The cup that cheers.. E.F.L Away to Wrexham Tues Feb 11th 7-30.

[BWFC_Insane]

Can you lift a cup through the fourth wall?

Next year: There’ll be documentaries with vox pops from Ruby Wax, Smithers, and the corpse of the sycamore gap. Ryan Reynolds, the Everyman, will muse how every man in Wrexham is the Everyman. Every man stood up and was counted. Every man can be the Everyman. And then he’ll smile all nice and hold up a box of Cheerios and say something about arseholes.

Wrexham are a great story. Don’t really get the bitterness.

No different to Jack Walker buying Blackburn the league. Or indeed all those premiership clubs there purely because their owners bought them up there. But they’ve come from a lower place.

Let’s be honest we’d love it if it had happened to us. As would any club. It’s part of why the game is great. There is always hope. Even after nearly two decades of total despair.

[BWFC_Insane]

Glad that we are out, but that game just shows yet again that we needed a decent proper No9 in the transfer window - we have no actual out and out strikers in the squad.

Depends how you mean, Bertie, IMO.

I think both Adeboyejo and Collins have proven they can play as part of a front two. But the early indications - and we're getting more info all the time - are that Scumacher doesn't often play a front two; when he's gone for a back three it's usually been 3421, and a back four it's 4231. Nothing wrong with that in theory, but it means you need a strong 'single' No.9 who can link play up, either through strength or guile. I'm not sure we have any of those, so a beefy No.9 will presumably be top of the summer shopping list.

They can beefier than Ian Botham in a bath of Bovril. Strength and size is absolutely irrelevant if they run like they’re towing a caravan.

I’d rather have had a quick, agile player who can get in behind or travel with the ball than a big one up front.

In fact, I’d have had my 8 year old lad ahead of Vic tonight.

Yeah agree with this. I mean we’d like a bit of height and physicality. But pace would make a big difference especially if they could run with the ball.

[Bertie Wooster]

We need 2 new strikers in the summer, a big target man and a fast pacy finisher like that man Crawley had on Saturday. We currently have no decent strikers, Collins scores goals but IMO he's not an out and out striker, he's more a a wide player for me. McAtee, Vic etc. are bobbins, really poor.

[nicholaldo]

It felt to me that we changed to a midfield two in the second half there, either intentionally or consequentially, and Parky reacted by bringing the cavalry on and the space in the centre of the pitch was taken advantage of.

After the goal, we regained momentum but didn't have the quality to break through (a feature of the whole ninety minutes).

Ah well.

[Worthy4England]

We still have a bag o bits in a box, for me. Hopefully Schumaker can get enough of a tune to scrape 6th. But if he can't I suspect there might be a busy summer.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Tonight's league games:

Stockport were third until they let their hosts Bristol Rovers score an injury-time equaliser. They're now 4th, 7pts clear of us but from a game more and still have to come to ours. We'll deal with you later.

Charlton are 5th after a late winner vs Posh (who pleasingly are now in the final non-relegation slot and just 3pts above Shrewsbury and Crawley - the latter also having a game in hand). The Addicks are 3pts clear of us fron the same games played.

Orient closed out a 3-0 home win over fast-fasing Mansfield. The Os leap above us into 7th, same points as us but 17(!) goals better, and from a game fewer; only Birmingham have a better defence.

Reading could have skipped over us too but are a point behind from the same games after being held 1-1 at home by Shrewsbury; that's one win in six for the Biscuits (guess who against?). Typically for a Gareth Ainsworth team, Shrews had less ball but more shots and more business inside the oppo area. Will be intriguing to see what Schumacher does against them - they play a back three so will he match up again, as he did tonight?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Glad that we are out, but that game just shows yet again that we needed a decent proper No9 in the transfer window - we have no actual out and out strikers in the squad.

Depends how you mean, Bertie, IMO.

I think both Adeboyejo and Collins have proven they can play as part of a front two. But the early indications - and we're getting more info all the time - are that Scumacher doesn't often play a front two; when he's gone for a back three it's usually been 3421, and a back four it's 4231. Nothing wrong with that in theory, but it means you need a strong 'single' No.9 who can link play up, either through strength or guile. I'm not sure we have any of those, so a beefy No.9 will presumably be top of the summer shopping list.

They can beefier than Ian Botham in a bath of Bovril. Strength and size is absolutely irrelevant if they run like they’re towing a caravan.

I’d rather have had a quick, agile player who can get in behind or travel with the ball than a big one up front.

Me too, which is what I was saying before the deadline, but most folk seemed fixated on James Collins. But what you or I would choose might not be as relevant as what Schumacher would. He's always tended to have a big lad as an option - not always first choice, but an option. He's pleasingly pragmatic and flexile but I genuinely wonder what he's going to do with this lot.
• Collins is in form but still a bit of a curate's egg - doesn't quite feel like either a 9 or a 10 to me.
• Vic is painfully, woefully off form and has been for a year.
• McAtee - I still don't know what he is and it's fecking February.
• Etete - let's just say I'm not holding my breath, but pretty much anything would be better than that debut.

[Bertie Wooster]

We still have a bag o bits in a box, for me. Hopefully Schumaker can get enough of a tune to scrape 6th. But if he can't I suspect there might be a busy summer.

Yes this is spot on - the squad is quite unbalanced IMO, we have a raft of shite No10s who add very little, but no No9's and a lack of combative midfielders

And we need a new decent goalkeeper in the summer.

[BorsdaneWhite]

Can you lift a cup through the fourth wall?

Next year: There’ll be documentaries with vox pops from Ruby Wax, Smithers, and the corpse of the sycamore gap. Ryan Reynolds, the Everyman, will muse how every man in Wrexham is the Everyman. Every man stood up and was counted. Every man can be the Everyman. And then he’ll smile all nice and hold up a box of Cheerios and say something about arseholes.

Wrexham are a great story. Don’t really get the bitterness.

No different to Jack Walker buying Blackburn the league. Or indeed all those premiership clubs there purely because their owners bought them up there. But they’ve come from a lower place.

Let’s be honest we’d love it if it had happened to us. As would any club. It’s part of why the game is great. There is always hope. Even after nearly two decades of total despair.

Not necessarily a football bitterness. Just Ryan Reynolds. Used to review films. 90 minutes in his company is my Vietnam.

[boltonboris]

There’s a feckload of work needs doing on this squad. Thanks a feckin bunch, Ian.

Knob.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

It felt to me that we changed to a midfield two in the second half there, either intentionally or consequentially, and Parky reacted by bringing the cavalry on and the space in the centre of the pitch was taken advantage of.

I don't think we fundamentally changed the 3421 shape until we threw on Andreucci for Forrester. What changed was that in the 2 we replaced Matete and Lolos, who are more like midfielders, with Collins and McAtee, who are more like forwards - so they emptied the box, just as Wrexham brought on better players more capable of taking advantage.

[Mar]

• Collins is in form but still a bit of a curate's egg - doesn't quite feel like either a 9 or a 10 to me.
• Vic is painfully, woefully off form and has been for a year.
• McAtee - I still don't know what he is and it's fecking February.
• Etete - let's just say I'm not holding my breath, but pretty much anything would be better than that debut.

Herein lies the problem. We've got an abundance of forwards and none of them are setting the world alight. Collins has got a good record despite not putting in outstanding performances. Vic has gone from good to bad to terrible and back again. McAtee looks to be a Charles replacement but not a good one and Etete, well we've had overage lumps up top who can't play a full 90 minutes, maybe he's an improvement but i'd suspect our luck means he'll be sat out on the injury table for the rest of the year.

Flogging Charles was bad business for our objectives this season. He was exactly the type of presser we needed tonight. Vic and Lolos were terrible up top together, Vic for not being able to hold the ball up and Lolos for playing in his shadow.

Schuey will need time, but I don't really think time was the problem tonight. Tonight was down to doing something with the ball. We seemed to revert to the sideways and backwards of old. The ghost of Evatt lives on.

[nicholaldo]

I’d rather have had a quick, agile player who can get in behind or travel with the ball than a big one up front.

I liked the look of Hepburn-Murphy on Saturday. We won't be signing him but someone in that mould would be great.

[The_Gun]

I’d rather have had a quick, agile player who can get in behind or travel with the ball than a big one up front.

I liked the look of Hepburn-Murphy on Saturday. We won't be signing him but someone in that mould would be great.

26 year old journeyman with a poor goalscoring record. Everyone would’ve lost their minds if we’d signed him.

[GhostoftheBok]

We put out a side with no pace at all and three sitting midfielders, with fullbacks out wide.

Schumacher avoided taking any fitness risks and we still nearly got a result out of it.

It is what it is.

[nicholaldo]

It felt to me that we changed to a midfield two in the second half there, either intentionally or consequentially, and Parky reacted by bringing the cavalry on and the space in the centre of the pitch was taken advantage of.

I don't think we fundamentally changed the 3421 shape until we threw on Andreucci for Forrester. What changed was that in the 2 we replaced Matete and Lolos, who are more like midfielders, with Collins and McAtee, who are more like forwards - so they emptied the box, just as Wrexham brought on better players more capable of taking advantage.

You're probably right. There were at least a couple of occasions in the first half where Matete won possession in an advanced position.

We seemed to lose control temporarily once he was brought off.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We need 2 new strikers in the summer, a big target man and a fast pacy finisher like that man Crawley had on Saturday. We currently have no decent strikers, Collins scores goals but IMO he's not an out and out striker, he's more a a wide player for me. McAtee, Vic etc. are bobbins, really poor.

I believe Sam Cosgrove is out of contract this summer, while Niall Ennis will be going into the last year of a contract at a Stoke team who seem to have no interest in him. Wonder if Schumacher will suggest getting the band back together?

[jimbo]

It was a strange old performance. 85% of it was fine. We controlled the game well, and generally built well until the final third. We also defended well and never looked troubled until one simple pass from defence to midfield gave their guy the freedom to run to the edge of our box and pick his spot. The ghost of Evatt will never leave. Schumacher’s challenge is how to add some cutting edge to that overall control, and to try and not gift the opposition chances.

[The_Gun]

We need 2 new strikers in the summer, a big target man and a fast pacy finisher like that man Crawley had on Saturday. We currently have no decent strikers, Collins scores goals but IMO he's not an out and out striker, he's more a a wide player for me. McAtee, Vic etc. are bobbins, really poor.

I believe Sam Cosgrove is out of contract this summer, while Niall Ennis will be going into the last year of a contract at a Stoke team who seem to have no interest in him. Wonder if Schumacher will suggest getting the band back together?

We’ll need better than those yokes in the Championship, DSB.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We need 2 new strikers in the summer, a big target man and a fast pacy finisher like that man Crawley had on Saturday. We currently have no decent strikers, Collins scores goals but IMO he's not an out and out striker, he's more a a wide player for me. McAtee, Vic etc. are bobbins, really poor.

I believe Sam Cosgrove is out of contract this summer, while Niall Ennis will be going into the last year of a contract at a Stoke team who seem to have no interest in him. Wonder if Schumacher will suggest getting the band back together?

We’ll need better than those yokes in the Championship, DSB.

I like ya moxie.