IlsonDerby

Don’t have an issue with playing on the counter after going 1-0 and soaking up some pressure shortly after scoring but it’s 25 minutes after our goal now we have to show a little more quality on the ball oterhwose It’s just coming straight back

Dunno if I can deal with 87 minutes of that Boro performance mind 😂

Great technique from Ebou. Love it

Wont forgive Rooney for that. It simply wasn’t justified to haul him off after subbing him on. He wasn’t having a great game but no one was.

Green army giving me hope again that we can stay up

I guess they were dead and buried last season and heading nowhere fast until he came in and kept them up in the season which required over 50 points to stay up?

Yeah I think it’s easy to be disappointed by the full time result but we were comfortably on top for the whole first half (in terms of looking dangerous I know they had a bit more territory/possession but without creating anything) against probably the most expensive academy system in the world.

Clough only brought Hughes (arguably the most successful player from our academy since Huddlestone) on for his debut on the last match of the season and played him out on the wing despite him being a centre mid. He waited until our safety was guaranteed before risking it.

How often have you watched Harry Hawkins? From what I’ve heard he’s an exciting prospect but a long way away from championship level right now.

Only time a personal favourite for me

The ideal situation is someone like Nathan Jones comes in for Bradley - we then bring in Cooper and a young mobile CB… pieces don’t fall into place as nicely as that though.

Had he hit form for falling for the dark arts?

Think it’s just regular men’s football isn’t it more than level? He’ll play against some right horrible bastrds in that division that want to kick him up in the air. It’ll be a learning curve. I don’t have doubts on his technical ability but this will be good for developing how he copes with more physical players.

If Warne wants to persist with 3 midfielders then you have to assume he’s confident of one more coming in. Thommo, Ozoh, Kenzo, Osborno and Adamso is probably a body light for 3 options over the rigours of a championship season.

That’s one of the things I noticed. The ball just seems to bounce away from him and the championship is too fast paced to get away with it where as in league 1 his pace meant he could beat the defenders’ reaction times.

I’d understand the sentiment behind starting the team that played the majority of the match against boro but we need to be more cut throat than that. JZW Nyambe Nelson Bradley Elder Osborn Kenzo Ozoh Jackson Yates Barkhuizen JZW in for obvious reasons - he’s a marquee signing. Yates in for Collins because he’s a very good striker at this level and will provide more up front. Probably the most controversial but I’d drop NML. Haven’t been enamoured by his play so far this season. Would try him against tired legs in this match as a sub to build some confidence hopefully.

How often have you watched Smith? Considering he’s already got 1 goal in the championship this season by being inside the widths of the posts when a ball was played in from a dangerous position.

He’s supposed to be on absolutely eye watering wages for this level. Which you’d expect considering he’s as close to a certain goalscorer at this level as you’re likely find.

Yeah I think Yates has looked sharp and has decent scoring record in the context of his time at this level.

Cor in 5/6 years we’ll have some team!

I’m just as disappointed that we aren’t able to do what you and Ambitious have alluded to. I guess where I differ with some posters is that I genuinely think if we had a better squad in the first instance rather than one cobbled together to get us over the line in league 1 and if we had a slightly bigger budget I think we’d be all over the plan to sign lots of exciting younger players permanently. I think this is a forced strategy due to circumstance.

No you’re completely wrong about the bottom part. The idea that football is played in the now relates to the fact that you have to ensure your squad has enough quality now as well as in the future hence the need for good quality premier league loans over small fees for gambles. I’d love nothing more than for us to sign 18 -24 year olds with potential in the hope that in 2 years half of them have been a massive success and have set us up for the foreseeable but unfortunately our squad didn’t have anywhere near enough quality required so we couldn't take that risk at this moment. And it would have to be a risk because we couldn’t go throwing 500k-1m on 10 players. There’d have to be some £200k players in there and they always carry a risk. Understanding that needing quality right now as well as building for the future hence the heavy use of the loan market isn’t the same as deciding we can just outbid everyone for any player who’s had a purple patch in the last 18 months which is what got us into the mess we were in.

Wow Who’d have had a quid on Wednesday having a goal difference of 0 in 7 days time after last Sundays match

So let’s say we stay up, with a second year of championship income perhaps the permanant signings can account for 3 or even 4 players? We’d be much more attractive option for out of contract players and prem loans. We also have January too if we look like we’ve got a good chance of staying up.

The analolgy is rubbish though. You ‘need’ a place to live, you don’t need a new third choice CB. The other pitfall to your analogy is that by loaning from prem you are usually guaranteeing higher quality for ‘now’ and unfortunately football is played in the now. Take for example Ozoh vs Fornah. One could be developed to make a profit on or save us money. One is better quality right now and gives us a better chance of staying up which is crucial to any future success. Id love us to go full football manager and sign 10 players in the 18-25 age bracket for small fees in the hope 5/6 of them make it good but that has to be balanced with the right now.