roversfan99

Im not convinced by him. But its astounding how Barnsley fans who saw him take them to 5th think hes shit.

He also reiterated that its 1 signing plus replacements. Which is nowhere near enough.

Ive been told many times that everything is aligned and all of the signings are exactly tailored to what he wants. He seemed seriously pissed off post match, again. He also cant be happy with the business we are doing.

Everything about him is lazy and half arsed. Doesnt put any thought into anything he does, and he isnt very good to begin with.

Baradji is out for months. And needs a permit.

The point was more that you clearly are allowing your pre conceived dislike of him to cloud your judgement if you are specifically just posting numerous critical posts about him during tonights game. There are many players who warranted a number of critical posts about today and he was certainly not near the top of that list, or indeed one of them at all. He was only on for half an hour but on a few occasions he played nice correctly weighted passes and was let down by his technically inept team mates. He did also play one brilliant through ball to Kargbo despite the ball being played at him at a stupid height which led to Ohashi's chance. Surely Elliott Jackson saying that he was impressed by him in an open training session doesnt carry any weight? He did well tonight and was one of very few positives. He did make a few stray passes and got caught dawdling once or twice but overall he was a semblance of calm amidst a chaotic and inept performance around him. I feel like in the main we are going for athletes and not considering ability as important but to be fair he seems to have a bit of both. A good performance against Bradford and impressing in a training session, good signs. But Tronstad and Travis are very good Championship midfielders. Its a hell of an assumption and expectation. If Travis goes, to be honest we need a replacement whether Tavares moves ahead of him or not due to the alternatives. We certainly need a lot more players. Lots of surgery to do, not just one player plus replacements. As you say, attack needs a lot doing.

He does need to do more than he did last year but on tonights performance, only someone with a specific dislike of him would repeatedly target him for criticism. He was levels above the crap around him.

Definitely some promising signs but Travis is a proven quality Championship midfielder and our captain. When he goes, we need a proper replacement. We wont get one but we need one. Tavares can hopefully push as 3rd choice and beyond that, the cupboard is bare. Could roll up Buckley, Forshaw and Montgomery into 1 and wouldnt have a Championship midfielder.

Tavares did pretty well, and certainly agree on your comments on the young lads not being ready and needing an overhaul in attack. We have no competent wingers. Need 2 and a striker.79 But of course we will miss Travis.

Do you still think that my comments about squad depth are "ridiculous?"

He was our best player when he came on. What he certainly doesnt warrant is so many comments calling him out of all players on that pitch tonight.

Another embarassing night and an indication that this "plan" to have a team packed full of athletic cheap nobodies from random leagues and loads of academy graduates is only going to send us into imminent serious shit. If we go into a season with Michalski as number 2 goalkeeper then we are taking a ridiculous risk. Nowhere near being ready, quite clearly. Montgomery is also nowhere near being up to the standard, why are we playing a player that was in the 9th tier last season? Tyjon is the best of the 3 but he isnt ready either. De Neve's goal makes it a weird night because he was absolutely pitiful otherwise. Hendriksson looks totally lost too, can barely control the ball. Tavares was sloppy at times and is not a Travis replacement but showed up pretty well overall and certainly levels above those 2 mentioned. Otherwise, Cantwell is miles above anything else in our attack, @RevidgeBlue clearly has it in for him. Kargbo is literally just a great athlete and a terrible footballer. Gueye is a woeful striker. We are about 4 or 5 players short even before you consider sales. Including the depressing news that now our captain wants out of the shit show. The fact that hes desperate to go to Derby, that Eustace left for Derby, that Batth and Weimann left for Derby and Brittain desperately wanted to go to Boro sums us up. The club stinks.

That is not the fear that they have.

Very good depth? Only Carter and Cantwell are competent first teamers unavailable to start these first 2 games, I know the latter will be on the bench. If we was to change 11 tonight, our 11 would be something like Michalski, Miller, Atcheson, Wharton, Pickering, Montgomery, Tavares, Mullarkey Matthews, Tyjon, Kargbo, Gueye. If you think that is very good depth, especially considering the inclusion of 5 youngsters with a combined 1 league start between them (in which he was sent off) then I suspect youll be in for a rude awakening as the season goes on, if we dont strengthen.

Suspect it will a team selection that highlights our lack of depth.

Our recruitment has been a bit strange when you think about it. We signed a player who had been playing at left back for last season and much of his career as a winger. A central midfielder to play as a number 10. And 2 right backs, one who has kicked on playing as a wing back and the other as a right sided centre back. I wonder if we will end up playing a back 3/5 this season purely by accident because of imbalances in the squad and recruitment.

We did see it as a priority at the start of the summer. Gestede said publically, so something has changed.

Not sure if it has been mentioned but Miyoshi set up a goal when he came on. Not that it matters as our dawdling has cost us that one due to the permit situation.

They werent at easter, they all said themselves. At that point, youve missed your best chance.

Another club may well be offering well above what we can afford. Which is why we should have offered these players deals far sooner, if we even have at all. No excuse. At least we can replace another proven Championship experienced player with a no mark from some backwater.

The gap between the 2 teams that night despite the scoreline was immense. It would have taken more than Wharton to change that. Zubimendi is very good. Not sure Wharton is better than him yet. And certainly not far better. Mainoo is not particularly good.

My objective is not just to parrot what Ismael says he wants. I can have my own opinions outside of this. It is allowed. I don't see how resigning Forshaw and Hedges fits into any of these profiles for example. Just wastes resources on inadequate players.

I suspect we will make wholesale changes, it might depend on how seriously Bradford take it. Our squad depth is obviously a problem. If we go for a mix of youngsters with barely any/in most cases no senior experience (Tyjon, LMM, Atcheson, Michalski), new signings gaining fitness (Miller, Tavares) and then just the odd more senior squad player who themselves havent had as many minutes in pre season, then I think they will fancy their chances.

Do you see the likes of Hedges, De Neve and Kargbo as capable of providing chances for the strikers?

If its a case of budgets/number restrictions as to why we can only bring in another right winger, and then replacements for any sales. Then some of the current business needs to be questioned. McLoughlin (although clearly wasnt first choice) makes perfect sense. Good value and at a good age. Signing 2 right backs obviously was necessary, both are cheap, question is how good either will be but they make sense. Obviously a right winger makes sense if we can ever get one sorted. Henriksson sort of makes sense too, although he has played in a slightly different position before, again purely in terms of being a goalscoring midfielder, cant say yet if hes any good. The decisions to sign De Neve (aside from being so cheap) and of course renewing the contract of Hedges make no sense. Not willing to write off De Neve, but purely on type of player, someone with no track record of scoring and assisting, and someone who often has played at left back before, thats not the profile we needed. And Hedges is just shit, especially post 2 bad hamstring injuries. They arent the profile we needed, we needed more goal threat and pace, even if it means that instead, one was a permanent and one was a loan. We also badly need a striker. Which brings me onto Tavares and Forshaw. Why we gave Forshaw a new deal, I have no idea. A waste of resources. And I am not commenting on Tavares' ability but unless he is a real find, which I doubt, seems strange to spend our highest fee on a 3rd choice midfielder. Our attitude to loans has gone from one extreme to another. We usually fill the squad with them, now we seem unwilling to even consider them. One or two to top up the squad with extra quality is something all Championship clubs need to consider.