goalkeepers: marshall is a good keeper at this level, excellent shot stopper and has saved us a few points over the course of last season, next season he'll have to hold off the challenge of lewis, who is tall but on a free transfer and good wage probably a luxury to have a good keeper like him sitting on the bench, mackay has said marshall is in the top 3 keepers in the league so he will start as number 1 next season.... defenders, starting with LB i think taylor has been an excellent signing, not the best out and out defender you will find but good at overlapping and getting crosses in, under jones this was a problem position but not any more. RB mcnaughton had a poor season IMO, at fault for quite a few goals and not the player he used to be. CB's more positive, an excellent partnership has developed between turner and hudson. hudson is an excellent edge of the box defender, decent with the ball too, turner with his left foot gives balance to the pairing and another excellent signing by malky there. good backups in gerrard and blake. midfielders, whittingham, gunnarsson, and to a lesser extent cowie, were all successes last season. lawrence came in and did a job but doesnt represent value for money and thats what ruled in the end. dissapointed to see conway first not get much action then get injured just when we needed a player like him. vukcic was forgettable. big improvements can be made in this department as there are spots on both wings up for grabs IMO, if routledge doesnt get a look in at swansea i'd have him back tommorow, and with laudrup and a change of manager who knows? one things for sure if money isnt spent in this department we'll be struggling to create chances again. only thing is i think malky will go more 'cowie' and less technical wingers who will hug the touchline and not track back, i hope he proves me wrong on this..... strikers: very surprised to see such a low scoring record for kenny given that he's got by far and away the highest level of experience and was scoring goals in the champions league 6-12 months before joining us. i was expecting a minimum of 25 goals but its difficult playing on your own in a 4-5-1, if we'd have played more 4-4-2 he would have scored loads more goals imo. i hope we keep him so he can put right the wrongs of last season. mason - find of the season, nice to see we've tied him down long term, i dont see him as a striker, more of a inside forward in a more attacking 4-5-1, i'd prefer to have him playing alongside either kenny or a new established striker to take the hits and set him up as he's a quality footballer. gestede - surprised that he's been given a contract as i dont think he's up to it, hope he'll prove me wrong. deadwood: good to see parkin go, and i'd like to see the back of useless players like taiwo, naylor, quinn etc if they havent already gone, solid base to work from next season then.....
In all honesty I don't think anyone has finished reading SKM but I do disagree with one thing I don't think kenny would have scored more IMO
Give us a chance Swamp, need to fit some work in around posting. I think that's right. Back 5 more or less sorted. With Quinn and Naylor already gone we probably need another left back with Darcy covering the right and centre. Possibly need another right back as well to pad the squad out, but only after we've sorted some of the mid and forward positions. Conway and Cowie should become squad players this season with two genuine wingers a priority. Both did well and are very industrious but have limitations technically as wide men. This results in us being too narrow even with a midfield 5. Kiss and Gunner both did well and should be better with another pre-season under their belts. We could still do with a midfield enforcer, especially alongside whitts if we go 442. Not much to say about Mason, exceptional. The only question is, where do we play him? Do we fit him in around Miller, or do we mould a team around him? I'd prefer the latter. If we can get a target man / hold up striker, Mason playing arround and off that player will be a real handful. MM suggests Earnie has a future at the club, but don't see where he fits in. Miller appears first choice and he isn't going to oust Mason, so another bit part season if he stays. We have a solid core to the squad and as I posted on a much earlier thread, with the Euro's and manager merry-go round slowing down the transfer market it may be a while before we get our purchases, so we may be starting next term with a similar team to what ended last with new signings getting a run out 3-4 weeks into the season. It wouldn't be the worse position to be in. The majority of the pruning has happened with only Taiwo and K9 surpluss to requirements (I think Gabor has already gone).
Swamp, these days I always wait to see if a thread stays on track before commenting. I'm pretty much with what remote has had to say and that the areas for improvement are pretty much obvious to all. Personally, I can see the mileage in keeping Gestede as i think he can be moulded into something. I always think back to what we thought of Hudson for the first season!
Rudy seems to get injured too easily for my liking but next season he needs to be pushing for a start rather than bench warmer. He's yet to convince me he has the quality needed at the club. Kenny did a reasonable job but needs to stay in position more and find the back of the net, no where near a good enough return from him last season. He must improve his goal tally next season. Wingers are needed as is a recognised striker, Kenny may be first choice but we need a 25 goal striker methinks.
