Dimmu

Good shout but what makes you think he wouldn't cost much? The last striker they sold was Grot, who had had a great season when sold but overall their stats are roughly similar in goal in every three games. They got almost two million selling Rot and I can't see them asking much less for Ementa, therefore I'd think he is out of our price range. I said it earlier and I'll repeat it. Whoever we are after, I fully expect him to be a free transfer. The Danish market isn't cheap.

Definitely not. It's not even the most exciting league in England. I prefer the Championship.

Not even close to being the most off-topic post in this forum! 😄 Obviously, the place for this would've been elsewhere. I posted earlier that attention to detail is Warne's and his team's strength but also I can reveal that it wasn't my key strength as a football manager. 🙂

Ah, the great Richard Keogh. I remember being ridiculed here when I said he doesn't look much of a captain to me. He was blaming others for his own mistakes, mostly Bogle, maybe because he was an easy target as a teenager. Blaming others is not a sign of leadership or being an accountable adult, never mind a captain. I don't want to piss off our supporters so I left it there, but in hindsight, you could say, there's a difference between blind support and support. What we are witnessing with the notts forest is blind support and I wish we never get there again. Later we learned that being accountable is hardly his strength off the pitch either. With that night out he also showed how bad example and guidance he gave to younger players. Just reflect on it a bit: Keogh whining and mutinying to Morris about Pearson. It's all just pure toxicity and such persons shouldn't be close to our team ever again. Big thank you for Clowes and his recruitment. No wonder I kept losing my love for the game. Keogh was a decent Championship footballer though. Shame he wasn't much of an adult. Maybe as a pensioner, he can grow up now.

Bit of a contradiction there Bris. First, you describe a big part of tactics and in the next sentence, you dismiss it. To answer the original question: I'm not sure if talking only about Warne is fair as coaching is strongly a team effort. I've seen Warneball being called physical, so why did he have a midfield of Hourihane and Bird for about half of the season? Or that Warneball is putting crosses in? What kind of tactics would you choose if you had Collins upfront? Crosses maybe? Or the other way around, did Didzy score countless goals because we put a lot of crosses in? Nope, we played to his strengths. If I'd describe Warneball to an outsider, I'd call it pragmatic, fluid, and mixable while using our strengths and making the most of our opponent's weaknesses. Attention to detail is a strength when we talk about football management. Just to highlight how fluid our tactics are: I've seen us defending with 5-3-2, 5-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-4-1-1 all in the same game. Well, we all have because it happened often when Bradley was brought on. I think he has only two aims when setting his tactics. Firstly, how to get the most out of the striker (how much Didzy, Waggy, Collins, and Gayle have scored, I think he's got that right). The second aim is how to help our keeper to keep a clean sheet. (The least goals conceded in EFL is some achievement). If these two are not about tactics, then what is? And tactics need coaching. With confidence and some experience, I claim that is not an easy part of coaching. So, tactics are a massive part of coaching and they have excelled. Another would be increasing the player's ability and that's tougher to measure. I haven't seen as fit team as the current one is in ages and it's part of improving the player's ability. Yes, it may have caused some injuries, but that's football. Also, they managed to teach Sibley to play as LWB. On the first try, he was horrible at it but played okay as fullback when he had a player in front of him. It's a testament to Sibbo and the coaching team, and during the run-in, his performances as LWB turned out to be one of the developmental highlights. It'll sure be an interesting summer ahead. Will we build a midfield like Hourihane-Bird or Adams-Smith-Thommo? They don't have much in common, but the question is, will they continue to be the ones who'll be sacrificed when we aim to be at our best in both boxes? I think Warne has shown to be an excellent manager, who seems to be able to build a bunch of individuals into a cohesive group and I really appreciate that. At the same time, my personal preference would be much sexier, quick short-passing champagne football. Maybe it'll come when we have the players for it.

Norwich signed Pukki for free from Denmark so someone similar would do 🙂 I'd expect it to be someone who is running out of contract because the values of contracted players are surely out of our range.

Leeds would have managed even emptier stands... Oh, wait. My eyesight isn't what it used to be. I should've used my binoculars.

Good question. In Finland the gambling is monopolised to Veikkaus which is government owned and controlled. They are not allowed to kick players out due winning too much. If I have understood correctly, they can close the playing rights if someone is losing money too much. It’s unique system, but so far they’ve won all the court cases against the monopoly claims. Mostly because their profit is used to help those who play too much, culture and sports.

I'm a semi-professional in betting and I cringe when I hear this kind of stuff. Two fundamental rules: 1) Betting shouldn't be emotionally loaded. 2) You only bet when the odds are higher than they should be. Seems like your bet would be against both of these rules.

I don’t know much of modern day Scottish footballers but I’ll drop in one random name (as I know those are the best ones, right?) Topi Keskinen, 21, playing for the HJK currently. Clocked 36.2 km/h against PAOK, which makes him one of the fastest footballers in the world. He will be sold this summer, 2 millions is rumoured so out of our price range if miracle, like Cashin to Brighton, doesn’t happen. I know Topi will prefer a team where he gets to play, rather than earning massive move and sit on the bench. He has played as an inside forward (preferred), winger and a wing back. Hard to imagine safer 2 million investment. Even Pukki and Morelos were cheaper so that tells something. Ps. Last Finn I recommended was a thin keeper playing in Denmark, who just won the Bundesliga as a Leverkusen captain😉

notts forest. The gift that keeps on giving, so I decided to make a bit more popcorn than usual.

Celebrations, eh? Well, I know how to party! I'll make a bold step from my armchair to the fridge and get my non-alcoholic beer. If I totally lose it, I'll clap on my way. Quietly though, so I won't cause any distress to my neighbours.

Suits to martyrdom narrative. I'm pretty sure that dangerous telly, who allegedly assaulted during the game, is going to be sued next.

You lot have a short memory. When the going gets tough, you turn to Waggy. He'll find his unstoppable inner beast for the most meaningful matches. Maybe a bit of help from the other unsung hero and footballing genius, Marlon Pack.

I mostly agree with this. First team: Sibs, Nyambe, Cash, Nelson, NML, Gayle Rotation: Vickers (only one of the keepers is needed and due to his contract, Josh keeps the place), Rooney, Bradley, Elder, Smith, Thommo, Barks, Wilson, CBT, Collins Huge question marks: TJJ, Fornah, Robinsons & other youngsters Back-up players & coaches: Loach, Fozzy Like the rest of us, I'd love Adams to be part of our new-look midfield next season. Adams and half a dozen new first-teamers and we could give a go for play-offs. I'm not sure if any of our players are ready for PL. Nelson and Cashin would give it a good go if we played with a low defensive line. I have no idea how good player-coach Loach is but depending on his role, he might be closest! 🙂

It's not the first time someone has spied at the Moor Farm.

I enjoyed the game. Perfect footballing weather, two good teams giving their all with a short Leicester cameo (even though ill-timed ). Such goals and (mostly their) misses that both sets of fans can speculate about the result. I loved the tactical nuances, especially the second half which some didn't enjoy. Wonderstrike ruined an otherwise awesome show of how to control the game without a ball. I raise my hat to two things especially: Firstly Pompey, they are worthy champions and they played like one. See you next season! Secondly, Collins. The footballing world is full of neymars, yet it desperately needs more collos. After such an injury to be able to play already is incredible, but to play a dropping nine with such a work rate... Incredible times 10.

He reminds me a bit of Roos. Both are awesome shot-stoppers but unfortunately, they have flaws that will block their path to the top. I don't think Wildsmith's downfall is making mistakes, as he rarely does them. I think it's their grave manner and not learning from them. I'd be sad to see him go, but he is replaceable as is any of our players.

Well, you could try the classic "I forgot the rings" maneuver and make a clean escape to watch the game. #bemoreb4

Surely this one should be in the promotion rivals thread?

Our strikers are dropping like Crystal Palace managers, no one will last more than a few games.

Not a bad call IMO. Yet I wouldn't dare to say Pompey won't get another of the automatic places. If Posh wins their game in hand, it's still 9 points to catch in 7 games. By the way, unrelated to this answer, I'm a betting man doing just fine. 😄

One way to look at this would be the history of this league. Last season third team got 96 points but before that, the numbers were 89, 80, 60 (in 35 games), 88, and 87. That means the third place has lately been reached 1.66-1.85 points per game. So, if we leave out the freakish seasons (last and Covid ones), the 2-point-per-game average Warne has been touting all season, seems a valid goal to reach the automatic place. This season is most likely no different. Can we reach 92? Well, we are averaging exactly 2 points per game at the moment, so we certainly can. Worth noting that Peterborough has the easiest run-in of the top 5 and Pompey has the hardest in the league. I remember posting a similar expectations-based post earlier where I expected Peterboro to do better than they did at the time and Stevenage to drop as their xG was all wrong. I can't be arsed to search what the situation was at the time, but Stevenage certainly has dropped since. The automatic promotion battle will probably go to the wire, but the second place is ours to lose.