Scott Davies.....

[Ian Royal]

Personally I think Karacan & Sigurdsson have enough experience to cope, and Davies has played over 100 first team games already irrc. Yes an older and wiser head to help them would be nice, but it's not absolutely essential.

Sigurdsson could have just as much freedom floating in the hole between striker and midfield in a three man central midfield

SOB has a valid concern, but rather overstates it and is too dismissive of the possibilities IMO.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Men against Boys

Cliches become cliches for a reason

If Sig was played in a forward midfield position, which effectively a licence to go where he liked then yes, that would be the ideal position for him, but we dont have the forward to play that way at the moment (unless Thor can do it but I will have to wait and suss him out yet). Rodgers tried it and it worked ok, right up to the point where we didnt score enough goals

[Ian Royal]

Men against Boys

Cliches become cliches for a reason

If Sig was played in a forward midfield position, which effectively a licence to go where he liked then yes, that would be the ideal position for him, but we dont have the forward to play that way at the moment (unless Thor can do it but I will have to wait and suss him out yet). Rodgers tried it and it worked ok, right up to the point where we didnt score enough goals

Rodgers only tried it in 5 games - two of which were consectutive. We won two. Rodgers arguably very rarely got the balance of the other players right - Howard & Matejovsky with him in one game ffs! - and never had someone with Davies scoring record in there too.

Just because something has become a cliche for a reason, doesn't mean it is automatically valid in every case.

[surrounded by saints]

no way in a million years should this guy be sold.

Jesus

i totally agree.davies could have been an established player in our team by now, if we,d had more sense. what did he do wrong to get dropped in the first place? to me he was starting to look like the best replacement for sidders that we were ever likelyto get without spending a fortune.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Agree Ian, but with those 3 mentioned you have

1 headless chicken of a tackling midfielder (Jem)
1 slopping box to box man who can chip in with goals too (Davies)
1 floating midfielder who will drift in and out a bit ) Sig

None of them have the game to really run a midfield against a player wiht a bit of know-how. None of them have shown me they have the ability to pull their team mates into position and hold a team together when its struggling or being pulled apart by a well oiled opposition

I like all 3 of them as individual players (less so Davies but he still shows promise but probably needs to play in the same position as Sig in that type of midfield) I just cant see it working

The Howard, Marek and Sig combo actually worked alright from what I remember

[Ian Royal]

I think that is extremely harsh on Karacan.

Beat Blackpool lost to Derby. Marek is more of a passenger than any of the others, for all his passing skill.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Wasnt meant as a criticism, he just needs to learn to pick his battles a bit

His greatest strength at the moment is the amount of ground he covers and his willingness to get stuck in

Wait 5 years and see how much better he will be (baring injuries or major losses of form) once he learns where and when to dive in and where and when to hold is position and slow the oppo down. Thats the player we need now

[Franchise FC]

Men against Boys

Cliches become cliches for a reason

If Sig was played in a forward midfield position, which effectively a licence to go where he liked then yes, that would be the ideal position for him, but we dont have the forward to play that way at the moment (unless Thor can do it but I will have to wait and suss him out yet). Rodgers tried it and it worked ok, right up to the point where we didnt score enough goals

Rodgers only tried it in 5 games - two of which were consectutive. We won two. Rodgers arguably very rarely got the balance of the other players right - Howard & Matejovsky with him in one game ffs! - and never had someone with Davies scoring record in there too.

Just because something has become a cliche for a reason, doesn't mean it is automatically valid in every case.

If that's right then I've just come off the fence in the great BR debate. Why would you find a winning formula - then change it !!

[Southbank Old Boy]

Howard breaking his jaw didnt help

He kind of kept the same system but with Cisse instead of Howard

[Franchise FC]

Howard breaking his jaw didnt help

He kind of kept the same system but with Cisse instead of Howard

Sissy (not Cisse) - just a broken jaw - what sort of namby pamby excuse is thatfor not keeping the same team for the next game.

[Ian Royal]

I may have allowed a little slippage into my post. We beat Blackpool, then lost to Derby. That's when that particular combination was stopped.

Although I seem to recall Rodgers making changes after our victory against Barnsley which also had Sig in the middle with two others.

It's hard to say who was the one floating behind the striker as I only went to Watford of the games it happened in. So when Marek was involved it might have been him. Thought we were a little unlucky to lose against Watford.

[Terminal Boardom]

Where we are suffering is that there has not been much finding its way towards the first team via the Academy prior to this season. Can we afford to wait 5 years?

[Negative_Jeff]

I may have allowed a little slippage into my post. We beat Blackpool, then lost to Derby. That's when that particular combination was stopped.

Although I seem to recall Rodgers making changes after our victory against Barnsley which also had Sig in the middle with two others.

It's hard to say who was the one floating behind the striker as I only went to Watford of the games it happened in. So when Marek was involved it might have been him. Thought we were a little unlucky to lose against Watford.

4-2-3-1 at Barnsley with Sigurddsson up behind the striker. We played very well for the last hour and won easy........then I recall the international break and Rodgers changed the set up.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I may have allowed a little slippage into my post. We beat Blackpool, then lost to Derby. That's when that particular combination was stopped.

Although I seem to recall Rodgers making changes after our victory against Barnsley which also had Sig in the middle with two others.

It's hard to say who was the one floating behind the striker as I only went to Watford of the games it happened in. So when Marek was involved it might have been him. Thought we were a little unlucky to lose against Watford.

Pretty sure everytime those 3 played in the same side Sig was the advanced one, either that or he was out on the left

[Terminal Boardom]

I may have allowed a little slippage into my post. We beat Blackpool, then lost to Derby. That's when that particular combination was stopped.

Although I seem to recall Rodgers making changes after our victory against Barnsley which also had Sig in the middle with two others.

It's hard to say who was the one floating behind the striker as I only went to Watford of the games it happened in. So when Marek was involved it might have been him. Thought we were a little unlucky to lose against Watford.

4-2-3-1 at Barnsley with Sigurddsson up behind the striker. We played very well for the last hour and won easy........then I recall the international break and Rodgers changed the set up.

That would have been the end of pre season then

[Ian Royal]

I may have allowed a little slippage into my post. We beat Blackpool, then lost to Derby. That's when that particular combination was stopped.

Although I seem to recall Rodgers making changes after our victory against Barnsley which also had Sig in the middle with two others.

It's hard to say who was the one floating behind the striker as I only went to Watford of the games it happened in. So when Marek was involved it might have been him. Thought we were a little unlucky to lose against Watford.

4-2-3-1 at Barnsley with Sigurddsson up behind the striker. We played very well for the last hour and won easy........then I recall the international break and Rodgers changed the set up.

As I recall a bunch of signings were made / people became fit afterwards which prompted the changes. Not that I necessarily agreed with them

[shaka's shorts]

Jonny F just said on live chat that Davies met management yesterday and told them he wants to stay, also Bignall and Henry are in the managers plans and want to stay

[Ian Royal]

I still think if we go down, it could be for the best if we keep all the youngsters. Yes they're a little light on experience, but I'd be dribbling at the prospect of watching a team of:

Hamer
Cummings, Pearce, Cisse, Kelly
Henry, Davies, Sigurdsson, Karacan, Robson-Kanu
Church
gain experience as a team and try for promotion. (yes it could do with a couple of additions)

And that still leaves out Bignall!!

[Hoop Blah]

I still think if we go down, it could be for the best if we keep all the youngsters. Yes they're a little light on experience, but I'd be dribbling at the prospect of watching a team of:

Hamer
Cummings, Pearce, Cisse, Kelly
Henry, Davies, Sigurdsson, Karacan, Robson-Kanu
Church
gain experience as a team and try for promotion. (yes it could do with a couple of additions)

And that still leaves out Bignall!!

This is what people were saying last season about not going up, and possibly the season before that about going down.

Apart from getting rid of a load of hangers on and revisting some good old friends in the league below, getting relegated has no positives.

[Comfortably Numb]

I still think if we go down, it could be for the best if we keep all the youngsters. Yes they're a little light on experience, but I'd be dribbling at the prospect of watching a team of:

Hamer
Cummings, Pearce, Cisse, Kelly
Henry, Davies, Sigurdsson, Karacan, Robson-Kanu
Church
gain experience as a team and try for promotion. (yes it could do with a couple of additions)

And that still leaves out Bignall!!

i remember reading how a lot of you were dribbling at the prospect of watching these kids this season.