Exiled_Rover

WBA were just playing cross-field ball after cross-field ball against Pickering. They identified his lack of pace and isolated him - it was painful to watch.

Give over, Brereton runs his blood to water.

When you say 'poor team selection', you mean a complete lack of squad depth, right? Gallagher was knackered on Sunday. Hedges was clearly very tired. It's just a shame our backups are Dolan, Vale and Markanday (who's injured AGAIN I believe?). Two games a week with this squad is brutal.

How far off is Batty? He's the next wonderkid in our Academy, right? Edun can't play there. Pickering struggles to play as an attacking FB (essentially a WB) in this formation.

Watch how often there's acres of space for him to carry the ball into and he has zero interest in doing so. He's meant to play like Brittain, but looks for the easy pass instead - it completely ruins the balance of the team.

What's that saying again? Ewood Park doesn't hold a crowd, it holds a jury. Bloody hell.

I don't know who the final names will be, but I've been pleased with the calibre of player we've been linked to - that said we need a proper CF for tough games where the ball keeps coming back at us. Vale, Dolan and Szmodics today - are any of them over 5'9"? We're desperate for a LB too - Pickering offers absolutely nothing going forward and gets roasted if isolated against pace.

Please stop with the conspiracy theories on every thread. If it doesn't get done then Broughton and JDT won't be here for very long - we don't need to be constantly reminded of it. When it came to putting their hand in their pockets the Venkys funded Gallagher, Armstrong and Brereton (and paid Downing a fortune to do very little). I hate them as owners, but they're clearly willing to spend money.

Or literally having nobody else to play.

No wonder they're trying to loan that Leicester lad in. Vale is miles off this standard. Absolutely miles off.

We don't play with a 4 man midfield.

Signing players would be a start.

I'm not sure he'll ever learn - the one thing he did all first half (I think we was released down the right by Szmodics?) he still messed up. That was dying for an early ball across the box to Brereton. Instead he stopped, tried a little trick and killed the move. His decision making is terrible.

You've just listed three players that aren't good enough for this team. Dolan is the closest, but at best he's energy to bring off the bench for 10 minutes. Gallagher was out on his feet against WBA and Hedges looked jaded too - Dolan and Vale might as well not have played tonight. That's why the midfield looked poor - nothing stuck up front, no runs were made and the ball just kept coming back at us.

Rubbish. He had to drop into our half to even sniff the ball today - that's not what we signed him for. He's a very tidy player.

He has no-one to pass to.

He's a warm body at the moment. Will be loaned out if our summer business ever happens.

He doesn't have any other options, that's the problem - one he keeps highlighting.

This shows the weakness of the squad - two games a week is brutal on us. Gallagher was out on his feet at the weekend and Hedges tired badly too. We need another quality attacking player at a minimum.

This transfer is unbelievably messy. Leeds, Wolves, Bournemouth, Everton, Brighton, Nice and Sevilla have all been linked. Just bloody buy the lad at the price we want or bugger off.

You should be, our Academy is our biggest advantage in this league. The only Cat 1 Academy outside the PL I believe - currently have 9 (I think?) Academy graduates in the first team squad and obviously just saw 2 Academy graduates leave after putting in hundreds of appearances for us. Its our life blood.

He's not staying in his current position though, is he. They're trying to get him tied down to a professional contract which would be significantly more than his current scholarship contract. Clearly you subscribe to the "look after #1 and f' everyone else" mindset though.

Like for like, yes. Replacing him with two players who are better than Dolan / Hedges / Markanday et al, not so much. It's a squad game, if the money is reinvested properly we'd be better for it.

Its only devastating if we lose Brereton on or near deadline day and don't have time to bring in multiple replacements with the money. Don't get me wrong, he's a very good player, but he's not irreplaceable - it would require Broughton and co to earn their coin though!

Found and developed himself, did he? This attitude that you just look out for #1 is why society is in the state it is. I'm not asking him to sign a 10 year deal with a Championship club if he's clearly destined for the top - I'm just asking that he doesn't slink off to some poxy London club for a sliver of his real value because of a technicality. Bellingham handled it correctly.