Team for next season's promotion push?

[Chris_Martin]

Honestly think if we get these three positions sorted and stop being so negative with the tactics, this is capable of making the play offs next season.

[DCFC Kicks]

1 hour ago, Chris_Martin said:

Honestly think if we get these three positions sorted and stop being so negative with the tactics, this is capable of making the play offs next season.

I understand Watson has looked impressive when he's played recently, but he's only made 3 sub appearances. What makes you certain he could start in such an important position?

[Chris_Martin]

Just now, DCFClks said:

I understand Watson has looked impressive when he's played recently, but he's only made 3 sub appearances. What makes you certain he could start in such an important position?

Sometimes with a player you can just tell if their good or not. I don't know specifically how to explain it, but he just has 'it'. 

[Bubbles]

Think we should look at Lewis Ferguson from Aberdeen personally. Think he’d be an outstanding coup, if we can afford him that is!

[Van der MoodHoover]

3 hours ago, Bubbles said:

Think we should look at Lewis Ferguson from Aberdeen personally. Think he’d be an outstanding coup, if we can afford him that is!

As cover for Bielik? Who won't be playing until 2022 I would think. 

[BrudeRAM]

On 16/03/2021 at 16:11, Chris_Martin said:

Honestly think if we get these three positions sorted and stop being so negative with the tactics, this is capable of making the play offs next season.

Like the look of this. For me knight swaps with Shinnie and sibley for watson but good competition for places all round. Think we'll miss Clarke sorely unfortunately, the recruitment has to be very good for the 3 NEWs in such important positions. I'd also add that IMO it's all going to revolve around Bielik who we need back ASAP and firing on all cylinders next year if we're going to do anything 

Edited March 19, 2021 by BrudeRAM

[Gone]

On 16/03/2021 at 16:11, Chris_Martin said:

Honestly think if we get these three positions sorted and stop being so negative with the tactics, this is capable of making the play offs next season.

Where will the goals come from? Lawrence, let’s say 10. New Striker unless we get a gem, 15 max, Joz based on this season 5. The midfield, hard to say on Watson, Shinnie 3/4, Bielk I doubt we will see him until 2022.
 

Goals win games, can’t see this team any higher than mid table.In my opinion we need to scrap the 433 unless we get wingers who can contribute to the goal tally, so between 10-15 goals each a season. We don’t have that in our current squad I’m afraid. 
 

Agree with the back 4 and keeper though ??

[May Contain Nuts]

As good as Bielik is, basing our future success on his return would be an utterly insane thing to do after 2 ACL injuries just 13 appearances apart.

Any plan we put in place has to be made with the assumption that he won't come back and play regularly, we have to assume he'll get injured again.

We simply can't afford to plan around him, sadly; anything we get out of Bielik now should be seen as a huge bonus.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Coconut

[Tyler Durden]

No one has still clarified yet whether this will be a promotion push out of League 1 or the Championship

[Donegal Ram]

Think we will get Mengi back on a season long loan next year. Can't see us getting Clarke back unless we buy him. So need a new CB. 

Sibley has to be in the picture in my opinion. To build around him would be the smart way to go. His goal celebration and interview after the match shows how much this club means to him. If he continues a bit part role then he could be tempted elsewhere. 

With a few contracts coming to an end it will be an interesting period for us. 

Am positive if we can play more attack minded football. We have to go with the role model of second half on Tuesday evening as the way forward in order to succeed. 

[RamNut]

On 16/03/2021 at 16:11, Chris_Martin said:

Honestly think if we get these three positions sorted and stop being so negative with the tactics, this is capable of making the play offs next season.

You say stop being negative with the tactics but your team then includes two holding midfielders.

 

[England Ram]

The formation needs to change to be more positive if you are looking for promotion.

2 holding midfielders with little creativity is partly what is to blame for our current dearth of goals.

The second half performance on Tuesday is what we need to be looking at as a barometer moving forward.

 

3 at the back with real wing backs helps us as we have Byrne who is a real threat going forward and a hopefully improved Buchanan.

Or you go 4 at the back with one holding.

1 defensive midfielder in Shiniesta is enough.

                                       Marshal/Roos

              Edmunson,             Cb,         Cb,

Bryne                                                           Buchanan

                                  Shinnie

       Sibbo                                          Lawrence

                  Colin                 New

 

or

 

                                      Marshall

Bryne              CB                         CB                  Buchanan

                                Shinnie

Joz                          Sibbo                             Lawrence

 

                   Colin                      New

Edited March 19, 2021 by England Ram

[vonwright]

3 hours ago, Coconut said:

As good as Bielik is, basing our future success on his return would be an utterly insane thing to do after 2 ACL injuries just 13 appearances apart.

Any plan we put in place has to be made with the assumption that he won't come back and play regularly, we have to assume he'll get injured again.

We simply can't afford to plan around him, sadly; anything we get out of Bielik now should be seen as a huge bonus.

Completely agree - but also think the big difference in our team with and without Bielik tells me that is an area to think about in summer. When Bielik was playing well, a lot of the players around him looked a lot better, because he made our passing sharper and more forward-focused and put other teams on the back foot. So arguably it makes more sense to prioritise finding "another Bielik" (ie someone who plays the same position in the same way) rather than replace the four/five players who look bad when he isn't in the team. 

Then if Bielik comes back fit we have two Bieliks. Happy days. 

I like Shinnie. I like Knight. I like Bird. But any forwards are going to struggle if the midfield is Shinnie/Knight/Bird. Conversely I think players like Jozwiak, Lawrence and Sibley are plenty good enough if we get the midfield (and CF) positions right.

Edited March 19, 2021 by vonwright

[IslandExile]

"We're a one man team. We just haven't signed him yet."

 

Stolen from an Everton fan on the radio, years ago.

[brady1993]

What I'd be looking at:

Marshall/Roos

Byrne/MacDonald   New/Wisdom   New/New   Buchanan/New

Bird/Bielik*

Knight/Shinnie    Sibley/Watson

Jozwiak/New              New/CKR              Lawrence/Ibe**

 

*Bielik is here because honestly I don't think you can plan around him being back and should plan without him being available for the season

**Obviously with the precondition that he is mentally fit to play

Now for a bit of explanation 

Goalkeeper

For now I think this position is fine, I think between Marshall and Roos we have enough. Ideally we'd have a keeper with a mix of traits from either and it's 100% position we have to look at again in a year's time.

Defence

Byrne and Buchanan both should be clearly earmarked as part of any starting eleven for next season and typify ideal players for aggressive overlapping fullback. From the looks of things we do have MacDonald who looks like by next season he will be more than capable at providing backup, with also Ebosole also likely in the mix as well. As much as I like Forsyth I do think it's perhaps getting to the time were we look towards other options for cover competition and I don't think there is anyone in the academy who's quite there yet to challenge Buchanan (could be wrong on this and happy to be corrected). Centre back is likely going to be the key place we look to have to fix next season and it's really likely we need to get 2-3 in with a mix of permanents and loans. I actually quite like Wisdom as a centre back although I wouldn't have him first choice in an ideal world but I would be offering him a new contract to stay on. Clarke would be absolutely ideal for the left hand berth if we can get him back in some form but I wouldn't count on it. Ideally any players we bring in should have a bit of pace about them and be comfortable in possession so we can play an aggressively highline and not get caught out.

Midfield

Honestly I feel like this is the key area we've largely got wrong for most of this season and to be honest quite a few seasons before it. Right now our arguably most promising, talented academy prospects are all midfielders and we should be building towards a system that gets the most out of them and a squad that supports that. With that I do think we should strongly be considering moving to a 1-2 in midfield as opposed to a 2-1 as I think it likely has the highest possible ceiling in terms of potential. Bird I think will highly likely perform better as a sole axis in midfield as he will be more central and have more chance to find a pocket of space for a defender to feed him the ball, turn and find another player. In essence I suspect it will be easier for him to build from a such a position. Defensively I think this position will suit him better as well as it largely a position about being in the right place and holding your position as opposed to charge around, thundering into tackles and Bird has excellent positional sense. Knight will be served a lot better playing as an #8 in such a system as his ability make runs, press, get into the box and general energy are going to come a lot more to the fore in such a system with Shinnie ably providing back up and support. Sibley is the most creative talent we have and we need to make a real effort in getting what we can from him, personally I think he will be served better by being central and a touch deeper where he can pick the ball up and run through the centre either to pick a pass or shoot but in a 433 he'd have plenty of license to roam. Defensively I'm not too worried about him either as he has the energy to press and harry, and whilst he can be a touch reckless he doesn't shirk a challenge. Watson from the bits we've seen of him looks technically excellent, can really find space, link play and pick a pass and I would expect him to be used in rotation with Sibley and Knight. I think that midfield would allow us to play a progressive brand of attacking football whilst having the energy to press aggressively from the front.

Wide Forwards

I think it's vital that we have options in these positions, as I think it's the position that likely needs the most rotation in this division as generally players in these positions are more prone to drifting in and out of form. I think we had the right approach under McClaren were we had frequent rotation of these positions both between games and aggressively subbing them in games as I think that's generally out you get the most out of these positions. Jozwiak has had a rough go of it as of late but I really do think there is a player there and I think it's likely that a lot of the issues he has had with his game get smoothed out if we are more progressive in set up and have more/better options to rotate with him. His touch, dribbling, link up play and ability to find space are all excellent with him linking well with Byrne especially. I would expect given time and confidence more end product will come. Lawrence is mercurial but honestly we have missed him from several angles this year. He can be hot and cold and his decision making is off at times but he can get something from nothing and always makes him self available to get on the ball which can extremely important at progressing forwards. We definitely could do with at least 1 more competitive option and 2 if things don't pan out with Ibe, as like I said before we would strongly benefit from good options to rotate in these positions particularly.

Centre Forward 

This is clearly an obvious gap going forward. CKR has done excellently coming from nowhere this time and I really like him as an option going into next season. However we should be looking at bringing in a new player to ideally start. We should really, really be careful about who we scout for this position as it's arguably the position we've got wrong more than any other. The minimum should be a good touch, comfortable back to goal and ability to find space with pace, ability in the air, clinical finishing being obvious and clearly 

[kevinhectoring]

On 13/03/2021 at 21:01, DCFClks said:

Ok he had one moment when Watson played him in. But how is he meant to cross when he's crowded by 3 Millwall players? Who is there to pass to? 

Look at the tape of that moment from behind the goal. CRK held his run and was open just behind the 6yard box. joz either had to shoot hard and low early or draw the defenders and lay it back. Hard to describe what he actually did but it was neither. CKR seemed too surprised to be angry ... 

btw, was that the game where Joz got in the way of CKR’s free kick. Think it was on target and probably would have been saved but not sure 

Edited March 19, 2021 by kevinhectoring

[Ghost of Clough]

@brady1993, excellent post. A couple of comments from me...

CB: If we plan on 4 at the back then I think it's a case of 3 CBs, whereas if we plan on the occasional 5 at the back, then we will need 4. Wisdom could make up one of the backups dependant on wages.

LB: Forsyth won't be going anywhere in the summer with his contract running until 2022. Assuming Buchanan continues to improve, Fozzy's game time would be further limited anyway. Archie could feasibly replace Fozzy as backup in the second half of the season.

DM: Like you say, we should assume Bielik won't return. However, I feel we'd be better off making a short term signing (loan or perm) to cover that gap for the season. 

[Rab a dab doo]

If we have 'serious' aspirations of pushing for promotion next year then there is going to have be a large overall of the playing staff over the close season.

Some of this will be enforced i.e. the loans returning, players released or leaving of the their own accord at the end of their contracts. . 

Then there's our possible incoming transfer targets list which will no doubt be split into 3 categories, freebies, fee signings  and loans.  

Put all that in the melting pot along with possible new club ownership and maybe even a new management set up. 

The ONE word you could definitely use for next season is that it will be of of 'CHANGE'.

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

10 minutes ago, Rab a dab doo said:

If we have 'serious' aspirations of pushing for promotion next year then there is going to have be a large overall of the playing staff over the close season.

Some of this will be enforced i.e. the loans returning, players released or leaving of the their own accord at the end of their contracts. . 

Then there's our possible incoming transfer targets list which will no doubt be split into 3 categories, freebies, fee signings  and loans.  

Put all that in the melting pot along with possible new club ownership and maybe even a new management set up. 

The ONE word you could definitely use for next season is that it will be of of 'CHANGE'.

We probably won't be too concerned with that one.

[brady1993]

16 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

@brady1993, excellent post. A couple of comments from me...

CB: If we plan on 4 at the back then I think it's a case of 3 CBs, whereas if we plan on the occasional 5 at the back, then we will need 4. Wisdom could make up one of the backups dependant on wages.

LB: Forsyth won't be going anywhere in the summer with his contract running until 2022. Assuming Buchanan continues to improve, Fozzy's game time would be further limited anyway. Archie could feasibly replace Fozzy as backup in the second half of the season.

DM: Like you say, we should assume Bielik won't return. However, I feel we'd be better off making a short term signing (loan or perm) to cover that gap for the season. 

I think I'd agree with all that.

I'd like to keep Wisdom if the wages make sense because otherwise we are going to be trying to sign and bed in a lot of centre backs which could lead to problems. Wisdom also does tick a lot of the boxes of what we want even if he's not perfect, is really useful as an option for a back 3 and does provide additional cover across the backline. 

I'd actually forgot to an extent that Fozzy had another year and if you think Archie is closeish to stepping up then starting the season with what we have is likely ok. After all we have a couple big gaps elsewhere and potentially limited funds.

I think DM cover makes sense as well, someone experienced in the role would be ideal as unlike a lot of people I'm unconvinced by playing Shinnie there as I think it would further expose a lot of faults in his game and limits his strengths. So an experienced reliable pro, comfortable on the ball and positionally sound would seem like a shrewd get.

Assuming Wisdom re-signing that would leave roughly six signings; 3xCB, CDM, WF, CF with I'd say a rough priority of:

1. CB 
2. CF
3. CB
4. WF
5. CB
6. CDM

Which is a good amount of business but not a crazy amount of turnover. Of those we really need to nail those first 2-3 and perhaps focus our funds in that direction.

Get those signings correct, get a tactical plan and ideology in place, retain the academy players and a good pre-season (from a coaching perspective) and we could well push for top 6 next year.