Where are we lacking? For me our main target this Summer was a creative midfielder and we didn't get one. I think Ayala is critical for us because if McShane gets injured (as he has done) we lose cover for RB and CB. Brady I would like for the whole season as I would like 2 wingers available at all times even if one is on the bench. Keepers has been a little disappointing as I would have liked our first choice to be a permanent. It is quite odd having the possessor of the numero uno shirt as the back-up goalie. So, still top of the list for January is a creative midfielder. Jacob Butterfield would be my choice now.
I still think we need another striker, although the issue with this is that a decent one doesn't come cheap. I think Fryatt is decent but I just feel the other 3 just aren't good enough. (hopefully they'll prove me wrong.) We just seemed to lack that killer edge in the final third last season which we need if we do want to push for the play-offs/promotion. We've look good going forward in friendlies it's just whether we can do that in league games. This also could be down to the lack of a creative midfielder, but I think with the wingers we have we will get a supply to the front two that we need.
Cairneys come through again I hope and can fill the gap. Koren can play a pass. Evans young and exciting prospect. I'm not worried!
Personally I think if we get Ayala and extend Bradys loan or sign him on a permanent deal, we don't need anybody.
I think people tend to think a bit one dimensionally about this. Look at what Leicester have done. SVE is putting together a "squad" with two quality players in each position. He is doing that because the season is long and injuries and suspensions will have an effect. Look at us last season, we lost Stewart and struggled, we lost Rosenior and struggled. I still think we are lacking depth in certain areas at least in terms of quality.
Yeah, and he's done that by spending a feck load of money that we don't have. You shouldn't be comparing the two teams. They have greater resources than us.
Good thread this one. Im definitely one of the ones caught up in the positivity this preseason. I have been very critical of NP and his outlook. There was a comment from OLM last week about i think we may go for outplaying teams this season which is how i see NP has changed his mindset. Crucial to this is to play Cairney in CM as you are right we wanted Danns and didnt get him. Putting Mckenna in for Harper and nothing has changed really in our weak spot has it. We all wanted Ayala and it may now happen but has Mcshane's injury pushed us into it? I hope so.
Well, I wasn't actually comparing us to them, merely using them as an example. They are a classic case of overkill. They have splashed their money around and paid huge sums for average players. The intention of this thread was to have been to assess where our problem areas are likely to be. Not to judge NP's signings and where he might have done better as that has been done many times already this close season.
There's no doubt that's true, but I think we're far closer to having two players in each position than we had last season. My only real concern is losing Fryatt, as we really don't have a second striker that comes close.
This was my thinking, without Fryatt we would not have a strong enough strike force as the other forwards can't seem to perform at this level or in the case of Adebola can't last 90 minutes. We need but can't afford a second decent striker.
I completely echo that, he's our talisman and if we lose him there's only really a bunch of understudies waiting. Dele and Simpson looked good together against Liverpool but in truth that was a youthful Liverpool defence (at the time) plus even if they did start together (if Fryatt was injured i mean) then Dele wouldn't last the 90. Hopefully if Fryatt does get an injury it'll come when Stewart's back because we've seen how him and Simpson worked well before (if only briefly before the January recruits were brought in).
I don't get the fuss about a creative midfielder in the middle. Our last 3 promotions our most regular central midfields were: D3: Ashbee and Keates L1: Ashbee and Lewis CCC: Ashbee and Marney In the first promotion Green played a few in the middle but we looked far better with Ashbee and Keates (I seem to remember being smug during an early season victory at Cambridge). In the 2nd Green scored a lot but was usually played as a narrow right winger (much like Koren now). Both seasons when we did Green in the middle we looked weak defensively and he didn't do much offensively, and the best team performances with him in the middle came when we had Holt on the left offering a more solid wide player than Elliott was. Granted in the Championship Okocha played a fair amount, but nowhere near as many as Ashbee and Marney played. As things stand I'm only worried about CB and one wide player coming in (I've not seen any Ayala/Pusic confirmed signing yet if it's happened). If we get the wide player in we've always got the option of playing Koren in the middle to try to be creative that way, we could do it with Brady right and Dudgeon left but right side wasn't mentioned in the article about Brady's versatility. If Fryatt gets injured you go Adebola and Simpson to start. Adebola knocks the defence about a bit and gives them little niggles. After an hour you bring Barmby on for him, play him behind the main striker and have him play balls between the defenders for Brady/Stewart/Simpson/McLean to get on the end of with their pace against the hamperd defenders.
