I know its only 3 pre season friendlies, but having seen the squad in play, how are we feeling about the upcoming season, my personal opinion is that we should certainly be able to have a good shot at the play offs, and once we ger Stewart back fit and well then we have the makings of a bloody good team and a hungry looking team. Gulacsi Rosenior Chester Hobbs Dudgeon Stewart McKenna Evans Brady Fryatt Simpson
We still lack depth at centreback and on both wings. Unless we're incredibly lucky with injuries and suspensions I can see that costing us.
I don't think we lack depth on the wings. Brady, Stewart and Koren are all good options to have there, Dudgeon can play left wing if needed, and then there's Devitt who can play on either wing. I'm very uneasy about centre-back though. McShane nearly managed to injure himself in a friendly the other day and with Hobbs already out injured that could have left us with just Chester and Bradley. That was just one friendly. One fast-paced game with a few tasty tackles could easily expose our defence.
We played a Liverpool 2nd/3rd string in the first half of which I imagine 6 or 7 of them will not be in their premier league 25 and most will be gone by the end of the transfer window. That said, we pretty much played a first team with the exception of Gerrard in the 2nd half and although they played much better, we held our own and got a well deserved win...we also played them off the park at times which is what we have all been waiting for. Playing against a championship side will have a different set of problems of course...time, space and the ability of quite a few teams to bully what is essentially a young inexperienced team. We will need the likes of Adebola and McKenna to to be strong, especially McKenna in midfield as this is where we lost out to most teams last season...Adebola can hold the ball up as good as anyone still from what I have seen and this will only stand us in good stead. It is a long season, we need to get off to a flying start but with the teams coming down, leicester buying just about everyone available and the usual suspects in Cardiff, Burnley, Boro etc all hoping for a good season then the play offs will be a huge bonus for all of us. Lets just enjoy some good football and see what happens. UTT
Well in wingers we have stewart, brady, koren, devitt and even atkinson and ghilas so i think that positions alright now. At CB we have the likely pairing of Chester/Hobbs, with admittedly only macca for real cover, but evans, killer and Bradley can all do a job. I personally feel rather confident in the current squad, the only issue i see being if we get into a poor run of form we lack experienced heads to get the kids heads back up imo.
that plus a first choice bench to choose 5 from of basso, cairney, koren, devitt, mcshane, dawson, barmby, adebola and mclean. thats strong. then there's our youngsters. as many pundits say its a central core that counts and as important as chester, mckenna/evans and fryatt will be. i think if stewart and brady click then we could really rip it up this season. COYH
Agreed, last year we lacked any wingers, a target man and a decent midfield pairing but still managed mid-table with a good defence. Now the defence is slightly weaker (still very good) but we have all of those other things. I honestly can't see a weakness in our team now.
My main worry would be losing Fryatt for any period of time. I haven't worked Simpson out yet but he seems to be very much a confidence player and with the rest of the youth could easily drop their heads. As many have said McClean is not a replacement for leading the line and Adebola looks like a decent addition for something we lack but will never lead the line either. Not many teams can replace their best striker though so this is pointing out the blind obvious. Otherwise I really like our current squad and if they can start the season running then it could be a very exciting season. All in all we look a solid championship team with plenty of potential!
Our cover is crap to be quite honest. For proper cover you should be able to take out any two players from your team and replace them without compromising your team by playing people out of position or severely weakening your side. Obviously if yo lose a player like Brady you're going to weaken your side, but you should be confident that the player coming in can still do a job at this level. We're trying to find Kilbane a club because he helped us last summer so ignore him as he might not be here for long. Take out Rosenior and Hobbs due to injury/suspension and what happens to the defence? McShane, Chester, Dudgeon, Dawson? - centre backs are both short, we'll be attacked by big strikers and long balls with them getting plenty of free headers to knock down to their strike partner/midfielders and neither full back is going to offer anything going forwards so we're weaker defensively and offensively. Alternatively McShane could go in the centre to stop us being completely umpa lumpaified but then you're relying on a completely unproven kid at right back, or you could bring in an unproven kid at centreback to give some aerial presence. Go into midfield, Ghilas we're trying to offload and has only looked good upfront alongside Altidore anyway (nearest now woud be Adebola I guess), and for the first 3 months we've no Stewart. Atkinson I think you must be joking about. If Koren gets injured you're stuck with Devitt. Personally I think Devitt should be getting sent somewhere to have a full season as first choice rather than being given scraps here, and he's certainly not going to put pressure on the places like Stewart will when he's fit. At the moment I'd say we've got 4 players I'd be happy with starting over a prolonged period to cover 3 defensive positions, and only 3 for the 2 wide positions, with one of them already injured. You've also got to look at how it limits us tactically. If we want to go 451 with a midfielder playing a free role behind the striker we've only got Koren and Barmby can play that role. Barmby can't play 90 minutes and Koren is tied down to the right wing for 3 months. 2 more signings needed if we want to have a chance at competing over the season without relying on a lot of luck with injuries, a winger who can play on the right, and either a right back or centre back (with McShane covering the other position).
It's down to the £££ Ricardo. We're still coming out from 'under the cosh' and it's going to take time and money.... I still think we are doing as well as we can - in the circumstances! You appear to assume City possesses unlimited transfer funds. We're lucky to still be here!
I never try to read too much into pre season, but Saturday's result will have helped give everyone a boost. I'm still not expecting a promotion campaign but i fancy us to make a challenge for the play offs. We have the makings of a good team but i feel the likes of West Ham, Leciester, Birmingham, Middlesborough, Reading and even Ipswich have more strength in depth (and cash in some cases) so will probably tell come the end of the season. I expect a dark horse to emerge amongst the leading favourites, anyone from ourselves, Burnley, Blackpool, Forest, Bristol and Southampton and even a suprise package (Derby, Coventry?). Knowing this league we could finish anywhere from 1st to 20th, but i'm feeling of something around 5-9th as things stand.
2 points: 1) I didn't say I expected us to make the signings, I said it's where I thought the squad was weak. Where everyone else is getting carried away with how good we seem to appear I'm just pointing out we're only 1 or 2 injuries away from not having a very good team on the pitch. It's dangerous having players like Dudgeon because people seem to have him starting at left back and covering at centreback and left wing without allowing for the fact he can only play one of those positions at a time. 2) Bearing in mind as part of my previous post I had Kilbane and Ghilas leaving so I've just freed up nearly £30k/w to pay the wages for the 2 signings. A loanee on £8k and a permanent £600k signing on £10k for 2 years would cost us that over a year, and then in the 2nd year (without the loanee) we'd save £300k compared to keeping Ghilas and Kilbane going on a free next summer.
But: aren't the Allams paying the Killer/Ghilas wages (as with Bullard/McShane)? If so, no money would be freed up by moving them out.
Not if you're also making the point that we're still under the cosh because of the finances. We either have a free budget that should be able to provide a squad with enough cover with the Allams covering their wages, or we have a budget that's restricted by their wages that means if we offload them we can reinvest the money elsewhere.
Yes - but no-one knows if the Allams' wage-paying will transfer to new players. Or am I misunderstanding the situation? I'm not being sarky - I genuinely don't know!
As the squad stands and beking fit and healthy, Hull City IMO are as strong as any in this league. Yes over the season squads will evolve, injuries and suspensions happen but thats the fun of the fair. For now it looks good. CITY have a starting blockl of fixtures that are all winnable. I can see 4 wins at least from the first 5 league games. Let the fun begin.
Dudgeon won't play centre back, he's a dwarf, I don't see him being considered for anywhere other than left back, or left wing. We've got kids coming through who could do a short term job in most positions, East at right back, Townsend at left back, Bradley at centre back, Emerton on the wing, Holohan in the middle. They're obviously inexperienced and more than one or two at once would be a problem, but I like the look of these lads. We would definitely be weakened by the loss of players like Brady, but only the loss of Fryatt for any period of time would really concern me.
NP may well play the likes of East, Bradley, Emerton against Bradford and Macclesfield. East Bradley Hobbs or McShane Dawson would be good enough in these games.
its not the defense or midfield we should worry about , my main concern is the forwards . whose gonna bang in them goals, cant see Mclean getting more than 2 especially if he's no further out than two yards with no defender in sight. Fryatt will probably get 15 (if he's lucky) , one goal in half dozen attempts. And as for Adebayorle (get it), last pay packet IMO, past it. I'll apologise if proven wrong, but i doubt i will be.
