I dont even think Carter would raise much if he was fit. Decent player on his day but not well beyond the point of a Premier League side taking him as a prospect and after a shaky season last season, not close to being a player that a lower Premier League side would take as a more immediate option.

It still feels like all of the areas we particularly need to strengthen were areas that we needed in the summer. The window was lauded as a success but I think perhaps it wasnt half as successful as we thought it may have been at the time. The main issue was the lack of money so it falls on the owners but still I am not sure that the business we did do was as good as it maybe could have been. I know we are 6th in the table but again that seems to be predominantly built on players we already had, including Travis coming back. Beck and Cantwell are certainly good signings who have improved us but otherwise we still are short in a number of areas. We needed to overhaul the striker position and have signed a non scoring "striker" for whom a football seems an unknown item to him and a useful backup. We needed a keeper and just signed a player to warm the bench and we needed pace and didnt get any. One centre back injury leaves us with 2 options with a combined age in the 70s and Baker seems to be 5th choice in his natural position. I cant see us having any real money to spend. Venkys have swallowed up the considerable income and have zero interest in the club.

He will have people behind him at the games. But it takes more than confidence to have a semblence of technical and finishing ability. So far neither has been on show.

Why do you give your desired 11 before every game if you just suspend opinion because the manager knows better? We have scored 4 in 7. So its fair to suggest that a change might make us more attacking. West Brom had the better chances against us. But how could we have had 4 more points from 2 games in which we collected 1 point?

Considering how poor we have been going forward in the last 7 games, the suggestion is that we dont continue to play exactly how we are currently doing. Cantwell often leaves Beck isolated because he doesnt track back, so the idea that he will do less defensive work on the left is flawed. From an attacking perspective, he has said that he prefers to play centrally and that a move there at Rangers led to an improvement in his form. He has shown flashes of his obvious ability but playig him centrally could be the key to get more from him.

People often refer back to picking out isolated examples of players who started slowly but became regular sources of goals. Of course nothing as of yet can be definitive but those examples are the minority, there will be far more examples of players who came in, looked out of their depth initially and ended up barely improving if at all. With Szmodics, I think the discussion was more complex. He was our main signing and questions were more about whether it was the position we needed to sign someone who wasnt a regular for a while If people write him off and he ends up scoring plenty, great, but people shouldnt be deterred from giving an opinion. If someone said that say Beck is a really good signing, you wouldnt have the opposite argument ie dont call him a success because he might nosedive.

Although our overall goal tally is still quite healthy, we scored 12 in 5 which has been followed by 4 in 7. Obviously you could spin it that the first 5 games is closer to the norm, but I remain unconvinced personally. The assumption when a big goalscorer goes is that everyone will chip in to replace those goals, but there is a reason why goalscorers go for the biggest money. I dont see many players in our team with many goals in them. We needed to sign some quality up front and that area has gone from excitement to causing some real concerns. We signed a big number 9 who clearly is not a goalscorer and offers more threat to row Z, it doesnt even feel like he is capable of getting near double figures. Ohashi does seem to be able to nick a goal so may well end up our top scorer but offers little else so how much game time will he actually get? Beyond that, who is likely to really score a decent amount to chip away at all of those goals we have lost?

I do understand. Thanks for the patronising comment though. But again, it doesnt mean that I share the exact same opinion as him. And especially considering our recent attacking record, I think its fair game not to automatically agree with him.

Cantwell came out and said at Rangers that he preferred playing centrally after a move there resulted in improved form. Something needs to change because our current attack is blunt. Give our best player a more central role with less defensive responsibilities and hopefully we can couple that with some pace from a returning ACD over Hedges who is crap, and we might be able to help to have a bit of attacking spark.

No Gueye, hes not good enough and I would have Leonard on the bench behind Ohashi. Hedges isnt good enough, needs dropping. Weimann doesnt deserve another start either. Cantwell should be in the middle and I really hope Cozier Duberry is fit to start.

So people will pay for his patreon. We know what happens every January.

Nixon is just desperate for some sort of gossip to justify his patreon. Are we really going to spend money in January for once?

He doesnt get himself into goalscoring positions.

Seeing as you have thumbs downed my post, and obviously factoring in with the above that its all about results. We agree that the home form is brilliant as is the continued ability to keep clean sheets at home. Do any of the following concern you: - 3 points from 6 away games, no wins - 4 goals from 7 games, 2 from 5 games - Our main striker signing is still to score or to come close to scoring a league goal

It might be a case of me not following the constantly changing rule. But its not necessarily about purposely handballing it, is it? His hand was in an unnatural position above his head.

A shit continuation of our terrible away record. 3 points in 6 games away and 4 goals in 7 goals altogether not good enough. Gueye is an absolute donkey, I think I am now at the point where I can concede that Gallagher was better. Hedges can have little complaints with the penalty IMO, hand was up in the air. Again totally useless in attack, as was Weimann. We just have no real edge in attack, one great ball by Cantwell but otherwise so dull to watch. And unlike at home, not effective away either.

I have no idea where anybody has demanded perfection. Common consensus is not pleasing on the eye but effective and so far so good.

It all seems like a misguided defence of the manager with a bit of a superfan narrative thrown in. We have scored 4 in 6 and 2 of those came against a side who had gone down to 10 men. Those suggesting that the football is boring are also saying that playing pragmatic football that isnt easy on the eye is understandable due to the squad available. No one has said that the start isnt good either, football is a results game and the table shows that so far, the approach is working.

JRC seemingly has the shirt back again at RB where he is best. I wonder if Brittain will be played on the wing from the start soon. It didnt work when JDT tried it but I feel like Eustace really likes him and will want to get him in, coupled with our weakness of a lack of quality out wide.

They have, I can only think of Plymouth where he made a reasonable number of saves. He hasnt been without his jitters, he threw one in at Coventry and there have been a number of occasions where errors he has made didnt lead to goals. He did a couple last night, spilled a couple at Coventry, passed the ball to a Norwich player 6 yards out when Tronstad saved him, he ran into no mans land at Burnley and Foster headed wide and he ran out stupidly against Derby where Mendez Laing miscued a lob over him. In terms of defending, Hyam has had a better season than he has been given credit for.

You are either mistakenly or purposely misinterpreting what I am saying to try. How you have concluded that I have a problem with Eustace is a figment of your imagination. The football is boring, he is very defensively focused. But I keep saying that its a results game and the points tally and league position is good. I also said earlier that because he has a very limited set of attackers lacking in pace and goals, it makes sense to be pragmatic. I certainly havent demanded that he plays risk seeking football, think back a year, you was saying that Tomasson was right to do that and I was asking for him to reign things in. The irony is, in 2 years or whenever Eustace has gone, you will be the one saying how you are glad and that we need someone who can play more attacking football. That is what you do with managers, you defend them without fail when here (even creating arguments that arent there) and then "in retrospect" decide that actually you are glad they are gone. See Tomasson and Mowbray.

I think Eustace is clearly a manager who is never going to play exciting, risk seeking football, he didnt at Birmingham. His strengths clearly lie in organisation and pn the defensive side. To be honest with the current squad, it is a very understandable approach. We have a squad that has much more experience but its lacking in attacking threat, very little pace, no real obvious source of goals and only Cantwell with any flair. The likes of Hedges, Dolan, Weimann and Sigurdsson arent players youd specifically look forward to watching. We need to remain solid and it often wont be the prettiest watch but it could be the most effective approach. One area where I think we need to become much better is attacking set pieces though.

Its a hard selection to suggest/predict. We really could do with freshening things up both because of the limited time between games and also to try and find a solution to what is a rather slow and underwhelming attack that is currently struggling to fire. Our away form is very poor and we need to try and get off the mark with a win which would really strengthen our strong league position. Maybe a back 3 is worth considering simply because of our lack of quality out wide. It can give the wing backs more opportunity to attack and give Cantwell a free role behind both strikers. Toth/Pears JRC Hyam Batth Pickering Beck Travis Cantwell Tronstad Gueye Ohashi Subs: GK, Brittain, McFadzean, Hedges, Baker, Buckley, Dolan, Weimann, Leonard Alternatively, just stick to the same formation, Batth obviously in for Carter and then change the wide men and striker with Cantwell replacing Dolan in a more suitable central role.

His main issue was the squad at his disposal. Its very difficult to be competitive at this level when you have a squad like we had. That being said, I did raise a concern during last season that he was sticking with a style that was exposing us more than was necessary. The results we got when Eustace came in didnt particularly improve though last season.

Cantwell doesnt provide adequate cover, its half arsed and he was fortunate not to concede a penalty. I know that it was a game that was closely fought between two well organised teams and the players may well know their roles. As often is the case with games managed by Eustace, it wasnt the most pleasing on the eye. The main reason for that is our lack of spark (beside Cantwell) and speed in attack which is obviously not his fault. You also have been very keen to criticise JDT since he has left after staunchly defending his style until the day he left, on which you were very angry and sad.