I think it's clear from the time he has played that Salisu is a good prospect at CB but has he convinced enough to be first choice?. Bedders has been virtually ever present under Ralph but does his move to cover at RB mean that Ralph has Big Vester and Salisu in mind as a preferable CB partnership...thoughts?
Too early to say. The only thing that I wasn't too keen on with today's CB pairing (everything else I loved) is that Vestergaard's passing seemed to be more restricted when playing on the right hand side. Which probably shouldn't be a surprise. But then again, we were hardly ever in a position for him to get his head up and ping a diagonal.
I'd still say Bednarek and Vesty as first choice personally and we can bring in Salisu gradually. Nice options to have.
We will get a couple of seasons from salisu before a big club come in for him,he will end up being that good
I agree. Big clubs were scouting him at Valladolid. He's got all the attributes to be a top, top centre back. For me, he's straight in the first team now. Frankly, it feels odd to be spoilt for choice at CB.
Depending on how Salisu continues, but if he plays like he did today then I’d have him and Bednarek. Still not convinced by Vestergaard, he’s been bad far more than good in his time here, and even in his good games he still has his moments and I just don’t see a really good centre back there
It gives us an option to vary our shape should circumstances dictate. Either because we need a goal or because we are defending a lead..
Absolutely too early to say. If I was to guess I’d say Salisu and Vesty but then that is too on the left. May turn out to be Salisu and Bedders as a better fit together. I fancy Salisu to have a ping in that left peg of his.
I agree with the stats about good v bad games, however if you wanted to be a geek and plot those on a graph, most the bad games would be at the start of your graph with a huge upward spike in the curve.
I think Vesty’s contract is up next season. I can see a situation where he is sold in the summer, with our CB’s as: Bedders, Salisu, Stephens, Tchaptchet, or maybe they’ll bring Wesley back as 4th choice. Jokes on the last part, but I can see us selling Jannick.
Do you think Ralph may be thinking of different formations for different games? I said y’day I thought we’d get destroyed playing that way, but happy to say Ralph got that spot on, in terms of limiting the opposition. Trouble is, we will also need to be more expansive to offer more goal threat, which isn’t as easy when playing this way without being too open in the middle.
I think he is. At the start of his tenure tried different formations and we were Jekyll and Hyde. We seems to make leaps in improvement when he stuck to 4-2-2-2 and worked really hard on it. Now that’s been proven to be (mostly) good, perhaps he is thinking of working on other ones with the team. Can only be good if it works.
Yeah I agree. I do think he shot himself in the foot at the start of the previous season, with square pegs and round holes, but I guess at least he was trying stuff and changed it when it didnt work out. But I guess the alternative then was he may not have been so supported by Semmens had he not changed. I like the fact we are looking at options, as we can mix it up massively during the games. I think I also get what he is trying to do in game, by having players like Moussa, Ralph is trying to change his game so he can play a wingback game, but is also a game changer in an offensive shape. It is partly what we have in KWP, being able to beat a man whilst being very good defensively. This could be seriously good if it works out, and wonder if he is lookin to do this in both full back positions. I dont believe Moussa is close yet defensively, but if you think back to the Sheff Utd game away last season, he has come on massively from a defensive perspective.
I've never been a massive fan of playing 3 CBs but I suppose it is good to have that option and playing all 3 would not be because of a deficiency in that department and it is easier to convert a winger to WB rather than a FB which would give us more options too.
You’ve plotted that graph haven’t you? Maybe it’s just personal choice with Vestergaard. I find him too slow and heavy on his feet, his passing range is very good and his height is an obvious factor. I just prefer more agile/mobile centre backs. As you like to point out it is a squad game (which I completely agree with) so there is definitely room for him in the squad for certain scenarios/games but if I had to choose first choice he wouldn’t be mine (as long as Salisu performance wasn’t a fluke)
I do think it's fairly likely that Vestergaard is sold in the summer, he'll have suitors, and he's out of contract after 2021-22, so if he gets an attractive prospective move I'd be quite surprised if he was here come September. As such, we'll probably want to see a bit of Sally Sue and Bednarek together as a duo.
Sell Vestergaard, and then Salisu gets injured first game of next season. It’s almost like some people never learn.
It's not that I want him sold. But if he won't sign an extension in the summer, our options are to i) sell him, or ii) lose him in a year for free. And it wouldn't hurt to know whether Bednarek/Salisu can be a first-choice pairing so that we know what we have should it come to that.