Window closed, what's our best lineup?

[honeybradger]

9 minutes ago, Salieri said:

I’d agree with that being our strongest 11, with the obvious change of McCarthy for Stolarczyk. 
 

I think Kangasniemi would maybe have to be sacrificed from that bench (unfortunately) though as Thomas could cover lb/cb which would make room to put either Chaplin or Doyle there instead. 
 

BDCR and Cullen hopefully ousted from the squad entirely. 

Not sure if you've seen Kangasniemi warming up but his ball control looks unreal. Probably on a similar level technically to Braybrooke, Alves and Page. If his defending is any good he will be a starter soon I'm sure.

Edited 2 September by honeybradger

[Salieri]

1 minute ago, honeybradger said:

Not sure if you've seen Kangasniemi warming up but his ball control looks unreal. Probably on a similar level technically to Braybrooke, Alves and Page. If his defending is any good he will be a starter soon I'm sure.

I hope he does get into the first team, I just think we can’t afford to have Thomas, Aluko and another cb on the bench when we only have 7 subs. It’ll be interesting to see the squad selection on Saturday, surely no space for Cullen/Reid 🙏 

[Salieri]

Ideal scenario would be if Aluko could cover both lb and rb positions, that would make room for Kangasniemi on the bench. Can’t seeing him ditching Thomas completely though 😕

[honeybradger]

Just now, Salieri said:

Ideal scenario would be if Aluko could cover both lb and rb positions, that would make room for Kangasniemi on the bench. Can’t seeing him ditching Thomas completely though 😕

O Hora is behind Kangasniemi surely.

 

Wasnt anything special at MK Dons, can see him being the 3rd choice centre back.

[Salieri]

Just now, honeybradger said:

O Hora is behind Kangasniemi surely.

 

Wasnt anything special at MK Dons, can see him being the 3rd choice centre back.

Could well be the case, I guess we will find out on Saturday. 

[CruzNoir]

2 hours ago, john ridley said:

Swamp  practically  drained  with that squad, Martin's  got no one to blame now ,his players and its on him to get em playing and winning ,buck stops with him .

Are you also going to accept though that such a change in squad, practically unrecognisable now, that it needs time to settle?

 

we always needed a clear out who ever the manager 

 

I feel we’ve brought in enough quality to do the job, but it’s not going to be a smooth ride

 

With so many changes it’s not going to be pretty 

 

but it should be enough for him to get the job done

 

[jv1]

I don’t think we will see the same line up for many games this year - it will always be rotated so we should get used to people being in and out every game 

 

- Joseph and aluko will be 60/40 % starts wise

- souttar will play all the league games if fit 

ohora and the finn will be 70/30

- mcfarlane and Thomas will hopefully be 80/20

- howell and burns will be 60/40

- alves and Watson will be 70/30 if he plays like last night 

- page , lundstrum and Sammy will share the games in the 2 cm spots and maybe all 3 play sometimes or can see Doyle playing 8 as well at times 

- Chaplin and Doyle will share the starts at 10 - 70/30 if Chaplin fit 

- and Riis and Bristic will share the starts up top with Riis getting 75/25 if he shows he can consistently score at this level 

 

great news is that we also have really decent solid subs to come on that don’t drastically weaken the team 

 

 

 

[drew]

Hopefully this is the start of signing players that will have a resale value in 2/3 years so we can star this long term rebuild project to get back to the EPL.

It was our downfall holding onto players when we had rediculous offers for them.

[whoareyaaa]

9 minutes ago, jv1 said:

I don’t think we will see the same line up for many games this year - it will always be rotated so we should get used to people being in and out every game 

 

- Joseph and aluko will be 60/40 % starts wise

- souttar will play all the league games if fit 

ohora and the finn will be 70/30

- mcfarlane and Thomas will hopefully be 80/20

- howell and burns will be 60/40

- alves and Watson will be 70/30 if he plays like last night 

- page , lundstrum and Sammy will share the games in the 2 cm spots and maybe all 3 play sometimes or can see Doyle playing 8 as well at times 

- Chaplin and Doyle will share the starts at 10 - 70/30 if Chaplin fit 

- and Riis and Bristic will share the starts up top with Riis getting 75/25 if he shows he can consistently score at this level 

 

great news is that we also have really decent solid subs to come on that don’t drastically weaken the team 

 

 

 

I'd agree with this and @FosseSpark with the better 11, but it's healthy to have competiton for places something we have lacked over recent seasons

[john ridley]

19 minutes ago, CruzNoir said:

Are you also going to accept though that such a change in squad, practically unrecognisable now, that it needs time to settle?

 

we always needed a clear out who ever the manager 

 

I feel we’ve brought in enough quality to do the job, but it’s not going to be a smooth ride

 

With so many changes it’s not going to be pretty 

 

but it should be enough for him to get the job done

 

I do ,and I think we'll  still get the odd Burton result here and there ,but at least we've players who want to be here and give it their all .Just needs some time and if it doesn't  work out at least we've  tried which is more than we've  done  since at least the FA cup win.

[HoustonFox]

1 hour ago, stevostadium said:

It is a pointless loan.

My reading mates thinks hes a luxury player and werent bothered he didnt return

No chance he gets anywhere near the first 11

What do your illiterate mates think? 

[Suzie the Fox]

Was thinking about this earlier, probably a bit premature to say at this point, will need to see how all the new guys gel together. Talking of the new guys, i've never heard of any of them so no clue if they are any good and how they will adapt to RM tactics. 

 

Quite looking forward to seeing how it all pans out tbh. 

 

Can't be any worse than the last few years thats for sure.

[oldbluefox]

I have to say, after the past few torrid years of negative football from a group of overpaid mercenaries who were more interested in lining their pockets than giving their all I am much more optimistic about the current crop wearing the shirt. Even if we do find ourselves in the 3rd tier of football and desperately short of money we do have a young group of talented lads who are keen to demonstrate their skills and have something to play for. The football over the past three games has been exciting to watch. Fair enough the defending at times has been pretty chaotic (to put it mildly!) and we have failed to push home our advantage in the goalmouth but it's still early days and this team will only get better. The club has responded by recruiting in defence and at centre forward and hopefully matters in those departments improve. Not all of the recruits will work out. It's not a perfect world but there's enough for me to feel optimistic for the future. We shall see.

Hopefully this team will provide a springboard which starts our revival. It's certainly better than what we have had to endure for such a long time which was pretty depressing as a City supporter.

 

PS Absolutely delighted we rebuffed the approaches of Manu to take Page away from us for some paltry sum. The lad ranks alongside our other gems in the line-up. Better he gets a season with us and then we re-assess next year but I realise it may be difficult to hold onto him if the big boys come knocking. That said we should expect something more realistic from them. Well done City!!

 

Edited 2 September by oldbluefox

[Ric Flair]

11 hours ago, Stevosevic said:

Will be some players who would expect to be starting not even on the bench at this rate. 

Yeah, this will be the real test for Martin. The rate we are picking up innuries, even for a game or two might mean it's not quite as much of a dilemma but there's potentially 5-6 going to miss out most weeks which is hard to get your head around.

 

McCarthy

 

Joseph

Souttar

O'Hora (probably be Thomas)

McFarlane

 

Page

Braybrooke

 

Howell

Reid

Alves

 

Riis

 

Subs: Bristric, GK, Thomas, Kangasniemi, Lundstram, Watson, Burns

 

Left out: Aluko, Cullen, Chaplin, Doyle, Okoli, Faes, Coulibaly

 

Will be extremely disappointed if he does what many managers before have done and favour experience as they're on too much money to leave out the squad. 

 

Anyway, it's a squad with real depth now. Should give us a decent chance if Martin's tactics aren't as chaotic as they often are.

[Long Eaton Fox]

Just keep our academy players in and Kangasniemi. Build the rest of the team around them

[Long Eaton Fox]

7 hours ago, jv1 said:

I don’t think we will see the same line up for many games this year - it will always be rotated so we should get used to people being in and out every game 

 

- Joseph and aluko will be 60/40 % starts wise

- souttar will play all the league games if fit 

ohora and the finn will be 70/30

- mcfarlane and Thomas will hopefully be 80/20

- howell and burns will be 60/40

- alves and Watson will be 70/30 if he plays like last night 

- page , lundstrum and Sammy will share the games in the 2 cm spots and maybe all 3 play sometimes or can see Doyle playing 8 as well at times 

- Chaplin and Doyle will share the starts at 10 - 70/30 if Chaplin fit 

- and Riis and Bristic will share the starts up top with Riis getting 75/25 if he shows he can consistently score at this level 

 

great news is that we also have really decent solid subs to come on that don’t drastically weaken the team 

 

 

 

Think you have got that pretty much spot on

[Chrysalis]

9 hours ago, drew said:

Hopefully this is the start of signing players that will have a resale value in 2/3 years so we can star this long term rebuild project to get back to the EPL.

It was our downfall holding onto players when we had rediculous offers for them.

Fair few 30+ signings and moved from buying EPL rejects to championship rejects, we still dont have anywhere the scouting prowess we had in the Pearson years.

[Ric Flair]

3 hours ago, Long Eaton Fox said:

Think you have got that pretty much spot on

Just cannot see Cullen and Reid not being involved, likewise Okoli when back fit will likely make the matchday 18.

[ACF]

6 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Yeah, this will be the real test for Martin. The rate we are picking up innuries, even for a game or two might mean it's not quite as much of a dilemma but there's potentially 5-6 going to miss out most weeks which is hard to get your head around.

 

McCarthy

 

Joseph

Souttar

O'Hora (probably be Thomas)

McFarlane

 

Page

Braybrooke

 

Howell

Reid

Alves

 

Riis

 

Subs: Bristric, GK, Thomas, Kangasniemi, Lundstram, Watson, Burns

 

Left out: Aluko, Cullen, Chaplin, Doyle, Okoli, Faes, Coulibaly

 

Will be extremely disappointed if he does what many managers before have done and favour experience as they're on too much money to leave out the squad. 

 

Anyway, it's a squad with real depth now. Should give us a decent chance if Martin's tactics aren't as chaotic as they often are.

Think we really need a BDCR move to free up some space in the middle. There’s no way he’s leaving out Lundstram, Cullen or Chaplin when fit. Sammy and Page have done nothing to warrant their dropping, but Brighton will have sent Doyle with an expectation of some playing time too. That’s 7 midfielders, with now no false 9 position for Cullen and BDCR to take up. 
 

I know it’s a long year but would rather someone like Neale occupying that 7th slot. Or Alves/JJ if we’re in a pinch. 

[Ric Flair]

32 minutes ago, ACF said:

Think we really need a BDCR move to free up some space in the middle. There’s no way he’s leaving out Lundstram, Cullen or Chaplin when fit. Sammy and Page have done nothing to warrant their dropping, but Brighton will have sent Doyle with an expectation of some playing time too. That’s 7 midfielders, with now no false 9 position for Cullen and BDCR to take up. 
 

I know it’s a long year but would rather someone like Neale occupying that 7th slot. Or Alves/JJ if we’re in a pinch. 

I'm trying to remain positive but we've been here before and it's the academy players who get neglected. Thats a lot of wages in Reid, Chaplin and Cullen to just be kicking about.

 

Doyle's pedigree at this level as well is excellent, we quite possibly stand a chance of getting him permanently too which is Page's long term future is at a much bigger club then his profile is someone who'd be ideal but we'll need to play him.

 

I always thought Reid might end up in the MLS. Cullen is the odd one out right now, really unneccessary piece of business.

[CrazyKopCorner]

12 hours ago, Salieri said:

I’d agree with that being our strongest 11, with the obvious change of McCarthy for Stolarczyk. 
 

I think Kangasniemi would maybe have to be sacrificed from that bench (unfortunately) though as Thomas could cover lb/cb which would make room to put either Chaplin or Doyle there instead. 
 

BDCR and Cullen hopefully ousted from the squad entirely. 

Completely what the **** do BDCR and Cullen add - FA 

[Ric Flair]

12 hours ago, stevostadium said:

It is a pointless loan.

My reading mates thinks hes a luxury player and werent bothered he didnt return

No chance he gets anywhere near the first 11

 

On 02/09/2026 at 00:06, kingfox said:

Of League 1 CM/AM last season, he ranked…

 

1st for key passes

1st for chance creation 

2nd for progressive carries 

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Sly]

25 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

 

😂😂😂😂😂😂

That’s just peak Foxestalk! 

[kingfox]

5 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

 

😂😂😂😂😂😂

Don’t make me get out the photographic evidence  

[TheGoldenGod]

19 minutes ago, kingfox said:

Don’t make me get out the photographic evidence  

I don't think you're the one being doubted here tbf chap ha!