Right back Centre back Holding midfielder Striker Are all a must, and theres a couple of other positions that could do with strengthening if the right player becomes available.
To be clear what I meant by up for it , was it all just felt flat . Turning up does not mean up for it, I’ve turned up for many games and not been up for it, mostly under the Allams - turn up out of loyalty . It just felt strange , I thought the new man been there would create a buzz, I thought him getting introduced from his seat and not the pitch set the tone . Even the chorus of I can’t help falling in love with you which is usually pretty loud was muted . Then think there was 1 chant of Andy Dawson in first half that I remember. I also expected more from the players , I thought some where holding back under Walter or had no confidence and would be into them with a new lease of life and I really hoped we’d get a bit of a new manager bounce ( even though it was still Dawson in charge ) but as I alluded too maybe the players weren’t holding back under Walter and are just crap . I am well aware of how cold it was , I had a birthday message on screen for my daughter , and she wasn’t even there to see it as it was too cold for her , but let’s just get another pair of socks on and get a bovril - we aren’t southerners
I think the lack of quality strikers is definitely true. I think Bedia with confidence would be a decent asset to most teams, don’t think he’s ever going to score loads of goals or be easy on the eye, but he’s quite good with his back to goal and at the very least, gives us someone to knock the ball into and get us up the pitch. Is he good enough to be the main striker for a championship team looking to compete at the top end, no, which is where I agree, but I don’t think he’s without his strengths, and gets more stick then he deserves because people are spoilt thinking every striker moves like Delap.
Bedia against qpr is what I thought we'd see a bit more of - bobbing up in the right place to slot home at the end of a move.
But with no effort at all we could have had Noah Ohio who would be a better all round striker than the three we got put together. It illustrates how completely hopeless our summer recruitment was.
Ohio we’d already had a try before you buy. What did he sell for? £1.5m - peanuts in the grand scheme of things. He scored 3 goals from limited game time and he certainly worked harder and had more mobility than Bedia and Pedro.
Our defence is really poor , it’s not collective when defending and our biggest disappointment is Coyle has lost all confidence to play expansively or run at the opposition, he turns inside almost always now , even when he can play a right side out ball .
Sorry that's sort of what I'm getting at, we've lost the creativity so now he's having to get involved in the build up.
We're not quite there yet. IIRC we had a meagre 16 points after 26 games. We then took 37 points from the last 20.
For me we need 2 midfield thugs who are built like brick outhouses and will kick anything above grass, and 2 strikers. One of whom should be a Billy Whitehurst type - constantly knocking defenders around and the other a fox in the box type. Get rid of the non - contributors like Omur, Mehlem and Puerta and I'd be swapping Kamara for someone who isn't such a lightweight. If we have to go "Old School" and be like Millwall in some respects to get out of this mess, then let's do it
But will they invest there when at the end of the season they might (if all goes well) be surplus to requirements... (Belloumi and Millar).. or will they try and muddle. Theyre already in the hole for Kamara until he improves.
A striker on a permanent and a winger or two from PL clubs on loan would be fine. As much as Millar was good, I think longer term we would need better than him to get promoted anyway so having him and Kamara as depth with Belloumi and A.N Other would be good. As we saw when we had Bowen and Grosicki, if we can improve our attacking options, our defensive flaws get exposed less. I'd rather invest money up the pitch as our struggles at the moment is scoring goals.
True. Though looking at the fixtures coming up, we might not be too far off it if we continue to play the way we are. There’s a lot of games before that transfer window! I really hope Ruben Selles transforms the place. I know it’s obvious but we really need to start scoring goals rather than running the clock down and keeping games tight.
Historically,how many points ensures survival,obviously it fluctuates but I wouldn't think we'd need as much as 52 points to escape the bottom 3? Anyone else done the Maths here?
Historically, 53 points would see you safe but there have been outliers. Think Peterborough have gone down with 54 once in a very close season. We need lots of wins between now and May and at the moment I’m struggling to see where they’re coming from.