Lancaster Rover

If nobody else was signing players, the description of the market would stack up. But when Saturdays opponents who are under a transfer embargo can bring in (on paper) better signings than us then you have to question things.

The creativity argument is a bit of a red herring, I mentioned it last week but Brittain created 40 chances last year which only converted to 2 direct and 2 indirect assists. Which to me tells me an awful lot about out ability to finish chances

With the greatest respect, who is buying our remaining players at fee's that would allow us to make upgrades. Some will work out some won't is tired trope, we've not signed anyone this year who looks an obvious upgrade on what was there before them. That player trading model has one outcome I'm afraid.

He can't tackle that's for sure, his inability to step in or even divert players played a huge role in both goals.

We may indeed have 2 players for every position, however that argument is nonsensical if they’re substandard. Across the squad the back up option is questionable or untried at this level. Christ if we’re honest half the first choices aren’t up to it. I don’t think anyone is advocating stock piling players, however what they are saying is bringing in quality that can have an impact now. Every player we’ve signed is less equipped to perform than their predecessor, I’m hesitant to say downgrade as it’s early days but the signs are there for all to see.

Macron headquarters/distribution are based out of North Manchester, so they’ve not even gone far for that one

I watched the Atletico v Espanyol game and was struck by how different Dolan was in his willingness to cross early. His first involvement in the game he did his trademark slow down to try and speed up routine and got clamped fairly easily. From there on it was a case of touch out of his feet and whip it in, he looked effective to be fair to the lad.

I text my lad (who is at the game) at half time that Cantwell needed to do more, so fair play on the second half impact

Thanks, I missed the first couple of minutes so didn’t catch who it was. I’ve been wracking my brains thinking of an injured/squad player whose scouse that it could have been

Who is the co-comms on ifollow, scouser

Cheers, my point was more in reference to quality rather than character, etc. I was trying to highlight the points he was making about the data being a factor in decision making and in most cases it being the one that holds the least weight. I personally don’t think Gueye is a championship player and I’m on the fence re Ohashi. I wouldn’t class miller in the same bracket as with the SPL being so accessible it’s like signing a player from the champ/league 1.

Journalist - "so Rudy any news on the right winger addition"? Rudy - "ooh isn't Lewis Travis a naughty boy" everyone look in the opposite direction

I can understand the standpoint of contracts for players over 30 however there needs to be some consideration to games played at the level of(or comparable). We have an average age of 26.5, which is right in the middle of the champ average squad age. 25 years olds who've played a lot of games are great, however I'd prefer a 32 year old with 400 games over a 21 year old with 20 when considering the nature of the championship. I'm sure Gestede, etc will point to data, ceilings, etc but the one thing with football data is good analysts also use context and most importantly their eyes. I listened to an excellent podcast last week with the Head of Recruitment at Coventry, Dean Austin. He was highlighting the importance of context and using what you see in front of you with data playing a supporting role. He gave an anecdote of a player from overseas Coventry were all in on, so much so he went over to do a physical scouting exercise. The data on the player was all there, ticked every box. Going over was seen as merely due diligence and confirmation on what was going to be a big outlay. He watched 2 games and 2 training sessions and went from being all in to all out. Because no matter what the data was telling him, his eyes saw something different. And herein lies the problem with Gestede, Suhail et al they seem to be working purely on data and looking for a certain profile of player (i.e. age, height, running stats, recoveries, etc) and not taking into account contextual factors.

I totally agree, I think it’s stark juxtaposition of the two periods in history so obviously laid out in front of us that make me uncomfortable/so aware of it. As a 40 year old I’ve been very lucky in the heights I’d seen, fans older than me suffered many more dark days than I, the first 25 years of my life were mainly seeing rovers on the up or at the very pinnacle of success. It’s the almost wilful neglect of the Venky’s era against the image of Jack that drives our situation home most.

As for the game, a front 4 of Kyogo, Stansfield, Gray and Anderson terrifies me

I find the cashing in/using Jack as a deflection tactic being employed more and more the last 6 months. Anytime there is unrest it seems a reference to a time (these lot have no place talking about) when Rovers were something to be proud of is rolled out. It really sticks in my craw

I was having this discussion with my son, in the 30 years prior to his birth I’d never seen us lose to them. In the first 10 years of his life he’s not seen us win.

Getting relegated in your 150th anniversary season is so Venky’s. Might as well give derby the points now for the official anniversary game.

The disrespect to name Cantwell in the same sentence as Taraabt is quite something

Stinks of Owen Coyle does this

So we've not added any strikers, no RW and no 8 from what I can see, as neither Tavares or Henrikksen are 8's. Outside of the outgoing that needed replacing immediately i.e. McLoughlin and Miller we've added players in non priority positions in another LB/LWB and another CDM and another CAM. Good strategy that completely going against your initial strategy you've worked on over a number of months in relation to issues in the previous season.

I can categorically say he’s 100% lying on this occasion, he’s wholeheartedly talking out of Hoop

Not sure where this nonsense about academy staff not rating him has come from. He was widely regarded as a generational talent, the only concern was his physical stature, as he was a late developer in that respect.

Yep, that’s what I mean by nuisance factor. Part of our problem is we don’t get enough players around him to take advantage of his hold up play or ability to roll defenders. Re Giles, if you mean direct assists from Gueye scoring I’m not sure, if it’s knockdowns, etc maybe. Saying that though I had a look last week and Brittain created over 40 goal scoring chances yet ended up 4 direct assists/goal contributions. Which says a hell of a lot about our goal scoring ability across the team

My concern is that outside of centre-half and left back and current CM’s we look wafer thin. A team of unknowns, not yets and never beens. The primary issue being where are goals coming from, Ohashi is an 8 - 10 a season man, we all love Gueye’s personality and smile but let’s face it outside of nuisance factor he’s crap. With good service there is max 16-20 goals between them, where are the others coming from? Off the top of my head I reckon the rest of our team have no more than 25 champ goals between them