Totally disagree. There is more than enough defensive cover now and thats why Nick has allowed Macca to go out on loan. The keepers are sorted. The only signing that i would say is a Top Priority would be a goal scorer but then again every team is looking for that player. Nick knows what he needs so lets wait and see. Nice to see that Nick is keeping his head when some others are losing theres.
How can you say there is more than enough defensive cover? We have just two defenders who aren't starting every week. One is Dudgeon so only covers left back and one is Cooper and only covers CB. If we lose Rosenior we're relying on East; a kid whose entire experience is one Carling Cup game against a League 2 side who beat us, and who despite us knowing McShane was likely to leave and therefore that he was our 2nd choice RB, we still didn't think it was worth putting him in the squad for an FA Cup game with 7 subs. Sounds like a paper thin defence to me. We were incredibly lucky in the first half of the season that neither Hobbs nor Chester were injured because we had no cover at all until November time and even then it was only McShane. We don't want to spend another half a season risking it like that. I'd like us to add some more cover in defence, but it will obviously be difficult to persuade someone to come here knowing they are only a contingency plan. I'd also like to see us sign a confident striker. Everyone knows I don't rate Fryatt and whilst I think it would be worth giving McLean or Simpson a chance up front, it doesn't seem that NB agrees with me on that so I'd hope we get someone who can realistically challenge Fryatt in NB's thinking. If that man is King, fantastic. If not, get someone else. I'd hate to see us miss out on promotion because we fail to resolve the problem we've had from day one of the season; finishing chances.
Quite easily actually as ive already said. I think that Nick is a better judge than you are. We have Dudgeon, Cooper, Evans, East, Garcia who can all cover for the main back 4. Olifinjana can also play there if needed as he did for Wolvers a few years back. I am sure that Nick will bring in more defenders in the summer but for now that is not the problem. Whatever money is available to Nick should be spent on a goal scorer as most of us would like and agree as a Top Priority.
Evans and Garcia have never played in defence for us. East, as I said, is unproven and wasn't even rated enough to make the bench in a cup game even thought the management knew full well he would soon be the 2nd choice RB. Are you comfortable with East at RB with that in mind?
Oh please get a grip. Good players can play anywhere. I would expect that East and Cooper will play defence next week against Crawley. Nick says that they can and thats good enough for me. It should be for you too. I would rather have East than McShane at full back yes. Maybe the club appointed the wrong manager ? You should have applied.
Agreed. Forgot about him............ and if things get that bad then we can always recall McShane. Second thoughts, Maybe not. Lol.
Evans played in the Man U reserves as a CB, the only real concern as you say is if rosie gets injured but if Barmbs trusts East of Garc as cover then so do I
Jeez, calm down. We disagree on a minor squad depth issue, no need for tears. I expected East to play against Ipswich but he didn't. Like with almost all of our youngsters over the last few years, his progress will probably be stifled by a lack of chances. Where have you got this idea that NB rates East so highly? Was it the grand total of 0 times he has picked him in all competitions? For the record, I have nothing against East, I like him, but I'm not convinced the management consider him a contender for the first team.
Nick mentioned Dudg - East and Garcia as his cover for Rosie in the HDM and clubs website the other week. He said we have cover for all the positions now just like both Rosie and Dudg have said this week. No tears from me mate and yes its a good talking point and debate. Nick is ok with the defence and so am i. I think that Nick will try East against Crawley as they are a league 2 side. Plus McShane was played against Ipswich as there were scouts in the crowd watching him. Rosie was stood down from the game on the friday due to that. Most of us fans want what any money there is spent on a goal scorer. Dont you ? the question is though who is there ? many of the choices have dried up now. Even Sharp admitted after last weeks game against Cardiff that he had cost Doncaster all 3 points by mssing chances he should have converted.
Yes. I don't want to sound too repetitive but I'm convinced if we had a striker leading the line who was as good as the rest of the team we would be in the top 2. I'd be willing to bet that statistically we've created as much as the top 2 but we just don't finish them. As you say though, there aren't many players out there.
Yes, Agreed. I would suggest that if City had just converted say another 20% of the chances created this season then City would be on something like 55 points. But for me this should be the area that Nick works on with the forwards the most. Like some have said on other threads, one day somebody is gonna suffer a real Tiger Mauling. Hope its @ Reading.
That's why I said we will not be buying a striker, there is nobody in our price bracket that will improve our team
I agree. You'd think so, but this missing chances thing has been going on for so long now that I've stopped thinking it's just going to go away one day on its own. Something needs to be altered slightly up front.
It has gone all quiet though, and not just from our end with regards transfers. We've added 2 new faces, both loans. But no permanent deals have been struck. The board said that they were preparing 'millions' to spend in January. But I guess we just haven't been able to agree any reasonable prices with anyone. It's a crap time to do your business though in the January window. A few wise loans are probably the way forward on reflection. Which is exactly what we've done. I'm delighted that we've landed Mano though. I don't know enough about Josh King, but he seems to be promising at least.
I dont want to sound big headed but back in December whilst a lot of people were harping on about spending millions in January, I said all along that we will sign a goalie and a striker on loan!
