McKenna said he wanted 2 quality players for every position.... Muric/Walton BJ/Tuenzebe Wolfy/Edmondson Greaves/Burgess Leif/Townsend Morsy/Cajuste Phillips/Luongo/Taylor Hutchinson/Burns Szmodics/Chaplin Clarke/Broadhead Delap/Hirst/Broja You can't moan at this, just one position needs addressing imo, but if necessary it can wait until January. This is obviously if Clarke and Broja sign, not counting my chickens just yet. Thoughts ladies??
Although Ristac, over on the Leeds board, seems to think our scouting network' is very questionable, all we do is buy top championship players. One thinks there may be a little bit of the old green eyed monster there!!
Very impressive, and I think they will both sign up, pass medicals and will know already what we have on the table.
Very happy,we're obviously going to have to move on some of the squad members who've reached their ceiling. With regards fans of other clubs' opinions-couldn't give a stuff.They're generally talking out of their @sses or have an agenda. In the case of that Leeds fan it's both.They have an almighty chip about us "stealing" their promotion spot,despite us gifting them six points and a 10 GD advantage and he's too thick to realise West Ham,Man City,Chelsea,Napoli etc are not Championship clubs .
Clarke confirmed. O’Shea would appear to be the right sided centre back. Not too worried about the striker - goalkeeper is the biggest issue for me
It is shaping up nicely and we've made some solid signings on paper, a few who will need to get up to speed. I do have concerns that we've pretty much bought a new starting 11 however with the exception of Davis who has looked a little out of his depth at times. Have we made too many changes and lost the essence of that Championship team who did so well? Only time will tell as to whether we've got the balance right, the reality is we probably needed those players however it does feel like a different team to the one who's had so much success. Many people say it, that the Championship is the most exciting league in the world and 'proper' football league and it feels a little like we're having to sell our soul to try to compete.
It's the nature of the beast ptc, stick with the players that took us up and you're pretty much guaranteed to get relegated. So you have to be ruthless and bring in pretty much a new 11. If you was to be brutally honest, there's only a couple that are capable of holding their own in the Prem. So as sad as it is, I'm all for it, we move on and the football is only gonna get better with the likes of Szmodics, Phillips, Cajuste, Greaves, O'Shea, Delap, Omari and Clarke
It's a difficult one isnt it? I loved the way KM brought on the Fridge to play at his beloved boyhood club. And that is real, kind professional man management. And he was a key player in getting us back to back promotions. But is there room for our soul & sentiment in the way forward? Perhaps not but I am sure several of those same players will be part of the squad and come on to play significant end game roles. And Davis must have a top defender behind him! The jury is out on Muric. Between the sticks for midweek to restore his confidence and Walton for Fulham.
The last two games have changed my mind about romantic notions of some of our League One players taking us into Europe. Although one or two might make it, it’s not fun to be losing football matches and I’m sure they wouldn’t enjoy having their arses handed to them on a plate every week for the sake of keeping their place.
True also important to recognise we've had 4 players who've been so crucial to our rise up the divisions out injured so far (Hirst, Burns, Broadhead and Clarke) plus lost Hladky, whatever you think of their ability and whether they can make it in the PL its a huge blow to us, as they know each others games and know how McKenna works. Since McKenna has been here there aren't many players once he's signed them he's chucked them in straight away unless through necessity. I think Delap has looked decent but I bet Hirst would've started the season had he been fit. I do also feel whilst Greaves looks great Burgess has been outstanding for us the past 2 seasons. Considering Burgess has a turning circle like a tanker ship he's very rarely been caught for pace because his positional play has been superb. Greaves has on the whole been excellent but because he's faster and likes to be a bit more touch tight to the man I can leave gaps. When Edmondson came in last season you could see the same thing. Both players take a few more risks in winning the ball back. I'd also argue that apart from Delap and Greaves, so far Johnson and Muric have looked a step down in quality than who they've replaced (Burns and Walton). Also are Delap and Greaves a notable improvement on Hirst and Burgess? I'm not saying they won't be I'm just saying this is the challenge we face and it's a really hard balance. Look at the quality we've got on a small budget, the money now required to add players to our squad is crazy.
I think we've got to face the facts we've probably reached the PL a year ahead of schedule.Had we not got promoted I'm pretty sure we'd have still been in for the likes of Szmodics,Greaves,Hutchison on loan again and integrated them into the side over a Season so that when we went up we'd have hit the ground running. As it is we're now having to rebuild the squad whilst adjusting to the much higher standard. I think we're just going to have to be patient and give KMc and his coaching staff time to work their magic.
The challenge for McKenna is building connections - there were plenty of moments where we didn’t pick the right pass and last season it was instinctive. That strong bond not only on the pitch but between the supporters and the players is gone, more or less overnight having been forged over years of highs and lows, mostly highs. Szmodics seems to understand that relationship from the off but for the most part building that sense of togetherness starts again from scratch.
The main context here is that we’ve only played two Premier League games and they’ve come against two of the best club sides in the division and arguably in the world - particularly Man City. Difficult to make any judgements this early. However, not many players can be proud of the defeat yesterday. Yes, we put up a decent fight - aside from that horror four minute stint where City scored three times. Everyone at the club will know that the level of expectation will now rise a bit for the upcoming several fixtures. We’ll need to start putting points on the board. Muric had a debut to forget. Johnson isn’t really showing much so far. Our trusted midfield spine got outpaced and beat far too many times. We haven’t been able to give Davis time and space in the attacking left side of the pitch. We showed glimpses of our intricate passing play, but moves are looking disjointed. Most of that applies to the Liverpool defeat too. The good news is that we’ve got two of the most difficult games behind us. There are a few upcoming fixtures where hopefully the players will have the time and chances to show the league how dangerous and ruthlessly efficient we’ve been in the lower leagues. Regarding the amount of transfers and how it can be negative for the club, that is indeed a risk. However, I think McKenna is a strong “culture builder” and will keep the players mentally onboard. We clearly needed quality reinforcements to compete at this level. If we just continued with what we have, we likely would’ve been relegated by March. As people have mentioned, we had to invest as we got promoted far earlier than expected. A lot of the core squad are making their Premier League debuts this season - that lack of experience would be costly had we need invested. Let’s not forget that we had a few key loan players depart last season, as well as our first choice keeper this summer. The club and McKenna are ambitious. I think the lads from the last couple of seasons recognise the need for quality and squad depth. Hopefully they’ll be up for the challenge. Players won’t be starting games on reputation, they’ll need to be backing Kieran’s support by playing to a consistently good standard. As long as the standards are made clear and McKenna is strong enough to drop underperformers, players will know they’ll get their chance.
I saw the game a different way. Were it not for a kamikaze five minutes we could have got points - and we don’t want a culture or blame for individual errors - so I think they should all be proud. I think we will see Omari coming into his own - it is going to thrilling to see him link up with Jack Clarke and we have potential in the squad beyond the football we’ve seen up to now. The one thing that sinks teams is lack of goals and I don’t think we will have any problem there. If anyone thinks we now have an easy run of fixtures, far from it. Fulham are a far more accomplished side than we are and we are going to have to grow up in public and with intense levels of scrutiny.
I should clarify my post that despite saying we have an “easier run of fixtures” compared to the last two matches, I still think they’re tough games. Case in point is Fulham - a side that’s had our number more than times than most over the last decade. They’re a well run club and are becoming an established Premier League side. However, if we are to avoid relegation this season, then we ideally need to be getting something in our home games against sides like Fulham.
I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Like most promoted teams we've got to build the plane whilst in flight. Like you say our first choice 11 have really developed that culture and know each others games inside out. McKenna had also built a team which built on each others strengths, that isn't going to happen overnight. We're also missing Hirst, Burns and Broadhead who've been crucial in that development. Given our a lot of our second team have gone or simply nowhere near good enough it's inevitable you'd want to improve the team with players of higher quality than we've already got. It's a real fine balance to do this. It has further enhanced my feeling that the wealth of the PL needs to be distributed amongst the football pyramid, its a joke the difference in levels of spending and its not good for the game.
What I liked about Szmodics yesterday was he was prepared to break the lines, if Burns is out its crucial to the way we play that we have players who can do that
Yeah I'm not sure how much we can take from the games in reading into how our season will finish. Yesterday I think we made more mistakes in a game than I've seen in a long time, part of that is Man City I think part of it as you indicated new players coming in. We haven't looked quire as slick going forwards. I felt we looked okay first half against Liverpool but with the exception of Delap who's fitted in well it was a familiar forward line. It's also highlighted weaknesses we already knew about from last season, we're vulnerable down the flanks and because we're so attacking we are very open through the middle when we lose the ball. Last season the first few performances it took us a few games to play our best but the positives were we looked like when we went forwards we were dangerous albeit with the same team. I'd say it's a similar picture this season albeit not as obvious, it's not as if we haven't created no chances. No question yesterday City deserved to win but if we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot, with 3 poor pieces of GK which contributed to the goals, a poor tackle from Leif albeit one which I do not think VAR should've reviewed as it wasn't a clear and obvious mistake plus the penalty which wasn't given for us which VAR should've reviewed, we might have been able to nick something or at least of had a more respectable score line. Despite the criticisms, look at the names who've assisted and scored against us, Salah to Jota, Alexander-Arnold to Salah, De Bruyne to Haaland, probably 2 of the best assisters and 2 of the best goalscorers in world football there, the quality of passing and finish were world class.
