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.

Hes never been particularly good hence his inability to ever nail down a starting place. Problem is due to constant budget cuts, we need him to step up more than ever and he isnt capable.

Hardly inexplicable. 200k paid for a decent squad player. Problem now is such has been the recent budget cuts, he has to be a key player. Armstrong, Brereton, Rothwell, Dack, Kaminski, Pickering, the loans of Adarabioyo, Elliott, Harwood Bellis, Reed, the likes of Smallwood, Downing etc in League 1, his overall transfer record was no worse that what we have seen since. Although everyone has had their work cut out by the budget cuts and regular summers of the taps being turned off.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23803406.mowbray-praises-blackburn-rovers-despite-sunderland-victory/ Mowbray with some nice words. Ultimately not the first manager to say stuff like this. When other managers are regularly saying how well you played after beating you by 2 or 3 clear goals, it becomes less of a source of pride and more a worry. Soft touch.

We werent mugged. We just cant score goals.

I dont get this narrative that luck isnt on our side and especially the one that surely we will start taking our chances soon. We dont have a goalscorer, our attacking players lack the ability to score many goals. They will need well above an average amount of chances to score goals. Why would that suddenly change?

Really important game, lose and then its the bottom end that comes closer into sight. And hard to muster up much in the way of reasoning as to why we can be confident of a win. Ipswich are near the top but their side is nothing special. How do we change things considering our squad is paper thin and packed full of kids? Change in goal is obvious as Pears will continue to cost us, but for some reason Tomasson is blinded by how poor he is and/or the new keeper isnt anything special. Defensively we have not been good enough all season, I think thats as much down to the way we set up. We signed a holding midfielder who was a regular in the Dutch league but he cant even make the bench. Wharton has been poor all season but its hard to justify dropping him, Travis is important too, Garrett isnt ready and Rankin Costello is never a midfielder in a 2. Going forward, I have no idea how we can even change it. Sigurdsson I presume certainly wont be fit enough to start or even feature. Ennis remains in the Ayala role keeping Gallagher company and Dolan and Markanday are not even good enough to make the bench. So its left with Hedges who is tidy but seldom makes the right decisions in the box and Moran isnt a wide player. Then up front, it says a lot when Telalovic is not even considered a better striker than Dolan in Tomassons eyes. Some of the fluid passing football is great to watch but we arent scoring enough and that wont suddenly change, its not bad luck, our players just arent good enough. The budget cuts have left us with a shell.

Will they just start going in with our set of attackers?

You seem keen to avoid putting any blame on us having to go through bargain bins to try and sign a competent striker.