Taylor is a good battering ram option. I’d pick him over Jack Clarke every time. For me Al Hamadi for his feet and pace would have been a better option than Taylor for hitting sides on the break in those games where we have to soak up a lot of pressure.
TWTD reporting Enciso from Brighton is coming on loan. Provides some competition to the number 10 roles. A lot of the creativity burden is on those number 10s - particularly with three centre backs in the team - and nobody can quite put in a consistent performance over 90 minutes. Enciso hasn’t done much this season, but he had a strong previous season. It’s not a move that has set my pulse racing, but does provide another attacking option for McKenna. I’m fine with the Al-Hamadi loan to a Championship club. He needs a run of games at a higher level and wasn’t ready for Premier League football. I just hope we’re looking at bringing in a centre forward. Delap can’t run the show by himself. I’ll be surprised if Hirst can keep injury free for the rest of the season. An injury to either will leave us short.
All gone a bit quiet...anyone got any rumours that are floating about? Will we still sign a #9, or maybe another replacement for Burns?
Perhaps all a bit nervous about the must win game this Saturday! Yes, we do need another striker but they are like hen's teeth in January.
If money, time, and loan restrictions didn't apply - we're arguably short a good goalkeeper, central midfielder, and more depth down the right and up top. Address those positions and I think we'd have more than enough to survive. Given the context though, I don't think we'll be able to address all areas. Possibly an argument that further additions and more change to the starting eleven would further disrupt the squad and results will suffer. We've got an issue at goalkeeper. Muric has made far too many mistakes and doesn't give reassurance to the defenders. Walton's main weakness of not being able to save a low shot has been more than exploited over the last few games. If we could bring in a goalkeeper that is both comfortable on the ball and is a good shot-stopper, we'd be conceding far fewer goals. Unlikely we'd make a move though, but possibly the one transfer that would make the most positive difference. Central midfield is a bit of an issue. We've bought in arguably our first choice central midfielder (Cajuste) and our fourth choice central midfielder (Phillips) on form this season. Morsy's form and influence has notably declined over the last month - he looks far too tired. Taylor and Luongo are a nice option to have, but I don't think they're the long-term, stable answer now. Someone who can bring a bit more physicality and carry the ball forwards would massively help. The Burns injury is a blow. He's struggled this season to impact games, but he's somebody who can play that right wing-back position. He's made a slight improvement over the last month from the performances he was putting in over the first half of the season. Potentially we need a move there for depth, as we've only got Johnson who can play at right-wing back. Tuanzebe/Godfrey gives us plenty of depth at right-back. I think we've got enough flexibility to cover the attacking right hand side - so maybe McKenna will revert to the previous formation? We are definitely missing something in the final third lately. A back up number nine would be good. Delap and Hirst are fine for a one/two option, but an injury to one of those two would put too much strain on the other player. Maybe McKenna thinks someone like Szmodics or Enciso could cover there for an emergency.
Good assessment Nuggets. I still feel we need another no.9 in, for however good or not Al Hamidi was he's better at playing that position than other players and played a really key role the second half of last season for us getting promoted. So unless we recruit another striker I would suggest we are weaker having got rid of him.
I don’t necessarily think we’re weaker without Al-Hamadi. He quite clearly wasn’t ready for the Premier League. There hasn’t been a performance from him this season we can point to and say he’s got potential at this level. To be fair to the club, I don’t think we brought him in to be a Premier League player - but he played his part to help us get promoted. Yes, we’re short a body at number 9. But I wonder if the Enciso and Philogene additions potentially frees up somebody like Szmodics to provide emergency number 9 cover? He’s a persistent pressing forward and knows where the goal is (he’s our second highest goal scorer). The arguments against him is that while he has played centre forward before, it’s the number 10 role where he played his best football for Blackburn. He also isn’t as physical as someone like Delap, which seems to be a trait you need playing most Premier League defences. Personally, I think we’re risking a lot if Delap gets injured. But if he and Hirst stays largely injury free over the next four odd months - and we’ve got a third choice number 9 not really coming on - it’s a wasted transfer, when there’s additions also needed elsewhere. Playing slight devil’s advocate here, as I think it’s a position we’ll ultimately shore up. I can’t see us pulling the trigger on the current goalkeepers or bringing in a central midfielder to drop the club captain this season.
To be honest, i can't see us signing anyone else, even with Burns' injury. We have Delap and Hirst as our main #9's, and we have an abundance of attacking players (Hutch, J Clarke, Szmodics, Broadhead, Chaplin, Ensisco, Billie jean) Can't see any decent #9's wanting to come in and be 3rd choice (unless it's a decent kid, or journeyman) We have 7 attackers (plus Burns) for 3 places, we have 5 CM's, 3 Rb's, 4 CB's...LB seems to be the only position we are light in numbers, but can't see Leif being ousted unless he gets an injury. That's not to say we can't get any improvements. For me, CM is probably our weakest area - As others have mentioned, Morsy is slowly starting to show his age, Phillips hasn't done too much, Cajuste can't last 70 minutes, and Luongo is nowhere near Prem standard. Taylor is the only one, in my opinion, who can do a decent job, but still think he's more a #10. Obviously, this is all dependent whether we ship any players out - if any leave, then that position would have to be filled.
I wonder if the Burns injury changes the perspective on sending Harry Clarke out on loan. I've always thought he looks better further up the pitch
Word around the stadium yesterday is that we’re apparently in for Downes. Can’t see Southampton selling to a direct rival.
It was interesting that Juric described it as "problems" with Downes in the week as opposed to an injury.It doesn't sound like Ashton's way of working to turn the head of another Club's player!I wouldn't be against him returning,he might give us the necessary bite/energy in the middle of the park and we've got a better chance of staying up than Saints.Then again there might be nothing in it at all.
If you can build up his confidence again and get him back to his best I'm sure I'm not the only Town fan offering to chip in with his bus fair north!
I wouldn't take Downes. He goes missing when you're up against it and we'll be up against it a lot. Today is all about not signing the goalkeeper we need to bring in.
Unfortunately this season is feeling very familiar to the last time we were relegated from the PL. Lots of new players being integrated which affects the team cohesion and a shiny new multi million pound GK who makes mistakes, doesn't give confidence to his defence (or communicate) and we replace him with one which doesn't make as many high profile mistakes but isn't quite prem standard.
Alex Palmer from West Brom joining, potentially for £2 million rising to £4 million. A lot of upset Baggies online. They believe he's worth a lot more than that, but I think he might be out of contract this summer - so possibly they've just got what they can for him. Palmer's considered to be a top Championship goalkeeper and has been in-form for the last couple of years there. Apparently he's a great shot stopper, but he doesn't have the best distribution and is uncomfortable playing short passes from the back. Where have we heard that one before? All in all, I'm relieved we've got a goalkeeper through the door, and a good one at a decent price too. He can't be any worse than Muric. He's surely an upgrade on Walton, who hasn't convinced enough to make that shirt his own and is going to miss several weeks from injury. If we were serious about staying up, and our planning for next season, then we needed to make this move. According to TWTD, turns out the chatter around the ground for Downes was true! But as I thought, Southampton won't sell to a rival. A shame as I think he's the type of player that would excel under McKenna. I don't blame him for getting fed up last time he was here under Evans and the management of the Pauls. Southampton bought him for £15 million, so any fee would surely be higher than that and I don't think he's worth it.
