Filip Benkovic

[Leicester Ram]

I'm not saying the seasons over but we're a 3/4 losses away from it being done. Not that unlikely when you consider our home form, is it.

All very well getting in Benkovic but we could lose our next two games and you'll be wondering why we've wasted money on a loan fee for a player who won't Ben here next year when we're not getting anywhere near the play-offs this season.

 

[Nuwtfly]

9 minutes ago, Leicester Ram said:

I'm not saying the seasons over but we're a 3/4 losses away from it being done. Not that unlikely when you consider our home form, is it.

All very well getting in Benkovic but we could lose our next two games and you'll be wondering why we've wasted money on a loan fee for a player who won't Ben here next year when we're not getting anywhere near the play-offs this season.

 

It's for that exact reason that I would much rather we brought in a player who we have a chance of signing in the summer, than someone like Benkovic. 

[Derbados]

1 hour ago, Mostyn6 said:

Clare Ince's dossier

 

 

[Archied]

16 hours ago, Ambitious said:

Very good point well made, but the last time I watched him was at Forest a couple of years ago. It just highlights that if you don’t do your job properly how easy it is to get it absolutely wrong, going off snippets you remember in your head. 

I’d like to think that if I was trusted with any money the club are putting forward that I would at least watch the last 12 months, perhaps even talk to coaches who had watched him. The kid’s development has gone backwards over the past 24 months, a red flag considering the aim is progression and development. 

Guessing you weren’t in bed with one eye when watching dowel then??

[erathirea]

1 hour ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Not quite sure how you can possibly think we only need 3/4 players in the summer.

As things stand, in the summer we will have Roos and Mitchell as our 2 keepers. A new number one is absolutely paramount. A good keeper can save you 10 points and bad ones can cost you. 

Our centre halves at the minute are Clarke, Davies, Wisdom and Forsyth. Clarke goes back to Brighton, Forsyth's contract is up so will be going. I think Davies has triggered a new contract (still don't think he'll stay) so essentially our only centre halves in the summer are a 35 year old Davies who's legs have gone and Wisdom (who will probably be a right back if we sell Bogle) There doesn't seem to be any young CBs coming through the academy either. Honestly we need an absolute minimum of 2 centre halves. Possibly 3 if Davies does go because then we'd have none on the books.

Midfield next season would be Bielik, Shinnie, Holmes, Knight and Bird (maybe Rooney if he's playing there) The only slight bit of creativity there is Holmes. We need another midfielder in there. A creative one. It's not a necessity, but the lack of creativity coming from that midfield at the minute is woeful. Do you fancy watching that midfield again next season? I don't.

Our only winger is Lawrence. And he's not a winger. We're playing Knight on the wing now and that says it all.

Comfortably need 2 wingers. We have 0. 

Up front we're left with Waghorn and Marriott. Martin will be gone. So we clearly need another striker. 

Whittaker is nowhere near ready. He needs a loan somewhere like Lowe did. He's openly admitted he should have gone out earlier. 

Absolute minimum there is 7 players and that's without anyone going and may make us slightly competitive. 

You're 3/4 literally covers the back 4 and goalkeeper.

 

 

I disagree.

I always like to look at a squad as being 20 outfield players plus 3 keepers.

Going with the 4-2-3-1 that seems to be Cocu's preference:

GK: Roos, Ravas, Mitchell, Barnes - agree we probably could do with a new first choice keeper, but Roos is *not* as bad as some make out.

RB: Bogle, Wisdom - fine. Yes, we could lose Bogle, but when you're talking about "bare minimum that we need", you can't start talking about players who are theoretically meant to be here next season. 

LB: Lowe, Malone - Fine with this.

CB: Evans, Davies, Buchanan, *maybe* Wassall (he's 22 today) - If Evans is going to be CB long term, then we need one first choice to play alongside him. If he's not, I think we could do with 2- whether thats one quick one to play alongside Davies and a backup, or 2 new first choice... well that's up to Cocu.

DM: Bielik, Shinnie, Rooney, Bird - Fine here. Think this is where Rooney should play in the current system. *maybe* in the middle of the 3... but I think that position needs more mobility.

AM: Knight, Lawrence, Holmes, Sibley, Whittaker, Mitchell-Lawson, Jozefzoon, Babos? (too old for U23s next year). Wouldn't say no to an extra player here, but a 3 of Knight, Lawrence and Holmes is fine to me. UNLESS, we are going to start playing more of a 4-3-3, in which case we need at least one *proper* winger. 

ST- Waghorn, Marriott, Hector Ingram. Depends how we want to play... but if we can have the first two fully fit, I think they are a fine pairing for this league!

 

So if we're talking about the *bare* minimum... 1-2 CBs, 0-2 AM (depending whether we want wingers)

Next on the "nice to haves", is a keeper, followed by a striker possibly.

 

[ollycutts1982]

8 minutes ago, erathirea said:

 

I disagree.

I always like to look at a squad as being 20 outfield players plus 3 keepers.

Going with the 4-2-3-1 that seems to be Cocu's preference:

GK: Roos, Ravas, Mitchell, Barnes - agree we probably could do with a new first choice keeper, but Roos is *not* as bad as some make out.

RB: Bogle, Wisdom - fine. Yes, we could lose Bogle, but when you're talking about "bare minimum that we need", you can't start talking about players who are theoretically meant to be here next season. 

LB: Lowe, Malone - Fine with this.

CB: Evans, Davies, Buchanan, *maybe* Wassall (he's 22 today) - If Evans is going to be CB long term, then we need one first choice to play alongside him. If he's not, I think we could do with 2- whether thats one quick one to play alongside Davies and a backup, or 2 new first choice... well that's up to Cocu.

DM: Bielik, Shinnie, Rooney, Bird - Fine here. Think this is where Rooney should play in the current system. *maybe* in the middle of the 3... but I think that position needs more mobility.

AM: Knight, Lawrence, Holmes, Sibley, Whittaker, Mitchell-Lawson, Jozefzoon, Babos? (too old for U23s next year). Wouldn't say no to an extra player here, but a 3 of Knight, Lawrence and Holmes is fine to me. UNLESS, we are going to start playing more of a 4-3-3, in which case we need at least one *proper* winger. 

ST- Waghorn, Marriott, Hector Ingram. Depends how we want to play... but if we can have the first two fully fit, I think they are a fine pairing for this league!

 

So if we're talking about the *bare* minimum... 1-2 CBs, 0-2 AM (depending whether we want wingers)

Next on the "nice to haves", is a keeper, followed by a striker possibly.

 

You could on the other hand argue that 11 of those mentioned don't yet have a full season of first team football under them. That would leave you very short of numbers. In terms of quality you can probably take Mitchell, Evans and Josefzoon out leaving you even thinner on the ground.

[erathirea]

I see your point. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, though.

I'd be more than happy to see the back of Josefzoon and Mitchell- Josh barnes is 22 so he can be third choice keeper for now if necessary!

Not sure on Evans, though. He's not played badly (when he's played!), but has clearly had injury issues.

If we lined up for the first game of next season with

Roos, Bogle, Davies, (New CB/Clarke), Lowe, Rooney, Bielik, Lawrence, Holmes, Knight, Marriott

With a bench of Ravas, Wisdom, Malone, Shinnie, Sibley, Sibley, Waghorn...

I wouldn't be too disappointed, though!

...of course, the above assumes we've not been promoted, and/or won the FA Cup and have Europe to worry about.... Might need extra bodies for that ? 

[cheron85]

1 hour ago, Leicester Ram said:

I'm not saying the seasons over but we're a 3/4 losses away from it being done. Not that unlikely when you consider our home form, is it.

Just checking here - Home form?

We've only lost 2 (I think) at home this season and think we've picked up the 3rd most points at home too

Away on the other hand we may as well just not show up (I mean literally rather than figuratively as is currently happening) 

[ollycutts1982]

2 minutes ago, erathirea said:

I see your point. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, though.

I'd be more than happy to see the back of Josefzoon and Mitchell- Josh barnes is 22 so he can be third choice keeper for now if necessary!

Not sure on Evans, though. He's not played badly (when he's played!), but has clearly had injury issues.

If we lined up for the first game of next season with

Roos, Bogle, Davies, (New CB/Clarke), Lowe, Rooney, Bielik, Lawrence, Holmes, Knight, Marriott

With a bench of Ravas, Wisdom, Malone, Shinnie, Sibley, Sibley, Waghorn...

I wouldn't be too disappointed, though!

...of course, the above assumes we've not been promoted, and/or won the FA Cup and have Europe to worry about.... Might need extra bodies for that ? 

In an ideal world I would like to see an upgrade on Roos, Davies (okay for back up), Lawrence and Knight (definitely around the team, purely because I feel we need more creativity). Also I don't think we can name Sibley twice on the bench ?, maybe add Bird onto there.

[MACKWORTHRAM]

21 minutes ago, erathirea said:

 

I disagree.

I always like to look at a squad as being 20 outfield players plus 3 keepers.

Going with the 4-2-3-1 that seems to be Cocu's preference:

GK: Roos, Ravas, Mitchell, Barnes - agree we probably could do with a new first choice keeper, but Roos is *not* as bad as some make out.

RB: Bogle, Wisdom - fine. Yes, we could lose Bogle, but when you're talking about "bare minimum that we need", you can't start talking about players who are theoretically meant to be here next season. 

LB: Lowe, Malone - Fine with this.

CB: Evans, Davies, Buchanan, *maybe* Wassall (he's 22 today) - If Evans is going to be CB long term, then we need one first choice to play alongside him. If he's not, I think we could do with 2- whether thats one quick one to play alongside Davies and a backup, or 2 new first choice... well that's up to Cocu.

DM: Bielik, Shinnie, Rooney, Bird - Fine here. Think this is where Rooney should play in the current system. *maybe* in the middle of the 3... but I think that position needs more mobility.

AM: Knight, Lawrence, Holmes, Sibley, Whittaker, Mitchell-Lawson, Jozefzoon, Babos? (too old for U23s next year). Wouldn't say no to an extra player here, but a 3 of Knight, Lawrence and Holmes is fine to me. UNLESS, we are going to start playing more of a 4-3-3, in which case we need at least one *proper* winger. 

ST- Waghorn, Marriott, Hector Ingram. Depends how we want to play... but if we can have the first two fully fit, I think they are a fine pairing for this league!

 

So if we're talking about the *bare* minimum... 1-2 CBs, 0-2 AM (depending whether we want wingers)

Next on the "nice to haves", is a keeper, followed by a striker possibly.

 

Football is all about opinions mate. I just disagree with yours.

I said at the start of the season I really don't mind where we finish this season. Let Cocu have the time to build something. If we finish in the bottom half or around mid table, then for me the next season we need to be making progress and a push towards the top 6. So we need to improve.

Roos cannot be our number one. He's not a championship goalkeeper. Even against Northampton he came out for that ball in no man's land and they should have scored from it. This is where he will cost us. He's come from non league he's 28/29? Nowhere near good enough for this level. How he's still here and how he's ended up even being talked about as a number one is beyond me.

Right back I agree. No issues here at all. I'd be amazed if we kept Bogle. He seems to be the biggest asset that would have to be sold in order to generate funds to strengthen elsewhere.

Centre half. We cannot be signing one centre half to play alongside Davies. His legs are gone. Evans miles off it for me. These are not players you want in your back 4 if you want to progress. We could end up with a worse back 4 next season than we have this.

DM I agree with you. Definitely do not need another DM. 

AM. You've picked out players here who have barely been in our squad if at all this season. Knight, Holmes. Definitely. Sibley hasn't been getting much of a look in. I think he will end up being good though. Whittaker is nowhere near ready. Jozefzoon clearly has no future here. If he can't even get in the squad for that Northampton game when we literally have no wingers at the club, how on earth is he going to get in it next season? Babos hasn't been involved either. We offer absolutely nothing as an attacking threat. We have to improved on that this season.

And if you're happy with Waghorn and Marriott as you're only fit strikers next season then I find that amazing. Waghorn misses chance after chance, Marriott cannot stay fit. Essentially you are a Waghorn injury away from having a young striker who has never played a first team game and barely even been in the squad as your only striker. 

I want us to be pushing up the table next season. That's why we go. 

[erathirea]

7 minutes ago, ollycutts1982 said:

In an ideal world I would like to see an upgrade on Roos, Davies (okay for back up), Lawrence and Knight (definitely around the team, purely because I feel we need more creativity). Also I don't think we can name Sibley twice on the bench ?, maybe add Bird onto there.

Roos- maybe. The confidence with which he was claiming crosses on Friday night was about the only plus for me. There's still a player there.

Of course, if Wayne can have a word with Hart... then that's another matter entirely!

Davies - understand the preference, but if the other CB we get in is good enough/fast enough, then we could benefit from his cool head.

Lawrence/Knight. - I disagree. I understand its popular to dislike Lawrence, but I think we have to persist with him. As for Knight... after the impact he's had, I don't think we'd want to drop him. HOWEVER... a good quality attacking midfielder to rotate in those 3 positions would be very nice and give us options.

 

Bare minimum: 1.

Could do with: 3- 4

For the right players: 5, maybe 6.

Anything more would be massive overkill.

[rammieib]

14 minutes ago, erathirea said:

I see your point. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, though.

I'd be more than happy to see the back of Josefzoon and Mitchell- Josh barnes is 22 so he can be third choice keeper for now if necessary!

Not sure on Evans, though. He's not played badly (when he's played!), but has clearly had injury issues.

If we lined up for the first game of next season with

Roos, Bogle, Davies, (New CB/Clarke), Lowe, Rooney, Bielik, Lawrence, Holmes, Knight, Marriott

With a bench of Ravas, Wisdom, Malone, Shinnie, Sibley, Sibley, Waghorn...

I wouldn't be too disappointed, though!

...of course, the above assumes we've not been promoted, and/or won the FA Cup and have Europe to worry about.... Might need extra bodies for that ? 

If that's our starting team next season, then we'll definitely be closer to the relegation zone than play-offs.

As a minimum against that team we need:

- GK
- 2 x CB
- 2 x Attacking Mid
- 1 x Striker

And of the 11 in that team I think would be a guarantee based on quality for me right now - its Bielik, Holmes and Knight. None of the others are striking me as top 6 based on what I've seen this season.

All opinions though...

[Ghost of Clough]

2 hours ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Not quite sure how you can possibly think we only need 3/4 players in the summer.

As things stand, in the summer we will have Roos and Mitchell as our 2 keepers. A new number one is absolutely paramount. A good keeper can save you 10 points and bad ones can cost you. I expect Mitchell to leave in the summer. I'd be happy with Roos and Ravas, but feel Ravas (and Barnes) should go out on loans. At the very least we need a backup, more likely a first choice. [1 signing]

Our centre halves at the minute are Clarke, Davies, Wisdom and Forsyth. Clarke goes back to Brighton, Forsyth's contract is up so will be going. I think Davies has triggered a new contract (still don't think he'll stay) so essentially our only centre halves in the summer are a 35 year old Davies who's legs have gone and Wisdom (who will probably be a right back if we sell Bogle) There doesn't seem to be any young CBs coming through the academy either. Honestly we need an absolute minimum of 2 centre halves. Possibly 3 if Davies does go because then we'd have none on the books. 2 first choice CBs backed up by Davies, Wisdom, Evans and Bielik is enough. Buchanan could also be used in a back 3 [2 signings]

Midfield next season would be Bielik, Shinnie, Holmes, Knight and Bird (maybe Rooney if he's playing there) The only slight bit of creativity there is Holmes. We need another midfielder in there. A creative one. It's not a necessity, but the lack of creativity coming from that midfield at the minute is woeful. Do you fancy watching that midfield again next season? I don't. Bielik, Bird, Evans, (an extension for Hudds) is enough for the DM position. Rooney, Shinnie, Holmes, Knight and Sibley in the other 2 CM/AM positions (433/4231) means we won't be looking to recruit in this area

Our only winger is Lawrence. And he's not a winger. We're playing Knight on the wing now and that says it all.

Comfortably need 2 wingers. We have 0. 

As 'winger' more often than not refers to the wide forwards, then Lawrence is a 'winger' - commonly called an inside forward. Lawrence, Waghorn and a new signing battling it out as our wide forwards. backed up by Whittaker, Knight, Sibley, possibly Bennett and JML. Archie Brown also has an outside chance of breaking into the team if he continues to improve at his current rate. [1 signing]

Up front we're left with Waghorn and Marriott. Martin will be gone. So we clearly need another striker. Given we'll continue to utilise Waghorn on the wing on a regular basis, we'll be short in the area. [1 signing]

Whittaker is nowhere near ready. He needs a loan somewhere like Lowe did. He's openly admitted he should have gone out earlier. Knight wasn't ready when he was named on the bench for the playoffs. He's now one of the first names on the teamsheet for most people.

Absolute minimum there is 7 players and that's without anyone going and may make us slightly competitive. 3 at the absolute minimum (CB, CB, W/CF). 5 should be the target.

You're 3/4 literally covers the back 4 and goalkeeper.

 

 

[Nuwtfly]

 

[Bubbles]

Will seriously be disappointed if Boro get Benkovic, I guess that's Steve Gibsons payback.

Sod it, let's persuade Dael Fry to get involved in a drink drive scandal so he will get released and we can get him ? 

[JayRam1]

6 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

can see benkovic going to boro and us ending up with Simpson.

[Bubbles]

15 minutes ago, JayRam1 said:

23 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

can see benkovic going to boro and us ending up with Simpson.

why are you doing this? 

[Shuff264]

28 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

 

Are Derby and Boro the same club this year?

[nogbad van 50]

14 minutes ago, Shuff264 said:

Are Derby and Boro the same club this year?

I suspect  Gibson at Boro reads this forum and is determined to go for all our “alleged” targets! If Benkovic is that good and we are interested can’t we ask Igor to put in a Croatian word or two on our behalf ?

[Andicis]

Don't think it's the end of the world if we miss out here. We're not going down, we're not going up. Might be better to just save the money for now and invest in summer.