nottingram

Am a big believer that if you get performances right, results will follow. We’re playing well, no need whatsoever to panic. 
Besides, Dobbin starting over Smith is a much more attacking move

Am a big believer that if you get performances right, results will follow. We’re playing well, no need whatsoever to panic. 
Besides, Dobbin starting over Smith is a much more attacking move

Long term, I am very confident it would lead to more points than nicking scrappy 1-0’s

Am a big believer that if you get performances right, results will follow. We’re playing well, no need whatsoever to panic. 
Besides, Dobbin starting over Smith is a much more attacking move

What would Plan B be? Bring himself out of retirement and score goals himself?

What would Plan B be? Bring himself out of retirement and score goals himself?

Treating where a player plays on the pitch as rigidly as 'RB' is archaic. You need to look into the actual role being asked of them.
Similar to Lawrence and where he spent most of his time playing for us. Same with Ince and most of our other 'wingers'. Traditionally, the left sided midfielder/attacker would stay very wide and get crosses in. His actual role was to drift inside and be a goal threat.
The same applies to 'full backs'. Traditionally, they wouldn't push much further forward than the CBs and weren't involved in build up play much. This role being very much suited to a defensive minded player with limited technical ability, not too disimilar to CBs. Wisdom and a younger Stearman being examples.
In some systems, the full back would push high and stay wide. Effectively they're wingers, which is why a lot of wingers had been converted to play this role - Byrne being one of them, Bogle another.
A style creeping into the modern game, is for the full back to tuck in alongside the DM. Guardiola arguably being the pioneer in using full backs this way. They're heavily involved in the build up play, create overloads in central areas and win the ball back quickly. This type of full back is very similar to a CM, which is why it suits Knight.

Stearman can’t really move though
For an indication on how little he is trusted for a vaguely similar role, when we went to a back 3 v Barnsley, Forsyth played on the right hand side over Stearman despite being left footed.
Personally I think at the moment Knight is doing a very good job and while it may not get the best out of his skill set, the question is where he fits into a midfield that is already a bit bloated. In possession he is effectively playing as a central midfielder anyway.
In a way you could almost reframe the issue - if you were told Knight had come through the academy as a natural right back, would you see his performances this season and say “that’s a central midfielder”?
As an example, in one season Matty Cash went from a fairly middling utility midfielder to a £15m right back as a result of being moved there. He’s now an international. I think they have similar skill sets in that they are both very good athletes and intelligent footballers, but unlikely to ever be a really.
(sorry ended up being a much more general point than a reply to your post)

If they go down they will have sacked Cooper and the new team they’ve spent £150m on will have proved themselves not good enough for the Prem and be unshiftable for anything like what they’ve paid.

If they go down they will have sacked Cooper and the new team they’ve spent £150m on will have proved themselves not good enough for the Prem and be unshiftable for anything like what they’ve paid.

Stearman can’t really move though
For an indication on how little he is trusted for a vaguely similar role, when we went to a back 3 v Barnsley, Forsyth played on the right hand side over Stearman despite being left footed.
Personally I think at the moment Knight is doing a very good job and while it may not get the best out of his skill set, the question is where he fits into a midfield that is already a bit bloated. In possession he is effectively playing as a central midfielder anyway.
In a way you could almost reframe the issue - if you were told Knight had come through the academy as a natural right back, would you see his performances this season and say “that’s a central midfielder”?
As an example, in one season Matty Cash went from a fairly middling utility midfielder to a £15m right back as a result of being moved there. He’s now an international. I think they have similar skill sets in that they are both very good athletes and intelligent footballers, but unlikely to ever be a really.
(sorry ended up being a much more general point than a reply to your post)

If they go down they will have sacked Cooper and the new team they’ve spent £150m on will have proved themselves not good enough for the Prem and be unshiftable for anything like what they’ve paid.

If they go down they will have sacked Cooper and the new team they’ve spent £150m on will have proved themselves not good enough for the Prem and be unshiftable for anything like what they’ve paid.

Stearman can’t really move though
For an indication on how little he is trusted for a vaguely similar role, when we went to a back 3 v Barnsley, Forsyth played on the right hand side over Stearman despite being left footed.
Personally I think at the moment Knight is doing a very good job and while it may not get the best out of his skill set, the question is where he fits into a midfield that is already a bit bloated. In possession he is effectively playing as a central midfielder anyway.
In a way you could almost reframe the issue - if you were told Knight had come through the academy as a natural right back, would you see his performances this season and say “that’s a central midfielder”?
As an example, in one season Matty Cash went from a fairly middling utility midfielder to a £15m right back as a result of being moved there. He’s now an international. I think they have similar skill sets in that they are both very good athletes and intelligent footballers, but unlikely to ever be a really.
(sorry ended up being a much more general point than a reply to your post)

On this subject (ish) I tend to follow Leicestershire when it comes to cricket, who were kicked out of this season’s Blast due to Naveen bowling two waist high no balls and Lilley giving a bit of chat to Jimmy Neesham.
You’ll never guess who the beneficiaries were…

Totally agree. He's seemed a bit nervous when at the start of games when he has played, but that's only going to get worse if the management show a lack of faith in him. Given his upbringing at Man City I can't see how we could have got anyone more suited to how Rosenior wants to play. And he must have thought it made sense to drop to the third tier as then he would get get time, which I applaud for a young player. I think so far it's appeared Rosenior feels duty bound to put all his big name players on the pitch based on their reputation, whether or not it's the best combination. So when Smith, Hourihane and McGoldrick are fit they will likely all play regardless, which means there's no room for the players I think we clearly need in the starting lineup.
Following your lead, it won't happen but for me a much better team than what we will play would be:
Wildsmith
Stearman     Cashin
Oduroh                      Bird                    Roberts
Knight       Sibley        Hourihane
Collins        Barkhuizen
Subs: Anang   Forsyth   Smith   Thompson     McGoldrick    Dobbin   Mendez-Laing
It's likely you would want to bring McGoldrick, Dobbin and Mendez-Laing on at some point to maintain attacking energy throughout and how you did that would depend on how the players were looking before.
Edit: writing this reply I missed @nottingramasking where I'd fit people in, so here it is.

Aha have a read of the Leroy Rosenoir thread on the main forum.
Apparently we're not allowed to criticise anyone we feel like, not least our manager.
But do take on board your points about the quality of their squad. 

On this subject (ish) I tend to follow Leicestershire when it comes to cricket, who were kicked out of this season’s Blast due to Naveen bowling two waist high no balls and Lilley giving a bit of chat to Jimmy Neesham.
You’ll never guess who the beneficiaries were…

I actually this is the wrong way to think. 
If we embed the philosophy now at this point in the season then it will be the bedrock of success later in the season and going into the championship.
If we focus on results at all cost now we will end up a tactical mess of a team and probably looking back at a middling to average season and nothing to build on.
We have to look beyond short-termism right now, it's what lead to us being in league 1.

Yeah, that is getting on my nerves. Classic aping of certain sections of the media, where an opinion has to formed asap, then everything has to be moulded to fit into this narrative.
Main thing to ignore was the match away at Charlton, where we were really attacking, created loads of good chances and were very unlucky not to win.

I agree with what you are generally saying but I think lots of it is going beyond just saying “the midfield balance isn’t quite right at the moment”. There are people who clearly don’t agree with the passing style of football and that’s fine - but using an argument that we’re 17th in the league for quality of chances created and ignoring that we’re top of the league for quality of chances given away is selective and ridiculous when both are as important as each other, and the control of the games that we have played so far is a big reason we are not giving many chances away. The game we allowed to become end to end is the one we lost!
Ultimately I think people are just reaching at things to confirm their own biases.
I think the midfield does need to become slightly more dynamic but this is going to be a really tricky area to get right. If Sibley/McGoldrick plays instead of Smith as an example then Hourihane is going to have to play a more defensive role as a consequence - is this sensible when Hourihane is quite clearly a very good weapon going forwards? These are things that do need sorting and I dare one of the reasons we are playing fairly safe at the moment is because LR knows this
There really does not need to be an inquest into the style of play when we have 7 points from 4 games and you could make an argument we should have more.

I agree with what you are generally saying but I think lots of it is going beyond just saying “the midfield balance isn’t quite right at the moment”. There are people who clearly don’t agree with the passing style of football and that’s fine - but using an argument that we’re 17th in the league for quality of chances created and ignoring that we’re top of the league for quality of chances given away is selective and ridiculous when both are as important as each other, and the control of the games that we have played so far is a big reason we are not giving many chances away. The game we allowed to become end to end is the one we lost!
Ultimately I think people are just reaching at things to confirm their own biases.
I think the midfield does need to become slightly more dynamic but this is going to be a really tricky area to get right. If Sibley/McGoldrick plays instead of Smith as an example then Hourihane is going to have to play a more defensive role as a consequence - is this sensible when Hourihane is quite clearly a very good weapon going forwards? These are things that do need sorting and I dare one of the reasons we are playing fairly safe at the moment is because LR knows this
There really does not need to be an inquest into the style of play when we have 7 points from 4 games and you could make an argument we should have more.

I agree with what you are generally saying but I think lots of it is going beyond just saying “the midfield balance isn’t quite right at the moment”. There are people who clearly don’t agree with the passing style of football and that’s fine - but using an argument that we’re 17th in the league for quality of chances created and ignoring that we’re top of the league for quality of chances given away is selective and ridiculous when both are as important as each other, and the control of the games that we have played so far is a big reason we are not giving many chances away. The game we allowed to become end to end is the one we lost!
Ultimately I think people are just reaching at things to confirm their own biases.
I think the midfield does need to become slightly more dynamic but this is going to be a really tricky area to get right. If Sibley/McGoldrick plays instead of Smith as an example then Hourihane is going to have to play a more defensive role as a consequence - is this sensible when Hourihane is quite clearly a very good weapon going forwards? These are things that do need sorting and I dare one of the reasons we are playing fairly safe at the moment is because LR knows this
There really does not need to be an inquest into the style of play when we have 7 points from 4 games and you could make an argument we should have more.

Ah yes, 17th for expected goals for. Quite handy we are the best in the league for expected goals against really. Still some balance to be found between the two but I would suggest nothing too worrying just yet.

Collins x 2 and Knight, versus Charlton, were I would argue a bit more than decent chances.
How many teams do you think are creating multiple good to very good chances per game at this level? How many have against us?