Eddie

It isn't being helped my some rather surprising promotions from the Championship. You have sides like Ipswich and Luton getting promoted - both of whom would have required entirely new squads to survive (and Luton actually tried to pull that off).

Look elsewhere in the Championship and you will see sides packed with pace. We just haven't made pace a priority in any of our signings.

I can't understand our lack of commitment to bringing in pace. It has been truly baffling over the last few years.

Sam Gallagher scored 3 times last season. 9 was the most he ever managed here (outside of his loan spell). Nothing helps a player's reputation more than leaving.

What exactly are the complaints about the Solanke selection? He had one good season in the Premier League for Bournemouth. Should he have been selected then? Quite possibly, but it's not surprising that Kane, Watkins, and Toney were selected ahead of him for the Euros (and the buildup to it). With Toney out of the picture it has freed up a spot and he's the natural choice based on form over the last 12 months. Are people seriously advocating for the idea that he should have been selected when he was scoring goals in the Championship? Was Toney at a big club when he was being picked over Solanke? Watkins?

So, I'm basing it on what I've seen from them so far - admittedly I've only watched 3 of their matches, but that's probably more than most. I'm basing it on the quality of their overall squad. Their form over an extended period of time (the start of this season and the end of last). As well as what general and expert expectations for the season are (basically joint favourites for relegation, consensus pick for bottom 3/4, etc). It could be wrong, but I think they're pretty bad and I'd guess that a few on here who will strongly disagree won't have watched a minute of a Plymouth match this season that wasn't part of a highlights package. It's not really worth arguing over too much. It can be revised in May and I'd be stunned if they aren't in the bottom 3/4 and if any of you really strongly disagree then I'd suggest you make your way over to Betfair and lay them in the relegation market. Fill your boots.

Well, I'll accept your framework and we can still come to the same conclusion. The 6th best side should definitely be beating the 7th worst.

Same way that we are currently 6th in the table and I don't think that we will be in the playoffs come the end of the season? But, if your way of assessing the quality of a side is purely based on their league standings then, I suppose, I can't argue with it.

Highlighting one part of their team doesn't prove the point to be wrong. This famed front three is managing to get them an average of goal a game (joint third-worst in the league) and they've failed to score in 4 of their league matches (including 3 of their last 5). You can disagree with me, but, in all likelihood, they'll find themselves playing in League One next year. Time will tell.

The form was in reference to our own performances.

Is it? So much of this league is about momentum and Plymouth are the worst side in the division. This is coming off a pretty dismal display midweek and a couple of subpar performances in recent weeks. In recent seasons, we've seen how quickly good form can turn to bad and it is often driven by poor performances against lowly opposition. This match is of significant importance. I strongly believe that, if we don't win this, we will look back on this week as the time the tide turned in our season.

Plymouth have obviously improved over the last couple of weeks, but this is an absolute must win. Anything other than a win here and there will be a bit of rot setting in.

Still want to do it? Shocking today and, overall, we've been rather poor for the last 2/3 matches. Playing against 10 men has helped results, but the quality has been missing.

So managers should be rewarded for meeting expectations and then having a good run of 7 matches (in which he's played against 10 men for the 45 of the last two matches). Come on. We'd be handing out new contracts 3 times a year.

Kind of? Leicester were heavy favourites to go up. Ipswich can be used as an encouraging sign for the benefits of a good start and momentum, but we can't really compare our situation to data that we can see from recently relegated sides.

Bit of an insane statement. Are we going to give a manager a new contract after every decent 6 months? We're off to a nice start, but the test of a Championship season is as the slog really starts. Plus, he probably won't benefit from playing against 10 men for half of every match on a consistent basis. Great start to the season, but nearly every single one of our Championship season has contained at least one very good run of 10 results.

Has the game gone soft or has it not? I hate the 'shithousery' term, but I loved the Haaland move. It's great to see teams that genuinely hate each other and loved him throwing the ball at a couple of pricks and then barging into one of them. Good to see a footballer who isn't just a big mouth followed by the hopes of some teammates holding him back.

Still not really sure of your point. It's only been around since 1960.

Or showing how desperate they are. Could find themselves in a relegation fight if this continues.

Any point away from home is a decent result in this league (aside from maybe Plymouth and Portsmouth). But that's a missed opportunity against 10 men for an entire half. You should be winning from that position and we failed to even really trouble their keeper.

What's your point?

Of course clubs that win it will enjoy the experience, but let's revisit your comment in the early rounds of the cup next year and see how many supporters are saying things like 'this isn't a priority', 'I won't be too disappointed if we lose this', 'let's rest all of our players'. Using the example of the winning side's enjoyment of the competition in that season is, quite frankly, an absurd way of trying to imply that there is an overall value in the competition. I don't care much one way or the other when it comes to the league cup. I'm happy for a bit of an early-season distraction, but I don't think I'd miss it much if it disappeared. The only strong argument for keeping it is the fact that it has been around for a while. Then again, there will be a few posters on here that are older than the League Cup...so it really isn't that old.

I think it's possible to view BBD's post-Rovers career as both a failure and a success. He's got to play football at a higher level and earn far more money. That is an undeniable success and most footballers or aspiring footballers would happily trade places with him. BUT, he had a moment in his career where he was here and one of the hottest properties in world football outside of the big 3/4 leagues. At that point, I'm sure he was imagining a career as an established player at a good side in the Premier League or La Liga and a consistent place in the Chile best 11. He now finds himself in a struggling side, rarely starting for Chile, and likely headed back to the Championship. It certainly wasn't a mistake to leave, but he may have gone to the wrong club as his next destination and he will surely be disappointed with elements of his career.

It's a valid point, but it still poses some problems. Plenty of people are dissatisfied with the value that they get out of their TV subscriptions as we are now watching lower-quality football as a result of the number of matches being played. Rotation would solve this problem, but then many would complain that they're paying for TV subscriptions or showing up for matches and not seeing the stars (see the NBA). The other fix would be to reduce the overall number of matches, but vary kickoff times and match days more so that TV viewers would feel like they were getting better value. The downside here is that it makes life difficult for those actually attending matches (see the general complaints about the Championship this season). The Nations League should be scrapped and players should be given proper breaks throughout the season. A 2ish week winter break and a week off in each half of the season would suffice. I don't mind scrapping the League Cup. Big teams don't take it seriously until the later rounds. Even a club like us will only take it seriously a couple of rounds in. It serves virtually no purpose and no one really cares about it. Do players earn millions? Yes. Does that mean we should not care about their wellbeing our how playing too many matches could impact the quality of football that we watch? No. We just watched a pretty dire European Championships and tiredness was certainly a factor. Did players in the good old days play tons of matches for far less? Yes. But they also played at half the speed and had their careers typically finish around 32/33. There's plenty of room to remove fairly pointless matches from the footballing calendar.

Not a lot of very strong candidates out there. It's unfortunate timing.