Ghost of Clough

Left backs who failed to knock Forsyth out of the team: Naylor, Lowe, Warnock, Olsson, Malone, Cole, Buchanan, Roberts, Elder. Will there be more?

It's also worth remembering that at 23, McGrath had just finished 7th in the Irish League

The club are in discussions woth Bird over a new contract. Worst case is the optional year is activated and we sell him in the summer.

Defensively Cashin is miles ahead - twice as many tackles and interceptions, more clearances, more blocks, almost triple the number of aerial battles won. Offensively, he has almost four times as many shots, successfully dribbles twice as often (and never loses possession), and has twice as many key passes. However, Cashin is dribbled past once a game whilst Edwards is every other game, commits twice as many fouls, and has a worse first touch. Cashin is also 2 years older. When talking about what players excel at, someone being in the top 3 in the league at that skill would be just that. When looking only at the regualr starting CBs, Cashin excels at: tackling, interceptions, clearances, blocks, shots, dribbling, challenging in the air, and key passes. That's right... he's in the top 3 for all of those categories! He does get dribbled past more than any other regular starting CB though. Edwards excels at not fouling people, best first touch, and passing (short and long). On the other hand, he's weak at attacking set pieces, and doesn't challenge in the air

Ridd has joined Mickleover on loan for a month.

The other major difference is Azaz was played as a left sided forward last season (in their 3421). This season he's the most advanced of the midfield 3 (433). Boro have robbed Villa though - there's no way he should cost as little as £2m.

That was 3 defeats in 12 games in all competitions (25%) 8 defeats in 31 so far this season (25.8%)

Hourihane has spent most of this season as out deepest midfielder, whereas Moxon is more of an 8 (Guy being the deeper of the two), which would explain the higher final 3rd wins. Moxon also takes half of Carlisle's set pieces, hence his high shots and chances created stats. I refer back to the comparison I posted yesterday. With his passing stats being so low he would be a risky signing to play as the deepest CM, taking the ball off the CBs. As an 8, he would be competing with Bird, so limited game time. For that DM role, I would actually target someone more like Dobson (stats also posted yesterday). He's a more rounded midfielder, still with high defensive output, but he also creates chances from open play (stat not shown in the charts). He's also out of contract in the summer. Also in the Arsenal U21 squad at the same time as Vickers.

Makes sense for Smith to move on early. He's 6th choice CM in an area we'll be looking to improve. I would imagine Savage/Coventry type signings would be to compete with Hourihane or replace him as a starter though (Hourihane dropping to a bench/impact player)

Only fit enough for 33 games in all competitions last season, scoring 6 and assisting 3 in the league. He's been more reliably available so far this season (missed just 2 games), but his record isn't good enough to earn a L1 move at this time (6 goals and 1 assist)

Roberts was signed as backup/competition for Pring. Pring has established himself as the first choice and has started all but 1 league game this season. I can't see them letting Roberts go unless they sign a cheap replacement first.

There's a big gulf in quality between the top 8 and the rest of the league. It's why a lot of the top sides go on long runs and why it can be difficult to gain points on the top sides even when you go on a very good run yourself. The run we were just on had that return (8 wins and 1 draw). Portsmouth have done it twice - 02/09 to 07/1 (7 wins and 1 draw), followed by 28/11 to 23/12 (4 wins and a draw) Bolton - 21-10 to 28/11 (6 wins and 1 draw), 23/12 to present (4 wins with Cheltenham up next) Peterborough - 25/11 to 23/12 (4 wins and a draw) Oxford - 16/09 to 21/10 (5 wins and a draw) Stevenage - 28/10 to 09/12 (5 wins and a draw) There's a bit of a difference. At the start of last season, general expectation was a mixture of mid-table and top 6. This season, it's a mixture of top 6 and automatics. Squads change so much in L1 you can't judge teams this season off last season either. Just look at Oxford who were challenging for promotion in the 3 seasons from 2019-2022, only to be 19th last season (just 2 points clear of relegation), and now back up challenging for promotion again. Fleetwood had also only lost 1 of their opening 4 games before playing us (beating Plymouth), with our draw being halfway through their 9 game unbeaten run. Lincoln had a slow start to their season, but beat Barnsley in the cup 3-0 2 weeks before playing us, and were up to 8th in the table after scoring 6 goals against Bristol Rovers just 4 days after our game. Even so, we were all disappointed with those results just like we will be if we don't beat them this time around.

Good to know that you'd be content with dropping points against Fleetwood, Burton, Lincoln and Cheltenham, but I won't be. We don't have a divine right to beat those sides, but a side competing for automatics definitely should be beating them.

So far this league season, he's played 4 games at LCB (in a back 3), 13 at LB (back 4), and 3 games at LWB (back 3). Whilst he was predominantly a LCB last season (when they were playing a back 3), he was actually used more as a wing back by Preston the season before that.

For comparison, this is what our wingers look like: https://football-prospect-research-made-by-bengriffis.streamlit.app/

Reading will be a tough one as they're finally hitting some good form. Unbeaten in 6 (including draws vs Peterborough and Oxford) and only 1 defeat in 9 in the league. Form over the last 6 games: Fleetwood - 2 points (24th) Burton - 7 points (16th) Lincoln - 2 points (23rd) Reading - 10 points (9th) Cheltenham - 8 points (14th) Honestly, anything less than 13 points from those 5 games would be a disappointment.

Thanks to the link from @Jubbs in another thread, here are graphs to compare the players I identified with others in their league Left Wing Backs Central and Attacking Midfielders Wingers

Loach was there for 14/15 but was also loaned out during the season - making it 3 for Rotherham. Cardiff, Hull, Lincoln, Sheff Utd, Sheff Weds, Shrewsbury, Sunderland, Swansea and Wigan are also represented by having 3 former players in our squad. However, there are 5 clubs represented by more players: Ipswich and Peterborough (both 5), Barnsley, Blackpool and Plymouth (all 4).

Unfortunately, he's just not very good, and at 24 he's unlikely to improve by much in the future. It's as if our recruitment team went searching for a "more athletic Korey Smith". Neither are good enough to play the sole DM role, and neither offer enough going forward to play further forward. Bird gets criticised for a lack of end product, but he's like De Bruyne in comparison to Fornah.

Peterborough - Kioso, their starting RB, recalled by Rotherham. Their backup left back also recalled by Chelsea (only 141 mins played across 8 games in the league)

30% of profit (on £6m?) and no doubt Brentford will find a way to reduce how much they pay out anyway. I've seen £40m and Reiss Nelson suggested, so that's only worth £10 if all add-ons come to fruition.

I think Nelson's hands being on Cashin impeded his ability to head it clear rather than the problem being his height.

Took a few games to earn a starting spot for them started 4 games back to back in the league back in September (winning 3), then only 3 late sub apps in the league since. He was 1 of 5 central mids to be signed in the summer, along with the 3 they retained from last season's squad.

On the subject of keeping everything together, how about this thread?

Doing well results wise. Top left graph: target is above the orange line, which is relative to this season only. We're only 3 points off the pace. 15 points from the next 6 games would put us on track Top right: our overall ppg trend with Warne as our manager Bottom left: 12 game rolling average points. The target is to hover close to the orange line. We've been above it for 9 out of the last 12 games. Bottom right: 6 game rolling average points. the target is to hover close to the orange line. We've been above it for 10 out of the last 11 games. They all show a general improvement since our first few games of the season. At which point I stated it would be important which way results went from there so it's extremely pleasing to see the improvement.