The way we're playing...


Status
Not open for further replies.
Centre half is an interesting one. I’d argue we have enough numbers right now and the quality is probably just about good enough. Problem is, none of them are currently contracted to us for next season. If we could find a centre half we were willing to commit to - ideally one with pace and maybe one who could provide extra rb cover in the short term - it’d definitely be an area I’d look at.

I was talking on the assumption that Alves would depart, though maybe thats incorrect. Also if we are going to stick with 3 centre backs, we really dont have much qality cover, as I dont think Johnson rates younger.

Aye we could do with our own centre back for sure, I am hoping we have long term targets in place to pounce when availability is possible
 
Everyone throughout the club - including the fanbase - need to keep their heads during the next dip.

It's tough to separate recency bias from stuff that is genuine new information. I'm trying to do it myself while trying to work out what I think we need in January. Would have previously said two midfielders and a striker were the key, but with Evans finally showing green shoots, Pritchard now dominant on ball (and a terrier off it) and Embleton seemingly on his way a transition to orthodox central midfielder I would think we should be fine with one. Still such a long way to go, though, and it will all have changed again in a couple of weeks. Only three weeks ago, many were talking about us needing a new left back in January - not without some justification! My guess is that we need a strong midfielder and an all-round striker as a matter of urgency. We can then sit back to see if anything interesting pops up elsewhere.
I'm more the view that if we can get a right back we have Winnie, Evans, 09 and Neil at some point with two viable attacking midfielders in Embleton and Pritchard and a possible Gooch. But the addition of a steady attacking right back makes it possible to be strong despite Evans injuries. Striker is my biggest worry.
 
Exactly this

Could anyone honestly say they felt confident going up and staying up with Wyke, Dobson, Scowen, Power, McFadzean (shudder), Leadbitter, Remi Mathews, McLaughlin etc hovering around our 1st XI?

We are stronger across the starting side this season, lacking depth and injury cover is all. We are carrying a bit of League One dead weight still like Aiden O’Brien. Players like him and Grigg are destined for this division herein (or lower).

Not much dead weight, even thats harsh on O'Brien in the fact that its not like he stopped us getting anyone else in.

Due to injuries it was quite important he stayed till january as at least he could cover positions
 
...coupled with the players we've still got to bring back in, (Huggins, Cirkin, Winchester, Xhemajli and the likes), the players we bring in are going to have to be real quality to shift what we already have.

Every one of our team last night, looked like they were staking their claim, not just for the rest of this season, but like they want to be part of our championship starting lineup.

What an awful problem to have. 😎
I was worried we'd miss McGeady but our upturn in form has coincided with his injury.
I've lost track of some of our injuries... how long is Huggins out for?
 
...coupled with the players we've still got to bring back in, (Huggins, Cirkin, Winchester, Xhemajli and the likes), the players we bring in are going to have to be real quality to shift what we already have.

Every one of our team last night, looked like they were staking their claim, not just for the rest of this season, but like they want to be part of our championship starting lineup.

What an awful problem to have. 😎

We hope we aim to sign better than what have and not seek out squad players who are like for like or worse.
 
Not much dead weight, even thats harsh on O'Brien in the fact that its not like he stopped us getting anyone else in.

Due to injuries it was quite important he stayed till january as at least he could cover positions

O’Brien is the definition of dead weight in my eyes, mate. We’ve seen enough of him to make a judgment no? If it’s solely about spare bodies / injury cover in his position (what exactly is his position???) one of Diamond or Hawkes staying on and him going to Donny would have been more fruitful. Maybe Benji even, on last nights showing he offers something more than O’Brien in the final 1/4 of the game when the latter would generally come on. Just IMO.
 
O’Brien is the definition of dead weight in my eyes, mate. We’ve seen enough of him to make a judgment no? If it’s solely about spare bodies / injury cover in his position (what exactly is his position???) one of Diamond or Hawkes staying on and him going to Donny would have been more fruitful. Maybe Benji even, on last nights showing he offers something more than O’Brien in the final 1/4 of the game when the latter would generally come on. Just IMO.

Yeah but we wanted Diamond and Hawkes playing twice a week

you need squad players who can fill in like.

I mean its a bit of revionsm, O'Brien has scored a hatrick this year for example, you cant suddenly say Benji is better

He will move on if we can replace him, but the squad would have been short if he had left on dealine day

dunno how that can be debated
 
You'd prefer plodders like Power, Scowen and Dobson?

No. That's a ridiculous post. As I said in the actual post I love the thought of a midfield of Neil, Embleton, and Pritchard. However I can see that for some difficult games that we may need someone who can break up play better than those, and so one defensive midfielder - Winchester would be ideal but may be needed at right back - would be needed. But feel free to make sarcy comments about things I never said. Bye now.
 
I'm more the view that if we can get a right back we have Winnie, Evans, 09 and Neil at some point with two viable attacking midfielders in Embleton and Pritchard and a possible Gooch. But the addition of a steady attacking right back makes it possible to be strong despite Evans injuries. Striker is my biggest worry.
Fair enough pal. I suspect that the addition of a solid defender behind Dajaku may have also contributed to his upturn so would be mindful about our balance if we added a real attacking player there right now. And ultimately I’d always want our strongest area to be midfield. Sounds like we may get both in any case with that lad from NI being linked though.
 
O’Brien is the definition of dead weight in my eyes, mate. We’ve seen enough of him to make a judgment no? If it’s solely about spare bodies / injury cover in his position (what exactly is his position???) one of Diamond or Hawkes staying on and him going to Donny would have been more fruitful. Maybe Benji even, on last nights showing he offers something more than O’Brien in the final 1/4 of the game when the latter would generally come on. Just IMO.
He's also on unrealistic money for the role he's playing.
 
My big concern is upsetting the balance.

Watching the last two games we’ve absolutely found a winning formula. Pritchard looks every bit the player we thought we’d get, the system suits Stewart and our midfield, and you could see within two minutes last night, there was space to exploit with the formation we are playing.

If/when we get players back or sign players, I hope and pray we don’t do what we done last year and change a winning formula to shoehorn others in. We went through a spell of chopping and changing earlier in the season and look how that went. Hope and pray LJ has learned his lessons, we wrap our key players in cotton wool, and we don’t change it too much.

One of my biggest cheers last night was Pritchard coming off at 4-0. Great decision by Johnson, we need him to keep this going.

I get what you're saying about changes but IMO where we are at the moment he has to. Not everyone will commit suicide by playing a high back line against us and he has to keep on allowing our young players to gain experience, they are the future, Cirkin, Huggins, Neil, Embleton, Dajaku, Hoffman, Taylor and Wearne all need games, sub appearances alone won't do. Sending them out on loan is fine but the longer they're with us the more control we have over games played and tailoring their coaching. It's a balancing act on all fronts.
 
Last edited:
It's usually at this point we'd get spanked to bring us all down to Earth. Lucky we arent playing Wycombe or someone next.
😂😂😂
I have no criticism of Kimpioka last night, but for the time he was on, you can hardly make an assessment. Took his goal well.
He did, but I reckon I would have finished it too with the amount of space and time he had 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:
Yeah but we wanted Diamond and Hawkes playing twice a week

you need squad players who can fill in like.

I mean its a bit of revionsm, O'Brien has scored a hatrick this year for example, you cant suddenly say Benji is better

He will move on if we can replace him, but the squad would have been short if he had left on dealine day

dunno how that can be debated
I mean, I’m debating it now?

Hardly revisionism when I’ve seldom wanted O’Brien anywhere near the first team and his contribution, that Cup hattrick aside (+1 other) and as many goals as Benji in the league (in 12 more apps), has then proven to be poor in the 1st team in the first half of the season.

Your defence of him as just a body, a training ground dummy, a stocking filler (we have plenty of other lower paid, younger and more promising bodies) seems an unusual position to take.
 
If we had a quality defensive mid to that setup we'd have a midfield good enough for the championship. That plus attacker are the areas that can push us onto the next level
Winchester and Evans have both shown a bit of class in the defensive midfield position this season. Evans is too injury prone and Winchester would need to prove that he can step up to the championship bit they have both looked good holding the ball up this year.
 
Xhemajli has been back for a while now and can’t even get an appearance from the bench so I don’t think he is likely to play unless we get an injury crisis with our centre backs.
He hasn’t like, just steadily building back to fitness and form without overload. Reckon it’ll still be a month or two before he’s ready to start if we need him
 
Fair enough pal. I suspect that the addition of a solid defender behind Dajaku may have also contributed to his upturn so would be mindful about our balance if we added a real attacking player there right now. And ultimately I’d always want our strongest area to be midfield. Sounds like we may get both in any case with that lad from NI being linked though.
Yeah I think you’re probably right about Dajaku. I really rate the lad. Him and Pritchard are our best players at the minute for me. We have the balance right at the moment and Wright is the one that’s proven me wrong. I just think we need round pegs for round holes at season end when pressure and season ending injuries take hold.
 
Wingers as wing backs can be exploited easily so it would be good to bring in a more defensive wing back (be that Circin or a right back) so that we can mix it up a bit. There is no way you can drop Gooch or Dajaku on recent form though, which is, as you allude to, an interesting problem to have.
If you want to be succesful and someone else is better and fits in well, then you drop them.

It's harsh, but it's what you have to do.

No room for sentiment.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top