Agree but its all a will he won't he situation Coops wants to know where he wants to be. Byram going to miss another 10-15 games with his injury issues. Firpo is never fit for a stretch of games. Ayling,Cresswell want out Archie not a fullback. Yes if all stay here and stay fit bingo. stats say quite a few will miss games in the next part of the season. thats why I say get rid of the dead wood and bring in people who are needed rather than he will do.
Jammy your jam coloured spectacles regarding Firpo is maybe showing mate. On the rat front my understanding is he was on his way to Real Betis or Saudi but got injured very early on so was forced into staying. Sure I’ve seen that or heard it on the radio.
4 good centre backs? Depends on your definition of good! Cooper has not been tested at all over the last two games, and Cresswell - nobody knows as he's barely kicked a ball.
Regarding players with contracts running out then both Cooper & Ayling were fully aware the situation last summer, as were the club, so nothing has changed. Put simply have to respect those contracts should the club wish them to and do so with good grace and total commitment which I'm sure they will.
Left backs are Firpo (injured and suspended 14 different occasions since he joined summer 2021). Stand in left back who is a right back is Byram who hasn't played regularly for 3 years due to long term injuries. He's already picking up little niggles. Right backs are Ayling and Byram. Ayling doesn't feature and Byram we discussed above. Stand in right backs include Gray and Shackleton who are both central midfielders. Shackleton is also injury prone. That's why we need full backs. As for scoring more goals? It's simple really. Put your best finisher up front in the box and play your most creative player a little deeper to "create" things for the front three. If you have a 20 goal a season natural finisher in the box every attack guess what? He'll get you 20 goals a season. And that's why Farke is under scrutiny. We've stopped winning games, we've stopped scoring goals and the full backs are in and out with injuries or not performing well.
Thought earlier you posted about how Cresswell is better than most 21 year olds in the Championship and therefore needs to play ? Make you're bloody mind up
We have one good centre back (Rodon). We have one untrustworthy centre back who is on one of his good runs of form (Struijk). We have one injury prone centre back who has had a long history of brain farts (Cooper) and an England u21 centre back who has looked decent at this level but Farke doesn't use him. Rodon is the only one I'd say is capable of playing higher.
All good points. Just out of interest I'm wondering how Bamford's goal stats per game in his last 2 Championship seasons compare to Piroe's at Swansea. Gut feeling is there won't be much difference with Piroe possibly slightly better, but then you have to factor in the work rate Paddy brings to the team.
You've also got to factor in the chances that Bamford got in that Bielsa team. He should have been getting 30-40 goals a season.
Bamford got 25 goals in 67 apps in his last two championship seasons in a pretty dominant Bielsa side who finished play offs then won the league. Piroe got 41 goals in 88 apps in his last two seasons for Swansea and has 9 in 20 for us this season. His time at Swansea amounted to them finishing 15th in his first season and 10th in his second season.
Which is why it's more results will always be more important than individual awards for golden boots etc. Good work by Piroe though but he still needs to work on his all round game for me as there is definitely room for improvement.
Bamford got 25 in 67 in his last couple of Championship campaigns. (In a Bielsa side). Intetestingly, Kieffer Moore got 25 in 64 in his last 2 (and more recent) Championship campaigns. That was for Cardiff who finished 8th and 18th respectively. He's not been injured anywhere near as much as Paddy. Strange how fans see things huh? Suppose that's why we are on here debating it every day.
Yes when we had no striker available. It's pretty sensible to get a striker who had out performed your 1st choice striker in the Championship as a replacement. It's really not difficult to get your head around. You were saying you don't want Moore now in the Championship but are quite happy with Paddy. Despite the fact that Moore has outperformed Paddy in a worse side previously at this level.
I don't want Moore now because we have Piroe, Joseph and Rutter who can play 9 when Bamford gets injured again. That wasn't the case in the PL when the best option was James. I feel we are getting somewhere. It's only been 2 years. Now if you just say sorry, we can move on.
Its pretty floccinaucinihilipilificatious because we're not putting away the same percentage of chances. We create more, so we should be scoring more!