Strikers and formation for next year

[Champagneblade]

It makes me wonder if we have to play two strikers up front next year and that is why we are often gravitate back to 3-5-2.

We seem to have developed a stable of young forwards at the club who, given the expense of buying strikers, we would be silly to overlook.

We seem ill-fitted to a flat 4-4-2 without having wingers we own on the books and how else do you play two strikers?

Why two? Well, we should be optimising resources. To my mind we have:

Osula
Jebbison
Brewster
Hackford
Oné
Traore
Marsh

All of these, with positive murmurings from Wilder about Jebbo, will be in contract and there is still a possibility that McBurnie stays. So to choose a formation with just one seems wasteful and would require excessive recruitment.

Then there is the midfield. We have high hopes for both Brooks and Arblaster. But are they ready to carry a Championship midfield as a two? I’d think adding Hamer or Souza there is a third option or rotational with also Davies in the mix is more likely to bring them on.

So it feels already that some systems are in and some out.

To me then, we have a couple of options.

Either we go back to 3-5-2 based on dominating possession at the level below, or we go for a midfield diamond, similar to what Forest used to play under Paul Hart.

You’d have room for either Souza at DM if he stayed or Hamer as DM in a deep-lying playmaker role with Brooks to the left and Arblaster to the right. You could also then either play Hamer or Davies in a 10 type role.

I think Robinson has surpassed expectations in that he can play in a three or a two and though not excelling at the top, Trusty is an option on the left with RND too. To the right there are options to work through. Decisions need to be made on Baldock and Bogle but we have the Irish lad who, similar to Trusty, can play centre back or full back (though I read on twitter that Baldock wasn’t getting a new deal and he’s disappointed as he’s just bought a house, source twitter so not sure if true). We then carefully need to work out who is the dominant centre half. Can we dispel that Egan cannot play in a two?

—————-Grbic—————
Baldock Egan Robinson RND
—————-Hamer—————
Arblaster——————Brooks
—————-Davies—————
——Jebbison———Osula——

No recruitment to come up with this. I asked a question where Slimane might play, perhaps he is another option where I put Davies and Davies can also play where Arblaster is.

I’m expecting change but excessive recruitment bothers me with our track record so trying to work out for the Championship what makes the best of what we have. I’m assuming Anel and Archer leave.

 

[Hamandcheese]

Davies should be nowhere near the 10 role

We need to keep McBurnie. If we don't then we have no assurance up top, just numbers

If we keep McBurnie and Bogle then we only really need to recruit a McAtee replacement to be able to put out a fully decent starting 11. Example;

Grbic
Bogle Anel Robinson RND
Hamer Souza Brooks
New
McBurnie Osula

We should be very careful releasing Baldock if there are doubts about Bogle signing

If McBurnie is leaving then we could do with retaining Jebbison, but I'm indifferent on him, and still don't expect him to sign. We would also need to sign another strong CF, like Moore or Gallagher

With the state of the defence now I'm also hoping Egan stays

We could do with positive developments regarding new contracts ASAP. The foundations need to be in place

I am hoping for quite excessive recruitment. Wilder's overall record is good, and he's not been in this position before, as a championship club with a top end budget...... which he should have. And if he doesn't then I don't know what the excuse will be

 

[Houston_Blade]

If we start next season with Jebbison and Osula up front it will be a long, hard season. None have goalscoring records that suggest they should be starting in the Championship and just because they’re ‘ours’ doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking for other options.

We had MGW then Ndiaye to get us through the previous 2 championship campaigns, we’d need that creativity replacing or we’d just have 2 big gangly lads who like to play on the shoulder of the defender and it wouldn’t work. McBurnie with one of them might work if they learn how to score 15+ goals.

We’ll need 2 strikers scoring at least that to get promoted again I reckon plus some goals from deeper to help out.

 

[Hamandcheese]

We need to sign a striker to play with McBurnie, really. Osula and Jebbison still have plenty to prove, but regardless, aren't ideal partners for him. Ideally Brereton will sign but for that to be possible he needs to slow down a bit....

A front 3 of O'Hare, McBurnie and Brereton would be promotion standard, and is the kind of thing we need to aim for

 

[jono_t2000]

We need to sign a striker to play with McBurnie, really. Osula and Jebbison still have plenty to prove, but regardless, aren't ideal partners for him. Ideally Brereton will sign but for that to be possible he needs to slow down a bit....

A front 3 of O'Hare, McBurnie and Brereton would be promotion standard, and is the kind of thing we need to aim for

Mcburnie 90% won’t be here. Not interested in resigning even after personal face to face chat with the Prince.

BBD won’t be here next season either as will be given another chance by Villarreal or have better more lucrative suitors than us next season.

 

[Hamandcheese]

We're probably fucked then

 

[Champagneblade]

Mcburnie 90% won’t be here. Not interested in resigning even after personal face to face chat with the Prince.

BBD won’t be here next season either as will be given another chance by Villarreal or have better more lucrative suitors than us next season.

So why didn’t we attempt to sell him like we did Ndiaye and Berge?

 

[Withington Blade]

So why didn’t we attempt to sell him like we did Ndiaye and Berge?

Ndiaye and Berge both sold for £10m+ and the money was too significant to walk away from and it gave us enough cash to at least try and replace them. McBurnie was never going to attract interest from a premier league or top European team - we’d have been lucky to get more than £3m or £4m last summer. Presumably the owner thought it wasn’t worth it.

 

[Blademan89]

It ain't much but I'd be happy just to see us move away from a back 3, I'm sick of seeing it, we've looked a little more solid and better attacking wise since the change in formation when wilder come in.

I would like to think Saturday afternoon was the last time we see it. Just too easy to become a flat back 5 when wing backs get pushed back and the team has no confidence to be brave.

 

[Balham Blade]

Mcburnie 90% won’t be here. Not interested in resigning even after personal face to face chat with the Prince.

BBD won’t be here next season either as will be given another chance by Villarreal or have better more lucrative suitors than us next season.

Presuming you've got some contacts somewhere to know about private conversations between players and owner but where else is McBurnie going to get a contract at the level we'd offer? He's available for at most 60% of the games as he can't stay fit and he picks up a significant number of yellow cards meaning that even if he is fit he's going to miss 2-5 games through suspension.

It ain't much but I'd be happy just to see us move away from a back 3, I'm sick of seeing it, we've looked a little more solid and better attacking wise since the change in formation when wilder come in.

I would like to think Saturday afternoon was the last time we see it. Just too easy to become a flat back 5 when wing backs get pushed back and the team has no confidence to be brave.

I've said it pretty much all season... 5 at the back is dead. We shouldn't be reanimating its corpse as it will end with a[nother] hammering

 

[shorehamview]

Let’s play a 2–2-6, and really go for it. Let five goals in every match? Yeah, but fuck it, we will score six. Can’t be any worse than the current bend-over-for-a-dry-bumming formations we’ve tried so far.

 

[BalticBlade]

I might be being harsh on the lad but every time I see Osula play I just see a League Two striker. I'm probably wrong, and I hope he proves me wrong.

Supposing Jebbison stays, his progress has been massively stilted this season. Brewster is just too injury prone to be considered a reliable and consistent starter.

Traore won't be around next season. Of those strikers on our books, One may well be our best bet but he's still very much unproven.

We'll definitely use the loan market to bring in a decent striker. We'll have to.

 

[jt64]

I might be being harsh on the lad but every time I see Osula play I just see a League Two striker. I'm probably wrong, and I hope he proves me wrong.

Well if you think he's a worse player than Hackford, who's currently on loan at a higher level than what you see Osula as, then that's an opinion I guess

 

[RossingtonBlade]

The squad we will have for next season will be totally unrecognisable & im not even sure that i want Wilder in charge of the rebuild.

 

[BigBed]

It makes me wonder if we have to play two strikers up front next year and that is why we are often gravitate back to 3-5-2.

We seem to have developed a stable of young forwards at the club who, given the expense of buying strikers, we would be silly to overlook.

We seem ill-fitted to a flat 4-4-2 without having wingers we own on the books and how else do you play two strikers?

Why two? Well, we should be optimising resources. To my mind we have:

Osula
Jebbison
Brewster
Hackford
Oné
Traore
Marsh

All of these, with positive murmurings from Wilder about Jebbo, will be in contract and there is still a possibility that McBurnie stays. So to choose a formation with just one seems wasteful and would require excessive recruitment.

Then there is the midfield. We have high hopes for both Brooks and Arblaster. But are they ready to carry a Championship midfield as a two? I’d think adding Hamer or Souza there is a third option or rotational with also Davies in the mix is more likely to bring them on.

So it feels already that some systems are in and some out.

To me then, we have a couple of options.

Either we go back to 3-5-2 based on dominating possession at the level below, or we go for a midfield diamond, similar to what Forest used to play under Paul Hart.

You’d have room for either Souza at DM if he stayed or Hamer as DM in a deep-lying playmaker role with Brooks to the left and Arblaster to the right. You could also then either play Hamer or Davies in a 10 type role.

I think Robinson has surpassed expectations in that he can play in a three or a two and though not excelling at the top, Trusty is an option on the left with RND too. To the right there are options to work through. Decisions need to be made on Baldock and Bogle but we have the Irish lad who, similar to Trusty, can play centre back or full back (though I read on twitter that Baldock wasn’t getting a new deal and he’s disappointed as he’s just bought a house, source twitter so not sure if true). We then carefully need to work out who is the dominant centre half. Can we dispel that Egan cannot play in a two?

—————-Grbic—————
Baldock Egan Robinson RND
—————-Hamer—————
Arblaster——————Brooks
—————-Davies—————
——Jebbison———Osula——

No recruitment to come up with this. I asked a question where Slimane might play, perhaps he is another option where I put Davies and Davies can also play where Arblaster is.

I’m expecting change but excessive recruitment bothers me with our track record so trying to work out for the Championship what makes the best of what we have. I’m assuming Anel and Archer leave.

Baldock out of contract and not happy with the one offered by all accounts?

 

[Torrix1889]

It makes me wonder if we have to play two strikers up front next year and that is why we are often gravitate back to 3-5-2.

We seem to have developed a stable of young forwards at the club who, given the expense of buying strikers, we would be silly to overlook.

We seem ill-fitted to a flat 4-4-2 without having wingers we own on the books and how else do you play two strikers?

Why two? Well, we should be optimising resources. To my mind we have:

Osula
Jebbison
Brewster
Hackford
Oné
Traore
Marsh

All of these, with positive murmurings from Wilder about Jebbo, will be in contract and there is still a possibility that McBurnie stays. So to choose a formation with just one seems wasteful and would require excessive recruitment.

Then there is the midfield. We have high hopes for both Brooks and Arblaster. But are they ready to carry a Championship midfield as a two? I’d think adding Hamer or Souza there is a third option or rotational with also Davies in the mix is more likely to bring them on.

So it feels already that some systems are in and some out.

To me then, we have a couple of options.

Either we go back to 3-5-2 based on dominating possession at the level below, or we go for a midfield diamond, similar to what Forest used to play under Paul Hart.

You’d have room for either Souza at DM if he stayed or Hamer as DM in a deep-lying playmaker role with Brooks to the left and Arblaster to the right. You could also then either play Hamer or Davies in a 10 type role.

I think Robinson has surpassed expectations in that he can play in a three or a two and though not excelling at the top, Trusty is an option on the left with RND too. To the right there are options to work through. Decisions need to be made on Baldock and Bogle but we have the Irish lad who, similar to Trusty, can play centre back or full back (though I read on twitter that Baldock wasn’t getting a new deal and he’s disappointed as he’s just bought a house, source twitter so not sure if true). We then carefully need to work out who is the dominant centre half. Can we dispel that Egan cannot play in a two?

—————-Grbic—————
Baldock Egan Robinson RND
—————-Hamer—————
Arblaster——————Brooks
—————-Davies—————
——Jebbison———Osula——

No recruitment to come up with this. I asked a question where Slimane might play, perhaps he is another option where I put Davies and Davies can also play where Arblaster is.

I’m expecting change but excessive recruitment bothers me with our track record so trying to work out for the Championship what makes the best of what we have. I’m assuming Anel and Archer leave.

Why don't we wait and see what the new Manager wants?

 

[247Blade]

How can anyone guess .... who will be left in the summer?

 

[Pintor75]

The squad we will have for next season will be totally unrecognisable & im not even sure that i want Wilder in charge of the rebuild.

Me neither,

 

[Pintor75]

Baldock out of contract and not happy with the one offered by all accounts?

Get what we can for him, he wants a Greek retirement in the sun & his best days are behind him imo

 

[adiosmiamigo]

Me neither,

I must admit I'm not certain Chris Wilder is capable of building a Championship team.Iknow he did it before but from Division 1,vastly different.

 

[BigBed]

Get what we can for him, he wants a Greek retirement in the sun & his best days are behind him imo

We'll get fuck all, Jan window gone, hes injured and free in June.

 

[DronnieBlade]

So why didn’t we attempt to sell him like we did Ndiaye and Berge?

Have you been asleep for the last 4 windows ?

Or did I make that up ?

.

UTB

 

[jono_t2000]

Baldock out of contract and not happy with the one offered by all accounts?

Same with Egan and Mcb

 

[wavy-blade]

Same with Egan and Mcb and Baldock

2 of these players have been awesome for the club and maybe deserve a great contract , but the truth of the matter is they are both getting on and haven't played a lot of football this season , its a ruthless game sometimes but its the way it is , however i would put both of these players straight into the team now if they were fit , cus there a dam site better then some of the shite that worn the shirt on sat .

 

[jono_t2000]

2 of these players have been awesome for the club and maybe deserve a great contract , but the truth of the matter is they are both getting on and haven't played a lot of football this season , its a ruthless game sometimes but its the way it is , however i would put both of these players straight into the team now if they were fit , cus there a dam site better then some of the shite that worn the shirt on sat .

But would we get a Lundstram effect of trying not to get injured and only giving 50%..?

Maybe not from Baldock or Egan but I wouldn’t put it past Mcburnie tbh

 

[drblade]

Souza will also leave.

 

[wavy-blade]

Souza will also leave.

Every cloud !

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

Sadly Baldock isn't as good as he used to be and is past 30 now. Bogle can't play right back. He's a more effective in midfield on the wing, but dog turd as a defender since the day he joined us. If I'm not mistaken Slimane played right back for his country, so why not pencil him in for that position next season? He's no Premier League player but surely he could do a job in the Championship if Curtis isn't ready for next season?

‐‐------------------- Grbic -------------------------
Slimane -- Trusty -- Robinson -- RND
------------------ De Souza ----------------------
Bogle ---- Arblaster -- Hamer -- ?????
-------------------‐-------------------------------------
--------------------- Osula -------------------------

I can't figure out where to fit Brooks in here, but that's not a bad thing to have competition for places. Arguably you could swap Tom Davies for De Souza.

I certainly don't ever want to see Anel, Egan, McBurnie or Norwood still in the squad next season. They're past their best, inconsistent and unreliable. They're also among the highest earners and we better use their wages on long-term acquisitions. Max Lowe can do one too. I'd love to say Brewster too but no one is going to buy him. We'd be lucky to loan him to another Championship team.

I'm trying to figure out how we can play 2 up front, but that relies on us signjnf wingers unless we stick with the tried and very tired 3-5-2, which I'm bloody sick of. We have Bogle and I guess Traore still potentially, so we'd need to bring in at least two more wingers in the summer so that we have cover and not have to retort to 3-5-2 when injuries and suspensions kick in.

For the hypothetical team I posted you could push Hamer up to play between Osula and Arblaster, which would then mean pushing De Souza into the middle instead of in front of the back four as protection.

Obviously we'd need more strikers so that's where the obligatory loans would likely come in.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Souza will also leave.

Souza isn’t what a possession heavy Championship team needs anyway.

You need a defensive midfielder with a bit more dynamism. Like a younger, quicker version of Norwood who can get the ball into dangerous areas quickly.

Norwood circa 2020 was great when we had overloads on the wings because he could switch play quickly and expose defences. Less so now, he’s a bit too slow unfortunately.

 

[jono_t2000]

Souza isn’t what a possession heavy Championship team needs anyway.

You need a defensive midfielder with a bit more dynamism. Like a younger, quicker version of Norwood who can get the ball into dangerous areas quickly.

Norwood circa 2020 was great when we had overloads on the wings because he could switch play quickly and expose defences. Less so now, he’s a bit too slow unfortunately.

100% agreed

If it was a choice of having to sell Hamer or Souza when relegated you would hope we’d sell Souza.

Not because he’s got less ability to Hamer or whatever but he’s just not what we need in the championship where we should be dominating a lot of games.