A left back made sense, another winger also and a striker made sense given losing Delap, Connolly, Vinagre, Twine and Lokilo. Pandur was the only one that was unnecessary.
So, nothing to do with the opposition manager changing tactics at half time and Walter just carrying on playing the same way as in the first half, even when it’s clear it’s not working? Only making like for like personnel changes until the last few minutes when any hope of regaining the momentum has gone. Yes, the players could have done better with their end product in the first half but you see that a lot at this level and usually they’ll improve as the game goes on and get the goal(s) needed to win the game. It really has been a game of two halves for the last couple of matches and that’s not all down to the players by any stretch.
He did have a decent core of players that knew each other to work with though. Walter has literally had scraps.
Signing players on permanent deals would have made more sense than the three loans (Zaroury, Ohio, Carvalho) and 38 year old Sharp. All were short term options. IF we were signing Zaroury and Ohio on loans, there should have been a clear path to signing them on permanents if they succeeded, meaning Ohio should have been converted to a permanent early in the summer. Then you have Pandur, Omur and Ohio as permanent signings essentially in January, all having had time to bed in and adjust to the Championship and able to hit the ground running this season. But there was no clear plan even with Omur because we then went out and signed new number 10s and threw him out on a wing. As one example, Al-Hamadi was signed by Ipswich for 1m from Wimbledon in January. Were we in for him? He would have made far more sense as a speculative signing than Sharp for instance.
He’s played a large portion of his career on the wing, looked decent playing there for us last season. Maybe we didn’t have the finances for permanents though, in January we had every chance to still make it, Acun would’ve been an idiot to not at least give Rosenior the tools to try. If he didn’t sign at least another striker he’d have got absolute pelters after Sharp showed how far off it he was during January. Zaraory was clearly wanted by Rosenior too given he was willing to play Philogene out of position to accomodate him
Ohio should have been signed in the summer anyway. He looks far better than any of our current striking options and I suspect we’d have been able to afford him
Moore wouldn't have suited LR's system, not mobile enough Said all summer Ohio was a no brainer. I never understood why we signed a left winger instead of a right when Jaden was our most productive player either. January just didn't make sense.
I don’t think he looked any better than Bedia, Bedia probably has more to his game. Ohio is just younger, Ohio was really crap outside the penalty box
We had the finances to sign Omur and Pandur on reasonably expensive deals even though those weren't priority positions at the time (cue argument about GK again I suppose). Omur could have been a loan with an obligation just as Giles was to shift finances around to make it work. We've shown plenty of willingness to stretch things and play around with them to make the finances line up, but the point is that bringing in young, permanent signings in January made far more sense than what we did.
I thought he improved a lot after his spell out of the side. Thought he looked great against Ipswich and Cov I think was the other one. His hold up play seemed to improve a lot and his ball retention was a lot better.
We were promised he had a unique style of attacking football. Whilst it certainly appears unique, there’s little evidence that it’s any more attacking than Roseniors boring football. It’s easy to see why Seri didn’t fit into Walter’s Plans. Seri is a player who likes to collect the ball in midfield and distribute the ball. Walter wants our midfielders to be completely bypassed unless they drift out to the wing, or pretend to be a second striker.
Yet Zaroury barely played. And Giles was more than welcome needed. Boro fans think we're nuts expecting him to be a fullback. He's a wingback. We don't play with wingbacks. So sign a solid 1- 1,5m FULLBACK who fits the team. We brought in a lot of egos on big money instead of what we needed. We did better over half a season with Lokilo in the squad doing what he was told very averagely than we did with all the chips cashed in January. It's about stability. If I had an ounce of faith in Walter I'd be backing him. But I don't. Obviously the owner hasn't given up on it quite yet. His money, so it's his call, but I think it's inevitable.
I was, until the point where he returned to the team. Then I was praising him. I can pull the quotes out if you want.
Ohio is a more instinctive striker so while I agree he's technically lacking (like Bedia) he does score more goals. As a backup option, he'd be good though and he could develop over the years. Bedia will be gone in the summer anyway so it's more churn.
Early doors I thought Bedia had something. But like a lot of them, they're not playing with any real confidence at the moment
Physically he's excellent, yet he's sloppy on the ball though and not a particularly good finisher. I don't think he's much of an upgrade on Magennis/Eaves if I'm being brutal but he'll be earning a good chunk more.
