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Based off that, I think I'd like to see: GK Bentley RB Wilson (Tanner if Wilson not fit to start) RCB Klose LCB Atkinson LB Pring (Dasilva if Pring not fit to start) DM Kadji CM Scott CM Massengo FW Sykes (playing somewhere between an attacking mid and a wide forward) FW Weimann (playing somewhere between an attacking mid and a wide forward) ST Wells I think that balances using the squad a bit and seeing if Kadji can offer something in the position we most need someone to come in whilst also adjusting our shape for players who are missing and putting out a side who can compete.

It's probably useful for a lot of clubs in terms of squad management and giving players outside the first XI a shot at forcing their way into the managers' plans. There's only ever been one season I've actually enjoyed the League Cup but - whilst I know this almost definitely won't happen - if Dylan Kadji got a chance tonight and showed something that suggested he could solve our defensive midfield issue, that would make it worthwhile on its own.

I'm obviously unhappy with our start but don't think this is by any means the worst period I can remember, even in recent years. Our results and performances are disappointing but I think our squad is in better shape than it was at the start of our relegation season under McInnes, during our time scraping the lower end of League one with SOD, during our dire period at the end of Holden's reign and start of Pearson's and in better shape than it was at the start of last season. We need two injured players to get fit and we need to find a way to bring 2 or 3 new players in, even if it means selling one of our key assets to afford it. We need to get some good results soon to lift the mood around the club but I'm not overly worried yet

Obviously the real reason we've lost our two opening games is because our home kit now has white sleeves and the players get confused by the lack of red sleeves and don't recognise their team mates as a result. (Since everyone else is coming up with nonsensical issues with the team, I thought I'd join in)

It’s Harry Thickitt I feel sorry for. Most successful manager in our history, gets us runners up in the top flight and to an FA Cup final and still our ungrateful supporters overlook him for trendier young whippersnappers like Ramsey and Warnock.

My one question would be what the central defence looks like. Can Naismith play in a two and can he or Atkinson play on the right side of defence? I also sort of think that - if Naismith or Vyner are being touted as possible defensive midfielders - that is as much about whether we tweak where they are on the pitch and how they play in a back three as much as it is a formation change, which are subtly different things.

I think the individual errors are a symptom of the other weaknesses in the team. If players are confident that their teammates will do their jobs effectively, they can focus on their own roles with confidence and will get into a headspace where they get on with it and don't make mistakes. If players constantly think a mistakes going to happen elsewhere, they'll start changing their game to compensate for the perceived mistakes they think their teammates will make and suddenly they'll be making mistakes too. What the number of mistakes we are making at the moment tells me is the players know about our weaknesses as a team just as much as we and the opposition do.

I immediately think of the Aesop Fable of the Frogs who wished for a King. The short version being there were a group of frogs who wanted a King. So they prayed to Zeus and he sent them a wooden log and told them the wooden log was their King. The Frogs got angry with how passive and inactive the log was so sent back to Zeus and demanded a King who was more proactive. So Zeus sent them a new King, who was a Water Snake, which proceeded to eat all the frogs. In short, change isn't necessarily going to be for the better.

I agree with this, especially not replicating WSM without Semenyo.

I honestly think tweaks are needed rather than an overhaul. When you take everything else away, the major glaring issues are the absence of Kalas and Semenyo and the departure of Cundy meaning our current formation is lacking two components essential to making it work. In the short term, Pearson needs to find a way for us to play that compensates for a shortage of right sides centre backs and the absence of an exceptional forward. In the longer term, everyone - Pearson included - seem to know where we need to strengthen but it is just a question of when we can do it.

Wells has had plenty of ineffective games for us too. The reality is that both are strikers that need the right players around them to perform to their best and both have been at the club at a time when we have struggled to find forward combinations that worked. It finally clicked last season with Weimann behind Semenyo and Martin but still faltered massively once any one of those three elements was removed and Semenyo was the most important element of all. With Semenyo out, we cannot just keep trying the same thing and hoping for the best but I do not think that a straight swap of Wells for Martin would make the difference. If we wanted to make it work with Wells, we would need to change the system and - with the players available, I am not quite sure what that system would be that would get the best out of Wells.

Fair enough. I suppose I also think it is an easy choice. I just don't think it will be one that everyone agrees with.

A major issue for me is we've spent the last two years overhauling the squad to get in a group of players to play a particular way and, whilst that's not working at the moment, I don't want us to throw everything out and start again. That's not necessarily to say that someone else couldn't come in and get better out of the players and system we are trying to play but, if we made a change, I'd want us to get a manager in who wanted to work with the bulk of the players to make tweaks rather than someone who wanted to move on half the team and start again. I also don't think personnel-wise, we are that far away. There are three or four players we need and two or three that either aren't good enough or don't work within the squad we have. I don't think that there is that much needed to turn us into a much better team. The question is whether Pearson can make that happen.

Bottom line is Pearson has a huge decision to make this month. Either we stick with what we have and hope Kalas and Semenyo return, stay fit and turn things around or we sacrifice a key player - probably Scott - in order to get the funds in to strengthen the team. It is not an easy choice but whether he makes the right call will ultimately determine whether he keeps his job and whether we stay in this division. He still has my backing but the next three and a half weeks may be the most critical since the summer of 2014.

I don’t know for sure but suspect it was and we missed out on targets. There were a few defensive midfielders we were linked with early in pre-season - not least Rinhomota - and I wonder if we were confident in landing one of them but ultimately missed out.

Exactly. And I think it would be a massive risk to lose Bentley or Semenyo given how we have started the season. Which leaves Scott as the one potential asset we could get a fair amount of money for without massively weakening the team.

I am rapidly coming to this conclusion too. I would be gutted to lose Scott but that could get us three players we sorely need.

I’d like better but we need a defensive midfielder and a right sided centre back better than Vyner, plus cover for Semenyo. We can afford none of those things and I don’t think much will change until we get those players in .

I think a lot of it is the legacy of past mistakes. I think Pearson had brought in the right players, and I rate the youngsters, but we have a legacy of badly thought through signings and contract offers that leave too little room for manoeuvre. I think moving Pearson on is absolutely the wrong thing to do but we are going to struggle until we can move out high earners and sub-standard players and reinforce defence and defensive midfield.

We may know Vyner isn’t good enough but I am not sure what we do about it. Kalas is injured, Klose looked uncomfortable on the right of the three pre-season, Idehen is left footed and Towler - whilst promising - has struggled to date. We also don’t have money to make a signing and may find it hard to find someone who is good enough to cover for Kalas but happy to be a back-up once Kalas is fit. Short of selling one of our assets to sign a centre back - and that depends who is available - it may well be simultaneously true that Vyner is both not good enough and our best available option.

This is the kind of unambitious small-time thinking that is holding the club back. A team like ours should be looking to win the Premier League AND Champions’ League this season. People make excuses about the fact you can’t win competitions you aren’t actually in but, if Pearson is as good as he thinks he is, he’ll find a way…

Vyner and Sykes keep their places in an unchanged side.

Apologies in advance for this; Dasilva bullet Bentley’s Rhythm’s Ace More Than a Weimann Pring the Noise Great Scott! (Well aware all these are terrible!)

I feel Jack Clarke could be a great signing. Hope there is no evidence to back me up on Saturday.

So just to recap: 1. Supporters know flares are not allowed but do it anyway 2. Flares become sufficiently commonplace that the EFL announces a clampdown where anyone who lets a flare off will be banne 3. A supporter takes a flare in and gets a ban Quite aside from the question of whether flares should or should not be allowed, it seems to be the rules were clear, the consequences were explained and someone who has broken the rules is now facing those consequences. I don’t really see the controversy or understand why we live in a society where so many people seem surprised or outraged when someone who breaks the laws finds there is a price to pay for doing so.