Fleck has to come into the midfield. I desperately hope that Rankin Costello is fit to put on the right and Scott Wharton or O'Riordan need to come in as the third centre back should we continue with that formation. The former would give us better balance but the latter has looked promising albeit in brief cameos. No Telalovic and no Garrett. Im not optimistic. In a short space of time its clearly a tactic of lumping it long and we dont suit that style just as we dont suit the opposite extreme of having to pass it out. There has to be some middle ground. We only have one tall attacking player who himself is more dangerous running in behind.

Im guessing you didnt watch the QPR game the other week. He is the worst striker ive seen come to Ewood, couldnt hit a barn door. I know hes young but he has 2 goals all season and you are desperate for him?! Gallagher has come back and got 2 goals and an assist since. He was crap tonight but none of our attackers did anything, the ball barely went near them. We needed someone ASWELL as Gallagher, who is an average Championship striker as opposed to the joker that is Telalovic and Leonard who is nowhere near ready.

I dont even know who Montgomery is to be fair. But you say they couldnt do any worse, they are players that have never really come close to playing senior football, they possibly could. And I think most of the loanees shouldnt be playing but not "because they belong to other teams." McFadzean wont be here next season. Should he not play? This attitude of not playing loanees IMO should be reserved for if and when we are safe. Until then, it shouldnt matter whether a player is here short or long term. Hes maybe the one exception but is there a reason even under Tomasson he doesnt make the bench when we are stretched? Perhaps just bad judgement, but the step up from a not too successful (this season) under 21 side is a big jump.

No excuse culture. Ive only had an hour with them! Im glad weve gone away from playing it out to the naive extent that we were. But literally just aimlessly punting it long isnt the answer either.

Surely the answer is not just loads of untested kids. Fleck is one of the most obvious options, Garrett is full of energy but cant pass a ball, get some composure into the team. I dont think Leonard is ready but he should leapfrog the inept Telalovic, Nsangou I think has a poor return even at under 21 level, he shouldnt be leapfrogged just because hes quick. Scott Wharton and O'Riordan are the most obvious options if we want defensive changes.

That was probably the worst performance all season. Tomasson's football was painfully naive, but there is a middle ground to just aimlessly smashing it up the pitch which doesnt suit us either. Telalovic is an absolute fraud, neither Brittain nor Chrisene can defend, Pears was all over the place, Gallagher and Dolan totally invisible, Szmodics spent the whole game looking pissed off and Tronstad was poor but Garrett was woeful and isnt close to being up to this standard. McFadzean was decent and thats about it.

It is midweek to be fair.

Based on?

Is the fact that the Wharton payment will be in installments relevant? Surely basically all deals are in installments, so if we sold him for 22m in 4 installments and bought someone for say 4m in 4 installments, its just a debtor on our balance sheet and a much smaller creditor.

Wasnt at the weekend, ahead of 3 centre backs.

Hes hardly going to say "im really worried about how the club is run and ive already been told ive got no money in the summer."

Seems like the usual new manager spiel based on the LT. Honoured to be here, great club, great fans, going to an old club is just another game, target is to get points on the board and its a team office. A copy and paste from every managerial unveiling in history. This idea that it was going to be a detailed Q&A drilling down the issues around the club was never going to happen.

I dont get why people would encourage cashing in on more key players. We know under Venkys we wont see that money and we should already have money to reinvest if there was scope for reinvestment, any other sales would be dwarved by the Wharton fee. Szmodics is probably worth more to us than anyone else because especially with uncertainty over Dolan and Gallaghers futures, the other attacking players at the club are the likes of Telalovic, Leonard and Markanday. We already need lots of work in attack without creating a bigger hole. Carter's value wont be high at the moment, perhaps mainly due to tactics he had a really poor first half to the season and now has a serious injury to recover from. I doubt there is a massive queue for his services.

Im sure any version if they do ask is sanitised.

Theres no point expecting the money to be spent, we know what these owners are like. I dont see any of our remaining players attracting considerable interest. Carter is a good player but off the back of a serious injury and a poor first half to the season, I cant see a rush of interest. Szmodics will have his suitors but he isnt that young anymore, I dont see Premier League teams going for him, I suppose the risk could be promotion challengers in this league. Gallagher and Dolan are a concern, we cant allow them to allow their contract options to run down but selling them will leave big holes.

Interesting that Koumetio couldnt even make a 9 man bench on Saturday. We obviously played a back 3 and had no Wharton or Pickering, yet a full back in Chrisene was played there instead ans when he was needed at wing back, 3 right footed centre backs was the alternative. Hard to see him getting a game. He seemed to be a bit of a desperate signing as a last minute loan having struggled for a game at the bottom of Ligue 2.

Doesnt answer that question but stewards clearly under orders asked them to take the banners down and I think the people that brought them didnt last the game so I assume they were kicked out.

We've seen the same with Gallagher. Many have offered to pay to drive him to his next club and would give him away. He wasnt worth what we paid and he isnt a natural goalscorer but hes a decent striker at this level that would get in a few teams, yet many have lost all context on him.

They are both decent Championship players. Neither are top 6 quality and they have shown that in the last 2 seasons, and both have their flaws, but they are important for us. You are right in that the alternatives in their positions for us have been embarassing, so you could argue that it makes our record with Gallagher and Dolan less impressive, because people just put it down to the ineptitude of the alternatives. But both would be wanted by quite a few teams in the league I would suggest and neither would be easy to replace. If we was a genuine top 6 contender, then you would probably want them as squad players perhaps.

We need to try and ship him off in the summer. Absolutely woeful player. Leonard isnt ready but he should be above him.

Nixon is clearly trying to make stories from nowhere now he doesnt have transfer rumours to make up. No way was Waggott ever likely to get sacked, nor is he under Venkys. They wont be aware of the current atmosphere. He will just be hoping that swanning off to India whilst the heat is on, by the time he comes back home it will have died down. Hopefully not.

Tomasson wasnt doing anything wrong in sticking to the passing out from the back and sticking to his principles. Thats how we should be playing, apparently. Yet a few days later, the new totally different style suited us (not hoofball, although the third yesterday is as much hoofball as youll ever find) and the subs made much more sense. The king is dead, long live the king.

Eustace a week before his arrival which was following Tomasson left with the McGuire farce being cited as a reason. Supposedly vetoed the deal so he could spend money in the summer? Very wishful thinking.

Its all well and good saying he wont make the first 11, which itself is now debateable. He didnt with Wharton here and our midfielders needing to do a specific role in a possession dominating side, but without Wharton and in a more pragmatic side he might well make it anyway. But its a 46 game slog with 5 subs again. Is he in our main 16 players? Absolutely.

I remember he did pretty well, not sure how well, but totally different role.