Seems its not just Rovers fans who are decrying the way the games going https://www.theguardian.com/football/when-saturday-comes-blog/2023/jan/18/lower-league-football-premier-league-pyramid

I had a look around online and realised- although there's no real official data I could find, just estimates - that actually we are probably lower mid table Championship in terms of wage spend.

Is anyone we would expect to have more money than us in for him? I mean we don't have a lot, but still more than 70% of the Championship.

Feels like an opportunistic thing because he is available, and presumably rated. His contract expired in December so just free. If he's good no problem with it, but hope we haven't been expending much resource on it as keeper is way down the priority list at the moment.

Had a look at the dreaded You Tube highlights.... seems to score mostly on the break, seems to be someone who can find a bit of space. He's also only 5ft 9. I know its a bit reductive to just say we need strikers who are over six feet. But I would be much happier if it was someone who can beat a centre back in the air in a congested box. Doesn't look like someone who can be a plan B if the opposition are sitting deep.

Good to see finally being linked to someone who scores regularly.

Also RSC and McCarthy were exceptional proven quality. Not really sure how Hughes swung them. But thats part of what made him such a good manager. I mean he got shaquiri to go to Stoke!

And in a non priority position..

Nothing lasts forever... Might be one year, might be ten but it will eventually.

It's genuinely the strangest thing I have ever seen in football. My guess is probably it's just sunk cost fallacy. They can't bear to write the £250M investment off, so just keep sinking the money in with the vague hope we will get promoted. At some point the wind will change and they will decide to cut and run. New leadership on the Venkys board, financial issues in the company meaning they need to cut costs etc. It's sure a matter of time. Don;t look forward to it on one hand - we will go through huge financial turbulence like Bolton etc. But on the other if we found new owners who had some competence in football and some connection and affection for the club then we could rebuild.

I was for 352 earlier in the season but think we have to commit to a system now. We can't keep flip flopping. We got turned over by Preston in the 352 so Im not sure going back is the answer.

Hard to get enthused after a diabolical second half against Rotherham.... humiliation so complete I think there may be quite a few changes come Saturday - I imagine Dolan will come in, Vale dropped, can actually see Morton being benched if we are allowed to... and after really struggling to get up the pitch all game at the New York stadium I could see Ayala being rested so we can play higher up. All assuming Hyam is fit and BBD available to come back in. Kaminski JRC Hyam S Wharton Pickering Buckley A Wharton Dolan Dack BBD Gallagher No idea the score.

If we get less than £5m for him we may as well keep him tbh. He may spark into life.

Sorry I meant Paul Gallagher! Like Ronaldinho compared to Sam Gallagher.

Paul Gallagher was really more of an attacking midfielder/number 10. I think culturally there has been a real focus on producing technical attacking midfielders rather than proper strikers across football for a long time. The volume of number 9s coming through is so low across the leagues. But think the tide is turning a bit. Players like Toney, Pukki, Watkins etc are really the ones who will get you promoted, and clubs are waking back up to it. We have to absolutely have find someone like that. Our entire scouting framework should be focused on it.

Yup.... especially since tactically we are all about through balls, and he takes all our set pieces. Needs to have a rest. But I think Liverpool have agreed he has to play every Championship game when fit.

I'd drop Morton for a game (if we are allowed to by the loan terms, which I doubt) and start Buckley and Adam Wharton. I suspect we will improve. If not we can always bring Morton on from the bench.

Yeah... there's a lot of folk who have already decided that JDT and Broughton need to go etc, but realistically they've only been here 5 minutes. It will take time, that's just football. You can appoint a manager who transforms the club overnight and you end up getting promoted (Cooper at Forest last season being a prime example). But that happens incredibly rarely, so if that's our target we will be turning over the entire structure of the club every 6 months until we strike gold, and to me that sounds more like a recipe for relegation than promotion if you havent got the resources to pay off the entire staff and hire new ones like Chelsea or Watford. Results are definitely bizarre, win games we should lose, lose games we should win. No draws. Definitely a challenge in creating and scoring goals.... First real test of the management for me is if we come out on 1st Feb looking like a team that can score more and make a comeback in games. If we are much the same team on 1st Feb as on December 31st with no progress, then that will be my first genuine concerns.

Yeah, with strikers it really does come down to you dropping levels till you start scoring... For Vale his only real route to making it at this level I can see is to become a poacher. He needs to figure out how to find space in the box. Hes way way too deep to do that, partly as we play way too deep to help him do that. He doesn't have the pace to play on the counter.

Jack Vale is a likeable busy player, whose tidy enough and works hard.... but his role we need players who score goals and worry centre backs. He just doesn't do that. He was supposed to be our centre forward on Saturday... how many times did he actually get in the box or get on the end of through balls? He caused the Rotherham defence zero worries... We need more dangerous forwards on the pitch.

Morton had another game yesterday where he did little that was incisive and lost the ball a few times. Not our worst performer, but no one looked at that performance and thought thats what a premier league midfield needs. As it stands he wouldnt get into Sheffield Utds midfield, let alone Liverpool's.

First half I was okay with, thought we played reasonable and looked dangerous, although we couldnt finish. Rotherham scored a good goal. Second half was totally unacceptable as we couldn't create anything at all, and our defending totally fell apart. There was no focal point to our attack. Weve got small wide forwards coming out of our ears. We need something different to change our approach. One quality central striker will transform the team.

For me if we had a decent central striker we will have won this game. As it is all six of our forwards who have dont want to get in the box... Need to find someone who can physically compete in the air and on the floor, and is all about goals.

Centre backs a bit different though. Scott Wartons a talent but I wouldnt say Carter or Ash Phillips are ready to start. Centre mid Buckley, Adam Wharton and Jake Garrett all are good enough to start and Morton is taking a space. It just seems a massive no confidence in those three to bring in an experienced player. One of them will seize the spot for me.

Gregg comes across so well... and I agree with everything he says tbh. What's the point in signing experienced players to block areas of the team where we have a lot of young talent (such as centre mid for us).