we've now got a squad full of players with a year's experience and better known quantities. it's a far cry from last season. and if you're not on a wind up i fail to see why you think i was averse to making any gamble signings. iv'e said and repeated that I thought as much as two thirds to three quarters of the budget on prospects was fine. people read very selectively on this site. seems to be heavily bandwagon based. I will be disappointed if we don't sign at least one more player with proven credentials. but i hope for more and prospects too.
I don't think so, his main strengths are his positional sense, blocking and tackling, he has the pace to help create an attack, but his final ball is lacking.
Ince isn't a bad player, but I reckon half the attention he gets is due to him being English and because of who his Dad is.
Ever since Phillips stated he would play for Scotland he has played ****. Hope Targett doesn't follow suit.
I dunno... I used to like him, I wanted us to sign him when Blackpool did actually, but since Ince broke into the team he's impressed me far more. I dunno if it's because Phillips' sulking is having a big impact on his game or what.
might also have been that storming first half of the season. second half tailed off goal wise. there were a lot of ludicrous scoring runs last season with Murray and Austin doing the same sort of thing.
Ince is better than Phillips, but I reckon we could do better than both really. Ince might go to Swansea, according to a Swans fan I've spoken to.
Without another defensive signing we'll be lacking quality experience in defence. . We'll be torn apart a few times and go through bad spells defensively which is where experience and leadership are most useful. A lack of confidence and leadership in defence is the msot likely thing to derail our season, it derailed our start last year and could very possibly derail our start again. Gamez or Astori would provide this experience and confidence. I have no doubt that our current list has the ability to beat the best teams. It's whether we can perform consistently that will make the biggest difference. apart from a brief spell under pochettino when we beat liverpool, chelsea and reading in a row our form was far too up and down last season. Our problem of consistency would be greatly helped by more experience particularly in defense imo.
I can't see us getting "torn apart" in defence next season, not with a settled keeper and with Morgan and Jack Cork playing in front of the back four. We do need cover for Luke Shaw though.
It was noticeable that our form dropped when Shaw became injured, resulting in a number of draws that we might have hoped to win. We need good players competing for every place if we want to do well this season. Imagine how we would have missed Cork and Spider.
That's hit the nail on the head Fran. Top sides have like for like replacements for most if not all positions. We have a really good spine running through our side but if any picked up long term injuries we'd struggle.
Fair point torn apart is a slight exaggeration however it's telling that we only scored and kept a clean sheet against teams that finished below us (reading X2, aston villa and newcastle). That is a strong indicator that we didn't get the attack/defense balance right against a decent team. And at times we did get torn apart last season, most recently west brom and newcastle. We will be put under pressure defensively and experience would be a useful thing to have if any of our young and inexperienced defenders ever crumble under this pressure. Defense is still our most suspect area imo and we would do well to prevent any future problems now. Admittedly we are suspect defensively because our likely back 4 have never played together and could well be excellent however I don't think it is worth gambling on particularly when the benefits of bringing in someone like Gamez or Astori would last for a few seasons at least. It's also worth keeping in mind that we will imo be much more adventurous going forward than how we finished the season. I doubt we will play the far too defensive triangle of davis, morgan and cork again. Additionally puncheon and lallana - decent going back, might not feature as much either.
It's exciting all the ambition and rumoured interest in quality players. I'm "Onboard" with the ambition, but lets be grounded a little. We will still lose games, perform poorly than expected at times and possibly even get a hammering from one if the top three teams. It's football and that happens (Man Utd 8 v 2 Arsenal anyone doubting this?). The key is we show that progress chart/graph with the mean line showing a steep angled upwards direction. One bad result doesn't make you a bad team; one swallow etc, etc.
Anyone else think that Callum McManaman is worth looking at?, he is one of Wigan's top performers and is surely looking at a return to the Premier League. He would be less of a risk than Phillips or Ince as he is proven in the top league and I reckon we could get him at a reasonable price.
