A couple of people have tweeted that JACK HOBBS will be out for upto 7 months ? Nothing official yet so its probably nonsense but if true then how can we not now move in for Anthony Gerrard in the summer.!!!!
It was only to the end of the season to see if he could prove his worth, clearly NB thinks he hasn't. It'll have only been a small wage.
Its hardly a surprise though is it, as soon as I saw him do it I said knee ligament damage, it just looked that type of clatter, and that he'd be out for half of next season. I also said while he was rollig around on the floor that he'd have been better off letting them have that goal and us getting to keep him on the pitch for god knows how long, than stopping an almost definite goal but losing one of our best players for ages. But that's life and football, guess if probably have said different had it ended 2-2 and he didn't make te challenge. The wonders of hindsight eh.
real footballers put their body on the line whether the team is 2-0 down or 2-0 up, Jack is a real player. I wish him the quickest and full recovery
For some reason I thought Cairney was a few years older than he is, at just 21 they need to get him in the team until the end of the season and let him find his feet, he has the ability. The same applies to Cooper, he's going to get a run in the team now to help him find his feet. I'm undecided on Cullen but given that the strikers have arguably failed then why not give him a shot too. I saw a comment from Fryatt to the Fail last week saying there was not enough creativity in the team, to me that sounded like passing the buck, won't hurt to drop him for the rest of the season and sell him if necessary. Barmby or the new manager will have to be brutal and say which players have worked to the best of their ability this season, I've come to the conclusion that Mclean has put in 100percent and maybe Fryatt hasn't, even if on paper Fryatt is a better player. Mclean might work well with a different striker brought in maybe or simply get rid of him too.
I can't believe anyone would suggest keeping Mclean over Fryatt. Fryatt may regularly take too many touches, but he's in a different class to Mclean, who simply isn't a Championship quality footballer. Fryatt will be here next season, Mclean probably won't.
I'm not so sure actually, I have a feeling Fryatt maybe able to leave to raise funds for a striker who fits the criteria for our system, I'd hope not but McLean is hardly going to raise the cash we need. I'd guess we could get 2 million for Fryatt.
We've had plenty of debates on this subject and lately I've stopped going on about it so much because Fryatt has been getting less and less service (but strangely scoring more now). But when you post this view it always bugs me a bit. McLean is dodgy on the ball at times but Fryatt does very similar things in front of goal as we've covered before. They both run around a lot and give their all but are very scruffy on the ball, I think they're a lot more similar than people think.
Disagree, Fryatt has an excellent first touch and passing range, McLean doesn't. Fryatt is very composed on the ball McLean isn't. Fryatt takes extra touches as he likes to place the ball into the net, McLean smashes it and hopes for the best. McLean is strong and fast and bullies defenders around, Fryatt doesn't, he tries to simply get to the ball first and get it under control every time. McLean likes to do lots of overhead kicks, only ever seen Fryatt attempt one. Very different players IMO.
I can see where Nick is coming from regarding Fryatt. It seems certain that NB will persist with his preferred formation and most people on here seem to agree that Fryatt up top on his own does not suit him. If we get the chance to bring in a striker who would suit that role where does that leave Fryatt? Would we play him in the hole, or have him on the bench to bring on in the event that go to 4-4-2? I'd agree that McLean is likely to go in the summer though.
In the ways you've mentioned yes they are similar but a lot of people think it's as simple as "Fryatt is quality, McLean is effort." But I'd say they both rely mainly on effort rather than skill. Again I'm not having a go at either of them but I think Fryatt's ability is sometimes way exaggerated. People put him in the 'players we really don't want to lose' bracket alongside Chester, Hobbs and Koren and you've just said we could get £2m for him. I wouldn't have thought anyone would be after him this summer (but then I wouldn't have thought there'd be takers for McLean either and OLM seems to think there are).
I would imagine there'd be plenty of takers for Fryatt if he was on offer, he's a proven goalscorer at this level with lots of ability when played in the correct way. For one I think he's as good as Billy Sharp, probably better to be honest, and he had plenty of offers.
I don't think we'll get rid of Mclean without taking a hit, but Nick doesn't rate him and had he been able to bring in the players he wanted in January, he simply wouldn't be playing, so I think if there's any interest at all, then he'll be gone. Nick does rate Fryatt, though it's true that he doesn't suit the formation that we're playing, so if we could get £2m and sign a Henderson/Madine/Evans type player, then I wouldn't mind, but I suspect Nick wants to hang on to Fryatt. I think if we were playing Fryatt in a two man attack, as we were last season, I think most would have him on their 'players we don't really want to lose' list. In contrast, I don't think there is a formation that exists that would get Mclean on that list.
I'm not a big fan of the current formation but Fryatt was at his lowest point in terms of form when playing in NP's 4-4-2 earlier this season. He was missing one-on-ones nearly every game so I don't think it's as simple as looking at the formation. I think the current system highlights that he is a real hard worker but he's expected to just create something from nothing on his own which is never going to happen with his back to goal against 4 or 5 defenders. The thing is if NB wants to play 4-2-3-1, but also wants to sign strikers and keep Fryatt, something will have to give. If he signs two half-decent strikers they won't want to sit on the bench and if he signs someone who doesn't mind being on the bench it's pretty likely that they'll be ****.
It's a bit of a quandary, I think if we had one of the aforementioned big strong strikers in a two man attack with Fryatt he'd be brilliant, but if we're going to persevere with the current system then it's hard to fit him in, he could play the Koren role and he could play out wide, but I'm fairly sure he wouldn't want to.
Mclean is a League 1 standard player , I've said it many times and been told I was talking ****e but it's true Mclean and Cullen up front when we are trying to score to get back in a game is an incredibly depressing sight
