I think Buckley cannot do what Wharton does, taking the ball in those positions. And Wharton hasnt been very good this season, and at times that includes sloppiness on the ball. But how we currently play is really not helping him off the ball, would be a thankless task for anyone to be a solitary last line of protection of 2 centre backs ahead of a mistake prone keeper. Tomasson has even said he needs to improve off the ball, but he is being naive in leaving him so exposed. He has a patreon to fill for those gullible few who opt to actually pay money to read his drivel.

It is very much self inflicted. Our current injury situation is nothing remarkable. Such are the budget cuts, our main couple of forwards are both injury prone. Aside from that, Hedges is unfortunate but is only as big a blow as it is because of the dearth of options we have in attacking positons. Beyond that, beside a youth CB, do we have other injuries? If you look at the squad, compounded by aggressive budget slashing and the inability to reinvest due to squandered potential fees due to the stubborn owners. 2 keepers, probably costing 1m between them. Main 8 defenders include 4 graduates, a loan and 3 who cost around a combined 2.8m. In midfield, 3 graduates and a freebie. Attacking midfield, a loanee, a one year permanent freebie and then 4 more costing a combined 2.7m, and then obviously Gallagher at 5m alongside a freebie, a graduate and a young punt for a nominal fee. Barely over 10m combined cost across the whole squad, the 5m signing is from 4 or 5 summers ago, since then we have spent and retained about 5 or 6 million worth of players. Imagine how screwed we would be without the academy.

He was pretty commanding, without re-writing history.

The FFP calculations arent. Venkys are killing the club. Waggott is a strong symptom only.

Hes being left exposed in a gung ho system where only he is expected to protect 2 centre backs in front of a shit keeper with everyone else up the pitch.

As if Everton have that sort of money to spend on a player that wouldnt join immediately. Plus why would they come in September.

The main worry is again above Waggott. His decision to close the Blackburn End is obviously pig ignorant and counter productive. But in tandem with budget cuts to the point where we cant afford players of any experience or even a loanee to a tiny squad, assuming this continues for any period of time, theres only one way we get out of this league and it doesnt lead to the Premier League. Waggott seems to be fulfilling the wishes of the owners, leaving us uncompetitive and with a further dwindled regular fan base.

Brereton was a loss that many have underestimated, but not the only one. Ayala may not ever be a regular but he started half of our games and that coincided with us being more defensively strong. And Kaminski is a key one, it would be a huge assumption at this stage to expect Wahlstedt to be on par. Kaminski was keeping us in games at times single handedly. With Pears obviously there is an easier solution but those individual errors are not just as simple to fix as picking new individuals. Our defensive players are being massively exposed by our gung ho approach which wont be fixed just by changing a couple of players. Also, even if the attacking players step up as you expect, that doesnt fix the issue which again is tactical. They all play further forward than Wharton who is currently trying to protect the defence single handedly. The issue is not double and triple marking him, although a different striker and left winger wouldnt stop that. His main deficiencies lie off the ball, not on it and our vulnerability lies when we lose the ball.

They are opinions.

If finishing much lower but playing supposedly nicer (or to some, more naive and counterproductive) football would get more interest, then it perhaps shows that modern day football is being over run by data in opposition to the actual aim of competitive sport. Ive started seeing pundits claim that a final league table does NOT show where teams deserve to finish. As it is, I think its bollocks. I dont think people are that stupid. If he got us in the play offs this season with this squad his reputation would sky rocket.

Did what Rochina do work in this league?

His quotes are worrying. You can put any goal down to individual errors, but players are more likely to make errors when exposed.

Attitudes to cup competitions always seem to split people. Ive argued with the extreme view when people say they "dont care" if we win or not, thats never been understandable. There is definitely some scope for some natural rotation especially as Cardiff will do likewise, but I would be really frustrated not to see us in the next round. We should want to win additionally to stop a run of losses growing, and lets face it, we wont have a play off push this season so why not try and get some excitement.

I dont think its a fair analysis though just to assume a huge (why 4-1 and not 3-1?) win by cutting out goals that could have been avoided, that would change the game entirely. I also think Tomasson is being naive by just batting off the problems as being down to individual errors. For a start, individual errors are more likely to be exposed when we are as stretched as we are, teams are cutting us open regularly at the moment with these gung ho tactics. He also is the one who keeps stubbornly sticking with a crap keeper. We look very vulnerable at the moment and those individual errors are more likely without a change/adjustment to how we are playing.

Dont think football works like that. We conceded 29 shots at the weekend so my point stands, we are very vulnerable as we have looked all season.

Really hope we take this game seriously because another cup run might be our best chance of some excitement with it looking a pipe dream that we get anywhere near the play offs. We dont play until Sunday and some of our second team is not up to it although equally its a good idea to give the likes of Hill, Rankin Costello, Tronstad and Telalovic a game with a view to potentially breaking in ahead of the weekend. Wahlstedt Rankin Costello Hill Wharton Pickering Travis Tronstad Markanday Moran Sigurdsson/Gilsenan Telalovic

The main issue as always is the owners leaving us with a poor, young and thin squad leaving options to the manager very sparse. But he warrants criticism over 2 major things. His repeated backing of such a poor keeper is costing us points on a weekly basis. And the way we are playing is so naive and is leaving us far too open. We are leaking goals and average defenders are left exposed with no protection. Both have to change.

Its crazy really how the team who finished 2nd in League 1 a few months ago even allowing for home advantage and with very few signings are considered huge favourites against a team that missed out on the Championship top 6 on goal difference.

Vale is no sane benchmark, he was nowhere near up to it. But I think he is injured or at least was hence his lack of involvement.

But it doesnt make them any less valid or likely to re-occur. The Carter error was a direct result of the tactic to play out from the back. I also think we look succeptible to set pieces due to a lack of height and also we are very vulnerable to counter attacks.

A good angle of yet more shocking goalkeeping.

Do you expect our current underwhelming set of attacking players to suddenly start becoming more clinical in front of goal though? Ive seen many suggest that it is only a matter of time before the goals start going in but I dont get why as we dont have a natural goalscorer. Also, are we likely to create 20 odd chances in every game? Probably not.

Is the last time we have signed a player over the age of 26 or 27 Daniel Ayala aged 29, over 3 years ago?

Such a difficult team selection ahead of a crucial game, we have a couple of fixtures coming up that if we don't sort our issues out at both ends could see us looking nervously over our shoulder. There just aren't the alternatives to make much of a difference. First name on the team sheet should be Wahlstedt, Tomasson deserves sympathy for most of the restrictions but his continued choice to play Pears is not helping his cause. Wharton is a conundrum, he has not been great this season and was terrible last night, but he is such a talent. Tronstad is in the cold at the moment and didn't impress v West Brom but could maybe help to stiffen things up in midfield. In attack, god knows. Leonard was the only one who could score yesterday but has particularly looked off it away from home, and Telalovic has struggled in his cameos, but maybe could give us a bit more pace. I suspect Sigurdsson won't be fit enough to start and Dolan and Markanday aren't up to it. Maybe: Wahlstedt Brittain Carter Hyam Pickering Travis Tronstad Wharton Szmodics Telalovic Moran Doesn't make me confident, Moran is quite slow and not suited out wide and Szmodics is out of position too. Not convinced that Telalovic will be the ready made answer. Could put Rankin Costello, Hedges or even Leonard amidst that team, either way our best chance is probably a 1 nil smash and grab.

I think Elliott Jackson is keen to maintain good relations, borne out by his match ratings. Why do they reduce the concern of the goals conceded? We have looked massively vulnerable to counter attacks all season, which has made us look far more brittle. We have a small team so will naturally be vulnerable to set pieces, and by the way, our attacking ones continue to frustrate. And the error was from passing it out from the back. As a team, not just from the goals conceded, we look far less secure this season, and Hyam and Carter have looked much shakier as a result.