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your assessment of the current squad


Spanish

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the aim is to make at least the top 6 so how many of our current bunch look capable.  I have tried to be deliberately harsh but I am of the opinion that we have too indecisive with player retention.  If they are not going to improve us they need to be replaced.  I can't remember the exact Clough quote but it something about assessment, improvement, maximization and then sell

top 6

6Richard Keogh (D) 

14Jack Marriott (F) 

mid table

Scott Carson (G) 

21Kelle Roos (G)

33Curtis Davies (D) 

37Jayden Bogle (D) 
23Duane Holmes (M)

44Tom Huddlestone (M) 

9Martyn Waghorn (F) 

10Tom Lawrence (F) 

bottom 6/div1

2Andre Wisdom (D) 

29Marcus Olsson (D) 

46Scott Malone (D) 

4Craig Bryson (M) 

15Bradley Johnson (M)

17George Evans (M) 

30Ikechi Anya (M) 

11Florian Jozefzoon (F) 

20Mason Bennett (F) 

retired

3Craig Forsyth (D) 

36Joe Ledley (M) 

28Dave Nugent (F) 

squad fillers, loanees

47Henrich Ravas (G) 
 12Efe Ambrose (D) 

5Fikayo Tomori (D) 

26Ashley Cole (D) 

39Calum MacDonald (D) 

7Harry Wilson (M) 

8Mason Mount (M) 

 24Andy King (M) 

40Louie Sibley (M) 

41Max Bird (M) 

43Jayden Mitchell-Lawson (M) 

48Lee Buchanan (M)

49Tyree Wilson (F) 

 

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It all depends on systems, roles and partnerships. 

Bryson’s taken a hammering this season but he’s been deployed as the linker all season rather than the midfield runner. I don’t know how good he still is. He’s still churning out 14km a game but does he still have the off the ball sprints to his game? 

Fulham’s system was their full-backs making third-man runs, getting to the by-line and drilling one across the face. Could we get Malone doing this more? He doesn’t really have anybody to link up with because we’re too narrow.

Could Evans and BJ play as battlers solely doing the ugly stuff and, rather than being the screen, Huddlestone is the creative force of the team. 

Mount and Wilson link up well together, roatate really well - without Mount thiugh, Wilson looks not much more than a track merchant. 

Holmes carries the ball through the thirds really well but is a bit too eager to take players on. Can we tactically tweak to allow him a bit more freedom? 

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4 minutes ago, cannable said:

It all depends on systems, roles and partnerships. 

Bryson’s taken a hammering this season but he’s been deployed as the linker all season rather than the midfield runner. I don’t know how good he still is. He’s still churning out 14km a game but does he still have the off the ball sprints to his game? 

Fulham’s system was their full-backs making third-man runs, getting to the by-line and drilling one across the face. Could we get Malone doing this more? He doesn’t really have anybody to link up with because we’re too narrow.

Could Evans and BJ play as battlers solely doing the ugly stuff and, rather than being the screen, Huddlestone is the creative force of the team. 

Mount and Wilson link up well together, roatate really well - without Mount thiugh, Wilson looks not much more than a track merchant. 

Holmes carries the ball through the thirds really well but is a bit too eager to take players on. Can we tactically tweak to allow him a bit more freedom? 

they all look like they need the team to be set up to suit them individually which is not possible.  

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2 minutes ago, Spanish said:

they all look like they need the team to be set up to suit them individually which is not possible.  

Which is the problem of having 5 managers in 5 seasons who all had very different ways of playing.

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Just now, Spanish said:

they all look like they need the team to be set up to suit them individually which is not possible.  

It is if you set out to build the team with a clear picture in your mind. You’ve got to think about partnerships as well as the individual. 

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5 minutes ago, Topram said:

Might not be a popular opinion but I’d of 100% kept Cam Jam as a plan b option we lack that strength 

Definitely. I said when we let them go it left our forwards looking a bit samey. Nugent going out on loan would have been better...but if there was no interest in him ??‍♂️

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3 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Chris there’s some harsh ratings there, I’ll have a crack when I get back later but even a miserable barstool like me doesn’t think our squad is mainly league one quality?

only 9 of them?

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My assessment is we have some good players woefully out of form which according to some aren't good enough when they have played to a good standard previously for us, Wisdom being a good example .

We have some players that are looking better ,who aren't good enough long term who only look good because of the poor current form of the others .

We have an unbalanced squad and we are unable to play some players in their best positions .We do not have a midfield player we own that is either now good enough or in contract next season.

We are woefully light weight especially again in midfield, we have no real leader  [some might say Davies] but he's injured.

We have an inexperienced manager who tinkers too much ,apart from that we are ok.

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12 minutes ago, King Kevin said:

My assessment is we have some good players woefully out of form which according to some aren't good enough when they have played to a good standard previously for us, Wisdom being a good example .

We have some players that are looking better ,who aren't good enough long term who only look good because of the poor current form of the others .

We have an unbalanced squad and we are unable to play some players in their best positions .We do not have a midfield player we own that is either now good enough or in contract next season.

We are woefully light weight especially again in midfield, we have no real leader  [some might say Davies] but he's injured.

We have an inexperienced manager who tinkers too much ,apart from that we are ok.

I was going to say, when Davies played he did not look as though he suited the style of play at all. I realise that he only played, what, 1 game or something? But even so, there is some revisionism going on in some minds if suddenly he is the answer.

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31 minutes ago, OohMartWright said:

I think it is very harsh to mark Craig Forsyth as "retired". Before his latest injury he was streets ahead of any of our other left back options, then or now, amongst which I would include Malone and Cole.

I did say I was being harsh.  I don’t think he will come back yet again.  Hope I’m wrong but I wonder how long we will have to wait 

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It’s only a few short weeks ago Malone didn’t give the in form winger in the league a sniff. He was dropped and we’ve not won since. 

A good team and system will highlight the strengths and hide the weaknesses in every single individual player within it. We aren’t a good team and don’t have a good system and so the team plays less than the sum of its parts. 13/14 Bryson wasn’t an outstanding footballer (in fact I’d say within the players regularly used that season only 2 or 3 were) but we had a ridiculously good system that got the best out of everybody.

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The financial profile will be different when we have released a number of players this summer.

wages will be lower and the operating losses should be reduced but i doubt whether we would be able to afford more than 4 players @ £1.5m each  per annum before sales. Therefore i don't see wholesale changes. We are running out of players who can command a large fee so we'd better get use to players who cost one or two barkers.

 

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1 minute ago, RamNut said:

The financial profile will be different when we have released a number of players this summer.

wages will be lower and the operating losses should be reduced but i doubt whether we would be able to afford more than 4 players @ £1.5m each  per annum before sales. Therefore i don't see wholesale changes. We are running out of players who can command a large fee so we'd better get use to players who cost one or two barkers.

 

I get the impact of the salaries but won’t there be a negative impact from any loss of carrying value if the club hasn’t been prudent in reducing the values ahead of losing players for no sales income?

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I don't think we're short of technical ability in the squad, even if it isn't outstanding, we're probably within the top 6-8 Championship clubs in that regard. We definitely lack physicality in the team, no doubt about that, but we probably have more pace than the majority of teams at this level. 

We're roughly where we should be with the team we have, which isn't too surprising as we're roughly where we've been for the past two years in terms of points and performances. It would take a big swing in performances to see us promoted, so failing that we have to prepare to be in this league next season, with lots of room for maneuver as we're losing a number of high earners. I know FFP doesn't work like that, I've been told, but still we will have more than we've had over the past couple of seasons. I still don't trust our recruitment team to get it right, but at least we'll be able to see some signings come through the door. If we don't get it right, I'd expect us to slip further down the league next season and probably finish outside the top half for the first time in over half a decade. 

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