Mindless Speculation - Squad/Team

[erathirea]

The following post assumes the following:

4-3-3

Bielik, Clarke, Ramselaar, and one other (RW) coming in.

Thorne, Lowe, Carson leaving.

Seems relatively plausible.

 

Going by the theory of "needing" 2 players for each position (and 3 keepers), our first team squad looks like this:

(Bold = Contract ending next summer. Italic = On Loan)

Keepers: Roos, Ravas, Mitchell

RB: Bogle, Wisdom

LB: Malone, Forsyth

CB: Keogh, Clarke, Davies, Evans

CM: Huddlestone, Bielik, Dowell, Shinnie, Holmes, Ramselaar

RW: NEW, Bennett, Josefzoon

LW: Lawrence, Anya (and I didn't think I'd be saying that)

CF: Waghorn, Marriott, Martin (can't keep this to 2 as it is entirely dependent (to me) on the opposition.

 

Few thoughts about this squad.

1. It's actually pretty good. There's cover everywhere

2. With the right wingers in the youth, I think we might see one of Bennett or Josefzoon leave. Bennett's contract is up at the end of the season, and I think he might want to leave if he's not going to be a regular starter... which he won't, as he's better off the bench. 

3. This leaves Buchanan, MacDonald, Bird, Knight, Sibley, Mitchell-Lawson and McCallister without "spots" in the top 24. I'll come back to each in turn below.

Buchanan. Loan? Maybe not even that. He's only 18, so maybe he's the long term Keogh replacement? He's not going to be needed this year, with Keogh and Clarke as regular starters, and even next year, it would likely be Keogh/Evans there. 

Macdonald. Loan (League One) this season, backup to Malone next season, with Forsyth leaving on a free.

Bird. Loan until January, integrate into matchday squad second half of season - Hudds going next summer, so would make sense to start getting him some game time with first team, but no need at the moment.

Knight/Sibley. Loan one out, U23s for other. They are 18/17, and with our creative midfield options (Dowell, Holmes, Ramselaar) they aren't going to get much game time. Would it be better for them to get 45 minutes of sub appearances/the odd cup game, or play regularly in U23s/a lower league. At their age, I think the latter is better. Maybe even keep both in U23s so they can retain the tutelage of Cocu.

Mitchell-Lawson. Outside shout for breakthrough player this year. If Bennett decides he doesn't want to stay as a backup beyond this season, he'll be off by January probably. Josefzoon does not fill me with confidence, and if we get in a new guy (as I think we will), we need a backup. Maybe loan out until January, integrate once Bennett goes.

McAllister. Probably Injured. Can he play left wing? If so, set him up to be deputy to Lawrence, particularly second half of the season? 

4. The striker conundrum. With Waghorn and Martin, you've got 2 similar 'style' of players in that they both can hold up play, and both can annoy defenders. Marriott is totally different with his pace and positioning and finishing. In a standard 4-3-3, you want the former, but Marriott is probably the best of the 3 when fully fit. What do we do? It's clear that Cocu likes the 4-3-3. Does he keep Marriott as a sub for when we need a goal? Does he try him as a winger? Does he stick him up front and shift Waghorn to right wing? It's a toughie, and one I'm interested to see develop.

 

5. Planning for the future - Forsyth, Clarke, Davies, Huddlestone, Dowell, Bennett, Anya, Martin all won't be here next year. I don't see any of them staying, with the possible exception of Bennett, but I would not be surprised to see him go if he was offered regular first team action. Over the second half of the season, then, we integrate direct placements for most in MacDonald (Foz), Bird (Hudd), Sibley/Knight (Dowell), Mitchell Lawson (Bennett), McAllister (Anya).

Whether we replace Martin will depend on playing style to an extent, also no-one obvious to take his place in the U23s at present. I don't see us replacing Davies, and Buchanan needs more time to develop. Add a few new signings (depending on league) and that's still a good team. 

[Rammy03]

Bennett won't go, he sweats and bleeds this club. As for the loans... if all goes well and we go up, we'll probably sign them permanently. That's all an if though. Otherwise it's looking pretty good.

[erathirea]

Well... thats 2 of my assumptions proven correct!

[Rampage]

54 minutes ago, erathirea said:

The following post assumes the following:

4-3-3

Bielik, Clarke, Ramselaar, and one other (RW) coming in.

Thorne, Lowe, Carson leaving.

Seems relatively plausible.

 

Going by the theory of "needing" 2 players for each position (and 3 keepers), our first team squad looks like this:

(Bold = Contract ending next summer. Italic = On Loan)

Keepers: Roos, Ravas, Mitchell

RB: Bogle, Wisdom

LB: Malone, Forsyth

CB: Keogh, Clarke, Davies, Evans

CM: Huddlestone, Bielik, Dowell, Shinnie, Holmes, Ramselaar

RW: NEW, Bennett, Josefzoon

LW: Lawrence, Anya (and I didn't think I'd be saying that)

CF: Waghorn, Marriott, Martin (can't keep this to 2 as it is entirely dependent (to me) on the opposition.

 

Few thoughts about this squad.

1. It's actually pretty good. There's cover everywhere

2. With the right wingers in the youth, I think we might see one of Bennett or Josefzoon leave. Bennett's contract is up at the end of the season, and I think he might want to leave if he's not going to be a regular starter... which he won't, as he's better off the bench. 

3. This leaves Buchanan, MacDonald, Bird, Knight, Sibley, Mitchell-Lawson and McCallister without "spots" in the top 24. I'll come back to each in turn below.

Buchanan. Loan? Maybe not even that. He's only 18, so maybe he's the long term Keogh replacement? He's not going to be needed this year, with Keogh and Clarke as regular starters, and even next year, it would likely be Keogh/Evans there. 

Macdonald. Loan (League One) this season, backup to Malone next season, with Forsyth leaving on a free.

Bird. Loan until January, integrate into matchday squad second half of season - Hudds going next summer, so would make sense to start getting him some game time with first team, but no need at the moment.

Knight/Sibley. Loan one out, U23s for other. They are 18/17, and with our creative midfield options (Dowell, Holmes, Ramselaar) they aren't going to get much game time. Would it be better for them to get 45 minutes of sub appearances/the odd cup game, or play regularly in U23s/a lower league. At their age, I think the latter is better. Maybe even keep both in U23s so they can retain the tutelage of Cocu.

Mitchell-Lawson. Outside shout for breakthrough player this year. If Bennett decides he doesn't want to stay as a backup beyond this season, he'll be off by January probably. Josefzoon does not fill me with confidence, and if we get in a new guy (as I think we will), we need a backup. Maybe loan out until January, integrate once Bennett goes.

McAllister. Probably Injured. Can he play left wing? If so, set him up to be deputy to Lawrence, particularly second half of the season? 

4. The striker conundrum. With Waghorn and Martin, you've got 2 similar 'style' of players in that they both can hold up play, and both can annoy defenders. Marriott is totally different with his pace and positioning and finishing. In a standard 4-3-3, you want the former, but Marriott is probably the best of the 3 when fully fit. What do we do? It's clear that Cocu likes the 4-3-3. Does he keep Marriott as a sub for when we need a goal? Does he try him as a winger? Does he stick him up front and shift Waghorn to right wing? It's a toughie, and one I'm interested to see develop.

 

5. Planning for the future - Forsyth, Clarke, Davies, Huddlestone, Dowell, Bennett, Anya, Martin all won't be here next year. I don't see any of them staying, with the possible exception of Bennett, but I would not be surprised to see him go if he was offered regular first team action. Over the second half of the season, then, we integrate direct placements for most in MacDonald (Foz), Bird (Hudd), Sibley/Knight (Dowell), Mitchell Lawson (Bennett), McAllister (Anya).

Whether we replace Martin will depend on playing style to an extent, also no-one obvious to take his place in the U23s at present. I don't see us replacing Davies, and Buchanan needs more time to develop. Add a few new signings (depending on league) and that's still a good team. 

Looking good with a lot of players with something to.prove. 

[Millenniumram]

I’ll have a crack at something similar...

433 looks a decent bet to be the formation we’re playing ultimately judging by cocus interviews, despite 4231 also being used in pre season. It’s a fair call to suggest that’ll be our main formation, no doubt with a couple more up our sleeve as well that we can use this season. So we’ll go with 433.

In terms of transfers, I’m expecting IN: Bielik, CM, RW fairly soon and a new first choice GK probably towards deadline day. From rumours so far, I’m expecting the GK to be Bachmann. In terms of CM, Ramselaar seems unlikely to me, and bayliss has moved elsewhere, and there’s been no real links to wingers, so who they’ll be is anyone’s guess.

In terms of outs I’m Expecting: Carson (loan to champ), Josefzoon (Perm abroad, hopefully raises some cash), Martin (Perm to champ)? , Lowe (Perm to champ), Thorne (Perm to league one), Sibley (loan), Bogle (Perm to lower prem for big money)?. I’ve put question marks next to those I feel may or may not happen and are much less likely than some of the other outs. I also believe those players would be replaced should they go, so I’ll include them in my squad write up for now, and if they leave they can be replaced in the write up by whoever comes in to replace them. 

This leaves us with a squad as follows. I will Bold the players who are in their final contracted years, and italic youths coming through.

GK: Bachmann, Roos, Mitchell, Ravas

RB: Bogle?, Wisdom

CB: Keogh, Clarke, Davies, Evans, Buchanan 

LB: Malone, Forsyth, Macdonald

CDM: Bielik, Huddlestone, Bird

CM: Holmes, NEW, Shinnie, Dowell, Sibley, Knight

WINGERS: Lawrence, NEW, Bennett, Anya, Mitchell-Lawson, Wilson

ST: Waghorn, Marriott, Martin?

Looking at that, numbers wise we’re none too bad. I reckon that’ll leave us one short in CM, and one heavy in CDM. I’d still like the addition of another midfielder who can create and retain possession ala Hughes as well as this new attacking CM that looks likely to be coming in to compete with Dowell. Perhaps that man could be Knight tho, he looks impressive. I’d potentially therefore look at getting Bird a loan spell in league one to get him some regular football.

In terms of contracts running out, clearly the loan players are out of our hands as to whether they stay on Permanently or not, that’s up to their parent clubs, atm they’re here for this year and this year only. I will this exclude them here. Davies I think will be too old at the end of his contract to play at this level, and I’d thus let him leave. With forsyths injury record, I don’t think we can risk keeping him, so I’d let him go too. Now bielik is coming in as our new star man hopefully, you’d have to think Huddlestone will be cover only. At 33, he’s too old to be worth his wages staying as cover for me so I’d let him go. Bennett at his age we’d be foolish to let go as his value will continue to rise imo, especially since he seems to be finally developing. New long term contract for him imo to tie him down. Anya again will only be backup once this new RW comes in, so at his age is too costly to stay as such and I’d let him go. Martin as well is too old to be our third choice so id let him go.

In terms of the youths I’d look to loan out Buchanan, Ravas, Macdonald, Mitchell-Lawson and Wilson to whatever level we can get them to and see how they develop. Then we can reassess them all next summer.

Then we can look ahead to next summer.

GK: Well be losing Bachmann. Either we keep a hold of him on a perm, Ravas steps up, or well need a new player here.

CB: Well lose Davies and Clarke. If we can keep hold of Clarke on a perm then we may be ok, otherwise he needs replacing. Buchanan may step up to replace Davies, or he’ll need replacing as well.

LB: Well lose Forsyth, either Macdonald comes back to replace him or we need a new player here.

CDM: Huddlestone will leave but bird should return ready here so we should be ok.

CM: Well lose Dowell but Sibley should be ready to replace him hopefully so we should be ok

WING: Well lose Anya, hopefully not Bennett. Maybe Mitchell Lawson can step up to replace Anya, if not a new winger needed here. And another one if Bennett does leave, if Wilson can’t step up either 

ST: Martin leaving means a new man needed here

So in the championship next summer I think we’d need up to 7 new signings- GK, 2xCB, LB, 2xWF, ST

[brady1993]

If those assumptions come off, I'd say it's the strongest squad we've had in a while. Especially in terms of them being suited to how we want to play. 

On the squad you've listed I could see Lowe not being sold and competing for a slot instead of Fozzy. And I'm not entirely convinced Anya will seriously be in the reckoning beyond a fringe utility role.

On point 2: Bennett can play either side as well as up front; I can't see him leaving. I think it's far more likely Anya leaves or is shoved to the fringes.

3) I think the idea with the young players is that we get to a core small squad at around 22 and then the youngsters fill the gaps in when they appear. Some I expect will be loaned for experience and some will stay to develop/support the squad.

4) I have two thoughts on the striker situation; I think it's a good spot to be in because they all offer something different giving us room to change it up and secondly it's not really conundrum- Waghorn starts up front. 

If Cocu has decided a 433 is the best way to go forward to get the most out of the team then I think it has to be Waghorn. I'm not convinced Mariott is suited to play as a lone striker (his better performances last year weren't really as a lone striker because of how we deployed Waghorn) and as much as I like Martin you have to set up in a specific fashion to get the most out of him and there are question marks on whether the goals will come back (I think they would but it's a reasonable doubt). Waghorn is a much more rounded player than either Mariott or Martin as well as being the most physical, and is best suited to playing in a 433 without having to warp the team around him.

On 5) I think your mostly right apart from i can't see Bennett leaving and I think Fozzy there are question marks over. If Fozzy can find his form again he's the best LB at the club and might earn a new contract.

[DazaDunn]

A lot depends on how this season goes. If Martin, Bennett, Anya, or anyone else has a really good season, then they'll most likely receive a new, more realistic contract. I think we may be in for a surprise this season in terms of one of them doing rather well.