Good Morning Everyone, Central defender Sol Bamba has signed until the end of the season. The 30 year old has notched up almost 50 caps for the Ivory Coast, and being 6 foot 3 is quite a commanding presence. We should hear shortly that we have signed Granddi N'Goyi, a defensive midfielder. The 26 year old is a former French international youth player, and wears the number 17 shirt Both players have / will sign from Palermo until the end of the season with an option to buy. With these two players coming in, can we expect any outgoings? If you count Adryan and Montenegro as midfielders, we have 16 players in midfield. Considering Redfearn hardly ever tampers with the midfield, not wonder players like Murphy had to wait for a lucky break to be able to show him what he is made of! He could have quite easily have sent him on loan, or sent him outbound to another Championship club at a snippet of his true value.
Morning Elland, from a chilly Doha, yes there is a cool wind blowing down the gulf 16C Are the two lonee's Redferns or Cellino's picks, and yes Murphy could of gone out on loan, proberbly to the tractor boys and Big Mick would have moulded him into a footballer, as i am not too impressed with Redfern, seems to chop and change too much for my liking. Anyway cant stop too long got an invite into a corperate box at the Qatar Masters golf, will be in some state tonight
Morning all - Team, selection is a bit of a mystery at the moment, Bamba has only played once this year, personally I feel we are in too tricky a position in the league to be waiting for him to gain match fitness and unless he plays minutes on the pitch I don't see how it is going to happen? Del Fabro you can only assume is one for the future and we are going to take up the option to buy? If not then why keep him on loan??
Good morning from a dull chillyCote de Bardsey to Matt and co I agree with you re Murphy has it taken him a long time to find his feet I remeber when Pater Haddock joined ushe was hopeless but after a great deal of time he became my favourite defender until Ince crippled him .he neve played again Bamba will give us great experience and a target at set pieces so what will happen to Pearce Belushi Wooton nowand if we sign this CM as well does tht mean Austin will leave along withTonge Norris and possibly Adryan it must be a possibility Latest on Moe still in pain but at least shes home and thank everyone for their concern mike
mORNING RISTAC, i AGREE, AND WHAT ABOUT THAT mILAN PLAYER, CANNOT EVEN REMEMBER HIS NAME.. Milanicic or something. Squad is too big
Morning Mike, Haddock was named most underrated player in the league at that time. He had one hell of an injury
McCormack scored a 35 minute hattrick last night. Does anyone know why Antenucci has been dropped last few games?
Morning all Doha shhhh!!! You're making me jealous, it did nothing but snow yesterday for me Bamba's age really doesn't bother me as I've been calling for an experienced center back however the fact he has barely played in the last year is not impressive. As for Del Fabro and Benedicic they'll both be ones for the future as they're not even 20 yet. I wouldn't be suprised if we sign them on a permanent.
Antenucci was dropped because he is ****e! I don't know what other fans see in him... He's a greedy selfish striker and he doesn't care for the team. I've watched him countless times make the wrong decision! We beat Bournemouth the other night and guess what? There were only 2 Italians in the line up! If we play 2 up top it should be Morison and Sharp, simple as that... As for our new signings I think they are pointless... We have enough centre backs and we have a huge amount of centre midfielders... One position we are crying out for is left midfield, we need a natural wide man! These new formations 442 and 4231 are brilliant and they play to our players strengths, they also allow us to be more rigid with our player position which gives us a better defensive shape. Byram has been great on the right and I can see him morphing into the perfect winger, we just need to sort the other side out now!
Got to disagree with you on almost every point here. Antenucci. He's been quite brilliant for most of his time here. He's more of a link man than anything else, in the mould of Teddy Sherringham. He scores goals too, which is a bonus. He's very experienced, and very intelligent, and it's been taking time for our midfield to understand what to do with the ball when his off the ball running creates space & opportunities. What did they do? Picked a side or back pass instead. The midfield are getting better now, and Antenucci has helped them in their education. Sadly for him, we've decided to go long ball now, so his skills are surplus to requirements at this time. Sharp? FFS, he's done nothing. He's hopeless. A headless chicken. This is just another club hat he's failed at. Get rid. Quick. CB & CM - replied to this in the 'Bamba' thread. LM. Mowatt seems to be doing ok at LM. Adryan can play there too. If it's a winger you want, we've got Montenegro. If you listen to Redders, Cook can play there too (he can't). Byram a winger? You're joking. A winger should be able to get past defenders either by dribbling or with sheer pace. Byram has neither of these attributes. He's at his best going forward when he pays RB. At RM, he's lost. He needs momentum of a 1-2 with a midfielder to go past he defence. That's not available to him at RM. Interestingly, he defends better as a RM than he does as RB!! Noticed the other night that it was him directing Wooton every time they were under attack. Can't see what all the hype is about Byram at RM, far less him being a winger.
You've definitely seen a lot more this season than me but I disagree about Byram. Think he can become a little bit of a liability as a RB imo. He actually is fairly quick also and I have seen him be effective taking it past the full back and I think he is also one of our best crossers of the ball (although that doesn't say much). When Redders says he can become a Bale I disagree, he isn't that type of player. We do also need to sort out the left side, whether that be within the squad or not. Mowatt is not an LM and neither is Cook. Stupid to play either of them there although they may do a job. Adryan and Montenegro can play there but for whatever reason they're not being played so if thats the decision we need to sign someone for that position. I'm just hoping we aren't waiting for White to get fit again. Agree with your other points though.
I think you need to read what I wrote about Byram again, Josh. You'll notice that I never mentioned his defensive qualities at RB, other than saying he's better at defending as a RM, and the unwritten bit is that I agree with you re. him being a bit of a liability at times as a RB. I don't disagree about his crossing, He can most certainly take it past a defender, but what I was trying to say is that he needs momentum to do it. If he's advanced up the field & you give him the ball when he's standing still, he'll pass it. He can't go past a defender. He doesn't have the dribbling skills, or that little bit acceleration over, say, 5 yards. Now when he's playing RB, he's usually on the move when the ball is given to him, so he has the momentum to push the ball beyond a static defender & go past him easily. Have I made what I think clearer, or just bamboozled you with words? grin: I don't think Mowatt is too bad at LM. He's deffo not a winger, but a more than competent midfielder. What position do you think suits him best? Agree about Cook, Adryan & Montenegro, btw. Jeez, it never occurred to me hat they might be waiting on White! Bloody hope not!!
Think so, your saying he is better attacking from RB but better defending from RM... I think Mowatt is suited best as a box-to-box player with a more defensive minded player sitting next to him. I think him and Cook could produce a fantastic partnership in midfield in the future but they are both too young to play together at the moment. And about White, we know Redfearn loves academy players, and Hockaday was constantly talking up white and said it was a massive blow for us to lose him to injury. I really do think we'll see him feature as much as I don't want him to
I can't wait for White to get fit and be shipped out, far too injury prone. Even if he did find himself in this new formation you couldn't rely on him week in and week out, between him and Parker we must have managed to find the two most injury prone left sided players in the entire country
