1. Happy with all of the incomings to one degree or another. Olsen could be very good in this league and is a big upgrade on Wes and Verrips. The 2 midfielders would have to be very bad to be worse than what we have, and they could have a lot of upside. I'm not 100% sold on Davies but again he's an upgrade on the in house alternatives.
2. The squad is certainly better than it was this time last week. I suppose the Algerian lad might come too making the dream of no Fleck, Berge or Norwood on the pitch a possibility.
3. Just bringing in loans is kicking the can down the road on a squad rebuild and is another sign we are potless but if I'd spent over 40 million on Brewster and McBurnie I wouldn't want to spend much either.
4. I am slightly disappointed Jebbison was loaned out but at least we will find out if he's any good.
5. the most glaring omission, of course, is the failure to bring in wide men. We tried to do this and it seems to have collapsed on us. Doing business earlier might have helped, I suppose. This makes me wonder what formation the manager will use, because the players we have do not lend themselves to him using a formation that has made him successful in the past. If there's little variation on what we are doing at the moment, a number of players are really going to have to buck their ideas up.
6. Shame we couldn't get rid of more of the players who are not contributing but their contracts are millstones for us. And people have seen them play.
7. I don't think the upgrades will see us in the top 6, but they should hopefully be enough to see us higher than 23rd.
Nice summary, i agree in parts, but i will try to respond from a slightly different angle.
I think overall we've had some success in bringing players in. I think the disappointment is perhaps in the exit door, there hasn't been enough, but i appreciate that because we haven't strengthened in all positions, we could be short on bodies if we get a couple of injuries.
GK - We've replaced Ramsdale with Olsen in the short term. This for me is smart business as it allows us to not be weighed down with an expensive GK beyond next season, given our current position, this is wise. Olsen certainly looks a decent, solid GK and with Foderingham as back up, i'm comfortable that. Verrips really should be pushed out of the door. I'm all for giving chances, but i think with him we're as well playing with 10 men.
Def - Obvious one, we've brought Davies in, Wilders target to fill that CB/ LCB role and it therefore keeps us with the option to play a back 3 or a back 4. Can't disagree with this. I guess any sort of sustained period out for Bash is dealt with by switching to a back 4.
Fullbacks/ Wingbacks / Wingers - I know we tried to strengthen with two wingers, neither getting over the line. The Barca playboy would've been a very decent aquistion on paper and perhaps we can still make it happen. I don't really want to see us fitting the square pegs into round holes and playing Ozzy, Freeman, Brewster, Bogle, Burke as wingers, so we either stick with wing backs supporting the back 3 or we look at a 4-3-3. Norington-Davies and Baldock are the clear front runners for the L and RWB positions.
Central Mid - Hourihane and Gibbs-White coming in again look positive, it will certainly take the pressure off the current Midfield three to play every game but puts the pressure on them to perform. Lets face it, when the options from the bench are busy, yet ineffective players like Ozzy and Freezy, the Midfield are under no pressure to perform to their highest levels. I'm slightly worried that we still don't have enough guile in that midfield, given that we didn't get any game changing midfielders, we could still be quite lightweight and nice in there. If we weren't successful with wingers then we really need some physicality in the middle of the park. I don't believe that in Hourihane or Gibbs-White, from what i've understood about them both, that we have enough physicality.
Strikers - Good to see Jebbison get out on loan, i think he needs to go away and knuckle down in a new environment to get some regular experience. What worries me still up front is that Billy is getting on and won't play every game, but he is still the most consistent goal scorer in the squad, he's the most reliable finisher and he's the only true out and out striker. I think Mousse is possibly the next best thing, but we can't rely on him to play enough games or complete full games. He's a handful on his day, but those days are so few and far between. Brewster is perhaps too raw, too low on confidence and just needs a break, though the more i see him play, the less convinced i am with him. McBurnie and Didsy, both out of form, both poor finishers but they are the workhorse (as opposed to carthorse) strikers. We need them both to be grafting whether thats McBurnie causing havoc for the opposition in both boxes or if thats Didsy dropping out and linking play between the midfield, i think they have a vital role to play alongside the goalscoring strikers. Burke is perhaps best suited to being another workhorse (ok he really is a carthorse) but he's also useful to bring into games late on to stretch teams with pace and decoy runs. We've kind of got to go with what we have up top.
I've not mentioned the younger players coming through, i don't think we should be relying on them for more than 10 games a season, but i see a few on them making strides into the first team later in the season, especially if results and performances improve.
The big question for me with the window, having watched the first few games of the season is that we sit too deep, we don't press teams and we don't break the lines and its whether the arrivals will address that.
In the past, under Wilder we relied on a very organised defensive structure, regardless of the formation. It seems that last season and this season, we've lost that. I think adding a solid GK and Davies as well as Norrington-Davies, we have at least attempted to plug those gaps. We need Olsen and Egan to step up and command the defence and get hold of the midfield.
In terms of Attacking threats, yes we've brought a fairly creative midfielder in with Hourihane, he'll certainly be more interesting to watch on set pieces than Norwood and Fleck, but he's not going to change games in an instant. He's not the Duffy type, from what i understand. Gibbs-Wright, the one i know the least about, my info only comes from the Wolves fan on here. On one hand he sounds like an exciting prospect to slot into that midfield, but he also sounds like another busy player, the type of which we already have a few.
So i don't see how we're going to break through teams, unless Slav reverts somewhat to the attacking wingbacks and overlapping CB's then there is little in terms of pace and power to worry teams. Perhaps Hourihane and Berge will be given more freedom to get forward, link play and also have a few game changing cracks at goal. We may look to move the ball faster with better ball playing midfielders and attacking wingbacks, but again, they need some movement in the box for this.
I don't want to suggest that its a bad transfer window, i think each player has their merits and will improve the first 11 and the depth of the squad. But i think there are two areas of concern from this window:
a) Going off what Slav was talking about last week, we needed another 4-5 players on top of Davies. We got 3.
b) Two players that appeared to be close based on more reliable media sources, Callado (Barca - deal broke down late on for financial demands) and Karamoh (Parma - WP problems), i think both were reported to have completed their medicals. Given that we failed in these two aquisitions, i can only assume that Slav really wanted a winger or two. So perhaps this is linked to point a) but its something which could've given us a wider stretch to the side and could've attempted to answer the question regarding breaking through the back lines.
I guess we will have to see how things play out, we've got 4 new players to bed in over the international break and few players that can also benefit from a break.
