Did we all get it wrong in the summer?

The idealistic notion of progressively building a stronger squad is naive.
Squads turn over every year, as players move/are moved; the really good ones get plucked away and the club can't afford not to, given the Championship financial reality.
Kieran Scott and Norwich turned over masses of players every season by the way, just like is happening here.

It is unavoidable if you need to make a profit on player sales in order to stay within P&S, like we all do in this horrible league.
It's unrealistic to expect every signing to be a good one, or immediately a good one. We can't afford to buy really good proven players wherever we have a weakness
It's unrealistic to expect the club not to take a near £20m profit on a prospect signed less than 18 months earlier.

So you need good recruitment AND a realisation that you have to fully use your loan capacity in order to gather the talent required to get up top two.
Retaining a growing quality core and adding to it every year is a pipedream. You need to make it happen whenever you can.

Which means the quality of the Head coach/manager is key. Being able to organise and motivate the squad is key.
I think it is more the Head coach that was over-hyped personally.
 
I think the worst is that we know that when this team/squad "clicks" we can be exciting and entertaining but too often we are pedestrian and predictable. The encouraging signs are that we are again close to the top and that our squad is of increasing potential and worth. I believe that we will get promoted in the next few seasons if not this one.

Courage mon braves.
 
TheYorkshireTerrier said:
I think we got a couple things wrong.
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Signing Micah Hamilton instead of Alex Robertson?

I think our issues have came about through injured players tbh

Dieng/Brynn

Smith
Fry
Lenihan
Engel

Morris
Howson

Forss
Gilbert
McGree

Conway

just off the top of my head.. those are game changers and have had a knock on effect.

I still think we need some canny permanent additions in the form of a right back, and a defensive midfielder.

Jonjoe Kenny and one other!
Bali Mumba would be crazy imo.. but if Carrick is going total Keegan.. then why not.

Ethan Erhahon from Lincoln could be picked up for a song.. left footed too. Nice alternative to a more expensive Max Bird (think we missed the boats there tbh) Wouter Burger from Stoke would need the big bucks! Bit of a De Roon come Matt Crooks cost them €5m from DC Basel

Casper De Norre could be our cut price Ben Sheaf.. to compete with Aiden Morris.. definitely worth throwing Dan Barlaser and Anfernee Dijksteel in for a trade!
 
Our coaching/managing needs to adapt , it’s not alway about the players . Being critical of our management doesn’t always mean sack and get a new one , we’ve done that often enough . Atleast we can self fund the transfers
 
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Doncaster Boro said:
I thought we were capable of getting in the play offs and I still think we will.
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It’s a big ask to compete and win in those playoffs.. but we need to be asking!

£17m may soon be burning a hole in our pockets and with bids accepted for both Dijksteel and Barlaser I would be very much looking to bring in upgrades for those positions.

Bali Mumba would be mental.. especially with 3 sort of fit central defenders and two sort of fit central midfielders. Maybe we can just win all our remaining games 7-3 and go up automatically? We appear to be eternally haunted at right back! Jimmy Dunne could fix it.. Dunne deal?

Milan van Ewijk was the one that got away there I think.. we need the new MVE

Morris and Hackney are a fine midfield pairing..

Howson & Barlaser are a bit of a worry.. we need more there imo.. on the left side (again cursed) we need the next in succession of Alex Mowatt, Lewis O’Brien.. Wouter Burger from Stoke for a proper job.. Ethan Erhahon for a cheaper option.

Matt Grimes would have been decent.. but even he cost £3.5m

On the right side we been a Ben Sheaf type of player to compete with Aiden Morris.. obviously we were looking at Glen Kamara who is a pretty big cheese (would prefer we spent the money on Wouter Burger tbh) but who ? That Kamil Conteh looks alright in league one! Malachi Boateng from Hearts would at least come with a song ready to dust off!
 
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Some of us saw this coming in the summer, or maybe we were trying to rectify it and didn’t manage to.

At least we’re trying to rectify it now.
 

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Maybe we all over estimated the quality of the squad - major failing for me have been zero attacking threat down the left and vulnerability of the defence which is in part to Carrick's system, lack of midfield protection of defence and poor full backs - again particularly on the left.

When Carrick came in, we signed loan players that were a cut above; they made a huge difference, and we were class. Carrick's system was great because we had the quality to out score teams. Then the close season came, and they all went back to their parent clubs, leaving us with a monumental rebuilding task on our hands. So, the club said never again.

We went with high potential/high ceiling permanent signings with good saleability instead. Most of Kieran Scott and Chris Jones' signings have been very good, but the team has lacked lacked quality, strength, and perhaps mentality to be serious automatic contenders.

The signings we've made in January have been very good - Whitaker in particular - a potential 20-goal-a-season forward. Great addition. With Late Lath going, a loan signing of a quality striker (or two) would plug the gap and give Boro a chance to plan for future transfers in the closed season. Quite smart.

And Illing Junior, a lad with massive potential as a product of Juventus' youth academy, could be another Archer-esque signing - though he's a left winger/forward - but just what we need to balance the team, which has been lopsided with all our threat down the right-hand side.

Boro are rolling the dice with these loan player and if we get them i expect a massive improvement in form akin to MC first season at the Boro. Could do with another quality central midfield mind
 
Our squad was more than good enough to challenge. It will never be perfect. We've underperformed in the first half of the season without any doubt. Part of that is injuries but a bigger part of it is our mentality and being unable to cope with any pressure and our sloppiness. Our goals scored column is hiding the fact we haven't been good enough in front of goal thanks to three matches where we scored quarter of our goals.
 
There are many what ifs..

Lenihan was playing in pre-season - that aggravated his injury.

McGree started the season well, but has struggled with injury since.

Jones lost his form from last season - Doak has been a good replacement, but despite how good/exciting he is - he is a defensive liability and does not get involved in the build up like Jones did. (Cover on the right was a strength not a weakness). Ayling had struggled without Jones defensive cover.

Howson has been injured all season. All 5 of our centre backs have had injuries and Clark had a loss of form.

Hamilton/Borges have not worked out (the system of buying prospects/foreign players on the cheap has risks attached). Hamilton still may work out long term and Borges is fine.

Bangura does his achilles, Smith fails to recover from his injury.

And despite all of that we have had a mix of good performances with good results, good performances with poor results and some poor performances.

Not overjoyed, but also not too disappointed personally.
 
I actually think Carrick has done a brilliant job with a severely disrupted squad. We've had reserves/stop gap recruitments in the side throughout the season.

The recruiters have by and large done a good job, though they've thrown somewhere in the region of £5m away on the Hoppe and Hamilton signings.
 
Seems our injury situation is as bad as last season which was one of the reasons that season went off the rails. I thought we were unlucky and this time round it was unlikely we’d have the same again. The problem is the long term injuries to key players again. Smith and Lenihan and for a long time Fry and also Howson off the pitch when we need experience and nouse on it.
 
I was really optimistic at the start of the season. We didn’t sell our best players and recruited a couple of good prospects in Morris and Conway and a good loan in Doak. Wasn’t fussed on Ayling - there is a reason Leeds let their legend go and the likes of Hamilton and a couple of youngsters looked like players of the future and not likely to be regulars on the match day squads Signing Borges and Ayling told you Carrick didn’t rate Djiksteel or Engel which I disagree with - particularly Djiksteel. Burgzorg was a cheap squad player and Edmundson pretty much the same. We looked solid. So what happened?
Injuries first and foremost. We have had a couple of seasons now of terrible long term injuries to key players. I can’t remember so many players being out for so long. We never seem to have a player miss the odd game, our injuries last weeks if not months. Saying that look at other clubs - Bournemouth are a great example - 9 players out but still getting results so injuries can’t excuse everything
For me this window is deeply troubling. I said on here in December Dieng, Clarke and Jones all wanted out in the window. Dieng didn’t go purely due to injury but we all knew they were leaving. Latte Lath is the disaster sale. I’m convinced he could have been persuaded to stay but I think we seen his sale as necessary to fund reinforcements. That is a massive call for the club to make. If Barlaser goes I don’t think we will be weaker but we need a replacement just for numbers. If we lose a centre back to injury or a midfielder we are in big trouble. Doak is running on empty and needs a rest but we have become so dependent on him we can’t afford to leave him out. Selling Djiksteel on top of Latte Lath would be criminal for me.
Some of the proposed signings feel like panic buying but we have to trust the club to get it right.
I am less confident now than I was at the start of the season but hopefully good luck on the injury front and the players the club bring in being the right fit and hitting the ground running might just spur us on to promotion. UTB
 
GKs - Had no issues with us not signing a GK. Nobody could have predicted things would have gone the way they did with Dieng.

RBs - I felt we needed to sign a RB. Djiksteel's had a pretty good season but at the same time I would have moved him on. At 33, Ayling isn't good enough to be starting for a team chasing promotion and should have been used mainly as a back-up player this season.

CBs - This has been the biggest disappointment for me. After the way they performed last season I actually felt we'd have one of the best CB pairings in the division in VDB and Clarke. Clarke was a shadow of the player he was last season and I think in hindsight we got a bit carried away by VDB's form last season. Reality is he's a young player with potential and not the finished article.

LBs - Was a bit underwhelmed when we signed Borges, that we'd chosen to take a cheap punt on another unknown from abroad, after the signing of Engel hadn't worked out. I wanted us to go for someone who had proven themselves at this level. I felt we should have made a bigger push to sign Giles in the summer.

CMs - Not signing another DM was a big mistake. Was naive to think that Howson was going to be able to stay fit.

RWs - Had no issue with Doak and Jones being our main options, although unfortuantely Jones didn't do much this season. The club have done the right thing moving him on and replacing him with Whittaker. Big upgrade.

10s - Should have signed another 10 in the summer - someone who could have genuinely rivalled Azaz for his place in the team. Don't think Carrick really fancies Gilbert, or at least doesn't think he's ready to be featuring too often yet.

LWs - It's been a problem position for us really. Was hoping McGree would be able to stay fit and play the majority of games but if anything he has just been a disruption to the team this season, coming into the side when he hasn't been match fit and therefore struggling. We all got excited by the Micah Hamilton signing. I was hoping he was going to be the next Morgan Rogers but he just hasn't shown us anything so far. One we're going to have to be patient with but I'd hoped he'd do well for us this season.

STs - The club did the right thing turning down the Ipswich offer for Lath. Conway was a good signing but it's been unfortunate that he's had his injury issues.
 
There were two or three threads before the season started which asked the question of how we’d do this season, couple of them with polls. The vast majority of fans didn’t think we’d get in the top two. The most positive people then are often still the most optimistic people now.
Many (not all) of the people saying that we’re underachieving are the same people who said on those threads we’d finish mid table or lower.
I think there’s some history being rewritten by some posters.
 
LeeMiller said:
General consensus was this was our best squad for many years in this division. No major outgoings, all the key players kept. Some exciting additions.

Fast forward to the start of February, we find ourselves out of the playoff spots.
We have had to max out our five allowed Matchday Loan spaces.

We are about to field our fourth goalkeeper of the season. We have three recognised Centre Halves and one Defensive midfielder.

Mcgree injury prone
Conway to substantial periods out in only six months.

We still look imbalanced
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Good enough for 4th-8th is what I said and stick by it, some people forget there are 23 other teams trying to improve also and some have a better starting point than us and bigger budgets
 
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