Bruce

Carrick is limited by his options but I really don't like the way that Gilbert can't get a start no matter what. I can only assume Finch is injured. Although Engel can't have any complaints about being dropped but I see no reason to play Thomas unless Engel is actually incapable of playing a whole game. I'm finding it hard to be positive about Carrick's judgement at this point. Hopefully the game will prove me wrong.

I also had a look at first and second half tables. i.e. what the league table would be if just the first half or second half scores counted. 1st half table: 21st, 2nd half: 7th. The difference between home and away, 1st and 2nd half is so extreme that the issue is not the players it's the system. It is, after all, the same players.

I think it's more complicated than that. At home, you're right, our problem is scoring goals. We're 16th in the home form table having scored fewer goals than everyone but Millwall, Rotherham and Stoke. Defensively though, we're decent at home with the 7th best defensive record. To be honest, our home form is so dire that it's a minor miracle we're only 2,000 season tickets down. Away, it's the other way around. We score goals for fun and are 5th in the away record table with only Leicester having scored more away goals than us. We would be higher but we also concede goals for fun: 18th i

Agreed. If McGree stays the need for a left winger is reduced but it does depend on what exactly Carrick is planning next season. We don't really play with wingers under his preferred formation. We play a sort of 4-2-2-2 with two strikers (1 central, 1 wide) and 2 number 10s, (one central and one wide). It was noticeable that when Jones came back this season, he was retrained to cut in and attack the box on the diagonal rather than heading to the line and cutting back. If Carrick reverts back to this then Azaz and McGree both out to be able to play the wide left #10 role. As could

Seems pretty likely but we'll learn a lot about what Carrick thinks by the team he picks. If he sticks with Greenwood and Gilbert drops back to the bench then there's no future for Gilbert here. Carrick seems to make his mind up about players very quickly and once he's done so, it takes a lot to make him change it. (To be honest, I've never seen him his change his mind in a positive way about a player.) Also possible that Howson can't play two full games in 4 days so we may see Barlaser and O'Brien in midfield. The BoB midfield has been a repeated mistake but there you go. I'll be

Certainly a possibility. Left-sided attacking midfielder does seem to be his best position though he has played in a lot of positions. Defensive central midfielder seems to be his weakest position. I suspect he's basically an old-fashioned box-to-box midfielder. I guess it depends on what our aims are for the rest of the season. If the idea is to blood a couple of U21s and give them significant pitch time then we might see the likes of Willis, Finch and Woolston get some time at the expense of players who aren't going to be here next season.

Agreed. I think we aimed for two last season in Dieng and O'Brien on loan but O'Brien took a long time then got injured. I suspect a couple more this summer. In theory we should have a decent number of Championship pros: Dieng Smith (or maybe Ayling) Lenihan, Clarke, Fry (Howson maybe) We'll also have the following with over 50 Championship games played Hackney, Izzy (100+), Forss (100+), McGree (100+), Barlaser (100+) Finally we'll have Latte Lath, Azaz and RVDB with a season behind them. (Not sure whether to count Engel.) If we add a couple of seasoned

Don't Liverpool have very restrictive loan agreements? I can't remember the last time we actually loaned someone from them. There always seems to be talk about loaning Liverpool youngsters but nothing seems to happen.

The last 10 games, Hull have a very similar record to us despite them splashing out in January and us not. Their problem might be that they made too many changes. They bought three and loaned in 4 with 5 of the 7 in total going straight into the first team. That's virtually a summer window style rebuild of a squad and I think they have paid for it. I suspect that the ideal January is a couple of 1st team upgrades and another couple for back-ups to plug any holes. I reckon Hull will pick up again and they'll end up being in contention for the 4th play-off place. I think, though, people hav

It continues to be a psychological experiment watching us. If you're positive. With 11 potential first team members out missing, a horrible trip down, having to make a late adjustment due to having 4 centre backs out injured then conceding an early goal we hung on, kept going and equalised in the 90th minute against a team stuffed full of Premier league players. If you're negative. Another weak goal. No one can pass. No energy. Southampton should have been out of sight but for terrible finishing. Our one striker has no composure and can only score when he has no time to think.

Simms is on fire right now. Two really good strikers but I think the secret is Robins. Probably the best manager in the division. He nay turn out to be a one club manager but I can see him getting Coventry promoted.

Good grief. Along with everything else, I can only assume Finch is injured as well. There has to be a major investigation into how we can have so many players out injured. That and Hoppe is so bad he can't even get on the bench when we have just one fit striker. Presumably lining up 3-4-2-1 with Azaz and Greenwood behind ELL though he might try and push Greenwood forward alongside ELL to give him some support as we seem to have done better in a 3-4-1-2.

Don't think anyone is suggesting that we play random academy players. I personally think that if we need someone to play up front tomorrow that we should choose Finch rather than Greenwood or Silvera. I think that Willis ought to get, at some point, at least 30 minutes in a game rather than just a run around for the last minute. If we do that sooner rather than later and he impresses enough, he gets a chance to get more time on the pitch before the end of the season. That's probably about it. I have no idea what's happened with Gilbert and Nkrumah or why Hoppe isn't even on th

Alan Browne feels like a Lenihan style buy where we import a lot of experience into the team. That could be really useful as we are potentially losing a lot of experience from the starting 11 this summer. I don't see Howson being keen to stay on in the Sol Bamba role if Browne comes in; Howson takes a long time to get up to speed these days if he's not playing regularly. So I think Browne would replace Howson immediately at which point you could see Howson stepping down to league one. Howson seems like one of those players who won't stop playing until you lock him in the changing rooms.

I recognise a small number of them. I agree that we should definitely be looking at some of these, especially those on loan from Prem teams who have had a successful season in league 1. A lot does depend on our goals next season. Next season is the last season that we can count the profit from the Tav and Spence sales towards our PSR limit so it is the last chance to spend relatively lavishly as we'll also be able to count the profits from Akpom and Rogers plus anyone else we sell. If we are making a serious promotion push then I think we need 3-4 immediate first choice signings of t

Agreed and, as Leo did with Hackney, I think he needs to commit to actually giving them time to play rather than just letting them watch a game from the bench. I don't know who's fit for Soton but we have learned that Latte Lath is much more effective with a strike partner and we're much more solid playing 3 at the back. Assuming Forss isn't available then don't play Silvera or Greenwood alongside Latte Lath, start Finch. The only way a player improves is to play alongside and against players who are better than him. After 60 minutes playing against a top 4 team he'll have learned more than a

Or you give him too little credit. You can't post photos here but go to inside match day, start around 1:10 from the end. Greenwood is virtually on the goal line, sees the ball going up field and busts a gut to get back and stop Dolan while everyone else has stopped. When he brings down Dolan, you can see nothing but empty space and an open goal with Dieng on the edge of his area looking worried. He has deliberately clipped him from behind in a professional foul because there's no way he can make legitimate tackle.

Was just watching the inside matchday against Blackburn. After Silvera's airkick, Blackburn clear it to Dolan and he has a clear run with the ball. Greenwood spots the danger and takes him down from behind. No messing, gets a yellow card. Cynical but that could have saved us a point. I can't say I'm a huge enthusiast for him but I wonder if an awful lot of what he does is underrated. The game intelligence and willingness to do what it takes is something you probably can't coach.

I'm 95% certain that McGree will go but I think the rest will remain. No idea whether we'll try and keep Greenwood but Leeds seem likely to be promoted and that probably means his wages are out of our league anyway. This leaves us with the following forwards/attacking midfielders assuming Carrick prefers to keep Forss on the right rather than as a striker. I think that Azaz was bought to replace McGree. Assuming also that Gilbert is Boyd-Munced. Jones / Forss ___ / ___ Azaz / Silvera Out of your list Willock - yes though some indications that he's not a great char

A fair few I don't know much about. Of the rest I thought Jashari was waiting for a Champions League club and had interest from the Premier league and equivalent. Skipp would be fantastic but if he goes on loan it will be to a top tier league in the European continent. Choudhury has been linked before and seems like he would rather play anywhere but for us. I also think he's lost his mojo. I could see Iroegbunam but it looks like Emery is moving him into the first team for Villa. Still possible though. Emery seems to be trying to convert him into a defensive midfielder. I

I think if I were Greenwood and Leeds get promoted, leading my salary to go up by 50%+ then I wouldn't want to accept a transfer where my salary is likely to go down a bit. I would stay with Leeds and try to fight for a place and if that failed, go out on loan in January. He has two more years so he will probably bet on his ability to land himself a position with a top league club. He may fail but you don't get as far as he already has in football without betting on yourself to make it to the top. From Boro's point of view, there is no way we can offer him a salary that is higher th

It looks like Leeds are going up at which point I believe his wage is out of our league and I can't see him taking a massive pay cut to come here. Maybe another season on loan is possible. It might be Connolly syndrome. I think if he gets it right he's a good Championship player but right now his head seems to be all over the place. Early days he looked like the most clinical finisher, bar Forss, at the club. You could point at Muniz and say that it took 2.5 years for him to get good but Greenwood has played more this season than Muniz in 2.5 years and looks to be going backwards. Hard t

I do think Azaz was bought to be his replacement. Latte Lath seemed to be best playing alongside a striker and the 3-4-1-2 seemed to be working quite well so maybe, assuming Forss is out for a few games Dieng Ayling - McNair - Clarke Jones - Barlaser - Howson - Engel Azaz Finch - Latte Lath I don't really see a point in persisting with the loanees but I do think there's a possibility we sign Ayling depending on Smith's recovery. You could play 4-2-3-1 with a front 4 of Jones - Azaz - Silvera Latte Lath But experience says our central midfield w

Coventry's accounts have been analysed by Swiss Ramble. https://swissramble.substack.com/p/coventry-city-finances-202223 They're in a very healthy (relatively) position. Last year they lost around £4.5m. I don't know how much of a credit they claim for PSR but probably safe to say they had a PSR balance of somewhere around zero last season. This season they have sold Hamer and Gyokeres for around £32m (though Gyokeres apparently has a sell-on clause from Brighton) and spent around the same amount. This looks like around £25-£28m of transfer profit and, likely, around £8m a year

Absolutely agreed. Here's an interesting thing. Connolly was 22 when he joined us, same as Silvera. Connolly gave us 1/2 a season of abject performances. Now at Hull, he had a good run, scoring freely until being injured then upgraded. He has one of the best goals per minutes ratio in the Championship. At the moment, Silvera looks like one of those players who maybe too good for League One but not good enough for the Championship but as Connolly demonstrates, perhaps he's far more capable in the right set up. We've seen the likes of Azaz and Barlaser struggle massively for us despit