Not scored enough goals! (Edited)

Wahlstedt Brittain Hill Carter Pickering Tronstad Wharton Sigurdsson Szmodics Moran Dolan Wouldnt want to chose Dolan up front and Sigurdsson is very lucky to start but little alternative. Telalovic is obviously well off it and Leonard isnt a Championship level striker. Ennis will never be fit and Gallagher according to Tomasson isnt close either. The bench will again be totally lacking in quality and with lots of games and no sign of the injured players we are going to feel it.

Credit to Tony Mowbray? You must not like Broughton if you are willing to credit him instead! Aside from Brittain maybe seeing as we reportedly bid for him during Mowbray's time, you cant possibly know that for a fact. But even so, Broughton brought them in so you cant withold any praise for him on those. Overall its a mixed bag and I am not totally convinced. I dont think the overall success rate of transfers has improved even since Mowbray's time specifically in terms of recruitment. But with this summer, like some of the summers under Mowbray (the idea that he had loads of money is not correct, more often than not summer spends were minimal) Broughton had his hands tied behind his back. The reason we are getting crocks and players from poor leagues is mainly because we have no money.

Its not terrible, its been mixed. Szmodics, Hyam and now Brittain all good. Tronstad looks solid. Sigurdsson could go either way. Loan market not used too well although Hill and to a lesser extent Moran look more promising. Wahlstedt not looking. But the blame lands at the owners in the main. Signing a striker for free and paltry wages is very difficult.

Absolutely nothing like the Szmodics deal. Szmodics played within days of signing, there werent huge question marks over his fitness. Ennis cant even seemingly manage half hour cameos and this current injury worry is his third despite never having started a game. No way is he on as little as 3-4k either considering he chose to come here when Plymouth wanted to keep him. Further budget cuts of such an amount will lead to relegation.

Everything ultimately does come to the owners slashing the budgets, you are going to struggle find a good Championship striker when you cant pay a fee. But assuming that you are right that we expected him to take a whole year to get fit, which is a hell of an assumption, that would be total indefensible madness. Even before the mid summer budget slashing, we started the summer knowing we were sell to buy, so even on the original budget, to give a 4 year deal to a player who they didnt expect to be fit for a year would be total madness. I doubt his wages are massive but equally enough to convince him to come here rather than renew. I suspect its more of a case of with no money on fees, weve taken a punt on a freebie who had done well in League 1 and have taken a big risk on assuming previous injury issues would stop. He struggled to complete 90 minutes last season too often but he did feature far more often than be has here. Either way, it is looking more and more like a waste of a decent chunk of a meagre budget. We also alledgedly opted for Telalovic over a La Liga forward on loan. Surely the loan whilst Ennis somehow became a beacon of fitness sitting on the bench would have made more sense over another project leaving us with only one senior striker who himself is injury prone in Gallagher.

What a waste of time.

Whilst Southgate is obviously a huge hindrance, its a massive stretch to suggest that we "should win the Euros no problem." We should be one of the favourites but France are the team to beat.

I was not believing anything, merely passing on an opinion.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23925900.perfect-ten-two-eights-blackburns-season-ratings/ We dont need anyone if these ratings are to be believed. You would think we were in the top 2.

Starts tonight v Portugal so has clearly shaken off the knock he got. Lets hope he comes through unscathed as even though hes been poor in recent weeks, we badly need him still.

Obviously we would, he can score goals and only one current player can. But no chance it happens.

More great news.

I saw a comparison to Szmodics amidst "learning the Tomasson way" and how he went to play for the kids but his general fitness wasnt in doubt, he had started and finished games but just was struggling to impose himself. Ennis has not started a league game, he started with a second string and did 60-70 minutes v Walsall but hes not even considered for cameos for 20 minutes when we need a goal at home. Talk about building his fitness up but how does that cycle get broken when as the games go by, his fitness moves further away from being ready? Hes not even making cameos, he isnt playing for the under 21s often and when he does it makes no difference when Saturday comes around. Gallagher is injured and has been for a while. Ennis made 2 brief cameos when Leonard was injured. As soon as Leonard returned, Ennis hasnt been seen since, when surely there was an opportunity for him to build up from the 15 and 30 minute cameo to be able to after 2 or 3 more cameos to then do an hour if he was truly fancied. Tomasson seems to have a specific pecking order, Gallagher first, then Dolan as a false 9, then Leonard, then Ennis and then Telalovic. And he never has more than one on at once, so maybe he just isnt fancied, maybe theres been some sort of disagreement, maybe hes not applying himself or maybe he isnt looking after himself. I feel that unless Dolan or Leonard get injured prior to Gallagher coming back, he might struggle to even make another cameo anytime soon. It isnt a simple case of waiting for him to get fit because hes actually getting further away just sitting on the bench.

And go back to focusing on general negligence, cost cutting, illogical decisions, continued employment of below par staff and a total lack of ambition.

Tomasson has been quoted about Ennis in the LT and to me again its just a rehash of previous quotes. Obviously no one will really be drilled down on it. I get that we havent got a pot to piss in but if his issues are so severe that months after recovering from injury, 20 minutes at the end of a game is beyond him, then surely it goes down as a bad error on behalf of those who tested him and then who signed him. And from the managers perspective, how is he going to get any fitter and sharper when repeatedly not featuring, how will that cycle ever break? Our main striker is out, our only 2 options are a makeshift winger up top and a young lad not ready for regular starts amidst the cut and thrust of the Championship. Im struggling to accept that someone who did well in League 1 (different story with Telalovic) has less ability currently to play at this level compared to the alternatives, and as I said he wont get sharper sat around not even building up minutes in sub appearances up until the point where he can maybe do an hour. Is there an application issue? Is his body fat to high? Is there a bit of a fall out?

The England games are immaterial, already qualified and not playing a calibre of team that will provide any help with preparation. Will that mean that Southgate does anything but still hand out caps to the likes of Phillips, Henderson and Maguire? No chance. Rashford will likely start too despite truly shocking form all season.

Rotherham would have joined Sheffield Wednesday in being relegated without a fight, so a change is surely sensible. Always a tough job, but nothing to lose making the change. Their away record in particular is embarassing.

People can view transfer business with one eye, signings who have done well are described as such, those who haven't cannot be judged yet, its too early or its a work in progress. It says a lot that the manager simply refuses to even use the 2 strikers signed this summer off the bench when we have no senior strikers. Broughton's transfer record is IMO mixed, I don't think there has been a noticeable improvement in recruitment since he arrived, very much a mixed bag. But he isn't the problem. The owners are forcing him to work with his hands tied behind his back, and again @RevidgeBlue simply will not believe that.

Leonard isn't ready for the amount of football he currently gets at first team level and it only further adds questions to why we bothered with Ennis. Batty seems to have not kicked on as expected. Broughton talked about not signing a left back because they didn't want to block Batty's progression this summer. I suspect it really was a case of "the owners have slashed the budget so much we can't afford one." In the last 2 games, for 30 minutes at Norwich (factoring in the need to have Pickering elsewhere) and for the game against Preston, had Batty been deemed to be ready to play in the Championship he would surely have played when we had no other left backs, rather than having to stick Travis there and move Brittain. Unsure what the situation is with Gilsenan, surprising he can't currently make the bench considering its essentially just kids.

I do find it strange how regular the debates come back to the competence or otherwise of Lowe and especially Benson. You have club puppets totally naive to the fact that Tomasson would never come out when appointed and say, "well I wanted to bring more staff in but the owners wouldn't let me." Obviously he would not upset staff he has been lumbered with, whether he rates them or not. Carvalhal reportedly turned the job down due to limitations on staff he could bring in, true or otherwise. Equally, quite a few seem convinced that they are terrible coaches with not too much foundation. Players do seem to develop as footballers here and ultimately the issue is the fact that we have to be overly reliant on that due to the budget available to bring players in being uncompetitive. @Mercer even talks about "seeing them in action on the training ground" and being underwhelmed which is very bizarre. Also, I get that football becomes stricter and stricter in terms of reducing the amount of physicality, but it seems a bit of snobbery to me (purely in football terms) to suggest that football has moved past players like Ched Evans. Put it this way, a Championship defence would MUCH rather be up against Leonard who isn't ready for anything other than occasional Championship football.

It isnt possible to recall him before as its not in a transfer window. He is really average but as things stand, having an average sub is better than our usual bench packed full of mainly kids, whereby the manager does not see them as ready to contribute at first team level.

If Tomasson doesnt ever plan to play with a focal point and Ennis is seen as that, again, why was he signed? Did Tomasson want him? Indeed. People have mentioned about wishing he hadnt been loaned out. He definitely would be more use than basically any of the subs last night, but he isnt particularly good. The issue was the assumption that his wage could go elsewhere but typically Venkys allowed the out but not the in.

The bottom 3 (especially the bottom 2) are so bad that it would take a lengthy period of fixtures for that gap to be made up even if we lost every game in that time. So we shouldnt be in serious danger. But with a squad so thin, especially if we get more injuries (quite possible when we will have to keep flogging roughly the same 11 players) a poor run will never be far away. Talk of a genuine top 6 push is head in the clouds stuff, the owners have ensured that sadly. But we should be fine at the other end. I have said before, id have us down for probably a bottom half finish, maybe 13th to 18th.

And more so. If Ennis is not considered even a potential option off the bench, with our main striker injured and the only 2 viable options in Tomassons mind being a false 9 or a young lad who is not yet Championship ready, then what is the point in him being here? When will he be considered? He is a 24 year old who impressed for the League 1 Champions, the Telalovic one is more clear cut because hes been playing in such a low standard league, its more obvious why he isnt good enough. Ennis hasnt been injured now for 2 months. The pecking order is clearly Gallagher, false 9, (usually Dolan) Leonard and only then Ennis. He only had a sniff when obviously Gallagher and also Leonard were out and even then, it was brief sub cameos. There has to be something more to the situation. He isnt injured, he wont get match fit ever if he doesnt play at all. Is it purely that Tomasson thinks he doesnt have the quality? That would be a big call considering the general lack of quality of the other options ahead of him, I dont think for example that Leonard could play a big role in a team that wins League 1 with over 100 points. Or is it more likely something else? Has he (maybe somewhat justifiably having been signed under false pretences) spat his dummy out? Or is it another fitness thing, maybe carrying too much weight? And why arent the local journalists asking about him? So strange.