roversfan99

No way can we chuck Edun in, he is a liability. I would be wary of any changes bar Dack for Szmodics. Hard to take out a Buckley or a Hedges without weakening us. We badly need more players in.

Even assuming that Ayala who has a history of injuries and Phillips who has shown tendency to break down as his body grows both stay fit, how would people feel about potentially having only those 2 centre backs available over the next 5 games if signings aren't imminent? Totally get that quality comes first but Tomasson would have the right to feel aggrieved at those above him and I would not be comfortable with having to give Phillips such a run of games.

No it wasn't a good thing, you make out as if there were 2 options, to keep Rothwell or to sell him, without considering the potential to reinvest. As it is, we ended up with no Rothwell and no money. I am not convinced that Klopp and Pep are overruled but the thing is with these instances, they are the opposite. I would get the owners pressuring people to sell someone to raise funds potentially more, but to stubbornly keep players letting their contracts expire rather than letting the manager decide? Absolute rubbish. You took seriously the other week that van Hecke was signing because someone joked about it, so perhaps you more than anyone needs to re-evaluate your natural stance on rumours. The reason that I don't believe that rumour is because it makes no logical sense, it's not a slight on the individual poster by any means. And the irony of you saying to other people that it is not Football Manager.

Of course, but I think fixture coincidences like this tend to happen, either way I doubt a squad for whom most played few if any of those games will be weighed down by our poor recent record.

Surely the biggest reason that our xG is so low is because we took the lead in all 3 games, so the game naturally became a case of the opposition pushing more for a goal than us? Another flaw can be highlighted by an example on Sunday. A player can be put through on goal but due to a poor touch or a bit of indecision, he may be through on goal and not actually shoot, which would be an xG of 0. The same can be said if a ball like in the first half on Sunday when Hedges slid the ball across and no one got a proper shot away is put across but not quite tapped in, again, 0 expected goals. In either instance, a fantastic chance has been created but neither register on this flawed metric. Another good example is Brereton at home to Barnsley last season, put in and took a poor touch but managed to score from a difficult angle. He turned a great chance into a poor chance with a poor touch but scored anyway, meaning that the stats unjustifiably show us as being more "clinical" than we actually were. This idea that it catches up on you isn't always right either. Second Tier Podcast relentlessly criticised Steve Cooper's Swansea because their xG was well below their league position yet they made the play offs in both seasons, irrespective of predictions that they would drop off. Alternatively, because Russell Martin's football is a stats mans dream, there is an expectation that they will eventually catch up their xG. There are just so many flaws.

Forgetting Mowbray as my point was about the owners. I dont believe that we had a £5m budget that went unspent, thats my point. Makes even less sense when you factor in that Mowbray complained that he want some money to reinvest. Whether there was arse covering by Mowbray or not, my point is that I don't take much notice of rumours that we have much money unspent and I would presume that is common anyway. If a manager is allocated x amount as a budget, surely the chances of him spending it to the penny are very unlikely anyway. Ill continue to judge on what is spent rather than rumours of what apparently isnt. My other point is I strongly disagree with the notion of Venkys overuling the manager preventing sales and potential reinvestment and find it incredible that people defend them for it. Did he say that he would jump at a return? Where are those quotes?

Reading are not only one of the very worst teams in the league but are also probably even more threadbare than us. Their subs bench on Saturday was a sub keeper and 6 kids whereas we at least have Dack, Dolan and Morton to come in should we feel the need to change anything. As a team with the aim of improving upon 8th place and sitting pretty at the top, we should be feeling confident of beating such a poor opposition both in players and managers and any dropped points would be frustrating. Reading hoodoo? Come on.

If we were playing in the Premier League, we could treat games v City and Liverpool as free hits, anythings a bonus against opposition so superior. In this average league, there is no reason for an inferiority complex at all. We finished 8th last season and all signs are good with our new manager.

Where is it from that Mowbray never spent his budget or that he declined a £5m budget? Something which goes against him wanting to sell Rothwell to raise funds. Easier to judge on what is spent eather than on rumours on what wasnt spent. But surely we can expect a big net spend with all this spare money sloshing around.

Matip is out for two weeks which takes us to the end of the window. Gomez was fit enough to be on the bench and come so the question is whether Liverpool run with just Van Dijk, Phillips and Gomez for the next 2 weeks and let him go soon (critical for us with Wharton and Carter out) or if they keep him with Matip and Konate out.

Stop being pedantic. The owners should not overrule Tomasson in situations as I suggested. If he is ok with Brereton being sold for say £15m and reinvesting £8-10m on a good replacement, but Venkys refuse to budge from £20m, it is Tomasson who will be directly affected in a year when he has a huge hole where his goalscorer was and no money to replace him.

Believe it or not, I don't know Lewis Travis. You clearly haven't understood my posts if you think I was raising issue with stewarding.

We have one of the best defenders in the league but he rightly gets ridiculed often due to his poor injury record. Jones makes him look reliable.

Van Den Berg on the bench for Liverpool tonight.

He said that he turned down strikers, but that they were kids on loan from the Premier League. Makes no sense that he turned down money to spend yet also wanted to sell Rothwell to get money to spend, therefore I would suggest that the rumour is false.

We haven't played with an out and out striker in the last 2 league games nor in the 6 game winning streak last season. Seems an illogical rumour that we had a similar amount of money to the amount we would have raised had the owners not prevented the sale of Rothwell, and that he chose not to spend the £5m but wanted to reinvest the £3-4m of a potential sale. One thing I suppose Venkys can be summed up as is illogical. Lets hope they don't try and interfere under Tomasson especially as he may well not stand for such nonsense. He may be, but it is one hell of an unsubstantiated suggestion at this stage, to use that price tag.

They appoint those managers (and also now a director of football) because they are far more qualified to make decisions about players than themselves. They shouldn't be making decisions that potentially undermine the manager/go against the plan that the manager is trying to adopt because they "like" a player. How can you possibly already have come up with that potential figure? He has played 2 senior games, 1 v Hartlepool.

Why would you take a point? We have won 3 out of 3, Reading have lost 2, have a poor side, are expected to struggle and have the leagues worst keeper and the leagues worst manager. Surely any dropped points would be frustrating if of course not catastrophic.

Again I can't fathom talk of a "free hit" at Sheffield United regardless of the score at Reading. We could be top of the league having won 4, why are we writing off games?! It comes back off talk of yesterday where many would have taken a point at home and even a narrow defeat was mentioned. In a bang average league, we are a team who have so far won every game and are supposedly targeting promotion, at least the play offs. There are NO games we should consider to be free hits.

How do you know this? It makes no sense that Mowbray declined to spend £5m yet tried to sell Rothwell to raise a similar amount to spend on the team, if he could have had those players anyway. The biggest worry is that the owners are removing the autonomy of the manager (or now the manager AND director of football) to make footballing decisions. It shouldn't be a case of the owners insist that x is paid or y isn't sold. If say the fee in mind is £20m, and someone offers £17m and Tomasson thinks, I'd rather take the money and spend £10m on someone else rather than lose him for free, he should certainly not be overruled.

It wasn't an opinion, it was one of numerous examples of things that affect the matchday experience that by your logic shouldn't be discussed because we only go to watch a football match. Dismissing people because you consider their opinion to be negative or critical is IMO not conducive to allowing debate to flow on a messageboard. My personal preference would be to remove Sweet Caroline, ideally with no music to be played at full time, allowing a more natural crowd driven noise if we win.

I go to watch the team, but if you are totally disinterested in the topic, why have you contributed with an opinion so heavily? We go to watch the team, why does it matter if the food is crap/overpriced/brilliant, the programmes are or aren't sold, they play music too loud, the bogs are a mess or pristinely maintained, the stewards are fair/inadequate, whether we install a standing section, whether the ground is more than half empty/totally full? Lets not discuss anything but the game?

Lucky to not have many injuries up until now, yes. Had we had more injuries, it may have been a different situation with such a thin squad. We have a core group of 13-15 players that I have confidence in to give anyone a game at this level. Beyond that, there isn't much. Tomasson has started perfectly, but ultimately I am not interested in platitudes about how "hard" the club are working, I judge on who has signed. If we drop any points due to being particularly weak in a specific area, then Tomasson will have the right to say, I am doing what I can but I need more help here and I feel let down. I would welcome Styles but I don't think there has ever been strong interest this summer and judging by the quotes following the Morton deal, I fear that we won't sign another midfielder in general which would leave us very, very short in there.

Yep, definitely not Black Eyed Peas, agreed there! Im not sure there even needs to be music at all personally. Totally against goal music, at the end is not as bad but still I think there is perhaps no need to blast music over the crowd.

I started quite a lot of debate about peoples views on part of the matchday experience. As per usual, your response is along the lines of stop being negative/stop complaining.