Champagneblade
Stop moaning and get on with it
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2010
- Messages
- 15,830
- Reaction score
- 45,142
Is it me or does it feel like, despite the window having closed, there’s a helluva lot of things need work?
1. Player contracts - 2028 expiry
Remember it is supposed club policy not to let players enter the last 12 months of their deal; so that brings into question those with contracts running until 2028, these players either need tying down or putting up for sale as early as January sk their value doesn’t drop:
2. Player contracts 2027 expiry
I’m thinking a number of these we are perhaps happy to let run and some are older players who won’t demand a long deal. Nonetheless, there are a lot of them (might not be a bad thing):
Of the above I can’t see too many that will be retained; maybe Bamford has a spell to convince us to extend by a year, maybe Baptiste gets chances to establish himself. Maybe depending on finances and other players Rhys ends up extending. Otherwise I don’t see the others offering bang for their buck.
3. January Transfer Window Planning
For all the not being backed, unlike David Moyes who we recently quoted, he chose to not add volume to his squad and has a senior squad of 21; we on the other hang have 26 of which only Oné is classed as a young’un therefore we leave ourselves no wiggle room for January as things stand. So rather than bemoaning our luck for something of our own creation, we need to be on the front foot as to who will be moved on.
4. Style and Formation
Much spoke about. While the 4-4-2 has some positive results, for anyone with eyes it’s clear this has been despite the formation and not because of. We seemed wedded to 4-2-3-1 until we realised we had just one no 10 and he’s now playing in Wales. So for me there are two options:
We remain 3 at the back, and sticking Arblaster in no man’s land isn’t working as a tactic, so we improve the front set up by going 3-5-2 and work out how to not have a chasm between midfield and attack or we give Donovan a few role as a 10 behind chosen striker.
- We go 4-3-3; the advantage of this is that ou have an extra forward player. In simple terms you want your better players on the pitch, so the ask is this, who’s continuous contribution is most likely to get is more points? Brereton-Diaz/Chong/Oné or Baptiste/McCallum? For this reason I’d like to see Phillips as the 6 flanked by Peck and Arblaster as 8s and not some weird inside forward right wing false ten nonsense that saw Arblaster lost against Stoke.
We also need to do a severe amount of work on patterns of play within the chosen formation.
That’s a start. Without opening it up to sack the old manager, hire a new one (we have plenty of those threads), anything else you see as pressing (aside from get more wins!)
1. Player contracts - 2028 expiry
Remember it is supposed club policy not to let players enter the last 12 months of their deal; so that brings into question those with contracts running until 2028, these players either need tying down or putting up for sale as early as January sk their value doesn’t drop:
- Cooper
- Tanganga
- Seriki (assume we trigger to 2028)
- Burrows
- McCallum
- Peck
- Arblaster
- Campbell
2. Player contracts 2027 expiry
I’m thinking a number of these we are perhaps happy to let run and some are older players who won’t demand a long deal. Nonetheless, there are a lot of them (might not be a bad thing):
- Davies
- Baptiste
- Doherty
- Shackleton
- Norrington-Davies
- Riedewald
- Choudhury
- Rothwell
- Ayew
- Bamford
Of the above I can’t see too many that will be retained; maybe Bamford has a spell to convince us to extend by a year, maybe Baptiste gets chances to establish himself. Maybe depending on finances and other players Rhys ends up extending. Otherwise I don’t see the others offering bang for their buck.
3. January Transfer Window Planning
For all the not being backed, unlike David Moyes who we recently quoted, he chose to not add volume to his squad and has a senior squad of 21; we on the other hang have 26 of which only Oné is classed as a young’un therefore we leave ourselves no wiggle room for January as things stand. So rather than bemoaning our luck for something of our own creation, we need to be on the front foot as to who will be moved on.
4. Style and Formation
Much spoke about. While the 4-4-2 has some positive results, for anyone with eyes it’s clear this has been despite the formation and not because of. We seemed wedded to 4-2-3-1 until we realised we had just one no 10 and he’s now playing in Wales. So for me there are two options:
We remain 3 at the back, and sticking Arblaster in no man’s land isn’t working as a tactic, so we improve the front set up by going 3-5-2 and work out how to not have a chasm between midfield and attack or we give Donovan a few role as a 10 behind chosen striker.
- We go 4-3-3; the advantage of this is that ou have an extra forward player. In simple terms you want your better players on the pitch, so the ask is this, who’s continuous contribution is most likely to get is more points? Brereton-Diaz/Chong/Oné or Baptiste/McCallum? For this reason I’d like to see Phillips as the 6 flanked by Peck and Arblaster as 8s and not some weird inside forward right wing false ten nonsense that saw Arblaster lost against Stoke.
We also need to do a severe amount of work on patterns of play within the chosen formation.
That’s a start. Without opening it up to sack the old manager, hire a new one (we have plenty of those threads), anything else you see as pressing (aside from get more wins!)
) fckin jump and challenge for the ball. Campbell, cannon, bamford...all masters at just backing in and looking at the defender head the ball away.
