Are we a bit distracted by the Striker situation this summer?....

MichaelDebeve

MichaelDebeve

Well-known member
... and maybe taking our eye off the midfield conundrum on the horizon?

We all know that it looks like a sizable chunk of the budget will be needed to solve the striker issue, that seems to be a given.

But central midfield has the potential to be derelict this summer too.

There is a strong possibility that Hackney moves on, O'Brien doesnt kick on and the loan ends, Howson can not be relied upon for a potential 45 game season, and it looks like Barlaser is struggling to cement his place, or perhaps is struggling to do what is needed in that position for us.

Due to that are we actually looking at at least 2 starting centre midfielders to come into the club as well. If so that could be a substantial cost on top of the 15 goal a season striker (we hope we find!) haha





Not to mention a few left backs needed.
 
It's funny because the reason we kept away from a large amount of loan signings was to prevent a huge turnover of players each season. Yet this summer will be one of the biggest we have ever had ! As said we need a minimum of 2 strikers, looking at midfield Hackney could move on as could Howson and also O'Brien will go back to his parent club. So there's 5 players. Greenwood will need replacing as does our RB situation where we will potentially need 2 signings and there is every chance Mcgree could go as he Is in his final year of his contract.

That's before we look at improving on what we already have.
 
All correct. Centre Midfield is a massive problem for next season. We definitely need at least 2 new ones. Maybe 3 if we lose Hackney and Howson.

If Hackney stays,

Starter - Hackney
Starter - ????????
3rd Choice - ??????? / maybe O'Brien?
4th Choice - Barlaser

If Hackney goes,

Starter - ????????
Starter - ????????
3rd Choice - Howson
4th Choice - Barlaser

If Hackney is going, which I think he will, I would try and retain Howson for a season for a bit of consistency within the squad. We are then looking for 2 new starting midfielders.
O'Brien is probably too expensive to sign as a squad player but he hasn't really shown enough to be considered a starter yet has he?
 
To be honest, from what I saw on Saturday, we have issues in all departments and not just up top.
I watched Blackburn play the Saudies last night and they already look a mile better than we do with Eustaces expertise.

Carrick lacks experience and seems to be averse to learning. Not sure how that resolves itself.
 
Robbieboro said:
It's funny because the reason we kept away from a large amount of loan signings was to prevent a huge turnover of players each season. Yet this summer will be one of the biggest we have ever had ! As said we need a minimum of 2 strikers, looking at midfield Hackney could move on as could Howson and also O'Brien will go back to his parent club. So there's 5 players. Greenwood will need replacing as does our RB situation where we will potentially need 2 signings and there is every chance Mcgree could go as he Is in his final year of his contract.

That's before we look at improving on what we already have.
Click to expand...
That's because the quality of signings hasn't been good enough.

Out of the 12 players we've signed in the last 18 months, only 2, maybe 3, have proven themselves to be good enough to be in the first team (if we still have promotion aspirations). Dieng and VDB. I am hopeful with Azaz as well.

Engel/Bangura - Left back is a problem. Engel is not good enough. Bangura unproven but looked suspect. One in the squad as cover for a first choice LB.
Silvera - Miles away
Barlaser - Not good enough. Squad player
Lath - Squad player.
Glover - Squad player
Gilbert - Head scratcher. Baffling signing this one
Rogers - Gone
Jones - Presumably signed as cover for AFCON
 
Worst case scenario. Hackney gets an offer he can't refuse, O'Brien doesn't make the grade, Howson goes. Leaves our midfield 4 as: Barlaser.

Best case scenario, Hackney stays, O'Brien does well and gets re-signed. O'Brien of 2 years ago and Hackney are an excellent combo except...

As Ipswich have shown, your central midfielders need to be the type who are very defensively aware out of position. They don't need to be Traditional defensive-midfielders but they do need to be disciplined and aware of threat. Except...

Ipswich have conceded 4 fewer goals than us. They are every bit as defensively weak as us. It's just they've scored 21 more goals.

That's all there is to it.

It's not the midfielders or the defenders, it's the system. The system requires us to score 2 goals for every one we concede. Our forwards can't manage that. Every other failure comes from that. Especially at home. We have a good defensive record in the league, at home but have scored the third least goals.
 
B_G said:
That's because the quality of signings hasn't been good enough.

Out of the 12 players we've signed in the last 18 months, only 2, maybe 3, have proven themselves to be good enough to be in the first team (if we still have promotion aspirations). Dieng and VDB. I am hopeful with Azaz as well.

Engel/Bangura - Left back is a problem. Engel is not good enough. Bangura unproven but looked suspect. One in the squad as cover for a first choice LB.
Silvera - Miles away
Barlaser - Not good enough. Squad player
Lath - Squad player.
Glover - Squad player
Gilbert - Head scratcher. Baffling signing this one
Rogers - Gone
Jones - Presumably signed as cover for AFCON
Click to expand...

I'd agree with that.

Bangura hasnt had enough games yet, but Engel doesnt seem to be near the required level unfortunately. Would be fine as back up, especially with his ability to play as a third CB now too.

Lath, as I've said in other threads, is a tough one, I actually quite like him, but doesnt look like he will achieve more than 1 in 4 in terms of goals so I think is destined to be a super sub.

In all honesty if we had replacements ready I would allow the rest to move on.
 
B_G said:
That's because the quality of signings hasn't been good enough.

Out of the 12 players we've signed in the last 18 months, only 2, maybe 3, have proven themselves to be good enough to be in the first team (if we still have promotion aspirations). Dieng and VDB. I am hopeful with Azaz as well.

Engel/Bangura - Left back is a problem. Engel is not good enough. Bangura unproven but looked suspect. One in the squad as cover for a first choice LB.
Silvera - Miles away
Barlaser - Not good enough. Squad player
Lath - Squad player.
Glover - Squad player
Gilbert - Head scratcher. Baffling signing this one
Rogers - Gone
Jones - Presumably signed as cover for AFCON
Click to expand...
Part of the problem is that Bangura and Latte Lath have hardly played so we don't know.
Silvera is probably ok as a back-up
Barlaser is a good player but not in our system.
Glover perfectly decent Championship #2.
Rogers was showing signs of becoming a dominating #10 but then got sold.
Greenwood after a good start has been really disappointing.
O'Brien ought to have been a no-brainer but was out injured almost immediately.
Engel is an ok attacking left back with a good range of passing but even more defensively suspect than Giles. Feels like he is lower Championship level at best.

You can't over-emphasise just how much injuries have destroyed our season. You would think that with a normal amount of injuries, Latte Lath, Bangura and O'Brien would have played enough that O'Brien would be a mainstay in midfield and one of Bangura and Latte Lath would have grown into their role. If we hadn't drawn Villa in the cup, Rogers would still be here.

It has to judge and clearly the quality is far less than the players they replaced, but in a world where the training ground isn't lava, we might have been looking at a fairly settled line up
Dieng
Smith - Fry/RVDB - Lenihan/Clarke - Bangura
Hackney - O'Brien
Forss/Jones - Rogers/Azaz - McGree
Latte Lath / Coburn / Forss

It would have struggled to hit 6th place but I reckon would have been in contention. It didn't pan out that way but given that we needed to replace 5/6 first-teamers with about £10m, it looks like it could have worked.
 
Robbieboro said:
It's funny because the reason we kept away from a large amount of loan signings was to prevent a huge turnover of players each season. Yet this summer will be one of the biggest we have ever had ! As said we need a minimum of 2 strikers, looking at midfield Hackney could move on as could Howson and also O'Brien will go back to his parent club. So there's 5 players. Greenwood will need replacing as does our RB situation where we will potentially need 2 signings and there is every chance Mcgree could go as he Is in his final year of his contract.

That's before we look at improving on what we already have.
Click to expand...
I'd also add the also rans may as well not be here, with between six and eight injuries / absentees for chunks of this season the fact Gilbert, Hoppe, Dijksteel and Bilongo have got nowhere starts says we may as well bin them off.

So potentially losing:

O'Brien
Ayling
Thomas
Greenwood

McNair
Howson

Gilbert
Hoppe
Bilongo
Dijksteel

Possibly our two saleable assets?
Hackney
McGree

Coupled with question marks over pre-season fitness/availability of:
Lenihan
Smith
Bangura

And our pressing need for another striker and 10/AML too, that we're already missing IMO.
 
MichaelDebeve said:
... and maybe taking our eye off the midfield conundrum on the horizon?
Click to expand...
Fans might be but you'd hope the recruitment team realise.

There are always areas for improvement. We don't have a single player in the squad that couldn't be improved (who does?) so if players are available that will improve us then we go for them. If there are areas that need improving but there aren't players available then we stick with what we have got. Just buying depth, projects and back-ups tends to not improve the 1st 11 and sees you standing still.

Last season we had a strong squad but there were still weaknesses. When we lost all of our best players our weaknesses became our strongest players which tells the story of our season in a nutshell. We needed a better right back than Smith, now we're missing him. We needed a Howson replacement and now we're talking about renewing his contract. We lost Archer, replaced him with a downgrade, lost Akpom and replaced him with Crooks and then Rogers and then lost them both, we lost Ramsey and replaced him with McGree who is now our "star player". We didn't improve our squad in a single position and that is a bit sad. Good news is that it should be a lot easier to improve our squad now our baseline is much lower!

Truth is that we have a lot of decent championship players and no star players. We are either praying some of our decent players become stars or we need to invest in some stars. We won't progress in any way if we just keep buying decent championship players.
 
MichaelDebeve said:
... and maybe taking our eye off the midfield conundrum on the horizon?

We all know that it looks like a sizable chunk of the budget will be needed to solve the striker issue, that seems to be a given.

But central midfield has the potential to be derelict this summer too.

There is a strong possibility that Hackney moves on, O'Brien doesnt kick on and the loan ends, Howson can not be relied upon for a potential 45 game season, and it looks like Barlaser is struggling to cement his place, or perhaps is struggling to do what is needed in that position for us.

Due to that are we actually looking at at least 2 starting centre midfielders to come into the club as well. If so that could be a substantial cost on top of the 15 goal a season striker (we hope we find!) haha





Not to mention a few left backs needed.
Click to expand...
If Hackney does move on, that should ensure we have a sizeable war chest to replace the midfielders required hopefully. Although we certainly need another striker, I'm confident ELL will have a sizeable contribution next season if he can stay fit, his minutes to goals ratio isn't too bad.
 
MichaelDebeve said:
... and maybe taking our eye off the midfield conundrum on the horizon?

We all know that it looks like a sizable chunk of the budget will be needed to solve the striker issue, that seems to be a given.

But central midfield has the potential to be derelict this summer too.

There is a strong possibility that Hackney moves on, O'Brien doesnt kick on and the loan ends, Howson can not be relied upon for a potential 45 game season, and it looks like Barlaser is struggling to cement his place, or perhaps is struggling to do what is needed in that position for us.

Due to that are we actually looking at at least 2 starting centre midfielders to come into the club as well. If so that could be a substantial cost on top of the 15 goal a season striker (we hope we find!) haha




Not to mention a few left backs needed.
Click to expand...

The scouting department will be well aware of the interest in Hackney, so no i don't think we will have taken our eyes off that particular issue.
 
1finny said:
Last season the plan almost worked
This season the plan (if there was one) meh
Obviously next season will work

Straws and clutching
Click to expand...
Last season almost worked but it wasn't what was planned. We started the season with one manager and finished it with another. That can't have been the plan!
 
We need an Adam Clayton and/or Grant Leadbitter types of players. Although a George Boteng type of player would not go amiss either.
 
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