Is that this season or since JDT joined? Do you have a link to it as looks like a great site!

Plenty doubting him (including me) after one or two games as seen by the timestamps at the start of the thread. If it had been a few months I think thats fair enough. Reading through the thread think most fans was onboard with him being decent by mid October. Just saying the 7 new signings will need similar time to bed in. 6-10 games.

Well, they (including me amongst them) were wrong in terms of him being a poor or unnecessary player.

Hard to know who will play given the injuries on the weekend.... For what it's worth I would probably look to switch to 433 rather than 4231 as the two holding midfielders were getting overrrun on Saturday. Need an extra body in there. I am assuming Travis and Gallagher will sit it out due to their knocks. With Gallagher out and Ennis not fit leaves us with a choice of Telalovic or Leonard for number #9 which is not ideal. Pears Brittain Carter Hyam Pickering JRC Wharton Garret Hedges Telalovic Szmodics Subs : Wahlstedt, Hill, Wharton, Tronstad, Moran, Leonard, Dolan

Going back to the start of this thread is a great example of why not to judge new players too early..... Szmodics is fantastic for us, and while he nominally plays in Dack's number 10 role he is a totally different sort of player who is more reminiscent of Crag Bellamy in his style. If he had more pace (and he's not slow) Szmodics would be a premier league player. I like everything about him. Stepping back - the two main signings we got last year - Hyam and Szmodics - have turned out to be brilliant. Hoping that the signings this year are similar quality. But we do need to give them a couple of months to bed in.

Szmodics is much more mobile than Dack, covers a lot more ground and runs the channels etc, so I think he would make a much better fist of playing as a 9 imo than Dack . Still he's great at 10, we should leave him there. Need one of Gallagher, Ennis or Telalovic to make the number 9 role really work. Difference between mid table or playoffs for us.

Usually on by nowish on a Sunday. Defo by 5pm.

Yeah, compared to other debuts Telalovic didnt look too bad. Few players look world beaters out of the gate. Dont think we really should expect big things from him in the short term.

Is Szmodics actually better than a fully fit Dack? Im beginning to think so...

Gallaghers been great in everything except finishing.... for me id probably bring Telalovic on for Dolan and move Gallagher onto the left. Need Gallagher on to defend the set pieces too! Only other player at threat is I think Travis. Must be tempting to bring JRC on for him as hes played some poor passes. But again he's been good defensively. Anyway great performance all round. We are a very good team imo. Just need to add finishing and we are going places.

Yes, what I took away from interviews is really how little say JDT has. He has to work with what hes given. He obviously accepts thats the model, but equally he is frustrated. My feeling is while JDTs been calling out Waggott, he will start doing the same with Broughton if the new signings are not up to muster.

Only if 1) we have a poor season and other clubs lose interest, or 2)we get promoted, or 3) Venkys/new owners find a decent transfer budget. Id say theres a 30% chance hes here next season.

Should really win this one. If everyone's fit we have a strong team imo, except up front. Im not at all banking on it but so curious to see if Telalovic looks the business. Im sure JDT is too as I sincerely doubt he would have explicitly wanted Semir. Im sure Broughton and the scouts just found him and showed JDT a few videos. If he comes on and looks decent everyone will be pleased. If he struggles I think quite a few will be sharpening the knives - including I think JDT given his interviews. (Im not saying JDT will personally attack Telalovic, just he will repeatedly say he wanted an experienced striker etc) Dont think theres ever been so much pressure on such an untested new signing before. Hope its an inspired one like Samba.

He speaks really well and really clearly, like everything about how he communicates. But in terms of how good he is at the job we dont really know until Ennis, Sigurdsson, Moran, Wahlstedt, Tronstad, Telalovic and Hill have racked up some proper game time. He could be a genius, he could be bang average. We just have no idea.

We've had years of essentially very little happening at all, and a lot of recent changes - budget cut, the seizure of Venkys propoerty and new director joining. I reckon something significant is going on. For me I am happy to see it. I would prefer either more engagement with the club by Venkys or a decision by them to sell the club over the continuing status quo of absentee landlordism.

Not sure tbh, its a big jump to go from a very offensive style to a defensive one. I cant think of many who have done it successfully. Most teams that do well after promotion are solid defensively. But anyway if we even get the chance to try Ill be very happy.

For what it's worth seems a pretty accurate articulation of how we play. We put a lot of players forward when we attack - 6,7,8 in and around the box at a time - and if we turn the ball over and get countered we expect the 2,3,4 players left behind to handle it on their own until we get back into shape. What's interesting about it is you would expect us to concede a lot on the counter, but - Plymouth excepting - we've not been too bad this season and last. We'd get absolutely murdered in the Premier League but in the Championship the quality isn't there to really punish us on the break I think. My one question mark on JDT when he eventually gets a crack at the big time - here or elsewhere - is when he is playing against higher quality can he adapt? Kompany is currently getting torn a new one.

It's not clear to me if Telalovic is expected to come in as a starter or not. On experience it looks like Ennis and Gallagher will be well ahead of him?

We can all get worked up on here, but really we don't know how good or bad we are until we see the new players play. The most important thing is can Ennis, Telalovic, Sigurdsson finish the many chances we are creating.

The one silver lining in the reduction of the operating costs is that it does in the long run make it feasible for a reasonable business person to consider buying the club. Im not really sure though how much further we need to go to get to break even point on income versus costs? Do any of our financial experts have insight? Also I guess what would be interesting is where we comparatively we are on the league table in terms of income ignoring player trading and parachute payments? I would guess around 15th? But not sure? Does anyone have a view?

JDT seems a good egg, also one not keen to walk away from millions of pounds of compensation, so I cant see him quitting, but its clear as soon as someone comes in he's gone. And cant blame him at all. A couple of points 1- when the approach is made Venkys have to accept it right? That itself given Venkys behaviours could be interesting. Are they going to slap a massive compensation fee on him and refuse to allow him to go till met? That will be interesting 2- Presumably Gregg's already well aware the way the wind is blowing and has a short list of candidates to replace JDT

To be fair we have looked better in terms of creating and finishing chances this season until yesterday. Hopefully it's a one off. Other thing to be optimistic about is Ennis, Telalovic, Sigurdsson are all forwards who based on their scoring records at lower levels should bring better finishing. So we need to see whether we improve after the international break. But it is hope rather than expectation given Gallagher is the only player in the squad whose scored more than 10 goals in a Championship season.

Thought we played well to be honest. Just the same old finishing being the issue, and some mistakes in the final 10 minutes. What is more concerning is JDTs press conference. Feels like things may come to a head soon.

Think weve been pretty good, just usual struggles with final ball and finishing. Not really sure Id change much tbh. If Buckley was around Id be tempted to bring him on for Travis. Maybe give Garrett a go?

Great start from us. Interesting we seem to be playing two up top again with Szmodics alongside Gallagher. Its like a 4132.