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Squad assessment: Mid season review


IlsonDerby

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Based on the 4231 that Cocu seems to prefer. 

GK:

First Choice: Hamer     Backup: Roos

Review: Not good enough for the long term. These two options might do us until the summer but neither will be in goal for a team that are pushing for promotion. 

Fullbacks:

First Choices: Bogle & Lowe Backup: Wisdom & Buchanan & Malone

Review: An area of strength for us, especially with AW playing so well recently. Will need to be addressed if JB leaves but would like to see AW given the jersey and 'one for the future' brought in. Would persevere with Buchanan over Malone with an eye to the future. 

CB:

First Choices: Davies & Clarke Backup: Forsyth? Wisdom? 

Review: An absolute disaster for us in terms of depth. There is an immediate need for another body in this area with arguably another 1/2 in the summer as well unless Davies extends his deal or we are able to get Clarke for a second season. 

Deeper Midfielders: 

First Choice: Bielek & Bird Backups: Huddlestone & Shinnie 

Review: An area of strength for us with the caveat that we can keep three of these fit. With Rooney and Holmes also able to play a bit deeper I'm not too worried about this position as long as Bird or Bielek are fit. 

Attacking Midfielders: 

First Choice: Rooney & Holmes & Knight Back up: Waghorn & Lawrence 

Review: Definitely an area I'd want us to invest in. Particularly someone with real quality to challenge Holmes and Knight top up their game/keep their performances high. I'd be happy to see Lawrence leave, if we can get a decent deal for him and replace with quality, if not he's not the worst option off the bench. 

Strikers: 

First Choice: Marriott Backup: Martin & Whittaker 

Review: 2 very different kinds of strikers which I believe is important for cracking different challenges. Would obviously need an incoming if Marriott goes but at the moment, and with Waghorn also able to deputise here, I'm not too concerned. 

 

Verdict: 

To sort in January:

A CB and a Winger.

If Bogle leaves a young RB from lower leagues or academy? 

If Marriott leaves then a striker is necessary. Not a prospect but a ready to go straight into the team player. 

 

To sort in the summer: 

A GK and another CB. 

If Bogle leaves a young RB from lower leagues or academy? 

If Marriott leaves then a striker is necessary. Not a prospect but a ready to go straight into the team player. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Max lowe is probably a target for buying clubs - left backs who are young and look good at going forward attract bids remembering Brentford tried to sign him in the summer and they may well get promotion this season and they only bid for players who are on the up in football terms 

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1 minute ago, Sparkle said:

Max lowe is probably a target for buying clubs - left backs who are young and look good at going forward attract bids remembering Brentford tried to sign him in the summer and they may well get promotion this season and they only bid for players who are on the up in football terms 

Then lets charge them Brentford or Bristol City prices not Derby County prices. 

Wouldn't bother me selling any of our players if we got the sort of cash these two clubs did for their star players. 

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9 minutes ago, IlsonDerby said:

Then lets charge them Brentford or Bristol City prices not Derby County prices. 

Wouldn't bother me selling any of our players if we got the sort of cash these two clubs did for their star players. 

I wouldn’t want to be selling to young assets as I want to see a team of them that do well but when we do I want a lot of money but bids will start to come in either now or in the summer 

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Based on players used in the matchday squad this season, our squad list is made up of the following (in order of occasions in squad):

GK - Roos, Hamer, Mitchell
RB - Bogle, Wisdom
LB - Lowe, Malone, Buchanan
CB - Davies, Clarke, Forsyth
DM - Bielik, Evans, Shinnie, Huddlestone, Bird
CM - Dowell, Holmes, Knight, Sibley, Rooney
W - Lawrence, Whittaker, Jozefzoon, Bennett, Mitchell-Lawson
CF - Waghorn, Marriott, Martin

In terms of numbers we're light at CB, but short on quality at GK and RW. We may also search for an improvement at CF given Martin leaves in the summer and Waghorn is often utilized on the wing.

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Gk, CB, winger and an all rounder type striker who will close down/hold the ball as an option we don’t have, shame we can’t create a hybrid from Martin and Waghorn.

Ive been fiercely critical of our central midfield but with the emergence of Bird and Knight we look like we have a more natural balance in there now, when Shinnies back we will have five good options Beilik, Bird, shinnie, Knight and Holmes.....can also put rooney in there but I think he’d be more useful in a 10 role.

We don’t have a decent winger in club so that’s also a must. 

GK is an obvious one but not necessarily an easy fix for a affordable price.

CB definitely need cover/natural replacement for Davies who’s done a good job this season. We will probably need another one or two in the summer depending on what happens with Clarke.

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Other than the obvious Goalkeeper and Centre Back, I think we just need to keep adding pace and athleticism, particularly a player that can beat a man and who can scare the opposition, whether that's from midfield, on the wing or up front, it doesn't really matter - depends how Cocu wants to set up. 

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1 hour ago, Sparkle said:

I wouldn’t want to be selling to young assets as I want to see a team of them that do well but when we do I want a lot of money but bids will start to come in either now or in the summer 

The academy can either become our first team or finance our first team, I really don't care which. A more sustainable club is more important to me than a homegrown 11. I would love to see a team full of academy products but if we need to strengthen other areas we have to sell attractive assets.

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In a perfect (but realistic world) I'd like our starting eleven and squad to perhaps look like this after our transfer business is done. 

                  New

JB/AW Davies Clarke Lowe 

            Bielek Bird

 Holmes Rooney Knight

              Marriott

Bench: 

Roos, New CB, Buchanan, Shinnie, Lawrence/New Winger, Waghorn, Martin/New ST

Don't think you mess up a winning team however I do rate Bielek and want to see him with a run of games under his belt. 

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1 hour ago, RamNut said:

But he should still be listed in the evaluation of the squad - as should sibley.

Sibley yes, Evans no. 

Sibley should be banging on the door but he's unfortunate in that Bird and Knight have seemingly come through at the same time we've spent £10m on Bielek and signed Rooney so we're really competitive in the middle right now. 

 

Evans is in the group with Forsyth, Flojo, Anya, Thorne, etc who I think should be moved on at the earliest opportunity. 

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  • GK - Roos, Hamer
  • RB - Bogle, Wisdom
  • LB - Lowe, Buchanan
  • LCB - Clarke, Forsyth, 
  • RCB - davies, (evans) , (wisdom), Hunt
  • DM - Bielik, Evans, Shinnie, Bird, Thorne 
  • CM - Holmes, Knight, Sibley, babos
  • amc - rooney 
  • LW - none
  • RW - Lawrence, Jozefzoon, Bennett, Mitchell-Lawson
  • CF - Waghorn, Marriott, Martin, Whittaker 

that’s where i’d be 

 

Malone, huddlestone, anya all available 

Trying to find out if wisdom and/ or Evans can play centre back

reducing the number of holding midfielders

looking for decent wingers

 

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Neither keeper makes me sweat too much, but neither inspires me either. If we can get a better one for reasonable money, fine.

Bogle and Wisdom (what a resurgence from the big fella last couple of games) are superb options at RB

We're short at centre half given the Keogh thing, but it's tricky. If one is coming in he has to be better than what we're got. Foz, Wisdom, Evans, Bielik can all cover, so unless it's a starter, why bother?

Lowe is left back. Foz can cover. Malone can cover.

Malone, Davies and Foz can probably all leave next summer. Meaning we'll need to be signing central defenders. Top ones.

Midfield look loaded with the mercurial Duane Holmes, the emergence of Bird, Knight and the potential of Sibley. Hudds, Shinnie, Bielik, Rooney, Evans...plenty of bodies. Hudds and Evans can probably leave come June.

Up front, attacking midfield and wide we have everyones favourite/least favourites Chrissy Martin, Lawrence, Waghorn, Marriott, FloJo, Bennett, and a smattering of youth who aren't quite ready it seems.

You can make an argument for the strengths and weaknesses of the lot of them, bar FloJo, who's been a complete letdown, but this looks where we could do with a re-boot. Look at what we have had in the last 5 years: Jamie Ward, Johnny Russell, Tom Ince, Matty Vydra...we're well down on quality and that's where I'd look to improve us...I wouldn't shed a tear about any of our current mob leaving, much as I love Chrissy Martin's touch, adore Waghorn's attitude, Marriott's pace and Lawrence's skill, I'd prefer to have a forward or two who can boast two or more of those qualities.

 

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This is very subjective, of course, but this is my take on the ability of the players at this moment in time and their general consistency levels. 

High Level Championship Performer, Good Consistency: n/a - although potentially Rooney. 
High Level Championship Performer, Okay Consistency: Jayden Bogle, Krystian Bielik. 
High Level Championship Performer, Poor Consistency: Tom Lawrence, Jack Marriott. 

Good Level Championship Performer, Good Consistency: Duane Holmes. 
Good Level Championship Performer, Okay Consistency: Graeme Shinnie, Martyn Waghorn, Matt Clarke. 
Good Level Championship Performer, Poor Consistency: n/a. 

Average Championship Performer, Good Consistency: Max Lowe. 
Average Championship Performer, Okay Consistency: Andre Wisdom, Chris Martin, Jason Knight, Max Bird. 
Average Championship Performer, Poor Consistency: Craig Forsyth, Tom Huddlestone, Scott Malone. 

Below Par Championship Performer, Good Consistency: Curtis Davies. 
Below Par Championship Performer, Okay Consistency: Ben Hamer, George Evans. 
Below Par Championship Performer, Poor Consistency: Kieran Dowell, Florian Jozefzoon, Kelle Roos. 

Struggling Championship Performer, Good consistency: n/a. 
Struggling Championship Performer, Okay Consistency: Mason Bennett. 
Struggling Championship Performer, Poor Consistency: n/a. 

A few comments: I feel Davies is consistent, but just isn't at the level anymore. He's good at the head and kick it type of football, but he's fell below the line of an average Championship player. The likes of Knight and Bird are showing potentially they could be consistent performers at this level, although they need to show more before they can be raised IMO. I'm sure they will with time. I have three players that you can expect to turn up, to their ability, more often than not - Holmes, Lowe and Davies. I have eight that we haven't been able to count on, regardless of their overall technical ability: Lawrence, Marriott, Forsyth, Huddlestone, Malone, Dowell, Jozefzoon and Roos. 

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2 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Given Lawrence, Waghorn, Jozefzoon, Whittaker, Bennett, Mitchell-Lawson, Marriott, Holmes, Knight and Bogle have all featured on the wing this season (and Paterson), I have a feeling we won't be prioritising a new winger - GK and CB it'll be.

Given they have all featured on the wing this season doesn't that tell you that we should be prioritising a winger?

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Well for me I like roos but a lot basics need working on as for hammer he done a decent job since come in. I think we need at least another winger. Even through we wyan roony for now but sooner or later he will hang up his boots so I be looking for set peace player but also can play a bit.

I think our strikers are okay for now unless we spot someone damn right spaicil or very fast and can finnish but will cost a few bob id rather give selby chance to learn of roony be like attacking midfield player but can be use as a forward.

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There are imo only a handful of players that we should be looking to keep .... Lowe Bogle Bielik Bird Rooney Knight 

Players that can do a job .... Hamer Davies Clarke (loaner)Sibley Holmes (could be in the top list) Marriott Whittaker Waghorn 

Players we could sell and not miss ..... Forsyth Lawrence Huddlestone Roos Bennett 

Return .... Dowell and Paterson 

Some new signings thrown in there would strengthen the team like some of the names that have been mentioned so far Pozo Benkovic Begovic Clarke Cosgrove all would seem a good fit with what we currently have 

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