What area needs strengthening the most?

[Srg]

You have to be kidding me. Fat, slow and Jamie Ward running round his ankles made him look stupid in the first half until Nigel inexplicably put him out wide in the second.

 

Defence, pure and simple.

 

Laugh if you like - I cast many envious glances at Millwall on Saturday for one player alone - Danny Shittu.

 

He reminded me totally of Big Dave in our promotion season under BD. Sometimes there's a time and a place for pretty football - and on other occasions there's Row Q.

[Leicester Ram]

Defence:

 

Assuming Forsyth is as good as signed

CB- Baptiste? He's very good but perhaps a big 6 foot 4 CB would be better suited to play with Keogh.

 

Midfield:

 

RM is the only place in that midfield that needs strengthening. I'm not sure Burke is going to come, but he'd be perfect.

Ideally I'd like Hughes and Hendrick playing together in the middle, they could become a PL standard pairing.

 

Strikers:

 

Martin is as good as signed IMO

We need a darting little striker, Johnny Russell's name is thrown around constantly but he's one I'd like to see. Same with Simeon Jackson.

Names which have been thrown around like Grigg, Madden, Jackson, Vaughan, Russell, McKay are unlikely. The only name which has any sort of proof behind it is Vaughan.

A selection of strikers that is: Sammon, Martin, Vaughan, *insert pacy lad here* and Bennett, is play-off standard.

[Ambitious]

Defence, pure and simple.

 

Laugh if you like - I cast many envious glances at Millwall on Saturday for one player alone - Danny Shittu.

 

He reminded me totally of Big Dave in our promotion season under BD. Sometimes there's a time and a place for pretty football - and on other occasions there's Row Q.

 

Danny Shittu was horrible on Saturday, he got turned about 4/5 times, and if the decision making from certain players had been better then we'd of been in trouble. Similar type of player as Buxton but no-where near as good. 

[eddie]

Danny Shittu was horrible on Saturday, he got turned about 4/5 times, and if the decision making from certain players had been better then we'd of been in trouble. Similar type of player as Buxton but no-where near as good. 

 

Never missed a header - Keogh and Buxton hardly won one between them.

 

I'm not advocating buying him - I'm saying that we need someone who can defend a corner.

[eddie]

You have to be kidding me. Fat, slow and Jamie Ward running round his ankles made him look stupid in the first half until Nigel inexplicably put him out wide in the second.

 

I was purely talking about dominance in the air - something we haven't got.

[RamNut]

For me the no1 priority is the forwards.

We haven't got a single decent striker.

Theo can score, but can't trap and can't pass.

Tyson is a crock.

Sammon....poor bogger......honest but very ordinary.

We need someone who can play....hold it....join in the build up, and a second striker with a burst of pace and the ability to finish.

What a pity we missed Lambert and Le Fondre.

there have been so many matches where we run out of ideas after 30 mins, the opposition visibly increase in confidence, and by the 70th minute we are pinned in our own box.

i think this is one reason why we concede so many and so many late goals.....especially away.

If we could hold it up, and offer more threat than just ward or brayford then we would actually concede fewer goals.

Defence

Hopefully we keep brayford but i'm not particularly confident.

Signing o'connor and freeman last year suggested that we were planning for his departure.

Obviously we need a left back but we could need another right back too.

Probably we need a centre back....but apart from shackell - who would seem to be the ideal partner for keogh - it is difficult to say who.

Surely we need a left-footer for balance and the fact that bucko can be injury prone.

We already have keogh and brayford, o'connor, o'brien, naylor, barker and gjokai for right sided cover.

In midfield.....

I'd try Bryson in the holding role....a Willie Carlin type...but we do seem to lack a defensive midfielder in the squad.

Decide between Hendrick and Hughes.

Probably hughes is not yet physically strong enough to play week in, week out and could be used more selectively.

Do not play him deep in the Don 'fanny about' Masson role.

Wide.....ward will become a luxury if we can't sort out those hamstrings.

Coutts is ok, Jacobs is inconsistent.......another really good attacking winger would be a breath of fresh air.

Not the sort of player that nigel can easily cope with though.

Calm down nige.......trying to unlock the defence is still the second hardest job on the pitch.

So......plenty to do if we want to become promotion candidates.

[eddie]

So given that the consensus (apart from me) is that we need to score more goals and bugger the defence, we are going to need something like 85 goals next season in order to give us a workable GD of around +20.

 

That means that you would need TWO 20+ a season strikers AND still retain the goals from the rest of the team.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I would far rather see a side capable of winning 1-0 or 2-0 as opposed to a side that needs to score 3 or 4 in order to win because they are likely to concede an average of 1.5 a game like we currently do . Sorry, but your priorities are wrong.

[Srg]

Bryson in the holding role would negate his biggest asset. So I don't see the advantage in that. One thing is for sure though, we need to stop playing him out wide. He is clueless out there and it wrecks the balance of the whole team

[eddie]

Bryson in the holding role would negate his biggest asset. So I don't see the advantage in that. One thing is for sure though, we need to stop playing him out wide. He is clueless out there and it wrecks the balance of the whole team

 

Hughes is a natural for that 'holding' role.

[Mostyn6]

So given that the consensus (apart from me) is that we need to score more goals and bugger the defence, we are going to need something like 85 goals next season in order to give us a workable GD of around +20.

 

That means that you would need TWO 20+ a season strikers AND still retain the goals from the rest of the team.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I would far rather see a side capable of winning 1-0 or 2-0 as opposed to a side that needs to score 3 or 4 in order to win because they are likely to concede an average of 1.5 a game like we currently do . Sorry, but your priorities are wrong.

 

 

Eddie, every now and then, I purposely refer to myself (and others that notice similar things) as "educated" fans. I do so half 'tongue-in-cheek', but other half because I think the person commenting either isn't watching properly, or simply does not understand the dynamics of 11-a-side association football!

 

Quite simply, we could have Messi in the side, and we would still lose games because we make bad decisions in our own area!

[Albert]

Wow don't ask for much do you lol Is that in order of priority of you want all 6 points for next season

Order of priority.

[RamNut]

So given that the consensus (apart from me) is that we need to score more goals and bugger the defence, we are going to need something like 85 goals next season in order to give us a workable GD of around +20.

 

That means that you would need TWO 20+ a season strikers AND still retain the goals from the rest of the team.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I would far rather see a side capable of winning 1-0 or 2-0 as opposed to a side that needs to score 3 or 4 in order to win because they are likely to concede an average of 1.5 a game like we currently do . Sorry, but your priorities are wrong.

I'm not going for 4-3 wins

I am going for 3-1 rather than 1-0 though.....maybe.

[needles]

Defence, pure and simple.

 

Laugh if you like - I cast many envious glances at Millwall on Saturday for one player alone - Danny Shittu.

 

He reminded me totally of Big Dave in our promotion season under BD. Sometimes there's a time and a place for pretty football - and on other occasions there's Row Q.

 

 

I wouldn't take Shittu, although I got a Big Dave deja vu off him as well. (Although most vividly when Wardy spun him like he was a training cone on half way, but that was more a Prem vintage Mooro than Champ).

[abertawe_ram]

I agree regarding the midfield, I'd like see an end to trying shoe-horn hughes, hendrick and bryson into a midfield 4. 
All 3 are good players but they don't all have to play every single game of the season if going to damage them and damage the balance of the team.
Cardiff, for example, have mutch, gunnarson, whittingham and kim who are all very good center mids and by rotating them they managed to keep them fresh and not burn them out as has happened with ours at times this season. They didn't try and shove them all into midfield at the expense of their wide men either

[Dimmu]

If you watch the highlights of Huddersfield v Barnsley then Vaughan had a great chance -

& 'didnt look like a natural goalscorer'

Every striker misses chances.

 

Would you call Kuqi natural goalscorer? He managed to get 20 for Ipswich... It's more how strikers fit to rest of team and style of play than being a natural goalscorer. Especially when playing with just one striker.

[top 6 finish]

I don't think we should pay too much attention to this result.Millwall have just played 9 games in

the last 4 weeks including an FA cup semi- final with a small squad.

They must have been knackered.

[Ambitious]

As for strengthening. Strength where we can, I don't think any of our players are the best in the world at current, so they can all be improved on  - that's the way I look at it anyway. I just think we need to 'add' rather than substitute because our squad isn't big enough, and in certain areas there isn't enough cover there, I know it's hard because when players aren't playing they're unhappy but we need a little bit more IMO

 

Priorities...

 

LB x2 - we have Hoganson as our left back at the minute, he looked a bit nervous when given the chance... did okay, but I wouldn't like to have him starting any games in the side next season without massive improvement. I believe we'll have both White and Forsyth on our radar anyway. 

 

CB x1 - We have 2 injured centre backs already before the season has started, we have 2 unknown entities in Naylor and Gjokaj because I've seen promising things from both players, Naylor 2 years ago was shining at right back despite being a centre half and Gjokaj in his little bits and bobs this season looks really confident. 

 

RM x1 - I like Coutts, but he needs a bit more competition, and a bit more of a challenge than he is currently getting - because he has ran himself into the ground this season and quality has faded because of that, I think he is as talented as most people in our team and gets a bum rap because of the amount of hours he covers.

 

CM x1 - Someone a bit more experienced, knows what it takes to win on the road - a lot of young players in midfield could do with an older head to calm everything down and keep our gameplan on top.

 

ST x2 - Just to add an extra dimension and a bit more quality - I think Tyson and Robinson are out, so just to replace them two really! 

[Bris Vegas]

First off let's start with the managerial area.. That needs strengthening..

 

Then on to the field..

 

Erm a LB would be nice as the one we have is average

Definitely the CB's as the ones we have are average

RB is going to need fixing if Brayford goes

RM is defintily a weak area as Coutts is rubbish

CM if Hughes goes.. If not we have a good base in him and Bryson/Hendrick

LM will need replacing if Ward continues to do nothing but moan

ST that can control the ball would be nice

ST that could regularly score would be a bonus too

 

Oh creativity is also high on the agenda..

 

And that's about it..

 

This season the performances have improved.. But to think we're only a few players off when we've lost more games than we've won in the worst NPC to date is pretty horrific..

 

We need big improvements all round.

[notts_ram]

First off let's start with the managerial area.. That needs strengthening..

 

Then on to the field..

 

Erm a LB would be nice as the one we have is average

Definitely the CB's as the ones we have are average

RB is going to need fixing if Brayford goes

RM is defintily a weak area as Coutts is rubbish

CM if Hughes goes.. If not we have a good base in him and Bryson/Hendrick

LM will need replacing if Ward continues to do nothing but moan

ST that can control the ball would be nice

ST that could regularly score would be a bonus too

 

Oh creativity is also high on the agenda..

 

And that's about it..

 

This season the performances have improved.. But to think we're only a few players off when we've lost more games than we've won in the worst NPC to date is pretty horrific..

 

We need big improvements all round.

How much do you reckon for that little lot? And what do you rate the chances of getting all of the requisites in this summer?

[Mostyn6]

I think a major priority will be the manager rotating the squad we do have. Bennett should've played more games. Ben Davies should've been used to allow Coutts some respite.

 

All in all, is it worth strengthening the squad if the manager is hell bent on selecting 3 central midfielders, Sammon and Coutts in EVERY game?