Had a look on the forums. Seems Paul Ince is not playing him (I mean Ince forced out Brad Friedel so if he's pushing you out maybe that's an endorsement?) Plus they've got a couple of big name big salary target men - Andy Carroll, Shane Long - so can see why Joao's being let go... No hint on the forums about attitude or anything. Seems perfect to me.

EFL player of the month Feb 22, scored 33 Championship goals in 77 starts in last 2.5 seasons.... pretty good? I will read the Reading Forums in interest.

Strikes me as the sort of player who could play well into his 30s... not particularly about pace. More strength, technique and movement. Like Graham could see him being a very good number nine up to 35ish. Danny Graham played for us from ages 31 to 35. If there is a realistic chance to sign him, and he passes medical, I'd say we should do everything to get him. But I suspect the Parachute teams will all be having a close look so not sure if realistic at all for us.

https://the72.co.uk/2023/01/27/reading-bracing-for-late-interest-in-29-year-old-says-journalist/

I liked him a lot. Is this a comment in terms of him being available or any news coming from sources at the club? Would be very happy with him. Good in the air, on the floor, strong, worries defences, achieved a 1 in 2 goal ratio in the Championship over a couple of seasons. Hard to think of many better options.

Are we still at 105% though after we lost a lot of senior players (Johnson, Lenihan, Rothwell etc)? What accounting period was the wage turnover for?

Of course its possible. Weve played over half the season and we're fourth....!

I suspect Sorba Thomas

Bugger - are we looking at other strikers? E.g. Arron Collins or Colby Bishop mentioned on here before?

Ah I see what you mean! I suppose the counter argument is if 442 is viable why does virtually no one play it?

Not sure if you misread my post - I was saying 442 is very rare. I was not saying we don't play 4231 - it's our favorite formation, and probably most favored formation in world football imo.

Front two does happen quite a lot in the modern game in 352. Indeed we've played three or four games in that structure this season. 442 is dead due to the lack of number in the centre of the pitch but 352 get's round that.

Yes - this exactly.... for Gally, BBD and Vale a combination of not being able to win a contested ball and being poor at finding space in the box (or even getting in the box at all) leads to no opportunity for crosses whatsoever. It seems a very straight forward solution for our ills to find someone whose reason for living is to get in the penalty box and beat a centreback to a cross or a through ball. Why are we not looking for that player? In fact we could really do with two.

I guess my problem with it is that where we struggle is not really so much on the transition... we have players who can break and run with the ball. Obviously getting a player who is (hopefully) better at doing that is good. But it doesn't really solve the major problem which is having the right players in the box to finish off. We had a quality crosser for half a season in Giles but got very little out of him as we had no one to get on the crosses. This could be very similar. So I'm hoping this Sorba is the Conway to an as yet unnamed Gestede who will turn up imminently.

Or how about the last Hibbee we missed out on - John McGinn... We can't compete with Watford financially due to parachute payments. Not a lot we can do about it.

Um didn't Chris Wood sign for Forest a couple of days ago??? And he's on loan from Newcastle anyway...

Why are we signing a winger on loan?? I get it if its someone whose become available who is decent for the long term and we sign perm even if we don't need them right now. But why sign a player in a position we are well covered for half a season. Especially when we desperately need central strikers? Looking forward to eating my words if he turns out a good un. But seems strange.

So odd... in the "wide forward" role we have BBD, Dolan, Hedges, Markanday all fighting for two spots. Plus Szmodics and Gallagher fill in there. I guess it's a case of him being good and available so we've gone for him even though it's not an immediate need.

I was dead against him when he joined as I couldn't really see the need, but he's grown on me. Like Dack he knows how to find space in the box - just him and Brad have that ability. Also works very hard. Decent technically too. I wonder if when he's fit if we will play him and Dack together up front? Would seem a bit odd as they are similar players and neither of them strikers, but can see it happening as Vale is struggling and Gallagher unfit/unfavoured.

Yeah agreed..... not at all a priority position for us even if he's decent. So strange if we sign him.

Yes this was always good - just the links, no comment allowed...

Sadly true, can't think of any player who has regressed so much. He did fine under JDTs system at the start of the season, I am not really sure it's the system thats an issue... seems like confidence.

Problem with that is we lose all our width... I don't really want to change our system again but if we wanted to play two up top the way to do it is 352 as then the wingbacks can provide the width.

Huge respect to Dack for coming back from two ACLs and probably putting in more yards each game than he ever has for us. Dack's been well managed by JDT imo. Shame we don't have someone up top like Graham who Dack could thrive working with. I am still really bemused that we don't seem to be looking for an old school number nine - it's what the team really really needs from lots of different angles (partner to Dack, someone who can get on the end of crosses and worry defences, a plan B if the opposition are defending deep and we can't pass through them).

To qualify this miserable post I would try a couple of things actually... let's give Morton a rest, try Adam Wharton in there, bring back Dolan and Gallagher. Give BBD a rest as he has been really struggling for form. Gallagher gets a lot of very valid stick - poor touch, lacks scoring instincts, not good in the air. But he gives defences a lot more to worry about than Vale just through his athleticism. I cant really see why Vale would ever start ahead of him tbh. Team for me Kaminski JRC Carter S Wharton Pickering Buckley A Wharton Hedges Dack Dolan Gallagher