At least we didn’t give him a 5 year contract or whatever it was after 8 good games at right back, 2 months after looking so far out of his depth most fans felt sorry for him.

A few who watch a lot of Scottish football (Celtic ) said this at the time but we’re shot down as being biased and not welcoming the second coming of Christ to Ewood. Everyone’s cottoning on now to the the fact he’s a show pony, and a lame one at that!

Our world beating number 8 running the show against a poor side again……… thought not

Absolutely, my point was more disproving this idea that he's effective and it's the fault of what's in front of him rather than him. I think he's currently on exactly the same number of goals and direct assists as Brittain

Josh Maja is 12.7, Finn Azzaz 13.3, Josh Windass 9, in terms of being a creative player of the so called quality of Cantwell it's not great IMO. Breaks down at he's expected to score 2 goals and create 5 over the course of the season. As a 'direct' comparison - Dack was 23.5 before his ACL and in the 20 games he played when he returned it was up at 8.4, which when you consider how many of them were him working his way back it says a lot IMO. For comparison against other 'talismanic players' (excluding SS as he was a freak) and so called crap players, in 22-23 BBD was 15.1, the season before that it was 19, with Rothwell and Gallagher both with scores of 10, in that season Josh Bowler was on 11. Armstrong 27, BBD 15, Rothwell on 9 again and Gallagher on 8 in the season prior to that. So all in all I think it's a really poor return for a player of his supposed quality especially when compared with others, some of which were largely considered to be crap.

Posted this in the transfer thread but thought it might be of interest to those in the debate I've just looked it up the stats in terms of forward actions for Cantwell to run a statistical view against my own visual and personal opinion. Cantwell is 19th in the league for shot creating actions per 90, virtually every club in the league has a more effective creator at this moment in time. In terms of actions that lead directly to a goal he's 51st with Dolan our highest ranked player at 15th and Gueye at 31st. Hedges and Dolan have the most progressive carries at 41st and 49th respectively with Cantwell 68th. Progressive passes wise we've got Tronstad and Travis at 31st and 47th with Cantwell at 62nd. He is our highest ranked non penalty XG and assist XG ranked player at 6.7 over the season, made up of 1.9 non pen XG and 4.8 assist XG.

I've just looked it up the stats in terms of forward actions for Cantwell to run a statistical view against my own visual and personal opinion. Cantwell is 19th in the league for shot creating actions per 90, virtually every club in the league has a more effective creator at this moment in time. In terms of actions that lead directly to a goal he's 51st with Dolan our highest ranked player at 15th and Gueye at 31. Hedges and Dolan have the most progressive carries at 41 and 49 respectively with Cantwell 68th. Progressive passes wise we've got Tronstad and Travis at 31 and 47 Cantwell at 62. He is our highest ranked non penalty XG and assist XG ranked player at 6.7 over the season, made up of 1.9 non pen XG and 4.8 assist XG.

Agreed, I think the added time Buckley has in a deep role affects his decision making, in a sense of he has too many options, dithers and either loses it or makes the wrong decision. When he's further forward and with less time/space he's much more reactive and effective. I think we will definitely go to a 3 back tonight, it's just a matter of what midfield looks like which could be realistically be any 2 from the 4 of Buckley, JRC, Forshaw and Garrett. I reckon we will end up with a formation that looks something like Tuchels' 3-4-2-1

exactly, good players make things happen regardless of what they''ve got playing alongside them.

he's been doing it all season, for all the noise and bluster about him his performances were distinctly average at the start of the season, he had a good game against Leeds at home but outside of that and 1 or 2 others his performances have been forgettable. If you compare him to other creators we've had they run games regardless of who is around them. I get that as a 'marquee' big name signing people want him to do well, as do I but the fact is in terms of what we've invested in wages we're getting very little return and to attribute his lack of form/quality/decision making to others is unfair on those other players. I look at the amount of games we've lost 1-0, tight games that need a spark of quality from your playmaker, someone to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and go win it, Cantwell isn't doing that and ultimately thats what he's getting paid for.

I've no problem with slowing the game down when needed, however I don't think slowing it down is through choice with TC it's through habit and/or deficiencies in his overall technique. Whilst he looks a very competent technical player he is rarely able to receive and play without needing correcting touches, it's not that he doesn't have the quality it's because he's a terrible habit of his body orientation meaning he receives the ball with closed shoulders, taking the ball backwards or inside and needs then to take extra touches to get out of his feel. Compare to Travis and Tronstad who play back foot at every opportunity due their body positioning ultimately being much better. The problem is also compounded by TC dropping into areas he's not needed and asking/receiving the ball with his back to play thus needing additional touches.

I've said this all along re Cantwell and glad people are catching on, he drops deep because teams know he won't hurt them there. They let him play, take his 47 touches, slow the ball down while they get set and watch Rovers play the ball around in front of them. If you compare how quickly Travis/Tronstad transfer the ball forward it's night and day, they play 1 and 2 touch, and orient their body in a way that allows them to try to play forward as much as possible, Cantwells' first first touch is invariably backwards, then requiring additional touches to turn and play forward slowing the game down

He's looking increasingly like the player who has spent the last few years on loan and Tik Tok than anything resembling the breakthrough player at Norwich. For the vast majority of this season he's looked like a bad Eyal Berkovic impersonator, dropping painfully deep, taking far too many touches and playing the ball backward, sidewards or a pointless crossfield pass. Gives the ball away so much it's painful. Perfect example on saturday, ball comes in to him in midfield with pressure behind instead of just setting the ball back to Beck or Hyam, turning and receiving it again on his back foot to play forward he takes 4 touches and starts dribbling backwards. This is Oxfords trigger to press, he then dribbles deeper and deeper to the point he's on the byline, at which point he skews a left footed clearance to their right back and they have us 6 v 5 because he's put everyone under pressure needlessly.

Cantwell has the same number of assists and goals as Brittain, played more games too. For a so called top level creator his returns are very poor, his tendency to lose the ball in deep possessions only compounding the issue of his lack of match winner stats. Not had an assist since boro and I’d argue that beck made the greater goal contribution in that one to boot

North End always win at Ewood too, we tend to reserve some of our worst performances of the year for their visit. That 4-1 haunts me to this day (even though we reversed it at Dumpdale)

With Tronstad out Travis will be a different player. Tronstad has enabled Travis to be much more expansive and forward thinking knowing he has the safety and solidity alongside him.

Problem is that Cantwell drops deeper and deeper because teams let him turn and play in deeper areas. For all the noise about him I’m yet to see him come close to running a game for us. Dolan, Buckley and JRC get endless stick (warranted) for being 1 in 5 players, Cantwell is roughly 1 in 8 over the season and getting paid a hell of a lot more than those 3

I can honestly count his good performances on 1 hand, he’s done next to sod all in any of the games where we weren’t comfortable winners.

Our superstar creator Cantwell has been invisible again

Can we bring Gueye back on as an impact sub……….

Good free kick, although questions over pears as it’s not really top corner , Brittain has to make the foul after an awful pass from Forshaw

I’m hoping we do a Hull/Watford here and are crap for the bast majority yet sun 1-0

ACD looking very much a PL2 player at the moment. Making mistakes you get away with in academy football and can’t in men’s football. Got very lucky with the last one, trying to make a pass that was never there

Hell of a strike from Bucko, has looked like the Buckley who broke through not the one we’ve seen recently

Largely due to cost and the embarrassingly low numbers of places available. They basically only get offered to those in the elite game. To do a level 2 qual (eufa C license) it’s £650 quid. I did my b license in wales at a fraction of the cost of doing it in Uk and at the time I probably wouldn’t have even got a place.