Supposedly Naismith is taking a 25% reduction in his wages, but we're still paying him £30k p/w whilst Hearts contribute next to nothing.
Impressive highlights if you log in. Passlack scores a goal and clears off the line to save one as well. Really looking forward to seeing him play.
According to the Pink'un, his wages are £30,000, which is £22,500 after 25% is taken off and I believe Hearts are paying around £10,000 a week of that, so it comes down to around £12,500 a week this year and then he's gone. Job done SW!
I am happy with the new recruits but I believe we need a keeper and a match winner striker . Matthews may be good enough but is still a big gamble and I don't see where the goals will come from after selling all of our previous attacking talent .
Fair comment DD, but in 2014-2015, I believe we had 3 midfielders who each scored 10 or more goals. Yes, Matthews is a gamble and what did you think when we splashed out £400K for Holt in 2009??? I'm interested in seeing what SirBenny can do after a full pre-season and will Idah make the first team squad??? #questionsquestions
I can still see a clearly unsettled / unhappy Oliveira being sold which would release funds for a goal scoring striker of some calibre?
Where the goals are going to come from is the key question certainly. Starting from the top, we've added a goal scoring striker in Pukki, who should increase the 8 goals from our strikers last season. There's a reasonable chance that Oliveira, or his replacement will contribute goals as well and Srbeny, as you say, should contribute more than his single goal, so I hope for at least 10 more goals from the strikers than last year. We'll lose Josh's 7 goals, but Marshall, Buendia and Hernandez should be able to increase that total between them to at least 10-15 goals, but we'll miss Maddison's 15 goals. The key will be in CM, where we had very few last season. McLean could add to that and hopefully the others, who are more settled now, should contribute more. Perhaps 10 goals added here. Passlack looks to be a goalscorer as well so maybe an additional 5 from defence. Putting those together, it's not unreasonable to expect at least 15-20 goals more than last season. With a settled defence and improved DM cover, that could be enough to compete for the play-offs. That's my hope anyway.
None of those extra goals will happen unless we move the ball faster or have found some clever way of scoring at a snails pace with the newbies. Can we do that? Bah!
Most of our goals were long range Maddisson strikes and the odd one from Josh and Nelson early on. Two of those probably all 3 will not be here next season , I'm guessing the rest of the squad scored less than 10 between them so Rick's estimate of an extra 15-20 goals without our top 3 scorers worth about £40m between them this year seems to me unrealistic.
Anybody still interested in Oliveria? Notts Forest came sniffing earlier in the transfer window? Problem will be convincing possible new employers that his goal scoring talent has not dried up.
jaob: typo now corrected. I think we might need a stiff one if Oliveria is still around beginning of season. Can’t see him being given a start unless the other strikers are misfiring.
I agree. Part of the problem last season was that we funneled much of the play through Maddison and that slowed things down. This time we'll have different wide options and will probably use Leitner or Vrancic as deep playmakers, hopefully getting the ball forward more quickly before the opposing defence is ready. Otherwise, what's the point in having pace up front? That could mean a 4-3-3 or a 3-4-3 with WBs for width. The options will be far more varied this time and hopefully will be used to free up scoring throughout the team. We don't need to replace Madders - we need a different approach using the pace we now have in Pukki as well as WBs creating overloads to put pressure on the defence.
It isn't a prediction, DD, it's what could happen with the players we now have. See the above post for my reasoning. If we try to replace Madders with Leitner, Buendia or Palmer, the result is likely to be the same again. If we play to the strengths of the players we now have, then the additional goals become possible.
