Duffy Replacement

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Chali 2na

The Tuna fish that descended from Lake Michigan
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Duffy is getting on. For 50 minutes he's sensational, after though, he's largely ineffective.

Woodburn is the only obvious replacement, and I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not comfortable with this.

One possibility I would like us to try, is John Fleck in that role. We only know him as a MC, but he started his career as a forward (he was actually tipped to be the Scottish Wayne Rooney).

Don't get me wrong, I think Fleck is a better MC than AMC, but when Duffy is tired/unavailable I think he is possibly a better option than Woodburn.

We'd be missing a great MC, but I feel that's an area where we have better backup. I don't think Lundstram is a world beater, but I'd sooner have him on the pitch with Woodburn, and Coutts will be back soon too.

It may leave us without enough bite, and Fleck might not be suitable for the role, but I think we should try it, otherwise every time Duffy fades, we're essentially out of ideas.

Thoughts?


P.S. it probabaly wouldn't have worked last night, considering Fleck had a stinker by his standards, but still one to try, IMO.
 



Duffy proved me wrong after the league one season

cant be arsed complaining about him because he's clever as fuck. might not need to do alot of running, but sends defenders for chinese takeaways most of the time. quality player. will be very hard to find a replacement when the time comes. i don't think that time is now though
 
Chali 2na said:
We've got 3 months before that's even a remote possibility.


Even then, I don't think QPR would sell.
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No, but if they're in the bottom 3 and he puts in a Transfer Request, stranger things have happened.

We don't have a direct replacement in the current squad, and over recent years we've fallen foul of square pegs in round holes. For what it's worth, i don't think Brooks would've been either - i see him as a different sort of player.
 
Chali 2na said:
Or Mason Mount if it was a remote possibility.

Hindsight eh?:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Not hindsight for me with Palmer!

Bradley Dack last year... now there's a bit of hindsight. 700k! What a player he's looking.
 
Liaminho9 said:
No, but if they're in the bottom 3 and he puts in a Transfer Request, stranger things have happened.

We don't have a direct replacement in the current squad, and over recent years we've fallen foul of square pegs in round holes. For what it's worth, i don't think Brooks would've been either - i see him as a different sort of player.
Click to expand...

If he does leave, I doubt we could afford him. If they sell him, they pretty much seal their relagtion so I imagine they'll be asking for more than we can afford.
I'd also guess that he currently earns more, in desirable London than be would here- juat can't see it happening personally.

And you point about square pegs is a good point, I think Fleck is our 'roundest' peg.
 
Knew that Freeman would pop up without me even having to do anything...

He could be gettable. QPR could be willing to sell, especially if they're comfortable in the league. He'll have 18 months on his contract and they have Ebere Eze as their main attacking midfield asset now.
 
Ricky said:
Not hindsight for me with Palmer!

Bradley Dack last year... now there's a bit of hindsight. 700k! What a player he's looking.
Click to expand...

Yeah to be fair you did suggest Palmer.

I think if someone told us at the start of the season we'd get Woodburn, I imagine you would have been satisfied, I was - that's the point I was trying to make about hindsight.

As for Dack, great player another fine suggestion, who is no doubt way out of our reach now, like Freeman possibly.
 



Luke Freeman is the only real like for like player I can see as a realistic target. But until then I agree with the suggestion of Fleck, something I championed last season but we never saw it. When Coutts is back it becomes a better option IMO.
 
It was exactly the same when we were in league one... teams realise if they stop Duffy playing = we lose 90% of our creativity.

Granted he takes himself out the game at the hour mark by having a similar engine to a knackered tractor, but it is frustrating to see we're still so heavily dependent on one player...
 
Getting comparable quality to Duffy, ideally a few years younger, could prove very expensive. Need to splash out in January or hope we can grab a decent loanee [assuming Woodburn doesn't kick on with us and we send him back].

Still can't quite believe we got him AND Fleck on a free. I wouldn't be averse to Chali 2na 's suggestion of sticking Fleck in as the CAM either, especially with Coutts coming back. We can move Norwood a bit further forward into Fleck's current role, as I believe he is versatile enough.
 
We aren't going to find anyone near Duffys quality for under £5 million under the age of 30. People talk about Fleck and Coutts but when he doesn't play or has a poor game it affects us more than missing either of them.

Not so sure I agree with the claims on his fitness, he didn't look that shattered to me against Bristol city and as soon as he came off they took control. Perhaps he can't do 90 minutes but i often feel he is taken off a little too soon.
 
I've always said that when Duffy goes off Fleck should move further forward, he's got good control, he has a good shot on him if he's 15-20 yards further up the pitch and can move forward with the ball.


You never know, it might benefit Lundstram as well If he comes on, he'll able to play his natural game instead of always being a replacement for somebody with different attributes
 
Different systems of play would be a good idea to look at (im sure they review this stuff all the time) rather than like for like replacements. Would give us more options in games like last night to switch it around and not be as predicable as we can be at times. 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1 for example could all be used to varying degrees with the versatility we have in some of our players
 
I have a vague recollection of one of the Coventry managers playing Fleck in a more forward position so it’s a possibility. As Ricky said, when Coutts comes back it’s a way of fitting him, Norwood and Fleck into the team. It would be nice if we did something like we did against Villa against one of our forthcoming opponents so we could give it a try for the last twenty minutes (once Coutts has minutes under his belt).
 
Chali 2na said:
Duffy is getting on. For 50 minutes he's sensational, after though, he's largely ineffective.

Woodburn is the only obvious replacement, and I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not comfortable with this.

One possibility I would like us to try, is John Fleck in that role. We only know him as a MC, but he started his career as a forward (he was actually tipped to be the Scottish Wayne Rooney).

Don't get me wrong, I think Fleck is a better MC than AMC, but when Duffy is tired/unavailable I think he is possibly a better option than Woodburn.

We'd be missing a great MC, but I feel that's an area where we have better backup. I don't think Lundstram is a world beater, but I'd sooner have him on the pitch with Woodburn, and Coutts will be back soon too.

It may leave us without enough bite, and Fleck might not be suitable for the role, but I think we should try it, otherwise every time Duffy fades, we're essentially out of ideas.

Thoughts?


P.S. it probabaly wouldn't have worked last night, considering Fleck had a stinker by his standards, but still one to try, IMO.
Click to expand...

There were two positions we had to strengthen in the summer after getting the obvious Blackman replacement: up top and the Duffy role. Duffy fades after an hour, and is getting no younger. He also fades badly post Christmas.His off the ball work is absolutely essential to our play- both in winning back possession high up the pitch, and providing the link between the midfield and strikers. We didn't get his replacement; unless we're counting on a green kid from Liverpool. We did gamble on a couple of low cost strikers.Like a few others have said, there is a possibility of sticking Fleck there and playing Coutts and Norwood deeper, but it's reliant on a lot of hypotheticals that may or may not work out.
 
As has been concluded, finding a player with h to Duffy's skill-set, his approach to positional play etc will be tough, if not impossible, not unless we're either fortunate and find a lower division player who's of an age where he needs a sympathetic home, or that we're ready to invest several million in, which might suggest that we'd not be the only team interested. It's very tricky, and I guess it's something that Wilder and Knill have considered for some time.

Maybe a change of style might be possible, or do we rely on finding/buying players who can adapt to the demands of being a team able to maintain a high level of play for more or less 90 minutes. Thing is, this question applies to any gifted player, so one answer is surely the combination of manager and Board. One may have ambition and the capability to push us forward, the other may not have the resources to invest, no matter how much guff they imagine we'll swallow.

But the key is probably to achieve promotion, where at least we'll either have the funds to invest in talent that fits our needs or those players from the Championship ready to take the leap to the Premiership.
 
We would need to splash some cash and show some ambition and go and get Freeman in January.

We haven’t touched the Brooks money so he should be affordable and would probably cost half what we sold Brooks for. He’s a good age, proven in this league but with scope to develop further and he’d fit in to our system seamlessly.
 
Yeah let's just go out and buy a game changing Number 10 who fit seamlessly into our team, is under 25, wants to play for Sheff Utd and is available for under £5m and wants under £15k a week...

Come on Tufty aren't these guys queueing up to sign for us?
 
FinchleyBlade said:
We aren't going to find anyone near Duffys quality for under £5 million under the age of 30. People talk about Fleck and Coutts but when he doesn't play or has a poor game it affects us more than missing either of them.

Not so sure I agree with the claims on his fitness, he didn't look that shattered to me against Bristol city and as soon as he came off they took control. Perhaps he can't do 90 minutes but i often feel he is taken off a little too soon.
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I agree with all of that , including the comments about his fitness.

I've never gone along with this " he can only last 60 mins." business and when he was taken off last night , he looked to me as fresh as anyone on our side and , as often is the case , his departure coincided with the opposition taking control .

Great little player and one with at least two more good seasons left in him IMO.
 



Isaw Joeshaw said:
I agree with all of that , including the comments about his fitness.

I've never gone along with this " he can only last 60 mins." business and when he was taken off last night , he looked to me as fresh as anyone on our side and , as often is the case , his departure coincided with the opposition taking control .

Great little player and one with at least two more good seasons left in him IMO.
Click to expand...

The two players who get shuffled in and out of the team more than anyone happen to be our leading goalscorer and main creator. I'm hoping there's not some grudge match going on courtesy of this tweeting episode in the summer.
 
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