Ghost of Clough

I thought we'd be lucky to see him before the end of the season tbh

James Scanlon made his international debut last week, coming off the bench in both games vs Lithuania.

Their transfer spend this season was funded by last season's sales. Their wage bill last season was only £23.6m which is ranked only 14th is the league. You're looking at over £35m for a top 6 wage budget (Bristol City would have been 7th last season with £35.9m).

Im at a rather embarrassing 21. 3 PL, 9 Championship, 7 L1, and 2 L2

"Heavily backed" by a midtable budget?

Probably because Kei is a CB who could cover LB with no one else in the squad covers these positions. Darren is a CM who can cover CB and RB. We already had 3 CMs on the bench, and had both Ward and Wilson starting (so 2 players who could play RB)

There will be a heavy emphasis on attacking set pieces, so Sibley and Ward will be starting. They've conceded almost half of their goals from set-pieces. We'll also sit off, letting Portsmouth have most of the ball and hit them on the break. Truth be told it's hard to not see the same 11 starting - the only changes due to fitness (Washington and Blackett-Taylor got over an hour first yhe first time in a while) or injury (Mendez-Laing struggling with his injury?). The bench will probably be the same too, with KRobinson potentially being the only change. Elder or DRobinson most likely to take his place on the bench.

McNamara plays in a position we don't need to recruit. Awful end product too so not someone I would sign even if we needed someone. I like Browne and may have suggested him before. However, I don't think he'd get in the side over Ebou Adams or Herbie Kane, and I doubt he would want to join a side to sit on the bench.

xG favours Blackpool (0.49 vs 1.19) so we clearly didn't deserve the win 😉 However, in terms of xGOT (0.77 vs 0.13) we clearly deserved to win.

Rodri has pictures of Ebou Adams on his bedroom wall

Barkhuizen may be fit for the last couple of games, same as Gayle. Bird supposedly back after the Portsmouth game. Doubtful we'll see any of Nyambe, Rooney, Forsyth, or John-Jules again this season

They've now only conceded 1 goal in the last 8 games, scoring 23 goals.

Out of the top 16 in the league, only 2 sides are currently winning 😮 5 out of the bottom 8 winning.

The same lino once again showing he's blind

Barnsley 2-0 down

Collins and Tommo coming on. Probably for Mendez-Laing and Washington

Adams scored from a low probability shot (xG of just 0.04). Washington's was 0.16, taking us to 0.4. Mendez-Laing having the only other decent change in the 3rd minute (0.14 xG) Blackpool have had 4 decent chances and a few small ones. The effort by Byers in the 29th minute was 0.22 xG.

Carlisle 3-0!!

Lino is blind.There's no way anyone should have got that throwin wrong

A brilliant half of football. Can't ask for much more than that

The table looks beautiful at the moment. 6 points clear of Bolton and 10 points clear of Peterborough/Barnsley

Yep. Warne obviously doesn't trust Ward at RB in a back 4 🙈

This is what it'll be A CB who has played at LB on the odd occasion. Still a 2nd year scholar.

In 21/22, a £147m wage bill would have been the 18th highest in Europe (ahead of AC Milan) and 10th highest in England. In 20/21, only 8 teams had a higher wage bill than £147m. Less than 10 years ago (14/15) Liverpool were 5th highest with £144m.

It looks like they didn't even name a CF on their bench at the weekend. Their 3rd top CF scorer this season joined York in January. Up until Brown got into the side, they had almost entirely played with 1 upfront. With Brown in there, they've started playing with 2 upfront, so probably see the need for an extra forward as backup.