Ghost of Clough

This is the longest this season, beating Oxford and Cheltenham, both on 50 pages. The longest ever matchday thread was Sheff Weds on the last day of the 20/21 season - 88 pages. 2nd (79 pages) and 3rd (75) were in November 2020 (Wycombe and Boro). There were a lot of 50+ page matchday threads in that 20/21 season, potentially the majority of them.

Crosses as a percentage of total passes: Derby: 6.25% Liverpool: 3.13% Newcastle: 2.79% Man City: 2.50%

Quoted from the matchday thread, but I thought my reply would be better suited here. If Warne's answer to "why aren't we doing better" is what you describe, then the simple fix is to sign a forward capable of scoring in January. This would be a far cheaper fix than firing Warne and hiring a new manager.

Even with a stable U21 squad, Wolves U21s are only midtable in PL2, 6 points ahead of our U21s. A mixture of our U21s and first teamers needing minutes should be good enough to beat them. I would back a team such as this to win, even with 11 changes from yesterday. Vickers Wilson Radcliffe Cashin Sibley Ward DRobinson Fornah Davidson DBrown Collins

In simple terms, Warne tells Thomas what type of player he wants, Thomas provides Warne with a list of players, Warne says yes or no, Warne/Pearce convince player to join and offer him a contract. There may also be instances where Warne already has a player in mind, or Forsyth recommends a friend to join.

You've glossed over the tactical plan and used stats to define a 'manner of play'. On the surface, a high number of passes, shots and possession is good. However, are those passes on the edge of our own box, on the halfway line, or around their box? Are the shots causing any threat to the opposition, or are they hopeful shots from outside the packed area, or tame headers from aimless crosses? It's the entire predictability of play. A pass is made to the edge of their box, but before he receives the ball, you already know he's going to take a touch, turn to the side of the pitch to the winger, who will dawdle on the ball a little bit and then eventually cross it high. The only player we have who shows any level of creativity on the edge of a packed opposition box (and can actually pull it off) is Bird. We need to spend a lot more time on the training ground to address this major issue in our play. There were only 2 shots in the entire game where I felt we actually had a good quality shot on target - Collins when he was offside, and Hourihane's equaliser. Even Mendez-Laing's goal should have been easily saved by their keeper. It's not surprising when we line-up with players who have never been known as goalscorers. Bird and Smith have a combined 18 career goals. At this stage of their careers, Hourihane, Barkhuzien and Mendez-Laing will do well to hit that many between them this season. Whilst Washington has a decent minutes to goals ratio, he's the sort who will struggle against compact defences when playing as a lone forward. The bench doesn't offer much threat either, with WIlson's 6 career goals, Ward averaging about 5 goals a season, Collins on the decline, and Sibley out of favour.

After his assist today, Sibley is now on 2 goals and 2 assists from his last 307 mins on the field 🥴

Imagine having Washington and Bird in the middle of the box and thinking the best way to score is by putting high crosses in

I assume Clowes current viewpoint is to give Warne the January window to fix his mistakes. He'll need to see an improvement by the end of Feb or early March

Lovely bit of play by Wilson and Bird. Collins needed to stay onside there though

At least we're keeping Sibley fresh for Wolves U21s...

That was a fantastic cross

We haven't figured out how to breakdown compact defences, which is why we resort to getting it out wide and aimlessly crossing it. I think this is the sort of game where you want someone like Sibley on the pitvh rather than Smith. Whislt Smith is getting into good positions, he has absolutely no end product - too scared to shoot and too slow to release a pass to a teammate in the box

He's started every game this season, is their 2nd top scorer, and leading for assists. I can't see them selling cheaply to a promotion rival.

No Jephcott, Robinson, Radcliffe, Davidson or Brown

We also won 5-1 in 1985

You're being a bit premature with expecting them to step up to the U21s 'soon'. Other than the odd game when U21s are with thr first team, I wouldn't expect so see them feature much. In the 2nd half of the season, we may see a couple of U21s go out on loan, allowing a the U18s more regular game time in the U21s. However, I would also expect Allen, McAndrew, etc to get a full year in the U18s first.

Waghorn stil missing, so Brown is currently 3rd choice CF and should be in the first team squad for the time being

3-1 at half time. Allen with 2 assists, McAndrew with a goal and assist, Oguntolu with 2 goals

Because he won't get much football under Warne, especially after an addition or 2 in midfield.

Rooney who had an ACL and will do very well to get fit in time for the last game of the season?

We have to use January as a means to continue our transition from the squad Warne inherited (with a number of players not suited to his style of play) to a squad full of players who can play the way he wants. Numbers wise, and ignoring injuries, we're currently in a good place, so it will be a case of 1 out and 1 in. Based on 4231, the players loosely fall into the following positions (bold = currently due to leave before next season): GK: Wildsmith, Vickers, Loach RB: Ward, Nyambe RCB: Nelson, Rooney LCB: Cashin, Bradley LB: Forsyth, Elder RCM: Smith, Fornah LCM: Hourihane, Thompson AM: Bird, Sibley RW: Mendez-Laing, Wilson LW: Barkhuizen, John-Jules CF: Waghorn, Washington, Collins You would hope the players Warne has given 2+ year deals to would still be part of his plans for next season whether promoted or not. To assist with the transition, and not leave it all until the summer, I would therefore group the players in bold in the following categories: 1. Extend deals: Wildsmith, Nyambe, Cashin, Bird, Sibley 2. Keep until the end of the season: Loach, Forsyth (potentially group 1), Smith, Mendez-Laing, Barkhuizen, Waghorn 3. Move on in January if possible: Hourihane, Thompson (loan + extend contract), Collins 4. Move on in January regardless: John-Jules To maintain squad depth, we would therefore be looking at signing the following positions in January: CM, CM (or AM if Bird is played deeper), LW, CF In the summer, we would therefore be looking to recruit any of those positions if filled by loans, plus: GK, LB, RW, LW, CF Cashing in on the likes of Cashin or Bird would also mean directly replacing them too.

Using the 17/18 and 18/19 seasons as an example (because they're the first set of financials for both leagues I found and can't be bothered to search further), the average accounting loss in L1 was £2m, whilst in the Championship it was £16m. Partially thanks to a scaling back after Covid, average Championship losses in 20/21 were still £7.5m.

With no one else suitable for the RCB spot, he'll likely be rested like he was in the Pizza Cup.

Spotted wearing red for Liverpool U18s yesterday (finished 1-0 to Blackburn)