Bowen doing the presser with Leonid this morning. please log in to view this image “We had a successful day yesterday bringing a new player into the team, especially with Stephen being a left-back.” “Stephen is very versatile, young and ambitious and we are pleased to have him in our squad.” “He has a lot of ambition and is Premier League level. We have tradition of Scottish left-back's here and we continue this.” “We continue to work very hard in the transfer market, but our maximum focus is on tomorrow night’s game against Bolton Wanderers.” “We have no fresh injury worries for the game. Campbell, Henriksen and Evandro will hopefully return after the international break.” “We don’t have a lot of option to replace but I am thinking we might change tactics.“ “Stewart’s injury is the same ankle injury, he did against Ajax. He had a problem in the same place and on Monday we see a doctor. It is not serious.“ “Maybe Toral will be involved tomorrow but he has been playing in under-23s all summer.“ “A lot of situation very difficult, because of players situation. We need to replace Sam Clucas and we are looking for a similar player. We have a big list, but not everybody coming in. We will see about new players but for me today the more important is the game.“ “Maybe we will have information today on a striker. We are very close to signing a striker and we do have an agreement with one. It is an important position and when you lose the best striker and it is difficult to replace.“ “Success, Musa and others are good players in our list.“ “Bolton is a very important match and we have unbelievable support. I try to prove the level of the team because when you have that support because you want to play better.“ “I say each team have a good time and bad time and it is very important to support in the difficult time. In this situation you understand you is your friend and not your friend. I hope the supporters can help the team in this difficult moment. Now we dont have final squad and really we need patience. It will be a serious team and I think promotion is the target.“ “Maximum one player will be before tomorrow and another three before the transfer window closes.“ On Kingsley - “He will be available tomorrow, he train with Swansea all pre-season. Today I will watch him training for the first time. So I might with stick with Max Clark.“ On Toral - “I think we must wait for official information. The hold up is paperwork but he will train today, i don’t foresee a problem.“ “He is a classic number 10 and he can turn defence into attack very quickly. We have a lot of players with the same situation, he come down from Premier League and he has a serious motivation for developing.“ Bowen up next... “It was great for the lads, some of my close mates, to get the chance to play at Doncaster in the cup.” “Obviously it ended in defeat, but I think they all can be proud of how they performed.” “We’ve got some very good young players in our Academy and all the lads who played on Tuesday night fully deserved their chance.” “On a personal level, I’ve started the first four league games this season and I want to keep progressing now.” “Last Saturday was disappointing - the way we let it slip - and we want to bounce back against Bolton.” “I think the win is the only option now because we don’t want to drop more points going into the international break.” The end.
So who do we currently have available? McGregor, Mannion, Lenihan, Aina, Clarke, Kingsley, Mazuch, Dawson, Hector, Meyler, Larsson, Grosicki, Bowen, Diomande, Luer, Weir The kids? I think I'd be tempted to change both full backs and put in Lenihan and the new guy. I've been impressed with how Clark has handled playing left back, I think he has at least equalled Aina and put in some great crosses but you can't beat having actual full backs. I'd put Clark or Batty in centre mid with Meyler. Perhaps two games in four days would be too much for somebody just breaking through like Batty. Larsson behind Luer/Diomande. Was Mannion good enough on Tuesday to earn a start? What position did Weir play on Tuesday? If Grosicki isn't up to/for it it would be nice to bring him on on the wing. I think he has something. McGregor Lenihan Hector Dawson Kingsley Meyler Clark Grosicki Larsson Bowen Luer Bench Mannion Mazuch Aina Batty Diomande Weir Olley
Anyone else looking forward to Evandro being fit? Thought he was a very good player when he played last year and think his technique and ability could really shine in the championship. As for this weekend, back 5 as it was vs QPR, think it'd be wrong to jettison clark for Kinglsey when he's only been here a day, larson and meyler cm as they are our only genuine options, grosicki and bowen on the wings as they are our only genuine options and heaven help us Dio up front. Edit - oops, only 10 players selected there, brave even for us, **** it, stick Mazuch in at CB and play 3-4-3
The club's tweets from the press conference are becoming increasingly useless, they've completely ignored all the stuff about the potential new signings.
“Maximum one player will be before tomorrow and another three before the transfer window closes.“ That's a worry, it's not enough.
It's not enough in the short term......but, get a couple back from injury and it may just be passable, as long as we don't add to the injury list and those 3 incoming players contain a striker and a winger (assuming the incoming this week is Toral) it gives us give or take 2 players for each position, accounting for Dave and Mason not playing any time soon
Might change tactics eh? I'd defo advocate 3 centre backs considering we have 3 senior players available. Horses for courses.
Yeah, I've counted him as reserve LB, done enough in a few matches to give comfort to me anyway that I think he could fill in for 10 or so matches over a season, would expect injuries aside Kingsley to rack up the appearances this season
Out of the six he said he needed last week that would correlate, Kingsley done and Toral training with us today, so that one will be the striker. Nixon said though yesterday or the day before that we were also close to a Chelsea loanee so could this striker be from there? God knows who though...
Oh so when we had Robertson and Tymon here we had 3 first team left backs did we? And I said he'd played a few games there.
We now have a scottish international left back, a youth player who did well in a cup game (Fleming) and a centre midfielder who can do a job at left back. Sounds similar to last season.
Everybody on here, ever since Tymon and Robertson left, said we have no left backs at the club. But we're just focussing on me saying it.
