eleven?

I’d go with left back, centre midfield (to pair with A. Wharton) and centre forward

After that, i think I’d be looking at bringing in a couple of ‘proper wingers’

In a strong position - I wonder if they’ll enforce the follow on if it is an option.

I think I would given it looks like more time could be lost to the weather.

A repeat of this would do…

https://www.premierleague.com/match/1306

10 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Absolutely...its just knowing what we had and now knowing what we have become can grind you down a touch,and some.

Which is worse, to have had and lost or to have never had?

Rovers have given me some of the best days of my life - and there’s nothing ‘they’ can do to take them away 

Oh Carol - Neil Sedaka 

1 hour ago, Devon Rover said:

Ouch, good luck for today. I am hoping 'pone' isn't some street lingo for penis...

Well whatever’s happening, it’s happening quickly…

3 hours ago, tomphil said:

Anyone who throws the entitled nonsense at Rovers fans has never spent much time in the company of Spurs.

Showed themselves right up that day both before and after.

Made it even sweeter…

I think our coach sang all the way back to Ewood 😀

We Built This City - Starship 

33 minutes ago, BigUts said:

I was thinking about this myself. I'm sure there would be a way of calculating this but we seem to be facing this nearly every 3rd or 4th game...it's likely confirmational bias on my part though 😁

11 minutes ago, M_B said:

Said on radio Lancs that this is the the 9th(ninth) this season, unless I misheard it. 

They credited Rich Sharpe with the stat.

I can only come up with (league only) Wigan plus this match.

plus Stoke appointing Alex Neil the day after they beat us

12 minutes ago, superniko said:

It's not to say Wharton would come in and play much better either, he might not. We've struggled a bit with injuries in fairness so JDT has had his hands tied, but it did feel like it took a long time to 'drop' Morton whereas he was quicker (rightly so) with Travis earlier in the season.

I've gone well off topic here to be fair. I guess what we're all saying is it’s a bloody shame we didn’t get O’Brien in!

Is it* - 3 assists in 43 appearances last season says otherwise 😁

*of course it is!

5 minutes ago, smiller14 said:

Assists is a flawed measure when looking at centre midfield performance. As DMTP says above, often they 'assist' the player who is credited with the assist. Tugay probably ranked pretty little in assists for us, but how often did he control a game? The best example I can think of is the goal vs Liverpool on Boxing Day - Tugay made Gerrard look silly, played a wonderful pass to MGP who set up McCarthy. 

Now, I'm not even remotely insinuating our centre midfields have 'ran games' or even played well, as that hasn't been true. I think they've been poor at times, and Morton has regressed considerably since Christmas. Buckley and Travis seem to be coming to, at least. 

According to the Premier League, Tugay had 14 assists in 233 games. 

2 minutes ago, superniko said:

Disregarding any actual use of our eyes

Wharton 1G and 1A in 498 minutes in the league (6 starts and 1 full match)

Morton 2A in 2209 minutes in the league (24 starts and 18 full matches)

Buckley 1A in 1227 minutes in the league (14 starts and 9 full matches)

This is just Chaddy being Chaddy.

Morton and Buckley have been absolutely horrendous all season, it's not even up for debate. 3 assists between the two of them and 0 goals across a combined 3,436 minutes (equivalent of 38 matches)

Adam Wharton should be the first centre midfielder on our team sheet when fit until performances state otherwise.

Given the quality of our strikers, is there anyway of finding out how many chances each of those players has created?

I don’t disagree with your thinking, It would just be interesting to know.

10 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

You need Foakes as wicket keeper, especially when the Summer comes and we are having tests in England again. The swing in England requires you to have good gloves, it can go at the very last, and dropped catches lose matches. Foakes would be my #1 for the Ashes. He chips in with the bat here and there too

Brooks has been sensational. I went to sleep last night as it came to lunch and both Brooks and Root were getting set. If I didn't have to be up I'd have stayed up because you could tell they were building something

Crawley still has question marks. He will get tore apart by Australia. Surely there's still room in "Baz-ball" for a solid opener who will dig in, soften the ball and then allow the likes of Root, Stokes, Brooks and Pope to play more adventurous

Before Crawley was out he drove one straight on the up and he was lucky it didn't carry. You could see the wicket coming a mile off

Duckett for me is a decent batter and unlucky. Crawley has to be replaced before we start back in England. A pure flat track bully, hence big scores in Pakistan

I agree on Foakes, I think his batting average is solid enough and he adds to this with his skills behind the stumps. 

Did you have a name in mind for the solid opener who can dig in?

Joe Root’s innings shows you can have someone scoring at a ‘traditional rate’ and the team can still score as quickly as the coach/captain is wanting.

44 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

Would that be Premier League rather than EFL - be interesting to see what they do. I thought the only potential exception was goal keeper ?

Transfers outside of the windows are at the discretion of the Premier League board - I guess it’s just far more likely they’ll approve one for a goalkeeper.

Squad lists changes outside of the windows require the permission of the Premier League board

I’ve just been reading up on the rules! 😀

People will suggest moving Root up to open but we’ve seen that experiment fail - he is a natural number 4.

I guess he could come back in as wicketkeeper - but I think Foakes is much better with the gloves.

Sorry Jim, I meant to quote your last post

6 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Brilliant recovery from a perilous position. I haven't seen alot of Brook but the lad's record since he came into Test cricket is outstanding and in the bits I've seen he looks the real deal as a Test batsman. Pity he's a Yorkie 😄

Just short of 1,000 runs in 12 innings in the County championship last season too.

I wonder how, and if, they’ll fit Bairstow back into the team.

1 hour ago, Ricky said:

See Forest have their own appeal lodged after they left Steve Cook out of their 25 man squad and then got injuries to centre half’s so asked the league to add him back in. 

Not sure it works like that tbf.

The rules do allow for changes to the squad list at other times (outside of the transfer windows) but only with the approval of the Premier League board.

I doubt 2 injuries is a sufficient reason to give this approval, and so far the Premier League seems to agree.

24 minutes ago, Riversider28 said:

I’ll be there in the morning hoping to see Harry get his double hundred and then hopefully we smash our way to a quick 400+ followed by Jimmy and Broady ripping  through the heart of the Kiwi attack. Weather is likely to interrupt the day’s play at some point, but not enough to stop us moving on to an unassailable position to compete yet another outstanding victory.

I hope this isn’t the equivalent of doing a ‘Mercer’ on a match day thread😁