Use those players with Championship Experience first

[equaliser]

Crooks is 30 this year , he is very talented , but does not have the speed of thought to play AM in a team hoping to go up .
He is a big unit at 6ft 3in , taller than our 2 1st choice centre halves.
Maybe sitting him in front of the defence would give us the physicality, and calmness needed .

I was thinking this the other day. As a former 6'4" centre-forward myself, Crooks doesn't have the experience of playing with his back to goal for me, and even though he's neat at arriving in the box, he's not really mobile enough to be a midfielder. I used to sometimes drop back to centre-half though and actually enjoyed it. I'd try Crooks there in training and see how it went.

 

[equaliser]

If we are going to halt this sky-dive, we could do worse than to use those tried and trusted players with Championship experience [no matter how little] and bring on the others gradually:
The likes of O`Brien, McGree, Josh, Jones, McNair, Barlaser, Crooks, Gilbert, Greenwood, Forss........
If we have to clog and block our way out of this temporary impasse - so be it.

Agree. You could also add Dijksteel, who combines well with Jones. McGree absolutely has to be in the team.

 

[Glover_elbow]

I would be tempted to bring Hayden Coulson back into the reckoning.

My god if hayden coulson is the answer then we are absolutely doomed, and how far have we fallen. hes not a championship player hes league 2 at best. 3 replacements for giles and all 3 look poor with hardly any experience of championship. Absolutely negligent recruitment we could have got joe bryan on free.

 

[r00fie1]

£25,000,000`s worth of loanees - we could never afford.
Chuba decides to depart in spite of an improved contract.

Not recruitment`s fault.
A financial fact of life.

 

[Glover_elbow]

£25,000,000`s worth of loanees - we could never afford.
Chuba decides to depart in spite of an improved contract.

Not recruitment`s fault.
A financial fact of life.

Of course its recruitments fault we could have bought championship experienced players in positions like fullback but we tried to be clever and turn water into wine with unproven risks. The high risk high reward strategy has backfired spectacularly throwing all our eggs in the unproved basket was an insane strategy

 

[Simply red]

I was thinking this the other day. As a former 6'4" centre-forward myself, Crooks doesn't have the experience of playing with his back to goal for me, and even though he's neat at arriving in the box, he's not really mobile enough to be a midfielder. I used to sometimes drop back to centre-half though and actually enjoyed it. I'd try Crooks there in training and see how it went.

Seems like a natural progression as he has got older and slower , he still is very talented and skilful , so drop him back and get the best out of him . Like a modern day Bobby Murdoch , you don't need to run around like a headless chicken , sit in front of the defence , read the game , and use his physical presence to our advantage.
Let the nippy , younger lads do the running.