The conditions made it even more a case of just grinding a win out regardless of how you do it and it was again built on brilliant organisation off the ball which meant that a very poor Hull side struggled to create any meaningful chances. We dont have anywhere enough goal threat and a front 3 of Hedges, Dolan and Ohashi will be right at the bottom of the league in terms of quality. Eustace is getting the team to produce more than the sum of its parts but he needs help with reinforcements in January which I fear he may be frustrated on because the foundations are in place.

What utter rubbish. How is a sentence on a messageboard at the end of a post praising the manager and some players "bringing the team down?" Gueye is not good enough. If I start vocalising my opinion at games then fair enough, you might have a point. But he as with all the players continues to be backed in the ground, this is a messageboard where people share their opinions and they dont have to all be positive. The header could have gone anywhere and nearly went into his own net, and a set piece or two later he then got in Batth's way, he seems to cause more harm than help in his own defence. Of course including giving away a silly free kick. He showed 2 good bits of control but one led to a typical Gueye shot. I know you seem to have a higher opinion of him than most but he isnt up to it and he displayed signs of it even in a brief cameo. I think the fact that Eustace has said he wants another striker and with Gueye not first choice to begin with, perhaps he has a similar opinion.

Its one thing offering him a new deal, and another presumably making him top earner for 4 years.

Nearly scored an own goal, caused a confusion by getting in Batth's way in our own box, gave away a stupid free kick and got booked and hit a shot that flew back to Ewood.

He definitely doesnt warrant that.

Dreadful game but very satisfying result. Our attack is so poor, Hedges, Dolan and Ohashi offer no real threat week in week out so its testament to Eustace that he is managing to consistently churn out results with such a limited side and its a shame that he hasnt been given proper tools as who knows how well he could do. Off the ball, everyone knows exactly what they are doing. Thought the stand out player again was Beck who was excellent. The whole defence again stood up to task and Baker whilst not as effective as Travis slotted in nicely with Tronstad. Another calamitous cameo from Gueye. Just use Leonard ahead of him.

In general, I dont think the narrative that the grass isnt greener for many really applies anymore. It usually is, even if that involves spells of Premier League football followed by loans to play regular top end Championship football. With Dolan though, I dont think he necessarily will go onto bigger and better things. I dont think he should feel an obligation of loyalty though.

We have been in the top 6 twice in 3 years and we spent about half a million in fees across those 2 seasons. Why would it give them no hiding place.

Abuse only heard from Malta.

Rosenior is close to getting the sack at Strasbourg. I think with the players at his disposal last season questions were understandably asked at not being top 6.

The latest minutes are out and people from the club seem so keen to push how low the concession prices are, as if thats similar to if they reduced adult prices. Adult prices are the key, especially as they will likely be the ones footing the bill for the concession, its no good having cheap under age tickets if the adult cant afford or justify the cost of going. No questions seemingly on the massive hikes during various phases. Also, the pitch revamp would have cost £2.5m when it was priced up. The drainage system is from 1989, and the fact that our kind owners who "never fail to sign a cheque" refused to make the FFP exempt payment clearly is an issue.

Ring the ticket office and they will refund you.

Have you been under a rock for 14 years?

Vinjay will be an adopted scouser next year at this rate.

Its an irrelevance to him as a football manager. He definitely could still play expansive football in spite of not having the players, Tomasson did last year, and loads of managers do. At Birmingham one common comment from their fans was that he played more pragmatic football there too. More than ever these days, people demand expansive football and anything else is deemed to be not moving with the times. Hence why you have League 2 sides trying to play out from the back. Lately we still havent been playing expansively, but tend to create a small number of big chances a game through very cleverly crafted moves. They feel like ones worked on the training ground, Brittain did 2 crosses yesterday on the volley from crossfield passes, one he ballooned over everyone but the other led to Ohashi's chance. 2 areas which could give us more strings to our bow is to improve on set pieces as I still feel we defend them well enough but dont offer nearly enough threat from attacking them. And also we desperately need pace because when we sit back it would allow us to counter attack much better. Maybe ACD can help that but he needs new players to do it. Eustace said 4 areas to recruitment that he felt that the squad needed, one was pace but he didnt get it.

Gestede was supposed to have "knowledge of the French and Belgian markets" so I expect that Gueye was his recommendation.

When Travis or Tronstad have gone off, rare I know, Buckley came on. Baker has only really been used out of position. Assuming we go same again beside replacing Travis, ACD would be the first sub on. Whether chasing the game or winning and looking to counter. Not Hedges. Leonard just wasnt ready when he played last season. Often struggled to get involved, didnt score too many (missing quite a lot) and doesnt really contribute in other ways, ie holding it up, having pace to run in behind etc. He is young and raw and ideally would be out on loan. But he isnt totally useless like Gueye.

Why Everton?

I would also put Baker in for Travis but I wouldnt be surprised if Eustace opts for Buckley. Hopefully Cantwell will be fit to play. I would like to see ACD at some point to give us some pace and also assuming Ohashi doesnt last the 90 minutes, even though I dont think hes Championship ready, use Leonard, not Gueye.

I doubt we will have any money in January so it will be difficult to strengthen. Eustace wants a striker, he said as such recently. Gestede signed a donkey last time he tried to address that, but would we be willing and able to try and move Gueye on, would our main summer signing just become 3rd choice if not, and would Gestede be able to sign anyone with any use with potentially less money than he signed Gueye with?

I dont care who apologised. Pears shouldnt have passed it to him when he could see the full picture. Thankfully, he redeemed himself with the save so no harm done.

If you are reading them as criticism when I have repeatedly said that its a compliment to the manager then that is on you. Eustace is a pragmatic, defensively focused manager and is managing a side that has some solid players in it but one that due to budget cuts is lacking in goalscorers and lacking in pace. Therefore his approach suits the players we have and that is shown by the results. I wasnt specifically on about yesterday (I enjoyed both the game and mainly the result) and I dont understand how my comments are being seen as negative. Im not saying, its boring and we need to change. His pragmatic approach is the best approach with the players at his disposal.

Is this regarding yesterday or Norwich? Pears would have seen everything in front of him and shouldnt play either pass. Thankfully though neither led to a goal so it isnt overly important as long as he doesnt keep doing it.

Your problem is that you are so on guard to defend Eustace that you often misinterpet what people are saying as if its a criticism. I think another poster (maybe arbitro but apologies if not) said something similar the other day. Ive always said that its all about results, I am satisfied after a scrappy win and never satisfied by a high scoring open loss. As you said, I criticised Tomasson for continuing with his "principles" last season, something you couldnt possibly question at the time as he was the current manager. You look around and teams often play in a way not suiting their squad, I saw the highlights of Wolves giving away 3 stupid penalties yesterday after Gary O'Neil was persisting with playing out from the back. Ridiculous. I dont think our attacking players are particularly good, Cantwell is obviously a talent but otherwise we lack goals, we lack pace and we lack real quality there. Symptomatic of the owners lack of investment of course. My point is that I think a manager like Eustace, he comes across as quite dull and his teams dont play "exciting" football, but his strengths lie in organisation and his teams play more pragmatic and defensive football. That is the type of manager that suits our current situation because we dont have the players to play expansive and open football, and that was my point. The fact that Eustace doesn't have stubbornness towards the sort of style that most teams try to play regardless of whether they are capable of it is a positive, and its leading to good results. Im not sure why you have taken out that comment about not playing "thrill a minute" football and spun it as if I am demanding us to start playing like that. Also on Pears. Obviously we would prefer someone like Kaminski was for us, he was better than Pears and saved us points. But for Pears to go from absolute liability to someone who only once or twice has us goals this season with mistakes is a notable improvement which I am crediting him for. He no longer is a glaring weakness in our team.

The one at Norwich was Pears' fault. As the keeper, he can see everything so it was stupid to make the pass and fortunately I think it was Tronstad again who bailed him out. But he isnt making anything other than occasional goal costing mistakes this season with a few scares around that. He is having a good season off the back of a woeful one. He deserves credit for the imrpovement and has got it. Like I said yesterday goalkeeper has gone from being the main thing people wanted in the summer to not something mentioned ahead of January.