boosmanana

We don't have a 3rd choice Italian keeper.....

We effectively play with 2 8's, just that out of possession we'll setup in more of a 442 with one of the 8's pressing as if he's a striker. For the pivot role, we have Skipp, Braybrooke, Neale and Choudhury (Page also played there in one of the pre-season games). For the 8 roles, we have Braybrooke, Chaplin, Page, Cullen, Alves, Choudhury and Howell (at a push). We have 9 players covering 3 positions. We've got a flexible squad by design and it's been one of the more impressive things about the recruitment and squad building this summer.

Well, it's not. It's one position as we'll play with one 6 and we have minimum 4 options for it (admittedly Hamza is shite)

McCarthy Joseph Aluko Souttar McFarlane Braybrooke Burns Alves Page Watson Bristric Stolarczyk, Faes, Coulibaly, Skipp, Howell, Mavididi, Cullen Experienced keeper. Fast, direct fullbacks with Aluko able to cover Souttar for balls in behind when they inevitably try to counter. Midfield all high energy, good in 1v1 situations and comfortable on the ball. Striker with a bit of presence.

Your posts genuinely brighten my day 😂

We'll end up with a young striker on loan from a PL club before the window closes.

Strange thing to be fuming about to be fair

He's very very good. Almost certain he'll play for England. Hopefully means Mavididi is off so that we have Alves and Watson competing for minutes on the left side with Burns and Howell competing for minutes on the right side.

Not surprised

Presumably because on paper we've got the best squad in the league, the highest budget in the league and a manager who but for his most recent spell at Rangers has no business managing in League One, realistically.

McCarthy Joseph Aluko Souttar McFarlane Braybrooke Burns Chaplin Page Watson Bristric Bench: Stolarczyk, Okoli, Skipp, Alves, Cullen, Mavididi, New striker. If Souttar leaves before the weekend, then hopefully get a stylistically suitable replacement in and he can go in his place. Longer term, I feel like I'd rather Aluko played right back too, but we're not going to get 2 competent centre backs in before the weekend are we.

Think he started for Middlesbrough in their cup game didn't he?

Assad Al Hamlawi as a bit of a target man alternative to Bristric. Currently playing in the top flight in Romania for Universitatea Craiova and valued at around £2 million. Born in Sweden, 6ft2 and scored goals in Poland before moving to Romania.

Alternatively, he might feel slightly out of his comfort zone? He's just started a new job in a new country with cameras pointing at him. It could also be one of the first times he's ever met the manager and he might have been about to meet the group of players he's going to be playing and training with for the first time. But yes, from the 15 second clip posted for social media, it will definitely "end in tears this."

I'm not sure that any of what he's asked in his post would hint at him being "pro Rudkin" or "pro KP brigade!". I feel like you're an ostrich. Are you an ostrich?

Yeah, they absolutely have to be young and English don't they

His English is very good, pretty fluent

You're a funny fella. If you can't take it then don't give it. Victim mentality.

I was trying to educate people a little and explain the process that clubs go through when signing a player from a "lesser" country you dopey little weapon. I'm also unsure how you've managed to use both the correct and incorrect versions of "too" in the same sentence, but apparently I'm the clown... Nobody ridiculed you, you ridiculed yourself. Back to the "foreign office" stevostadium x

Alright Pep

Just to add to these after losing Nelson for the season, Souttar looking more likely to be leaving and Okoli being Okoli, I've continued to look for potential ball playing centre backs. Theo Eyoum - Marlon Junior - I think the first 2 would be my preference, but Eyoum looks pretty impressive too. Looks to be comfortable on the ball, athletic and aggressive which we'll need from our centre backs in the system we're utilising.

You say he's the "wrong man" but what if he gets us promoted and we end up back in the PL within the next couple of seasons? Football is a results business, especially with the vast sums of money flying around, and quite honestly the best way for us to get out of this division is probably by playing a high possession based game. Every team is going to sit 11 men behind the ball against us because we're the club that everybody wants to beat and probably the best team in the division. You can't play a purely fast counter attacking style against teams that are going to set up in the way that 95% of the teams that we play this season will set up as even if we voluntarily surrendered the ball to them, their back line just isn't going to move up the pitch far enough. So unfortunately, you're going to have to watch us have 75% ish of the ball every single week and patiently try to create openings against teams that sit in a low block and that's just the way that it's going to be. It's going to be horrendous to watch at times and I'm not 100% on Martin either yet, but we should collectively at least give him a fair chance and perhaps give some kind of thought as to why we're going to be playing in this way rather than just complaining about every pass not going forward and every attack not being at 100mph.

They don't want Souttar either

It's not "possession football" that's got us relegated 3 times in 4 seasons though is it. We didn't really play possession football under Dean Smith, Steve Cooper or Ruud Van Nistelrooy, in fact there was no discernible style of play whatsoever. Possession football isn't the antichrist that leads to teams not being successful. It's a culmination of the squad of players not giving a shit, there being a horrendous atmosphere in general at the club, pathetic financial mismanagement and players ultimately being happy to take home a salary they couldn't get at any other club and just going through the motions. There's plenty of clubs who have been successful playing "tedious possession football", including ourselves under Enzo Maresca, Brendan Rodgers (the first year or so we were fantastic) and the glaringly obvious other clubs that stick to a possession based principle when it comes to their recruitment of both managers and players.

Part of the food chain unfortunately. He'd have gone to Man Utd or Arsenal regardless of which division we were in as they're much much bigger clubs and he'll earn much much more money. Unfortunately, we'll now get much less than we would have got had we been in the Premier League.