Solent Robin

If a midfielder had all those attributes they would be playing for Real Madrid e.g. Jude Bellingham. In the Championship you need to find the right combination of players. As I said in another thread since James departed we haven't got a No 6 per sa. Although Bird and McGuane are good passers, I am not sure whether they are best suited to a deeper role.i.e. protecting the defence. If you play two No 8's (Knight and Williams or Bird for that matter), you have to ensure one of you is in a position to recover when you lose position. It can be done, but it requires a very good understanding between the players which takes time. Understand from Fevs that Knight and Bird didn't play centrally together at Derby, So a partnership would need to developed. There is an expectation from some fans that this will immediately fall into place but it needs game time.

Tactically how did Knight and Bird play in the Derby team? From highlights I saw Bird was quite offensive, so not sure if he ever played in a deeper role. As for other changes, I think Yu and Armstrong should start. I would keep faith with Sykes.

Agree with Bob. We are missing that pivot player in midfield to not only shield the defence but to transition effectively from defence to attack. Bird, Knight and Williams are all No 8's with different attributes. We don't really have a No6 in the team at the moment. However Naismith and possibly McGuane can play that role but that would mean leaving out two of Bird, Knight or Williams if you want to have Twine in his preferred No 10 position. We also need to retain some width. We clearly haven't got the right balance at the moment and this needs to be addressed quickly. We are also badly missing Rob Dickie's ability to bring the ball out of defence which puts additional responsibility on our midfield when playing out from the back and breaking the press. Only Bird has the ability to play on the half turn but if you played him deeper you would lose his offensive ability. However, I think it is a trade off worth making.

Enjoyed the game which overall I thought we edged. Midfield were dominant in the first half but we lost momentum after the subs. Lots of positives going forward in what was a good calibre championship game. It is a league of fine margins and on another day we could have won it. Dickie injury is a concern but we now have better squad depth.

The club were handicapped by FFP during NP's time and we were close to points deduction as Gould alluded to. 1,2 and 3 was NP's attempt to put a brave face on things given the financial situation and latterly said he wasn't adverse to loans but it depended on the circumstances. This summer the purse strings were always going to be released a little bit I.e. nest egg due to the FFP cycle. The club were not going to extend NP's contract for various reasons which has been done to death. Even if we had a more experienced squad some of those players mentioned would have broken into the team as they were so talented. However it is far from the MA and LJ approach both financially and strategically. Far better targetted to what we actually need. Even the loan signing of Earthy makes sense to some degree. From the opening games the transfer kitty (£10K approx) appears to have been spent wisely in strengthening the areas which were needed. I believe the quality and depth now gives a fair chance of a push for the play offs but there are no guarantees. However with the attacking talent now available I am looking forward to a more exciting brand of football this season which will make a nice change! Just on another point regarding the pathway for young players, it was clearly evident that there were no U-21 players who were going to cut it hence their release. The next batch of talented U18's are unlikely to be ready for a season or two unless there is an Alex Scott amongst them. For those that are or become ready for mens football loans to L1 an 2 provides the exposure in readiness for the 1st team. This is a tried and tested strategy. Given that we are a selling club (like most) there will always be opportunities albeit not to the degree as during the recent period of austerity.