Some people might feel like the answer is a new manager but if theres one place where I feel Hughton and his team has been good is making transfers and for the purposes of this thread lets focus on the areas on the pitch where we need reinforcements. Ive made a list of the areas I would like us to improve on, in no particular order, and why: Right back I feel the improvement that has been shown by bringing in Olsson has been pretty noticeable, he's fast, has a good cross on him, is extremely strong and makes more blocks than he has any right to. These combined with a string of pretty poor performances from right back so far this season suggests to me that we should be looking for a new RB. Personally I would look into bringing back Naughton permanently, but I'm sure there are other equally strong candidates. I would also consider retraining E Bennett as a right wing back, i think he could be excellent. Left wing After yesterday there have been 2 criticisms that I have seen reposted by several posters 1) Redmond was awful with his delivery and decision making 2) We were playing better without Snodgrass. I believe that both of these stem from redmond playing on the left, on the right he is a far more effective and team player, his left footed delivery isn't very strong (better than Snodgrass' right though). Currently we have 3 natural right sided wingers in Redmond, Snodgrass and Bennett but only one on the left, Pilkington, who can't play a full season so we have to rely on a winger playing out of position. I would look at Deigo Capel as I feel he would be available and knows how to find RvW with a pass. Attacking midfield An obvious one really we have some very talented strikers with good movement and we need to do better at finding them, Wes is far to frequently anonymous and increasingly unable to control a game like he used to. The issue here is that the AM role is probably yet one which commands the highest fee in the game meaning that to buy talent you have to be willing to spend real money which is why I wonder is this might be a purchase for the summer when we can asses our situation better. As a stop gap there may well be a loan we could come by from one of the big clubs. with the world cup coming up player want to be on the pitch not the bench, de Bruyne springs to mind but I think he wants to go to Germany. Remy Cabella is supposed to be available for £15 but I imagine he has aspirations higher than us. There are other areas such as CB but I feel that we do have premier talent there its just an issue of getting the best out of them.
Bath, I'm loathe to criticise, you've obviously put a lot of time and trouble into this very fine effort, but why is it not in the January transfers sticky?
Because I thought that was to discuss rumours and players we'd been linked with, this was more to discuss what types of players. Wasn't sure on the etiquette. If you want to move it feel free.
I'm with you on Diego Capel. Quality player who is used to playing with RvW. Win win situation as far as I am concerned.
I thought Redmond was getting better! and yesterday (and other days) thought both full backs were limited, I think replacing both is necessary as well as another central midfielder and a left or right midfielder that can drift inside (effectively) and also play as a winger- only Pilkington without injury can do this.
Sorry but you talk as if there is a consensus we are better without Snodgrass?!? Snodgrass was far better then anybody else in the midfield yesterday and we really missed him when he was subbed off.
What do we need in January? How about a bloody miracle..! Stick with Hughton he's doing a mighty fine job! Only kidding boys... Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
Well I'd say we should build it around Hooper and Wolfie mostly because they are talented strikers and we need to take advantage of that and once we do consistently our attacking play will be far better. It would be a waste of talent to bring them in and ask them to play in a way that doesn't get the best from them.
Wolfie has failed to deliver so far We should be more inclined to build it around hooper How about a new cb to partner turner?
What you guys need is hughton to stop hoping to go 1-0 and then just holding on, watched him last night bemoaning the fact your game become open. You have just spent christ knows how many millions on talented players, why the hell shackle the **** out of them, go one up and kill the game with a second. Also when you play the big boys, go for it, whatever happens happens, why go out just to keep the score down, it doesn't work.
Yep spot on about both, Sheepswinkle could be a fraud, how many of us watched him at Lisbon? I think Hooper has been good paired with Elmander, and Turner our best player hands down. I would like to see A defender who can play wide as a right back and double as a CB if we don't buy a separate player for both roles. Really keen on HSV's Dennis Diekmeier as a RB. Not sure about what kind of AM we should be looking for other than one 'who can pass'.
Totally agree with strengthening in these areas. The midfield has been shocking this season in terms of creativity injuries haven't helped us out, however the wastage from wide players when in possession has stopped us and we also don't have a creative attacking midfielder to help unlock teams who park the bus e.g. the Cardiff game, we don't have a plan B in that area. Right back has been a poor area which has cost us a lot of goals this season but then you can't ignore the CB area as we've got people trying to run around like Neymar and some of the relaxed casual performances have been very costly. I'm happy with our strikers, we need to strengthen the midfield and the defence. It's frustrating really as just when you think we've strengthened in all our various departments the frailties move to another area which appeared to be doing well.
WHAT! Sorry DM but he had a mare yesterday, went missing, just wanted to fall about when he had chances to attack, he looked like he'd had to much Xmas pud to me! And been at Daves malt to?
When i said that i was a common view that we looked better without him i was saying that the difference is that redmond isn't as good when moved to the left, it was a comment on Redmond not Snodgrass. that said I saw nothing of Snodgrass that your talking about yesterday, although I'm a big fan, he hasn't come close to some of his performances from last season the best being the swans away game which he dominated. we looked lost after he came of because for reasons unknown Hoolahan played on the right, we weren't missing snodgrass we were missing any right sided player.
I don't think it matters which players we get because give them ten games under Hughton and they'll be crap. Look at how well Fer and Olsson started and how mediocre and (in Fer's case) uninterested they seem to have become. You treat mediocre players like Subbuteo footballers and tell them what to do and where to go; you give better players freedom to express themselves.
