We need players in early but wont get them.

Signing players from League 2 Chesterfield where even Markanday is thriving doesnt really scream Venkys funding a promotion push. Mind you, nothing they do does.

Raya post Rovers? Of course. Raya for rovers? Kaminski was definitely better. I get we have availability issues and an underfunded squad, but surely we dont need to play as many as 4 full backs and it would suggest that ACD simply isnt up to it. He and Baker would start for me. Its a tough one at right back if Brittain is well enough as he was playing well then JRC covered him very well. Rather than cram both in, it makes sense to stick with the latter if he is fit enough as he was cramping up and leaving Brittain out due to the illness that will have set him back. Gueye in for Ohashi, Baker for Cantwell, ACD for Dolan with the last attacking spot going to either Beck ahead of Pickering or Dolan. The back 7 keep their places.

I dont get why discussing in general whether Gueye got the final touch on the goal is deemed as people trying to take it off him.

Its not enough though to just offer hard work and defensive protection though as an attacker. Neither (especially Hedges) offers anywhere near enough going forward. As a full back, you are happy facing them. Would you consider the knocking to be abuse like with Dolan? Gallagher (when fit) was bang average but Gueye has not shown that he is a serious upgrade in any way so far. Lets hope last night is a springboard to changing that. I think the perception of a pre and post Burnley red card difference is overstated personally. As Gueye was new he was naturally offered more of a benefit of the doubt. He did assist a couple but one was a knock down where Weimann half volleyed it from 30 yards.

Yeah, Tronstad did his job well as he has done consistently for a while. Breaks up play, protects the defence, reads the game well and uses the ball well especially to start counter attacks. Definitely agree on Eustace squeezing everything out of a limited squad. The issues lie in attack where years of the owners refusing to even allow us to spend a reasonable chunk of sales proceeds on new attacking players has left us blunt. A freebie from the Preston youth team, a nominal fee signing from Aberdeen and a nominal fee from Japan dont threaten opposition defences. Eustace us so well organised and Tronstad's work is a big factor.

Has he done a decent job? There was a lot of criticism aimed at Bournemouth when he was sacked which I think might have been because he is an English manager. It was similar when Southampton sacked Adkins and appointed Pochettino, Iraola has come in and massively improved them. Wolves have lost key players but they dont have the 2nd worst squad in the league. Didnt you say they should have backed Ten Hag?

Is your opinion of Tronstad in any way linked to who signed him?

Great result again, to get 5 wins on the spin with 4 of those away from home is a very good achievement. The performance wasnt brilliant but again the key was how well organised we were at the back. Pears didnt have much to do (made a mistake at the end but was bailed out by Gueye) with the defence dealing with everything. Hyam has been back to the form of his first season (or even better) whilst not getting necessarily the plaudits and Batth has proven to be a really steady signing. We are strong at full back where Beck again was very good and JRC came in from the cold with a very impressive performance. Tronstad again patrolled the midfield alongside Travis as we have come to expect. Gueye has had lots of question marks and todays cameo doesnt make the criticism he has had any less valid as he has been really poor to date. But tonight he looked a different player. Im not sure if it was his goal but it was a great leap but his performance aside from that was night and day to what we have seen. Not only in attack but even defensively, often (as was the case at the weekend) he is more of a hindrance than a help, today he was heading crosses away and made a fantastic interception to stop a certain goal. I hope he is awarded the goal as it will do him the world of good. Our attack again was blunt and its an area that badly needs reinforcing, Eustace is really doing brilliantly to keep us winning despite it. Ohashi looks lost, Hedges is not up to it and Dolan again doesnt really offer anything. Cantwell's first time passing when we counter is really important to how we play and his stupid yellow card was really irresponsible and he will be a big miss.

He didnt play at Hillsborough.

I would disagree there. Which teams do you think they would get in and would they be starting or squad players? Dolan has not improved his productivity despite being more of a main man. He will get you 4 or 5 goals and flatter to deceive most of the time. Ohashi hasnt looked like scoring since an initial flurry over the first 5 games, he went through at the weekend and I never felt like he would score, he dithered and his shot was blocked.

The defensive work is testament to the manager. The attacking players (the likes of Hedges, Dolan, Ohashi and Gueye) wouldnt get close to the other top level Championship squads and arent scoring hence why the fact that we are repeatedly grinding out narrow wins and sit 6th in spite of that is even more impressive.

They do but either way we couldnt afford him and they wouldnt sell him at that price to us anyway.

Such an amount of money even if it is installments wasnt all needed in addition to gate receipts and TV money to cover a stripped down wage budget so that doesnt add up. Of course they may try and claim that.

I wonder if his agent would advise him to look around at potential openings at clubs who genuinely want to get promoted. If he left now with us in 6th but unlikely to sustain it due to the squad, off the back of being sacked in 6th at Birmingham which was widely regarded as unfair, his reputation at this level would be particularly strong.

Which of our other attacking players get in the squads of the other sides high up in the league, and which sides? I agree that we are picking up wins because of our defensive work. Thats my point, its not a criticism of Eustace but praise. Our attack is so limited and lacking in goals that only excellent organisation can continue to win us points.

Perhaps, either way, hes not coming here for £1m for 2 main reasons. They wouldnt sell and we wouldnt have that to spend.

Even when we sell key players we get nothing to spend. Hardly a guess that requires any insider info.

He hasnt had a good time in the last couple of years and Preston fans have been very critical on his lack of goals but he has picked up lately. Either way, even if we had it and even allowing for his expiring contract, they arent selling him to us for a million. And it doesnt take detective Nixon to realise that we almost certainly wont be spending any 7 seven figure fees in January. Venkys have no interest in what happens in the rest of the season.

I didnt say Baker wasnt effective. I said he was solid but just not as effective as Travis. He would certainly be 3rd choice there. And because we can still improve, we are winning despite offering minimal attacking threat so I would like to give ACD a go.

Its testament to the manager that he has us where we are with a poor attack. See some stats below which back that up. The only attacking player we have who might get into other Championship squads is Cantwell. Im guessing you think others would. Have they? We are scoring 1.22 per game this season compared to 1.3 per game last season when we nearly went down. You look at some of the usual suspects and whether they have been able to step up. Dolan is on only 2 goals and Hedges 1. They havent stepped up in terms of scoring more to compensate for the lack of Szmodics in any way. Only 2 players in Weimann and Ohashi have more than 2 and they only have 4, with the latter having not scored any since a great initial burst. In the last 13 league games, Ohashi has 0, Gueye obviously has 0, Hedges has 0 and Dolan had the one deflected goal against Swansea. Cantwell only has the 1 penalty to add to that, we have as a team scored 10 in those 13 games including yesterdays own goal. Eustace has done so well to get us picking up points in spite of a misfiring attack by having us so hard to beat, they havent stepped up. We have kept 7 clean sheets in those 13 games hence why we have picked up 20 points, in those 8 games we picked up points we conceded 1 goal.

A slight injury apparently. If he is back I would probably push Beck further forward and give ACD a start on the other side. Its an area of the side that could do with a change. Travis in for Baker who wasnt as effective but still filled in and was solid.

Im sure we will lose a game we have led in at some point, but I commented that Eustace really has us well drilled off the ball and its causing us to consistently get positive results in spite of having a poor attack which is credit to him. Hedges, Dolan and Ohashi again didnt offer a goal threat but after our fortunate goal, our organisation meant that a poor Hull side never looked likely to break us down.

Especially as hes scored a few goals lately for the first team really in years. There is zero chance of Preston selling us Riis for only £1m even with his contract not having long left, especially with them being relegation threatened. Although £1m will likely be beyond us anyway.

Its not as black and white as praising everyone after a win or indeed criticisng everyone after a defeat. I dont think today was a brilliant team performance but it was most importantly a good result. But I dont think Gueye is contributing positively to us because sadly he isnt up to it.