I will wouldn't define his finishing as 'quality' tbh. He's a one goal for 3-4 chances striker, which is fine playing for a dominant championship side but won't translate to a good PL goal return. He also likes to take touches at times in the box before shooting which just won't happen next season.
Easy to forget because he's been here so long and theres been a lot of water under the bridge since then, but there was a season where Bednarek first broke into the team in the PL when he was easily our best defender. I think he's plenty good enough for a lower PL team in the right system and with sufficient protection. He's a leader back there too and has bags of experience with the club, in the PL and at international level. Would be keen to keep him here if we can! AA I think will be better than last time in the PL, but I still think he'll struggle and really hope we are not placing many eggs in his basket to score the goals we need to stay up next season. As much as I loved him this season, his limitations were still very obvious. It's just that, as others have said, being significantly better than most teams in the league, having so much posession and chances kind of helped us overlook them.
Happy with Armstrong as a winger. But not as a striker. Simple as that really. I would also be sad to see Bednarek go. His redemption the last year has been great.. but if he doesn’t want to sign a new deal then we could find better fairly easily imo. He’s nothing special at PL level. The difficult part to replace is his mindset. He’s a real leader in this team now.
Ben Johnson off to Rangers or Leeds apparently. Saw his name mentioned on here as a decent option, especially on a free
I think you are probably right about Armstrong. But I do think having a completely different system this time round could yield different results. Under Ralph we never really countered from deep as we pressed so high. If we see Martin deploy the £CB formation we saw in the play offs then it could be that we play a little deeper and have more opportunities to counter and find space in behind for Armstrong to utilise his pace.
Basically Bednarek was too slow for a high press. And our issue was we didn’t have enough defenders with the pace to play it when injuries it We don’t play that any more However Bednarek has one year left so will need a renewal presumably with a pay rise. These things will need to be weighed up
If Martin plans on starting 3 CBs then it would be stupid to not renew his contract. We would need at least 5 senior CBs in the squad. Plus, if we get relegated we know full well he is good enough and if we stay up we know he will be a good squad option at the very least.
I agree we should be keeping Bednarek and that includes if he doesn’t want to sign a new deal/we don’t want to offer one. He should be useful this season and worth more than whatever fee we can get for him with 1 year left. Basically the exact same as why we kept Adams/Armstrong this season You would think the back 3 is going to get used a fair bit so even with 5 CBs currently at the club they should all get a fair bit of playing time
Agreed, probably have to give him away or loan him out for his final year of his contract to save wasting money on his wages
I think we might keep him around. 3 centre back system means we ideally would want 6 centre backs. That’s not going to be possible for a club like Saints, we currently have 5 on the books including Lyanco so might just roll with him as 4th/5th choice
Was thinking about options from the relegated teams and couldn’t think of many names. Don’t really know much about Burnley’s team but seem to remember their wingers getting some hype, Koleosho and Odobert. Trafford aswell but can’t see us spending on a young keeper. Beyer the centre back was linked with a fair few teams prior to signing for Burnley but no idea how he performed this year Sheff Utd have Archer and Hamer as possibilities, not sure about anyone else. Ahmedhodzic looked really good in the championship but think he had a real nightmare season in the PL Luton have Barkley but he probably will go to someone better and that’s about it. So yeah not many names and all of them probably pretty expensive
Maybe he will be attainable then. Doubt much happens this week anyway, then depends if our targets are playing in the Euros
How? I don't understand that. They paid for him last summer didn't they? Did they re-buy him at the price of last summer?
