He was abysmal against Watford and has been poor since August. Still think I saw enough in August to think he will be a good signing if he refinds that form. Id say we are really way too early to come to definitive judgements. Just go and have a look at what people were saying about Szmodics in October 2022...

Yeah agree with this. Switching to a 532 could help to get some support up there, would like to see it given a shot as others have said.

Leonard getting a crack but probably from the bench is possible I think. After a fantastic August both Ohashi and Gueye have looked well off it.

I loved a bit of JDT ball, first season anyway... But yes Eustace is doing a very good job when you consider 95% would have had the brief as keep us up at the start of the season... We're sixth with nearly a quarter of the games played....

Good point. Main positive was the box defending when we were deep which was really well drilled. They couldn't get anything through us when we were set. Negatives are we looked generally pretty toothless (though no better or worse than WBA) going forward and we were lucky to not concede two goals from long punts up field through defensive lapses.

Surely time for Gueye now?

Anyones game this...

The one highlight!

I think id give Gueye a go for his pace as much as anything

We're breaking the press really well... But don't really have the cutting edge to make the most of it. WBA are so high we are desperate for some real pace.

Um... tough one to predict. We won on the weekend but it was hardly convincing. No single player you would say has to start. As in all championship games it really comes down to who scores the first goal. If you get the first one you win something like 60% of them, draw 25% and lose 15%. Roughly that anyway. But that means do you prioritize not conceding or do you go about getting the first one? I expect Eustace will go for the former and it will be very very cagey. But I am not completely sure... one of the good things about Eustace is that he does seem a bit unpredictable. ALso I think midweek games the away side really seems to struggle. But had a little hunt around the internet to find some evidence for this and couldn't so maybe it's just Rovers struggle mid week? Just hoping we get a random amazing performance. You never know...

Loving the half time music... Seems a but unusual?

Yeah it looks a real late 80s Arsenal approach... Just hold onto the 1-0. Long time since I can remember us going so defensive against a similarly resourced team at home.

Yeah weve obviously gone very counter attacking. We had a back six for a while there... Not convinced we've really got the pace for that approach...

Really poor game quality wise. Both sides struggling to do anything. Lots of simple passes given away. Not one for a neutral...just as well Im not one!

Ever since he got sent off Gueye's looked really poor... real shame as he looked fantastic up until that Burnley game. Hope he will come back into it today and show the promise from when he first turned out in August. Like the team. A bit surprised we have gone from having no attacking full backs to two... And picking JRC ahead of Brittain is interesting...

I think most successful teams (including England under Southgate) have had longer term managers. Not many have got much out of short term coaches. Obviously not an iron rule, but it makes sense that it takes a long time with the infrequency of matches to build out an effective style of play. France, Spain, Argentina, Germany all have had their success with longer term managers. But if he's the best option I am not against it.

He's only managed to stay in a role for longer than 2 years once in a career of six jobs.... Feels like it will end in tears!

I think ultimately good teams are balanced sides who work together as a unit. Its as important as individual quality. Whoever manages is going to have to leave top players on the bench as we have too many similar types (very like 2002 to 2006 in that regard) and choose more suited ones in certain roles. It doesnt mean being as conservative as Southgate was with Kalvin Phillips etc. You can be balanced and robust but also have a lot of flair like Spain had at the euros. The big winners out of this should be Mainoo and Wharton - that role alongside Rice is absolutely key. Wonder what Lineker, Shearer et al will say - they were advocating all out attack...

Annoying older supporter comment but tbh when we play two away games in a week like this we usally struggle to pick up points. Compared to recent seasons actually getting the game back to level pegging is quite a significant improvement. Usually we are dead as soon as we concede the first.... Frustrating but as long as we put a good performance next game at home we can just move on.

Wonder if we'll see radical changes.... Really surprised after mid week that Wieman started.

More I think about this game the less confident I am... Just feels like we will be up against it after a long journey and they've won their last two at home against decent sides.

We need to convert Palmer to an out and out striker... we've got too many attacking mids / number 10s and he is so good he can play anywhere. Want to see him play up alongside Kane and running in behind. We don't want him getting into the same congested number 10 area of the pitch we have Kane, Foden, Bellingham, Grealish etc all looking to get into.

He seems less ideological than JDT definitely who was fully invested in his style. Mowbray tried a number of different ways of playing under him to be fair. I never thought he was particularly wedded to a set system. Apart from his absolute love of playing strikers as wingers, which really really annoyed me.

Tough side to predict... got absolutely hammered against Cov, everyone was very poor. A long long trip to the South Coast. I'd say if Brittain is fit he should come in as Pickering and Carter at full back really slows down us coming out from the back. Guyue should get a crack as Yuki really struggled on Tuesday, though I am beginning to get the sense Eustace doesn't rate him... Probably Hedges to come back in too. He gets pelters but we look a lot more robust with him in the middle of the park. I'd be incredibly surprised if Pears gets dropped for Toth. He's broadly been good until Cov, and if we were itching to bring Toth in it would have happened by now. I would give Toth a go personally but I can't see Eustace going for it. Not sure if Cantwell starting is the right call but now he's into the side I would be surprised if he was dropped. Reckon the team will be : Pears Brittain Carter Hyam PIckering Travis Tronstad Dolan Cantwell Hedges Gueye.