I agree - I think Greenwoods been underwhelming - but we need to build a squad, not just a starting 11, especially with the amount of injuries we're getting - and he's worth £1.5m.
Would you keep any of the loan players?
- Thread starter Colin Warnek
- Start date
I agree - I think Greenwoods been underwhelming - but we need to build a squad, not just a starting 11, especially with the amount of injuries we're getting - and he's worth £1.5m.
Jonathan
Well-known member
I don't mind Ayling, not being what I hoped on the pitch at least but maybe I was hoping for too much in the first place, steadied a bit the last few games at least. But either way when Smith comes back I don't think we need two right backs that are 32+.
Thomas, eh. Doesn't look good at full back. Could maybe be a good wide player further up the pitch if you free him up of defensive duties a bit more but then why wouldn't you just get a left winger at that point.
Greenwood, I don't know what he does to be honest. I don't know what his skillset or what he's meant to be doing half the time cause barring a few good moments like the Sunderland goal or the Leicester free kick he just seems to coast through games, not even really playing badly particularly, but just not... really doing anything at all, think he works hard but otherwise just seems like a total passenger. Just a strange player. I don't even know what his proper position is really. Left wing? Attacking midfield? Forward?
O'Brien, 50/50, maybe 60/40 in favour, at a push. Seems fine, unspectacular, and similar to Greenwood I'm not totally sure what his role really. Not really a fully defensive midfielder, not really an attacking, just sort of some in-between player that runs about a lot.
Thomas, eh. Doesn't look good at full back. Could maybe be a good wide player further up the pitch if you free him up of defensive duties a bit more but then why wouldn't you just get a left winger at that point.
Greenwood, I don't know what he does to be honest. I don't know what his skillset or what he's meant to be doing half the time cause barring a few good moments like the Sunderland goal or the Leicester free kick he just seems to coast through games, not even really playing badly particularly, but just not... really doing anything at all, think he works hard but otherwise just seems like a total passenger. Just a strange player. I don't even know what his proper position is really. Left wing? Attacking midfield? Forward?
O'Brien, 50/50, maybe 60/40 in favour, at a push. Seems fine, unspectacular, and similar to Greenwood I'm not totally sure what his role really. Not really a fully defensive midfielder, not really an attacking, just sort of some in-between player that runs about a lot.
Paintolerance
Well-known member
We were spoilt last season with the loanees. This year, they have added next to nothing. I very much hope we have upgrades in mind for every position they currently fill.
viv_andersons_nana
Well-known member
I stand corrected.
I think the first few windows were good though tbh. The last two, I’m not so sure. I tried to reserve judgment on last summer’s for as long as possible but we’ve gone from 4th to 10th so there’s no real place to hide. I think January was a complete disaster, which only really compounded losing what we lost last summer.
I think my main nagging doubt is the sense that there’s a lack of planning. They knew Akpom was going. They knew we wouldn’t be able to keep Archer and Ramsey. They signed a batch of players but only Latte Lath for Archer is an actual like-for-like replacement imo. The pacy winger in Ramsey was replaced by 3 players, none of whom are anything like Ramsey was.
I know they said Rogers was a shock sale and they didn’t know it was coming, but building your squad properly these days means forward planning that covers several windows ahead. They needed a striker going into January and didn’t one, on the back of needing two last summer and only getting one. So we’ve needed one for a year. Where’s the planning there?
They tried to sign Onyeka from Brentford, an orthodox defensive midfielder, over a year and a half ago… and still haven’t signed a defensive midfielder.
They must’ve known Crooks was going. To not replace him was borderline negligence. It’s gone from looking very promising this time last year to looking pretty messy tbh. And I say that as someone who’s been fully onboard with this apparently more joined up approach and went into January optimistic we’d strengthen and go hell for leather for the rest of this season. As it happened, we did the square root of nowt.
viv_andersons_nana
Well-known member
I’m a bit more cynical than you in regards to some of these injuries tbh. I would say this current lot are maintaining their levels quite comfortably, which is treading water and out of the hunt by Easter. It’s like that Warnock season. A few flashes, a brief dalliance with the top six, and then a drop off into mid-table mediocrity that culminated in an embarrassing 0-3 mauling at home to relegated Wycombe Wanderers, a performance that should’ve seen Warnock sacked before the players had even got back to the dressing room.
I just have a hunch that some of these injuries, knocks and niggles, they don’t keep players out when they’re winning matches. I only have a brief insight into this as I know two of those Maidstone United players pretty well as they were lodging with my other half’s parents for the title season and the following relegation. Lads who’d run through walls one season suddenly didn’t much fancy a relegation scrap.
Azaz?
viv_andersons_nana
Well-known member
They don’t play in the same position? I take your point though.
But we lost Rogers and Crooks having already been in dire need of one quality striker. We didn’t get what we needed and then compounded it by selling Crooks. If they were planning properly then surely all of that doesn’t happen. To me it sort of felt like they decided to keep their powder dry until the summer. I think that’s probably being kind tbh. I think they thought they could wing it, get a couple of the injured players back, and we could maybe pinch a top six spot. It doesn’t feel very professional to me.
viv_andersons_nana
Well-known member
Didn’t Azaz play off the left for Plymouth? I suppose that would actually make him a replacement for Rogers. I like Azaz and think he could really develop with us but at the moment it just looks another signing that isn’t really much of an improvement on what we already had. We don’t really seem to be improving the team with our recent signings.
Bruce
Well-known member
That pretty much goes without saying. It's much easier to push yourself beyond your limits when you're winning. Harder when you're losing and there's no obvious way back.* And if you're a team that's collapsing then some of the players will collapse along with it. All you're saying here is that human nature exists.
I've seen nothing from our players to make me think they aren't pushing themselves. Against Southampton, despite everything that had happened they were still pushing and got a goal. That takes some motivation when you consider that we are going nowhere for the rest of the season.
There may be players who are starting to protect themselves because their loan or contract is ending. Would you fly into a dangerous tackle or risk a hamstring you've felt twinge if you may be unemployed in a few weeks? There are players like Ayling who you know will give everything he has until the whistle goes but others like Greenwood who you suspect may just keep a little in reserve.
*There are some players like Keane or Leadbitter who are driven by rage and play harder the harder it gets.