roversfan99

They are in one of their regular "slash the budget no matter what" moods. I very much doubt they give a shit. Had they provided a competitive budget that would potentially lead to big sales in the future if we were run properly. At a normal club, youd think the owners would already be wondering why a stand was closed after being opened in a previous round and be on the pulse. But not these clowns.

You wouldnt get much for that as a striker. As I said, massive budget slashes mid summer compounding previous refusal to sell players close to their contracts ending has left us with a shell of a squad. It cost about 10m to assemble over 4 or 5 years. Yet you still seem so loathe to criticise the owners. Even when asked questions you usually avoid it. They are the problem. Waggott stays in charge and will for as long as he wants because he is merely carrying out the owners wishes. His methods are short term focused and counter productive and he should be long gone but ultimately the biggest method of generating income at this level is player sales and our stupid owners intervene and prevent that. Waggott is a huge symptom of our problems we face, very difficult to think of any area of added value that he has brought. Why is he still comfortably in charge though?

Venkys are the problem. We clearly didnt have any money to but a lower league striker, we didnt have the money to loan in another player.

Was a desperation signing because Venkys slashed the budget mid summer to an uncompetitively low one.

Another really entertaining game after long queues getting into the ground, if only we had other stands. Moran was really good as was Sigurdsson despite his missed penalty. Markanday and Hill also impressed and Garrett put himself about and got a good goal. Full backs decent too. Telalovic looks nowhere near the required standard, not what we needed. Tronstad kept losing the ball in stupid areas, Scott Wharton is a shadow of the player from 2 seasons ago and Wahlstedt was poor for the first.

Thats definitely not my post quoted!

The main issues are off the ball which are predominantly down to tactics chosen by Tomasson. So I do qualify my poor start comment with the clarity that much of it is not directly down to him. He does need to cut down the slack passes but I have faith that he can do that.

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.