Midfield Balance

[Srg]

2 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

If Cocu thinks the same and we require six players for the first XI alone, then we really need to sort out our recruitment department, or else we could be experiencing this century's Great Depression.

Could be right, but if it is 6, it could well be 3 loans, a freebie and 2 signings. It isn't ridiculous to think it's possible - as much as I rather we find alternative solutions. You can easily see 4 or 5 going out too to balance this.

Not sure where we are at with the next wave to step up from below now we seem to have Knight and Bird pretty established. He's showing faith in Whittaker but he doesn't look ready to be relied on for big minutes yet. Expect more of Sibley, so maybe he can be one of the 6.

[cannable]

3 hours ago, Jourdan said:

I had thought the same.

But then he was made captain and this would suggest he will start every game if he is relatively fit and able to, much like Keogh was almost ever present.

You would also expect it to be the case given the sponsorship deal with 32Red.

Are they paying a % of his wages to put out cones and blow whistles? They will want him to be front and centre too, surely?

Not a fan of the move, to be honest.

They aren’t paying a percentage of his wages, it was a £1,500,000 lump sum as a part of a ‘Star Player’ clause 

[Jourdan]

57 minutes ago, cannable said:

They aren’t paying a percentage of his wages, it was a £1,500,000 lump sum as a part of a ‘Star Player’ clause 

Which would surely be used to contribute to his wages?

[Jourdan]

1 hour ago, Srg said:

Could be right, but if it is 6, it could well be 3 loans, a freebie and 2 signings. It isn't ridiculous to think it's possible - as much as I rather we find alternative solutions. You can easily see 4 or 5 going out too to balance this.

Not sure where we are at with the next wave to step up from below now we seem to have Knight and Bird pretty established. He's showing faith in Whittaker but he doesn't look ready to be relied on for big minutes yet. Expect more of Sibley, so maybe he can be one of the 6.

Well it’s true that sometimes a lot of good rebuilding work can be done in one window.

We signed Grant, Martin and Eustace on free transfers and Forsyth and Russell for a combined £900,000 in the summer window of 2013 to add to the existing core of Keogh, Buxton, Ward, Hendrick, Bryson and Hughes.

But Clough had had almost 5 years of Championship football and trial and error in the transfer market under his belt before eventually putting together that squad.

If we are going to repeat that, what Cocu and the recruitment team have delivered up so far doesn’t inspire confidence.

[Srg]

5 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

Well it’s true that sometimes a lot of good rebuilding work can be done in one window.

We signed Grant, Martin and Eustace on free transfers and Forsyth and Russell for a combined £900,000 in the summer window of 2013 to add to the existing core of Keogh, Buxton, Ward, Hendrick, Bryson and Hughes.

But Clough had had almost 5 years of Championship football and trial and error in the transfer market under his belt before eventually putting together that squad.

If we are going to repeat that, what Cocu and the recruitment team have delivered up so far doesn’t inspire confidence.

I'd hope we have a bit of a better foundation than Nigel though, he really did have nothing and was in the midst of dealing with the Premier League fallout. As bad as we've been at times, we aren't quite in them depths.

[cheron85]

At the start of the season Midfield was my big concern - With Bielik and Rooney plus the emergence of Bird and Knight I'm less worried

People keep talking about Cocu's preferred formation being 4-2-3-1 but realistically we know that a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-4-2 easily moulds into that - Plus I think he'd more fluid with formations than we give credit for

He obviously doesn't see wide midfielders or wingers as a priority - Those players are focused inwards primarily and he seems to want the fullbacks doing the overlap but still crossing from relatively deep - More keen on getting the ball in behind the defence from wide and focused on getting into the box for pull-backs

I also think the defence needs such focus at the moment - We need an obvious 1st choice keeper as Roos seems to have gone off the boil and Hamer is only a loan - And we desperately need to bring in some permanent CBs - After than we can work out everything else

[Jourdan]

I am not really sold on Bielik and Rooney being the key cogs in our midfield.

They have their merits, don’t get me wrong. But in terms of athleticism, I would worry about fitter, more athletic sides in the division being able to shut them down.

A number of posters have already remarked about Rooney being ‘unfit’ and ‘leggy’, and Bielik’s fitness problems are well documented.

To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Bielik drop back into the defence on a permanent basis, meaning we’d only need one centre back.