CONFIRMED Adlène Guedioura

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Harrisblade said:
A bit of background:

Sofiane Hanni (Al-Gharafa)
There are a host of Algerian players in the Qatar Stars League but few are as recognized as flamboyant attacking midfielder Sofiane Hanni. The former Anderlecht star has been very much at home in Qatar scoring 14 goals in 33 appearances for Al-Gharafa since joining in 2019.

Hanni has formed an excellent partnership in midfield with compatriot Adlene Guedioura providing teams with a consistent dose of pressure that is hard for defences to cope with. His rich form earned him a place in the 2019/20 Stars League Team of the Season, proving that Hanni is still very much at the top of his game in Qatar.

www.colossusbets.com

Who are the best players in the Qatar Stars League?

Qatar is set to become the focal point of world football over the next couple of years, hosting major tournaments such as the the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Asian Cup. Understandably, as a result, there has been a lot of recent attention put on the Qatar Stars League to bring in big names to...
www.colossusbets.com www.colossusbets.com
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All well and good but it's the equivalent of the Whitbread County Senior League.
 
Vass Borbokis said:
If that's Norwood's job, it certainly wasn't visible at WBA.
The reason he has so many touches and short passes, is because he drops deep, gets the ball off of one centre back and passes it to the other one, or to the full backs.
As evidenced by his long pass percentage (50%), when he does go long, he's not very successful.
I don't really think those stats are impressive or giving off the impression you were hoping for when you actually look into them.

I think Berge will come good when he's not expected to carry the whole team and create something from nothing.
Against Birmingham (2nd half especially), he showed what he was capable of, Birmingham gave him too much space to receive the ball, which resulted in him running past their players and getting 4 (or 5, can't remember) of their players booked.
Fast forward to West Brom, he was marked out of the game. I made a point to my friend in the stands that whenever we were in possession of the ball, their was 1 or 2 players on him and not budging. Because they knew we'd just play the ball around our back 6 (defence, keeper and Norwood) and ultimately be forced to play the ball long.

John Fleck actually hides behind opposition players these days, he's another that our previous system benefited exponentially before it was nullified.
He's a shadow of his former self unfortunately.
Freeman showed more in 18 minutes than Fleck has in all the games so far this season combined, yet didn't make it off of the bench on Saturday. Bizarre.

As I've said, I'm not happy about this transfer. I, like all of our fanbase, think it's pathetic we're even having to talk about transfers such as this.
What I'm keen not to do though, is write some one off before they've even put on a shirt.

How would you know what kind of shape he's in?
You're making a presumption because of his age and because of the views of a Forest fan (who haven't had a decent team since I was a lad). Maybe he didn't look so good for Forest because he was surrounded by underperforming teammates? (Which is what most likely is going to be the case here).

I'd love for us to give the younger lads a chance.
This team has performed so absurdly terribly for the previous 18 months and Norwood and Fleck are still there, when it's painfully obvious that we need some creativity and a flat 3 midfield just doesn't work. Yet here we are still talking about how Norwood and Fleck aren't the answer.

I think Slav was ideally wanting to have a 4-2-3-1 formation going on, with Berge and RV in there as the 2. That's clearly not worked and our recruitment team are that poor that we've had to seemingly make do with a recommendation from Slav. Norwood doesn't have the mobility to play in a 2 man midfield, which is why we're looking elsewhere.
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I think on Norwood, I’d argue the reason he’s passing around the back so much is due to the lack of midfield presence around him and options going forwards. I think he’s looking for the balls forward but there’s nothing like Duffy dropping in wanting the ball and our wingbacks aren’t as advanced as they were as per the good Wilder days. I actually think his range of passing is excellent (bar the odd 2m pass which he frustratingly knocks to an opposition player at least once every 3-4 games). I think without those options he has been going longer and for more riskier passes. Also, 50% hit rate given what’s in front of him I don’t think is that bad. I’d also question how that 50% actually compares against other midfielders playing a similar role who go long as much as he does (I.e 50% of 4 passes or 50% of 20 paints a very different story).

I’d agree not visible during the WBA game but look how high up the pitch they were against him in the press. He still had no options. The double up you describe against Berge is in effect what WBA did to Norwood. We couldn’t play through it.

I still think if you drop Norwood we’ll look even worse but would be very happy to be proven wrong. Fleck on the other hand I’m in complete agreement with you.

Berge will come good but I don’t think it will be with us. I get it and can see the quality but those driving runs have to happen more. It’s not easy but that is his role in the current set up. Too many times for me he hides now and again and almost wants to play that deep lying role. He could play it don’t get me wrong but do your job, not just for 10 min spurts twice a game. He has the quality, I just want to see it more.

No presumption just on his age and his time at forest. He’s always been a combative player, athletic and winning the ball. That’s across his time at Watford, Palace, Wolves and the longer earlier spell at Forest. Never anything more than that though and certainly no where near the same player when on loan at Boro or the more recent forest spell. If he hasn’t done that for the three years prior to a 2 year stint abroad in a poor league… there’s little hope of that appearing again now.

I think you contradict yourself a bit though saying you’re not happy about it and think it would be a pathetic. Is that not writing him off?

if he signs he’ll be supported. He’s not going to get booed onto the pitch. I just despair that we’re at this point.
 
Sat with Moose in the directors box tonight. No other prospective signings spotted though.

Not sure why he ain’t signed yet 🤔
 
Kempy said:
I think on Norwood, I’d argue the reason he’s passing around the back so much is due to the lack of midfield presence around him and options going forwards. I think he’s looking for the balls forward but there’s nothing like Duffy dropping in wanting the ball and our wingbacks aren’t as advanced as they were as per the good Wilder days. I actually think his range of passing is excellent (bar the odd 2m pass which he frustratingly knocks to an opposition player at least once every 3-4 games). I think without those options he has been going longer and for more riskier passes. Also, 50% hit rate given what’s in front of him I don’t think is that bad. I’d also question how that 50% actually compares against other midfielders playing a similar role who go long as much as he does (I.e 50% of 4 passes or 50% of 20 paints a very different story).

I’d agree not visible during the WBA game but look how high up the pitch they were against him in the press. He still had no options. The double up you describe against Berge is in effect what WBA did to Norwood. We couldn’t play through it.

I still think if you drop Norwood we’ll look even worse but would be very happy to be proven wrong. Fleck on the other hand I’m in complete agreement with you.

Berge will come good but I don’t think it will be with us. I get it and can see the quality but those driving runs have to happen more. It’s not easy but that is his role in the current set up. Too many times for me he hides now and again and almost wants to play that deep lying role. He could play it don’t get me wrong but do your job, not just for 10 min spurts twice a game. He has the quality, I just want to see it more.

No presumption just on his age and his time at forest. He’s always been a combative player, athletic and winning the ball. That’s across his time at Watford, Palace, Wolves and the longer earlier spell at Forest. Never anything more than that though and certainly no where near the same player when on loan at Boro or the more recent forest spell. If he hasn’t done that for the three years prior to a 2 year stint abroad in a poor league… there’s little hope of that appearing again now.

I think you contradict yourself a bit though saying you’re not happy about it and think it would be a pathetic. Is that not writing him off?

if he signs he’ll be supported. He’s not going to get booed onto the pitch. I just despair that we’re at this point.
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Just got back from the match so it won't be a long reply and points may get missed.
I agree regarding fleck, although tonight fleck did seem to have some tenacity in there (finally).

Brunt tonight played the 'Norwood role' but seemed to do it better than the man himself. Spread play well, put in a couple of good corners, but more importantly for me, put in some good challenges.
He's young, made a couple of bad decisions, but was by no means worse than what Norwood offers at all. Instead of just pointing, I could actually hear him from the stand being vocal with the other players, telling them where they should be.

We seemed a lot more progressive tonight without him in there. There was multiple times that brunt received the ball from the centre backs and either played it first time in front of a team mate or received the ball on the half turn and distributed it straight away. Good signs.

The pathetic part I was referring to was how we've left it for so long when it's clear for all to see what we need, only to then opt for a SJ suggestion who's only ever going to be a very short term solution. The planning by the club has been atrociously handled from the minute CW finally left.
We need creativity. We need wingers. We need a break away from the boring flat 3 midfield.

I'd much rather try with brunt in there rather than AG, but whatever happens, I think the Norwood/fleck days are numbered because it limits us too much offensively.
 
Wards said:
Sat with Moose in the directors box tonight. No other prospective signings spotted though.

Not sure why he ain’t signed yet 🤔
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Maybe we haven’t decided if we want to sign him yet. If we’ve got him in to train with us then it makes sense to take a proper look at him before making a decision.
 



If the manager rates him, then that's enough for me until I see anything that proves it's a bad decision - this is assuming he does sign of course.

Provided he can still get around the CDM positions and put a decent tackle in, he could be a useful addition and will allow the likes of Berge, Freeman & Brunt to focus more on playing forward, without having the anxiety of what is going on behind them. The defence might also relax a bit, knowing that Norwood isn't the shield.

We'll see.
 
Vass Borbokis said:
Just got back from the match so it won't be a long reply and points may get missed.
I agree regarding fleck, although tonight fleck did seem to have some tenacity in there (finally).

Brunt tonight played the 'Norwood role' but seemed to do it better than the man himself. Spread play well, put in a couple of good corners, but more importantly for me, put in some good challenges.
He's young, made a couple of bad decisions, but was by no means worse than what Norwood offers at all. Instead of just pointing, I could actually hear him from the stand being vocal with the other players, telling them where they should be.

We seemed a lot more progressive tonight without him in there. There was multiple times that brunt received the ball from the centre backs and either played it first time in front of a team mate or received the ball on the half turn and distributed it straight away. Good signs.

The pathetic part I was referring to was how we've left it for so long when it's clear for all to see what we need, only to then opt for a SJ suggestion who's only ever going to be a very short term solution. The planning by the club has been atrociously handled from the minute CW finally left.
We need creativity. We need wingers. We need a break away from the boring flat 3 midfield.

I'd much rather try with brunt in there rather than AG, but whatever happens, I think the Norwood/fleck days are numbered because it limits us too much offensively.
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Good to hear, sounds like Brunt progressing well. How was Freeman? I couldn’t go tonight, being London based, midweek games are a real struggle.

Not to dismiss Brunt if he’s had a good game but if John rather than Jimmy turned up tonight against a poor side and we had Freeman in there with a bit of creativity, that means more options to hit from midfield. I think Norwood may have done the same but hypothetical.

I think you’re spot on with all of that re club, and limited days for the midfield who have done so well for us in the past. Shake up needed, not a chance we’ve left ourselves with enough time to get the right bodies in.

Some questions for the prince and his team to answer especially his words on transfers and the policy going forwards. They seem to have it their way now and running not as it was with Wilder but recruitment is non existent… massive few days coming up.
 
Kempy said:
Good to hear, sounds like Brunt progressing well. How was Freeman? I couldn’t go tonight, being London based, midweek games are a real struggle.

Not to dismiss Brunt if he’s had a good game but if John rather than Jimmy turned up tonight against a poor side and we had Freeman in there with a bit of creativity, that means more options to hit from midfield. I think Norwood may have done the same but hypothetical.

I think you’re spot on with all of that re club, and limited days for the midfield who have done so well for us in the past. Shake up needed, not a chance we’ve left ourselves with enough time to get the right bodies in.

Some questions for the prince and his team to answer especially his words on transfers and the policy going forwards. They seem to have it their way now and running not as it was with Wilder but recruitment is non existent… massive few days coming up.
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He played OK, he drives forward, he tried a couple too many "step overs" at times, near their box, but you can't complain at a player who is always showing for the ball and wants to go forward.

My only (slight) concern was at the end, as the team were walking off the pitch to applause, Freeman was walking really slowly, clapping and looking around, and I got an awful feeling that this was his "goodbye" moment.

I really hope not, he does offer something diffefrent.

Edit: and he scored, of course.
 
Grappler said:
He played OK, he drives forward, he tried a couple too many "step overs" at times, near their box, but you can't complain at a player who is always showing for the ball and wants to go forward.

My only (slight) concern was at the end, as the team were walking off the pitch to applause, Freeman was walking really slowly, clapping and looking around, and I got an awful feeling that this was his "goodbye" moment.

I really hope not, he does offer something diffefrent.

Edit: and he scored, of course.
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His post interviews was quite the opposite. He seemed quite happy and keen to force his way into the starting 11 for Saturday.
 
Always liked Freeman, especially when he played against us. Played really well for a game or two in the PL when he covered for Fleck and I was surprised when he was dropped when Fleck was fit again. Since then, he never got a chance for reasons to which I am not privy. I would be happy if Slav gave him the opportunity as, as Grappler has said, 'he offers something different'.
 
Hillsboro Blade said:
Gordon Cowans and Stuart McCall are two of the best midfielders I’ve seen in my time watching the Blades and they were older than the Mary Rose. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen him play.
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I always remember the drama kicked up after Michael Brown was sold and how our midfield was no longer as effective. In reality we did replace him with Alan "Tunnel Vision" Quinn, who was an adequate replacement but would never fill Brown's boots satisfactorily due to the massive impact that Brown had.

What we really missed was McCall's calm, his leadership and his tenacity. We never replaced him adequately until we signed Gary Speed, quite possibly one of the classiest players I've ever had the pleasure to watch. McCall was one of my favourites too.
 
Shirty Blade said:
Always liked Freeman, especially when he played against us. Played really well for a game or two in the PL when he covered for Fleck and I was surprised when he was dropped when Fleck was fit again. Since then, he never got a chance for reasons to which I am not privy. I would be happy if Slav gave him the opportunity as, as Grappler has said, 'he offers something different'.
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Freeman is another of those players I struggle to understand why they don't get more games for Utd. Paul Wood was another I thought didn't play enough and was exited far too early.
 
Wow! Blast from the past or what? Always loved Paul Wood, tidy on the ball, could beat a man with skill, had a bit of pace and could pass too. We always looked better when he was on the pitch but ............................. we hardly ever played him!
 
Shirty Blade said:
Wow! Blast from the past or what? Always loved Paul Wood, tidy on the ball, could beat a man with skill, had a bit of pace and could pass too. We always looked better when he was on the pitch but ............................. we hardly ever played him!
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On Paul Wood.

Not sure how true it was, but I heard that he'd fallen out with Bassett when he demanded to be played up front as a striker.

Anybody else hear this tale...
 
Shirty Blade said:
Always liked Freeman, especially when he played against us. Played really well for a game or two in the PL when he covered for Fleck and I was surprised when he was dropped when Fleck was fit again. Since then, he never got a chance for reasons to which I am not privy. I would be happy if Slav gave him the opportunity as, as Grappler has said, 'he offers something different'.
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I do wonder how we would have gone longer term if he had stepped into the Duffy role. Yes Lundstram stole a march on there but his reputation went on longer than his performances.
 
Tezza1889 said:
On Paul Wood.

Not sure how true it was, but I heard that he'd fallen out with Bassett when he demanded to be played up front as a striker.

Anybody else hear this tale...
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Always thought Jonas Wirmola should have been given more games.

He looked a real find, had Fashanu in his pocket on debut then hardly played much.
 



Champagneblade said:
I do wonder how we would have gone longer term if he had stepped into the Duffy role. Yes Lundstram stole a march on there but his reputation went on longer than his performances.
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I was advocating for that from day one in the Premier League. My argument was we were promoted with the 2nd best defensive record in the Championship. We weren’t Norwich, we didn’t need to throw the principles of our way of playing out the window to make us more solid. We didn’t need the flat 3 and removing the 10, removed a vital cog of what made the overloads so hard to defend against (a floating Duffy provided a plan B). I honestly think that’s when the rot set in.
 
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