news is that Vaughn is having medical at huddersfield not good news we need another striker if he goes. if he goes we will only have c.martin, jackson, holt, morrison thats it in strikeing we need one asap. unless he has one coming in already.
I've never had an issue with Vaughan going, but we must replace him. It's a good opportunity to add something to the front line. But I'd go holt and Morison Saturday and just batter the QPR defence.
i think its been apparent for some time that hughton doesn't fancy vaughan. whether that be down to his injury record or he just doesn't think he's good enough, i don't know. i personally liked him and thought he would be like a new signing this year but sometimes things don't quite go according to plan! i don't think we are as desperate for a centre forward as many will now claim (he only played six games last year and we coped without him) but i would prefer to see a new lad come in if possible as we never replaced wilbraham (unless you count martin coming back). who that will be is anyones guess but there is value out there, just not in this country before anyone starts naming 'you know who'...
Agreed, he clearly is not enamoured with Vaughan, I don't get it though, I thought he had the potential to our best striker
just to add, there were more rumours in norway about our friend mohammed abdellaoue i believe yesterday maybe coming here.
same here, but we all see different aspects to a players game and his injury record must have played a part. we don't see him in training - perhaps he can barely train?
Oh it's a season long loan: in that case I can see the wisdom of the move. Probably much better for the longer term goals of the club and for vaughan.
pretty sure the vaughan move will be permanent - roughly get our money back on him (£1m). he's out of contract in 12 months time if i remember correctly so loaning him would effectively just run his deal out.
I dont have any problems with Vaughan leaving but I would be worried if we don't see another striker come in. I don't think Chris Martin is up to the task and I worry we will play 1 upfront a lot this season to try and find a combination for all the midfielders we have. I think its going to be a busy week for us and I can see at least 2 others leaving.
I hope we do sign another striker, hopefully someone with a bit of pace. But it maybe that CH preferred formation is just 1 up front so may not see the need for another player. I hope this is not the case as I don't believe we play to our potential with one up top.
If we do play with 1 up front and pack the midfield I am really worried this season. Even with improvements to our team I think we are more likely to outscore teams than shut them out. Outscoring is also much more exciting to watch!
it is, however, a recipe for disaster! the teams who have prolonged stays in the top flight ALL do so because they are defensively sound. the teams who can't defend and grind out results soon go down. it might not be as much fun but its a logical step if we want to survive not just this season but future campaigns too.
We have to be better defensively no doubt and while playing 1 up front may not be popular it could be the way forward. Potentially if we find a good defensive mid this will allows to push up do more attacking anyway. 4-5-1 is not always defensive either, if for example we had Pilks and Snoddy on either side it can potentially be quite attacking almost 4-3-3, a formation employed by many of the entertaining "top" teams.
It's a similar situation to the Ayala to the Florists move - both players have shocking injury records and need to prove their fitness - both on season long loans makes sense to me BUT we must have a replacement to come in. Holt, Morison and Jackson (don't count Martin C as I don't think he's up to it at this level) isn't enough bodies to see us through a long, hard season. My guess is that Hughton already has someone lined up to come in ....
fact is, its more rare these days to see a team play two up front than one up front! some fans don't like it. some fans still want to see the 'big man, little man' partnerships... football has moved on tactically and although 4-4-2 is probably the most successful formation the world has seen, it is not the answer for most teams these days, especially those who wish to play a passing and pressing game. 4-4-2 is a direct formation. i'd much rather see us going with the 4-3-3/4-5-1 interchangeable starting formation because i think that we'll keep the ball better playing that way, but its a formation which requires a disciplined central midfielder, sometimes two, and we, as it stands, have none! this rubbish that holt can't play on his own up top... he can! what he needs is decent service and support form both wide and central areas for it to work. when he gets isolated like on saturday - then he can't play on his own because he doesn't have the ability to do it on his own! people need to be less negative and more positive about a lone front man, so long as he receives the required support.
The other thing with a 451 formation is while there is only one up front if employed properly you can get more men forward than you would in a 442, especially when counter attacking, knowing a DM is there to help out if possession is lost.
I know we need to tighten up and not be quite so gung ho, I just think we havent got the balance of players right..... yet. As it has been said above a DM could make all the difference. I just dont want to see us trying to squeeze all our attacking midfield talent into a flat 4-5-1 as I dont think we will get vthe best out of our midfielders. I quite like the idea of 4-2-3-1 which I think allows the best of both worlds. You could line up with something like.... Ruddy R.Martin Bassong R.Bennett Garrido Fox Johnson E.Bennett Snodgrass Pilks Holt I think we used this at times last season but with improvements to the DM and defense I think this would still get us goals and tighten us up at the back.
formation wise i like it. however, johnson is not disciplined or skilful enough to play the holding role. fox is a good player and can play that role but lacks the bite required to make a difference defensively - great on the attacking side and building play from the back though and he could still have a role to play. snodgrass should play out wide with howson in the middle and pilks on the left. no place for bennett* as it stands but injuries/suspensions will play a part... * unless he plays right back, as a few of us would like to see!
