I didn't realise but he's 6ft, he's a pretty big lad. The recruitment this summer has understood the physicality of the Championship so I'm sure that's been considered. Oscar is wide, as is Tufan, Tetteh is huge, Fig is a unit too and obviously Allahyar is a freak
I honestly think Allahyar will really stand out for us this season. Constantly looking to make something happen. With a bit more composure behind him, I think he'll flourish for us.
Still think we need a big, ball winning DM. And still think Tufan, for his undoubted ability looks quite a way off the pace yet.
He won't if we don't get the ball to him and start playing on the edge of the opponents box, not our own.
It'll come. All depends on getting a little more quality and depth in, and then playing with the ball on the ground more with some movement around it. I think most of last night was down to Leicester taking advantage of our fitness issue. If we were to start the season now, I'd be terrified of anyone picking up an injury.
Completely agree, Youssouf Ndayishimiye looked perfect as he can play in midfield and could also give us cover at the back. I'd be staggered if we didn't sign one in this window, it would be a major cockup I watched Tufan during the warm up and by **** is he good. He's incredibly technical but he's still a fair way off it. I think he's about 6 weeks off it realistically so it'd be nice if we could bring in a Pelkas asap as it would mean we could ease him into it a bit more.
Still think there's something strange with Shota's approach. Can't imagine why we're mainly bringing in midfielders and forwards on good money just to play 5 defenders and 2 holders again with the same system limitations as last year.
I think it's been due to availability and once we've got the players in, I think he'll abandon that approach.
One pre-season game and people write players off..... the time to judge players is after they have had a constant run of Games, bit like Sean Macca, Brandon Fleming, and Regan Slater in recent times who fans wrote off very quickly
I agree with that. My best guess for last night is it's just because of who he had available at the time and/or he wanted to give the new guys as much time as possible. Or it was possibly an attempt to flood out their quality with players at the back. I'll take the former logic over the latter. We need to try and start the season confidently. If we have more options available by then, I'd hope we try to control most games, certainly in midfield... Then use the quality we've apparently brought in to unlock defences. Based on what we've seen so far it'll take some time for them to build a bit of chemistry together. It'll become more apparent when we're playing teams at our level as opposed to beyond it I suppose.
It'll be interesting to see how we line up on Saturday. Can't imagine we'll play 343/532 all pre-season then do something entirely different for the first league game. Obviously got to keep last night in perspective, but I'd have hoped to see us trouble them at least slightly. Maybe lose 2-5 instead of 0-4 without really a decent chance. At least we could take something from that.
Strange to spend all pre-season playing a formation you don't mean to use in the season, regardless of availability. Get the players used to the formation you want to use, since results mean **** all in pre-season.
Still think 3-5-2 would suit the players better, although Ally and Sinik then end up playing essentially as wing backs.
That's a fair point... But who would have played left wing last night? I imagine Allahyar would have been pushed right... I think he's just using what he's got available at the moment. He isn't going to play 532 with Sinik in the side, surely?
Yeah, thought at the time something didn't add up about that. Why pimp the creative and attacking side of the squad to play 5/6 defenders?
I don't think anyone's really panicked but it seems that any form of criticism, constructive or not, is seen as negativity and panic at the moment. I'm sure we'll see a different outcome when we're playing championship sides with a full strength, bedded in team - and I doubt (hopefully) we'll be playing 5 at the back with Traore, Sinik, Teteh, A number 10 etc. I also think we suffered with a lack of width last night, Fleming had a great link up with KLP who was pretty much a winger whereas ally and Oscar were a bit more central. All in all a good run out but we've got to completely change as we're not the newly promoted underdogs trying to pick up points here and there, we're now going to try and be on the front foot. The lack of creativity isn't as much of an issue when you can hit teams on the counter and happy with a draw against most sides, but now we might find a few more teams sitting back that we've got to break down.
Ali could have played left, but yeah, there was nothing else on the bench last night really. Honestly seems like the players being brought in are with 4 3 3 in mind though, assuming we are still in for a player such as Youssouf. Do you see us playing just 2 wingbacks with Coyle, Elder, Fleming, Williams, Longman, Sinik, Ali, potentially Nwakaeme/Pelkas all competing for the same 2 shirts? That's an awful lot of talent not playing in a 532, which is what we effectively have been playing since 1st half vs Malaga.
