Dont think Brittain wide right is something we should continue with, just a couple of changes to give us more of an attacking threat. Wahlstedt Hill Carter Hyam Pickering Tronstad Rankin Costello Moran Szmodics Sigurdsson Ennis

That is very true. Even last season there were loads of times when the ball went in behind the defence and there were mix ups and there was indecisiveness that may have only led to throw ins or corners but it didnt happen with Kaminski. Mind you, as much as having Wahlstedt in net is clearly an upgrade. I am not confident yet in him when it comes to commanding his box. He seems to not like catching the ball.

Robinson and Meite would be preferable to Dolan up front, 100%. Thats not necessarily a compliment to those 2, the vast majority of Championship strikers would. The question is whether any of our 4 strikers would be an upgrade on those 2 average Cardiff strikers mentioned. Ennis might, but there is a huge question mark until if and when he gets fit and whether he proves up to the task. Gallagher whilst nothing special is certainly competitive with those 2. Leonard is still very young and Telalovic seems well off it hence why Tomasson is so reluctant to use him. In terms of overall attacking players, it seems our biggest 2 goal threats will come from the left in Sigurdsson and from Szmodics, not up top. The question is whether they are sustainable regular goal threats.

It helps that he isnt playing, I sense that only an unfortunate injury would have led to him being dropped but Pears is not a good keeper. That being said, in general beyond the keeper, we arent conceding the number of chances we were during that losing run.

Your post was quoting someone as a response to my post, mentioning unrealistic expectations, toys out the pram etc, which I assumed as being aimed at me. It seems that was not the case, in which case, fair enough. I do not agree with the hard luck narrative around our losses, there were common patterns in my opinion based on an overly attacking, "naive" style of play. The recent pragmatic changes reflect well on Tomasson, boring 90 minutes leading to wins will do me every single time.

Perhaps but thats probably more of a slight on Dolan and a right back on the wing rather than their subs being particularly good. You seem to have taken my post as a negative rant and a slight on the manager. I never said he is generally naive, I felt the tactics this season until recently have been naive. At the start of his tenure, it felt like he was playing more pragmatically as he got used to the squad which had very few players signed under him, exactly as you said. In the last couple of months of last season in particular, we became noticeably more attacking in his style and results dropped off, those tactics have become even more full on and results have not gone our way. You put that down to hard luck, I think we wont many games conceding 3 and 4. Also, these days it seems like the "structure" so Broughton in particular has autonomy in terms of playing style. All the guff about player values etc. Tomasson was quite steadfast in how we was playing despite the losses and I didnt expect such a sudden change. You seem to have automatically taken a stance of "people being negative" regardless of what has actually been said. Can you point to me specific quotes which show toys being thrown, suggestions that the manager cant win or that expectations are stupidly high? It surely cant be that I referred to yesterdays match as dull. It was, very few chances, very little quality. But I also said that the result was very satisfying, that the result is all that matters and that the defenders all played well. Id take a boring 1 nil in every single game. I wouldnt take a 4-1 loss, a 3-0 loss, a 3-1 loss or a 4-3 loss alongside hard luck stories and praise from other managers.

What is this nonsense about ludicrous expectations and that the manager not being able to win? Or that it isnt good enough? Who is throwing their toys out and saying it isnt good enough? I said throughout the poor run that football is about results, I didn't put it down to hard luck and naive was a fair description, we were conceding 3's and 4's, we were wide open, left with a solitary young lad holding the fort with Travis, the full backs and the 4 attackers all up the field. Tomasson has somewhat surprised me in becoming willing to move away from his principles. I think the Pears injury obviously forced his hand, but that has helped us. Hill has come in at full back, Tronstad has come in, and we are playing far less gung ho. The game was boring yesterday, but as I said, football is about results, I was very satisfied to win as I always am and plenty of praise for the defenders yesterday. I am all for not just trying to "entertain" when it leads to regular losses and the ball never out of our net, and I don't think this post is warranted. Also, do Cardiff's subs start for us? Robinson cant get a game for them, Meite average, Tanner a young lad from non league and Colwill has never kicked on. Maybe much of a muchness aside from Sigurdsson and Szmodics to pick a front 4 but I am not overly envious of them.

A terrible watch and a really boring, low quality game but football is about results as was said when we were supposedly playing really well so a really satisfying win all the same. Barely a chance of note created but all about the score and the points on the board. Stand out performers were definitely defensive, Hill was good, Carter much improved, Hyam was solid, Tronstad can be sloppy on the ball but helps to protect the defence and Pickering in the main fine. Rankin Costello the matchwinner and did well in midfield. Wahlstedt has conceded only 1 in 3 which reflects very well, although he barely has made many saves in that time with less naive tactics being used. He did make one excellent save albeit he had a huge worrying moment at the end when he charged out and made a mess of a catch, his command of his box on the back of his reluctance to catch is a red flag for me. Our attack was non existent throughout. Brittain as a right winger simply does not work and shouldnt be repeated. Sigurdsson is a strange player, he isnt quick and he isnt very tricky, but the one thing he has given us is goals, when he doesnt score he is anonymous but those goals if continued obviously make him a worthwhile selection. Szmodics was below par as was Dolan aside from a great assist and Ennis didnt really contribute.

Perhaps as its so difficult to build a team long term as any decent players instantly get poached, hence the low quality of the league. Relegated teams know they need to roll the dice to try and change the atmosphere and get back up.

The Championship is such a volatile league though that building something long term is difficult anyway. Relegated teams tend to instantly change managers, the player turnover is so high year on year and often a long term manager having to repeatedly rebuild can lead to stagnation

Im not sure Rice is quite top class although hes definitely the only definite in there. None of the group of centre backs to partner Stones (who himself seems to be turning into more of a holding midfielder, if we had good centre backs maybe Rice and Stones could work) are without their drawbacks or at a level youd feel totally confident against the best but there is more than enough to still make Maguire's definite place in the team never mind the squad as a joke. And left back isnt a great area for us either, sods law that all of our full backs are right back. But some of our attacking talent is really world class and there is quality in parts behind that. Definitely enough to not feel the need to be quite so pragmatic and to repeatedly select players who dont play for their clubs.

I am not a fan of repeatedly calling people negative or positive because its just a method of shutting down debate by making people seem unreasonable. Eddie has done the same previously about Rovers. People are capable of making their own opinions rather than it just echoing the media or mainstream opinion. I think there would be a more valid argument if people were saying the players we have are not very good etc but that is far from the case. We have what feels like a particulely high standard of players at the moment, hence the worry that these peak years will again pass by without something to show for it. We have always been quite a pragmatic team under Southgate but going back to say 2018 and to a much lesser extent 2021, our side lacked tbe quality it has now so it was more understandable. The question is whether Southgate can evolve with that and it doesnt really seem so. He also remains "loyal" to certain players despite prolonged periods of inactivity and/or poor performances, so we are left with a team mainly of really high standard players and then 2 or 3 blatant weaknesses. If we run with the idea that people are so impressionable based on the narrative around them. Say these Dutch or French fans, they wont watch all of our games to the same extent and will just see the names, Bellingham, Kane, Saka, Foden etc, we all agree that they are excellent players which is why we all seem to agree that England should be amongst the favourites. They also might have similar attitudes surely to their own teams as what you perceive England fans based in England do to their team, ie supposedly be more willing to pin point certain flaws within the team? So this idea of different attitudes based on where you are works both ways.

Dolan has proven over time that he is not an effective striker in general, barring one or two occasional exceptions. Telalovic looks miles away unfortunately and understandably given where he has come from. And it is such a big ask to keep expecting Leonard to play repeatedly which is why he broke down before the internationals. He had never started a senior game before this season. Ennis is the one who himself doesnt have a track record at this level but does look a level up but until he himself can prove to be durable then its of no use.

Gallagher is still at least a month away. Leonard is promising but he is a young lad. Ennis seems a case of a player who either always has the quote "needs to get fit" or "needs to get up to speed" around his name, can we rely on him? We needed to bring in a regular striker in the summer. Ennis looks a useful player but sadly is made of glass. We could do with Telalovic contributing now but he is clearly not ready. It's not on Broughton in that its just a desperate cheap late punt in the absence of a competitive budget.

Why would living abroad give any further perspective? Likewise with Rovers you seem keen to play the role of "having perspective." Ultimately it was a good win. I think on paper our squad is as good as you say. I think people are worried that there is a chance that such a gifted group, you look at the likes of Kane and Bellingham, very few if any players in their positions in the world who are better, then players like Saka and Foden etc, and there is a worry that under Southgate an exciting generation will pass by without winning a major tournament. His attitude seems to be to be particularly pragmatic and hope that our attacking talent can nick us a goal when we dont create that much. The question is, is that going to get the best of our squad. And you touched on some selections, can we carry players who have gone so long barely playing and not playing well when they do play.

I admit that central midfield (discounting Bellingham who plays further forward) is not a strong position for us, Rice is good at what he does but is average on the ball and then there is a big question mark, but I dont think Phillips was ever much more than functional even when he was playing regularly. Pep has seen through him hence why he doesnt get a kick even with Rodri out. Any of the 3 you mention would at least give us something else, Alexander Arnold is the best of the 3 but obviously the questions are about playing a position he doesnt play for his club, but he does move into there and with Walker it is definitely worth a go. Ward Prowse and Gallagher are also better players. Southgate has seemingly always had the attitude to let the front players get goals and just sit in otherwise and play as tight as possible. Our manager should look to be more proactive if he wants to really look to win a tournament. I would say the only 2 countries going into this tournament with squads as strong as ours are France and Portugal. I dont care about how we look but I think we have players that arent given the same freedom to flourish like they do at club level. Trippier is a good player but he is hindered on the wrong side and struggled at times. Colwill has played at left back for Chelsea all season and has done well. Guehi, Dunk and Tomori should be all miles ahead of Maguire.

How was Ennis in general, goals aside?

Easy win v an Italian side miles away from the very top sides internationally. Very dull game, but with a front 4 like that including the best striker and attacking midfield duo in the world, we will score from not that many chances. With some of the elite talent we have, we could and should be much more fluid than we are, against the big teams the central midfield 2 (especially Phillips obviously or Henderson if he gets the nod) and Maguire are the weak points. Dont like a right footer at left back either.

I definitely wouldnt put Travis back in but to drop him from the squad. I would agree that those 2 are the strongest choices. Wharton is hard to leave out though so its a tough one.

Nonsense that Travis should be dumped out of the squad too. He isnt awful at going box to box, problem this season is when he is played, he is instructed to go really high up and he is really good at winning the ball back but having him so far forward in an already attacking team leaves us exposed. Garrett is unproven and Wharton is best playing from deep as long as hes given a bit of help. It would be harsh to drop Dolan after scoring too. There is a space on the right so I would have him there but I expect the same side as v QPR but with Brittain over Markanday. Moran will presumably miss out with injury.

More self entitled bollocks making people seem like they know what they are talking about. Why is a number 6 now considered a midfielder? Always a centre back.

Mentioned on the Cardiff thread but he has been denied the chance of a senior call up as he has picked up an ankle injury.

Moran is injured.

I think he had mental and/or gambling issues.

They can, but its much more likely if they are playing additional and unnecessary games.