It's only a friendly

[BlueArmy 86]

No mention of NML who’s looking very sharp. I think Reid and Murphy are going to have good seasons too. I actually think we might be a bit too much for teams going forward. Hoping we sign a forward, but one of our current players could easily surprise and be like a new signing (Madine, Bogle, Ward). Tomlin could have a stormer and be the difference in games. I’m optimistic..

[AfricanBluebird]

No mention of NML who’s looking very sharp. I think Reid and Murphy are going to have good seasons too. I actually think we might be a bit too much for teams going forward. Hoping we sign a forward, but one of our current players could easily surprise and be like a new signing (Madine, Bogle, Ward). Tomlin could have a stormer and be the difference in games. I’m optimistic..

NML is always good from August to October and then from March to May

It’s November to Feb that his form dips.... every year! That’s why we do need another winger.... I don’t see enough consistency with the three at the club at the moment

I think though we are seeing the deficiencies in Warnocks approach that has meant he has never succeeded in the EPL

He can create functional, hard working teams on more or less a limited budget and at championships level he scrapes promotions and is hugely successful at it. The new signings show that he can attract and get the best out of decent ‘bread and butter’ Signings but the more creative players he struggles with

However while some of the positive attributes of a Warnock side are effective in the premier league (hard work and togetherness).. he doesn’t seem to be able to attract or put together a side that can score, keep the ball and change tactics within games (I think these days they call it in-game management).

Last season we often were too conservative when we should have been a bit more ambitious (and the good teams will punish you) and too ambitious when we should have been a tighter and got whacked. The games against Huddersfield showed that and the game against Fulham.. awful approaches to those games.

And I would argue that the better passing and more flair orientated football you need to survive in the premier league needs to be built in the championship side as it’s an approach that can’t be adopted overnight when a team gets promoted

We were a little lucky with Camarasa last year... I would argue that he was an opportunistic signing rather than a calculated and planned one by our transfer committee. And this year you can see the club really struggling to find some attacking players.. signing such players is way outside of Neil’s comfort zone.

His record for signing strikers with us is pretty poor. He won’t sign a striker for the sake of it but he spent 6 million on Madine. He made some comments about Tomlin not being able to cope with the rigours of the championship but he signed him!

So I think it’s been a poor transfer window so far... maybe he will surprise us though!