He's brought in Fletcher and Johnson as his big buys in the first transfer window so we must assume that these two are part of the long term plans. However he currently favours the 4-4-1-1 formation. For me the long term plan can not be with a line striker if that lobe striker is Fletcher. For me he doesn't link the play well enough. So will he change formation or will Sess be traded or moved position? The next two windows are going to be very interesting. Following on from that it will be very interesting to see how much backing MON will be given.
IMO he will stick with Fletcher and Sess, they both score goals when they get the supply of decent ball. Our big problem has been getting that ball to the danger man in decent positions. I can see MON trying to buy Milner or some other equal quality for midfield. He will also buy another CB. I think depending on Cats he might look for another midfielder too. The striker situation depends on Wickham and Campbell. If those two prove they can be back up for Fletcher when he is suspended or injured I don't think he will buy anyone else. Whickam in particular has time on his side and could become a quality player. He is addressing back up for Sess in Cahill short term, there might be a long term solution to come. Priorities for the summer (if not solved in Jan) LB, CM, CB Sell: Vaughan, Bramble, Ji, Saha Brown may never come back from injury, if thats the case then 2 CB might be needed.
I heard a couple of months back that brown was out for the season, then about a week ago i read somewhere that he was back in training and just needs to get match fit. so watch this space i suppse.
I'm afraid that if we stick with Sessegnon as the 2nd striker then we wont develop very far as he simply will never be the sort of player to regularly get 10 to 12 goals a season as the 2nd striker should be getting (he just doesn't have that in his game) and we will suffer as a club because of it. Fletcher is a decent 15+ goals a season and indeed is on course for 15+ in his first season here. I don't think Sess will hit 7 or 8 goals this season and that's just not acceptable. With one main striker, we need the rest to contribute and yet already AJ has more goals as a winger?
I disagree given the right supply Sess will get 10 a season, the problem at the moment is he has to create chances from scraps. I don't think MON will change how he currently plays. We need the midfield to add some more goals too.
Fully agree with this mate except i can't see Sess getting 5 this season, as you rightly stated, he doesn't have that element in his locker. He can provide that killer pass for someone else but i don't see him as a goal scorer. I also think that if we were to introduce a couple of quality midfielders for him to link with then we'd see a different Sess. At the minute the ball gets pumped up to him and there's very little support around him, the link up just isn't there, or not quick enough anyway. He needs that link up to feed off as does Fletcher, stick a couple of quality midfielders in the middle and you'd see an entirely different team. For me that is the only element to our game that's missing. At the minute we pumo the ball forward, Sess gets bogged down and loses the ball and it's straight back at the defence. As decent as any defense is, if the other team are coming at you as often as they dow th us then you are going to make mistakes. Keep the ball in the middle and it give the guys at the back breathing space and time to settle, Spurs were a perfect example. They just ran at us and we crumbled. Against City we got the midfield together and look what happened. Who we get is the problem.
I hope he goes for a second forward who can bring extra movement, taking that duty off Fletcher. I know it may be old school but Quinny and SKP are still an excellent blueprint for this and I think Fletcher could play the Quinny role. So it's simple .....lets just find another Kevin Phillips....easy innit?
dead easy finding a skp (i think more than us are searching) but i wouldnt mind milner in the midfield or someone of that ilk.
Like I said on a different thread we can buy all the strikers on the planet but MON will only play one up top so why bother? Fletcher is doing okay it is in midfield where we are struggling we need to get more support up to Fletcher and even Sess quickly and not as said on here after the ball is lost. McClean is playing better in the last few games but, for me he needs competition for his place to kick him on. Same goes for AJ who seems to be getting there now but, it is taking time and without direct competition for his place for me he is just coasting. I think MONs long term plan is to get a very good midfield in place to play the way he likes to play but, we are creaking in defence as well so another headache for him there especially if Danny Rose goes back to Spurs. The next 2 transfer windows will tell us a bit more about where we are going hopefully it is upwards and happy days.
