EFL Verdict

[CBRammette]

2 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

 

This makes sense, but I guess this is based on the assumption that nobody is sold. If someone puts a a semi-decent bid in for Sibley or someone like that they are gone, then we are left scratching around in the bargain bin for a replacement as well as trying to fill the gaps we already have.

Perhaps that was Wayne's masterplan last season so he doesnt lose them 

[Leeds Ram]

2 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.

GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton

 

Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.

We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

That is a squad that's going down let's be honest. Assuming we play a 4-3-3 (far from certain and i think we'll be a 4-4-2) we're relying on an ageing CKR that couldn't do much after an initially impressive start if our striker gets injured- if we play a 4-4-2 then there is no depth in that position at all. Stretton has never played a football league match so how is he a good backup? 

Davies had to sign a waiver to play for 10 minutes last season and whilst he could cover for his lack of pace 3 years ago now is a different story. I wouldn't want nor expect anything more than 10 games out of him. Again the backups you have are 3 youth players who haven't played senior football at this level before... 

At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Bryne gets injured and after last season you have to fear for Forsyth's future at this level. He's been a great servant to the club but his days should be numbered tbh as he's ageing, slow, injury prone and looks like a liability. The really scary thing is about that squad though is the strongest part looks like the midfield but last season they were consistently overrun and offering little in the way of defensive protection or attacking threat the moment Bielik got injured. 

Did last season just happen in my head? Are people seriously not aware we stayed up with 44 points and the squad is now weaker... but a weaker squad with a couple of additions and the same coaching staff is somehow going to make everything perfectly fine? we got seriously lucky last season, if we sleep walk into next season thinking that small adjustments will make everything fine and dandy we'll go down. That is a squad that's going to leak a fair few goals and not score many- it's an absolute recipe for disaster. 

Edited July 6, 2021 by Leeds Ram

[Ghost of Clough]

13 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Wages? I presume we're also pre-negotiating for when we come out of embargo or if like last summer we're allowed signings?

Supposedly limited to £12k pw. But no transfer fees, no loan fees, and no agent fees whilst under embargo

[RoyMac5]

1 minute ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Supposedly limited to £12k pw. But no transfer fees, no loan fees, and no agent fees whilst under embargo

Well there's plenty of room to negotiate under £12k. How did we makes signings the report mentioned then?

[Dean (hick) Saunders]

Should make negotiation easier, cuts out the bull-poop phase of “I want £100k per week and an aircraft carrier for my pet turtle”

Edited July 6, 2021 by Dean (hick) Saunders

[Foreveram]

34 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

I read it as:

Accentuate the positive make some toast

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

I’m presuming you are asking for a friend and not yourself because I don’t think you’re a gloomster at all. I actually find your posts quite amusing. I did say doomster!! Gloomster is ok.?

I have no issue with anyone being glass half empty as long as their opinions demonstrate some sort of logic or humour, but bloody hell there are some depressing posters on here who post either nothing positive ever, or post that impending doom is around the corner based off nothing but hysteria on Twitter or sensationalist media click bait, and sometimes it’s not even that they just love a drama. 

 

I know what you mean. I don’t do social media other than LinkedIn and this forum. 

DarkFruitsRam7 thinks I'm a complainer because I haven't yet collapsed into a salivating heap over the brilliance of Gareth Southgate ?

The way football is organised at the moment, efl teams are separating into 3 groups which I think of as, the "pottering along", the "poo or busters" and the "Yo-Yos". 

The middle group is where I think we are and it's a cyclical group....spend a bit to try and get success, fall short, retrench. There's us, Reading, Bristol, Brentford, Cardiff, possibly Leeds depending on whether they spaff their prem money, forest..... 

Going to be a quiet couple of seasons I think whilst we reset the first team, but we do have a far better production line of decent youngsters to help us along. 

Keep calling out those miseries ?

[Rambalin]

12 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Supposedly limited to £12k pw. But no transfer fees, no loan fees, and no agent fees whilst under embargo

Clubs should not be paying agent fees anyway in my opinion. However I know a couple of players who I coached at a young age who went to Birmingham and were there when they were under embargo. They tell me the players they signed just paid the agent then claimed it back when the embargo was lifted. 

It was done with the full knowledge of the EFL who in fact suggested it in the first place along with the PFA. 

[Ghost of Clough]

1 minute ago, Leeds Ram said:

That is a squad that's going down let's be honest. Assuming we play a 4-3-3 (far from certain and i think we'll be a 4-4-2) we're relying on an ageing CKR that couldn't do much after an initially impressive start if our striker gets injured- if we play a 4-4-2 then there is no depth in that position at all. Stretton has never played a football league match so how is he a good backup? 

Davies had to sign a waiver to play for 10 minutes last season and whilst he could cover for his lack of pace 3 years ago now is a different story. I wouldn't want nor expect anything more than 10 games out of him. Again the backups you have are 3 youth players who haven't played senior football at this level before... 

At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Bryne gets injured and after last season you have to fear for Forsyth's future at this level. He's been a great servant to the club but his days should be numbered tbh as he's ageing, slow, injury prone and looks like a liability. The really scary thing is about that squad though is the strongest part looks like the midfield but last season they were consistently overrun and offering little in the way of defensive protection or attacking threat the moment Bielik got injured. 

Did last season just happen in my head? Are people seriously not aware we stayed up with 44 points and the squad is now weaker... but a weaker squad with a couple of additions and the same coaching staff is somehow going to make everything perfectly fine? we got seriously lucky last season, if we sleep walk into next season thinking that small adjustments will make everything fine and dandy we'll go down. 

Where do you get this idea of 442 from? We played it about 5 times last season, usually as we wanted to play 5 at the back. It would be a plan B/C. It's therefore not relying on Kazim. Stretton played in 4 games for us last season and having watched him for years, he's the sort of player you can drop into any side and he'll score goals.

As 3rd choice CB, I wouldn't expect Davies to play 10 games anyway. The recruitment team should be looking for robust players as we can't afford to be carrying injury prone players on our budget. This means we'd only see a couple of games out of Solomon/Cashin/JBrown. Again, on our budget, we cannot afford to have someone on (relatively) high wages to be 4th choice and only step in for 90 minutes over the season.

Byrne played 41 games last season and 39 the season before, so you can expect the same again. That is certainly not 'relying' on untested youth players. McDonald showed he was steady enough when he stepped in.
35 games in Buchanan's debut season (available for 45), so his contribution should increase. It means 5 starts and 5 sub apps from Fozzy, which he is steady enough for.

Just to repeat, we do not have the budget to sign players to sit on the bench for 95% of the season. Those roles will be filled by academy graduates.

Only an idiot would say this squad isn't weaker than the one we ended last season with - we've lost players (Clarke, Wisdom, Waghorn, Edmundson, Roberts, Mengi, Gregory and Baningime) without signing anyone. But, that essentially just a CB pairing, a winger and a CF if you look at the minutes played. Lawrence and Bielik missed massive chunks of last season (only played in 40% and 26% of total minutes). Those two staying fit for more this season will have an incredible difference on our league position, as evidenced by half our points during the season coming from Bielik's run in the side. It's why many feel we're only a few signings away from being stronger than we were last season.

[Leeds Ram]

3 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Where do you get this idea of 442 from? We played it about 5 times last season, usually as we wanted to play 5 at the back. It would be a plan B/C. It's therefore not relying on Kazim. Stretton played in 4 games for us last season and having watched him for years, he's the sort of player you can drop into any side and he'll score goals.

As 3rd choice CB, I wouldn't expect Davies to play 10 games anyway. The recruitment team should be looking for robust players as we can't afford to be carrying injury prone players on our budget. This means we'd only see a couple of games out of Solomon/Cashin/JBrown. Again, on our budget, we cannot afford to have someone on (relatively) high wages to be 4th choice and only step in for 90 minutes over the season.

Byrne played 41 games last season and 39 the season before, so you can expect the same again. That is certainly not 'relying' on untested youth players. McDonald showed he was steady enough when he stepped in.
35 games in Buchanan's debut season (available for 45), so his contribution should increase. It means 5 starts and 5 sub apps from Fozzy, which he is steady enough for.

Just to repeat, we do not have the budget to sign players to sit on the bench for 95% of the season. Those roles will be filled by academy graduates.

Only an idiot would say this squad isn't weaker than the one we ended last season with - we've lost players (Clarke, Wisdom, Waghorn, Edmundson, Roberts, Mengi, Gregory and Baningime) without signing anyone. But, that essentially just a CB pairing, a winger and a CF if you look at the minutes played. Lawrence and Bielik missed massive chunks of last season (only played in 40% and 26% of total minutes). Those two staying fit for more this season will have an incredible difference on our league position, as evidenced by half our points during the season coming from Bielik's run in the side. It's why many feel we're only a few signings away from being stronger than we were last season.

He played a 4-4-2 during the last game of the season and he might well fancy using it again as he chopped and changed formations throughout the year. I'd want CKR as an intermittent backup not for anything else and Stretton needs game time at a lower level before he's put on the pitch for us. Stretton has never scored a league goal so how you can make a judgement he'd score goals at this level is beyond me quite honestly. 

a 3rd choice cb should be expecting around 10-12 games a season and is first emergency cover for any inuries that do arise. Tbh I wouldn't be wanting Davies as a third choice given he spent all of 10 minutes on the pitch last season, it's asking for problems. I don't think we need someone on big wages to be bench warming but we do need 3 good quality cb's and a 4th that can be relied upon to fill in as an emergency. 

I didn't say we would be relying on untested youth players but if Byrne did get an injury then yes that's what we would be doing. How often did McDonald step in? I remember his game against Norwich but can't remember another appearance. Buchanan again had a very bad run of form towards the back end of the season, getting rid of forsyth and replacing him with a superior replacement (and actual competition) isn't the worst idea in the world.

Bielik has had two serious injuries in the past couple of years that have ruled him out for a long period of time. If we're relying on him coming back to form and staying fit that's an awfully big gamble to be taking.  Lawrence by every past performance indicator we have for him is an 'in and out' average championship winger. 

The squad is in need of a face lift not a few trims around the edges. In that list you've highlighted 4 cb's (and one that can fill in at rb) 2 strikers and a winger.  Even if we get it up to the standard of last season we'll likely be going down so there needs to be a serious re-think about what we need. That squad lacks quality both defensively and going forward... it's a recipe to get relegated for my money quite honestly.  Good players at this level don't need to cost big money or big wages if we scout coherently according to a style we want to play but we do need bodies. Filling out the squad with academy graduates as you're suggesting is a recipe for a repeat of last season and absolute disaster. 

I think realistically we need to bring in 3 decent cb's, 1 LB replacing forsyth, one or 2 cm's, 2 wingers and 2 strikers (if playing 4-3-3)

[Spanish]

37 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Well there's plenty of room to negotiate under £12k. How did we makes signings the report mentioned then?

Hi Roy

you have read the DC2 report and it is unclear as to why the EFL lifted the embargo to buy players.  S 89 page 44.  They seem to have acted at odds to how they would have been expected to act though don’t you think.  Clearly we have been operating under the constraints of multiple embargoes for a very long time possibly longer than any other club

 

 

 

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

43 minutes ago, Dean (hick) Saunders said:

Should make negotiation easier, cuts out the bull-poop phase of “I want £100k per week and an aircraft carrier for my pet turtle”

It will make it really easy. If we can't pay loan fees then we wont get any decent loans and if we can't play ball with agents then that rules out a vast majority of footballers that are represented by agents. 

So, yeah. Negotiating will be easy because we'll get an abrupt "No" and that'll be it. Easy.

[RoyMac5]

27 minutes ago, Spanish said:

Hi Roy

you have read the DC2 report and it is unclear as to why the EFL lifted the embargo to buy players.  S 89 page 44.  They seem to have acted at odds to how they would have been expected to act though don’t you think.  Clearly we have been operating under the constraints of multiple embargoes for a very long time possibly longer than any other club.

Yeah I guess its down to the vagaries of the EFL! But if they've done it once they can do it again.

[Norman]

1 hour ago, Leeds Ram said:

That is a squad that's going down let's be honest. Assuming we play a 4-3-3 (far from certain and i think we'll be a 4-4-2) we're relying on an ageing CKR that couldn't do much after an initially impressive start if our striker gets injured- if we play a 4-4-2 then there is no depth in that position at all. Stretton has never played a football league match so how is he a good backup? 

Davies had to sign a waiver to play for 10 minutes last season and whilst he could cover for his lack of pace 3 years ago now is a different story. I wouldn't want nor expect anything more than 10 games out of him. Again the backups you have are 3 youth players who haven't played senior football at this level before... 

At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Bryne gets injured and after last season you have to fear for Forsyth's future at this level. He's been a great servant to the club but his days should be numbered tbh as he's ageing, slow, injury prone and looks like a liability. The really scary thing is about that squad though is the strongest part looks like the midfield but last season they were consistently overrun and offering little in the way of defensive protection or attacking threat the moment Bielik got injured. 

Did last season just happen in my head? Are people seriously not aware we stayed up with 44 points and the squad is now weaker... but a weaker squad with a couple of additions and the same coaching staff is somehow going to make everything perfectly fine? we got seriously lucky last season, if we sleep walk into next season thinking that small adjustments will make everything fine and dandy we'll go down. That is a squad that's going to leak a fair few goals and not score many- it's an absolute recipe for disaster. 

You say the squad is weaker, and it is numbers wise. However;

57 appearances between Roberts, Waghorn and Gregory managed a massive 9 goals. Not hard to replace. 

In midfield only Rooney and Holmes have left or stopped playing that had double figures appearance wise last season. Both will not be missed. 

Which leaves us with Clarke, Wisdom and Edmunson in defence missing.  

If we aren't capable of signing a striker who can score 10 in 40 odd games to replace the dross up front, a midfielder to cover the 'loss' of Rooney and Holmes and a couple of defenders then we will be in trouble. 

If Mengi can perform as well as Wisdom, we can get a replacement for Clarke, sign a decent midfielder and get a half decent striker, we will be no worse off. Possibly better off. 

It really isn't a lot to ask for. I'm sure if we sign 5 or 6 players, they will add more to the squad than what has left on the fraction of the wages. 

And I'm sure with the youth players having more experience, the management team having more experience, we'd get more points. Only my opinion, but I'm not really panicking.

[B4ev6is]

1 hour ago, Leeds Ram said:

That is a squad that's going down let's be honest. Assuming we play a 4-3-3 (far from certain and i think we'll be a 4-4-2) we're relying on an ageing CKR that couldn't do much after an initially impressive start if our striker gets injured- if we play a 4-4-2 then there is no depth in that position at all. Stretton has never played a football league match so how is he a good backup? 

Davies had to sign a waiver to play for 10 minutes last season and whilst he could cover for his lack of pace 3 years ago now is a different story. I wouldn't want nor expect anything more than 10 games out of him. Again the backups you have are 3 youth players who haven't played senior football at this level before... 

At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Bryne gets injured and after last season you have to fear for Forsyth's future at this level. He's been a great servant to the club but his days should be numbered tbh as he's ageing, slow, injury prone and looks like a liability. The really scary thing is about that squad though is the strongest part looks like the midfield but last season they were consistently overrun and offering little in the way of defensive protection or attacking threat the moment Bielik got injured. 

Did last season just happen in my head? Are people seriously not aware we stayed up with 44 points and the squad is now weaker... but a weaker squad with a couple of additions and the same coaching staff is somehow going to make everything perfectly fine? we got seriously lucky last season, if we sleep walk into next season thinking that small adjustments will make everything fine and dandy we'll go down. That is a squad that's going to leak a fair few goals and not score many- it's an absolute recipe for disaster. 

Actually stration did play a game I think it was against boro at pp were he hit the post.

[Ghost of Clough]

15 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

He played a 4-4-2 during the last game of the season and he might well fancy using it again as he chopped and changed formations throughout the year. I'd want CKR as an intermittent backup not for anything else and Stretton needs game time at a lower level before he's put on the pitch for us. Stretton has never scored a league goal so how you can make a judgement he'd score goals at this level is beyond me quite honestly. 

So you're basing a full formational change based on 5 games from last season?

I can make a judgement on Stretton based on what I've seen. Inches away from scoring on his league debut for us, 3 goals in 173 minutes for Stockport and 8 in 696 minutes for the U23s last season. Since he became a first year scholar in 18/19, he's scored 37 in 3654 minutes of football at various levels, not far off 1 every 90 minutes. Some players, such as Whittaker, take time to adjust to the increased physicality. Stretton so far has stepped up seamlessly every single time.

15 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

a 3rd choice cb should be expecting around 10-12 games a season and is first emergency cover for any inuries that do arise. Tbh I wouldn't be wanting Davies as a third choice given he spent all of 10 minutes on the pitch last season, it's asking for problems. I don't think we need someone on big wages to be bench warming but we do need 3 good quality cb's and a 4th that can be relied upon to fill in as an emergency. 

10 games for 3rd choice isn't too unreasonable, I agree. But, it's something we can leave until January to re-evaluate. Keeping Davies as 3rd choice until then is also reasonable, as it's only asking him to step in for 5 games.

15 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

I didn't say we would be relying on untested youth players but if Byrne did get an injury then yes that's what we would be doing. How often did McDonald step in? I remember his game against Norwich but can't remember another appearance. Buchanan again had a very bad run of form towards the back end of the season, getting rid of forsyth and replacing him with a superior replacement (and actual competition) isn't the worst idea in the world.

"At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Byrne gets injured". Well evidence shows Byrne will play in 90% of the available minutes, so the amount of games we have to 'rely' on McDonald or Ebosele is minimal.

McDonald played against Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Brentford, plus very short periods on the pitch vs Bristol, QPR and Bournemouth. That was 6 appearances vs top 9 sides. I think that shows he has Rooney's trust.

Yes, it's not unusual for young players in their debut seasons to have a bad run of form. Especially for a wing back during a congested schedule. We won't get any money for Forsyth and he'll be on low wages anyway, so it makes little sense to sign a replacement backup.

15 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

Bielik has had two serious injuries in the past couple of years that have ruled him out for a long period of time. If we're relying on him coming back to form and staying fit that's an awfully big gamble to be taking.  Lawrence by every past performance indicator we have for him is an 'in and out' average championship winger. 

Lawrence was involved in 34 goals in his first 3 seasons with us (18 the season before). If that's "average", then there must be a lot excellent wingers in this league.

15 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

The squad is in need of a face lift not a few trims around the edges. In that list you've highlighted 4 cb's (and one that can fill in at rb) 2 strikers and a winger.  Even if we get it up to the standard of last season we'll likely be going down so there needs to be a serious re-think about what we need. That squad lacks quality both defensively and going forward... it's a recipe to get relegated for my money quite honestly.  Good players at this level don't need to cost big money or big wages if we scout coherently according to a style we want to play but we do need bodies. Filling out the squad with academy graduates as you're suggesting is a recipe for a repeat of last season and absolute disaster. 

I think realistically we need to bring in 3 decent cb's, 1 LB replacing forsyth, one or 2 cm's, 2 wingers and 2 strikers (if playing 4-3-3)

Don't forget the RB becuae you don't want us to rely on McDonald or Ebosele. Why not throw a GK in there too and we can have a whole new 11.

To have a squad which doesn't 'rely' on academy graduates filling tiny gaps as you seem to desire, you'd need at least 30 players. That's exceptionally unreasonable.
Reading used the 2nd fewest players last season with 27. I'm using them as my example as they're similar to us in terms of the academies. Of those 27, 7 played fewer than 180 minutes of football with a few more playing around 5 games. Essentially a 20 man squad, which contained 5 academy graduates (Rinomhota, Richards, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre) - similar to us with Buchanan, Bird, Knight and Sibley

Our squad make-up would match theirs with just 5/6 signings. A rough comparison of our squad for the upcoming season vs their from last season:

[BucksRam]

I shouldn't get wound up but just reading the DT article about Simon Jordan who, in true Jordan style says if we breach FFP and get a points penalty " Derby will be toast, done".  What the chuff's that supposed to mean.  All these throw away comments do my head in.  

[Leeds Ram]

48 minutes ago, Norman said:

You say the squad is weaker, and it is numbers wise. However;

57 appearances between Roberts, Waghorn and Gregory managed a massive 9 goals. Not hard to replace. 

In midfield only Rooney and Holmes have left or stopped playing that had double figures appearance wise last season. Both will not be missed. 

Which leaves us with Clarke, Wisdom and Edmunson in defence missing.  

If we aren't capable of signing a striker who can score 10 in 40 odd games to replace the dross up front, a midfielder to cover the 'loss' of Rooney and Holmes and a couple of defenders then we will be in trouble. 

If Mengi can perform as well as Wisdom, we can get a replacement for Clarke, sign a decent midfielder and get a half decent striker, we will be no worse off. Possibly better off. 

It really isn't a lot to ask for. I'm sure if we sign 5 or 6 players, they will add more to the squad than what has left on the fraction of the wages. 

And I'm sure with the youth players having more experience, the management team having more experience, we'd get more points. Only my opinion, but I'm not really panicking.

we'd need to pick up players who can contribute at least double that I would imagine- we were pretty much the lowest scorers in the entire football league last season. I don't think that's just down to personnel but also tactically severe issues existed. Gregory and waghorn are experienced championship centre forwards so they do need to be replaced and getting someone in who can pop in 15 goals a season is what we need to be looking for but developing a style of play that can create good chances. 

Our midfield again was woeful last season, failed to offer defensive cover or attacking strength so that needs to be changed. 

Mengi was here last season as was wisdom, clarke was a top class defender at this level and only getting in 2 cb's leaves us relying on a 3rd cb in davies who has been injured for the past year and was old 3 years ago. 

I don't see a basis for more points just because they've had a season where they showed they couldn't cut the mustard. 

[hintonsboots]

28 minutes ago, BucksRam said:

I shouldn't get wound up but just reading the DT article about Simon Jordan who, in true Jordan style says if we breach FFP and get a points penalty " Derby will be toast, done".  What the chuff's that supposed to mean.  All these throw away comments do my head in.  

People only take him seriously because he has a bit of a posh voice.

[Leeds Ram]

55 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

So you're basing a full formational change based on 5 games from last season?

I can make a judgement on Stretton based on what I've seen. Inches away from scoring on his league debut for us, 3 goals in 173 minutes for Stockport and 8 in 696 minutes for the U23s last season. Since he became a first year scholar in 18/19, he's scored 37 in 3654 minutes of football at various levels, not far off 1 every 90 minutes. Some players, such as Whittaker, take time to adjust to the increased physicality. Stretton so far has stepped up seamlessly every single time.

10 games for 3rd choice isn't too unreasonable, I agree. But, it's something we can leave until January to re-evaluate. Keeping Davies as 3rd choice until then is also reasonable, as it's only asking him to step in for 5 games.

"At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Byrne gets injured". Well evidence shows Byrne will play in 90% of the available minutes, so the amount of games we have to 'rely' on McDonald or Ebosele is minimal.

McDonald played against Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Brentford, plus very short periods on the pitch vs Bristol, QPR and Bournemouth. That was 6 appearances vs top 9 sides. I think that shows he has Rooney's trust.

Yes, it's not unusual for young players in their debut seasons to have a bad run of form. Especially for a wing back during a congested schedule. We won't get any money for Forsyth and he'll be on low wages anyway, so it makes little sense to sign a replacement backup.

Lawrence was involved in 34 goals in his first 3 seasons with us (18 the season before). If that's "average", then there must be a lot excellent wingers in this league.

Don't forget the RB becuae you don't want us to rely on McDonald or Ebosele. Why not throw a GK in there too and we can have a whole new 11.

To have a squad which doesn't 'rely' on academy graduates filling tiny gaps as you seem to desire, you'd need at least 30 players. That's exceptionally unreasonable.
Reading used the 2nd fewest players last season with 27. I'm using them as my example as they're similar to us in terms of the academies. Of those 27, 7 played fewer than 180 minutes of football with a few more playing around 5 games. Essentially a 20 man squad, which contained 5 academy graduates (Rinomhota, Richards, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre) - similar to us with Buchanan, Bird, Knight and Sibley

Our squad make-up would match theirs with just 5/6 signings. A rough comparison of our squad for the upcoming season vs their from last season:

Given Rooney's erratic formation and style changes  last season then it's not unreasonable to suggest that he might use one of the options he did use last season this season. He shifted constantly playing a mixture of 3-5-2, 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 with a range of different styles. It's anyone's guess what he'll do this year. 

I don't want to sound like an arse but you're not a professional scout and the lad hasn't yet scored a goal in the football league. Plenty of players score bundles in under 23 games and have good stints at non-league sides then never make the championship grade. He shouldn't really be a part of the first team squad but should at his age and experience be loaned out to league 2/1 and see if he can make the step there before having him on the bench. The lad needs game time at his age anyway rather than sitting on our bench as what will likely be an ineffective substitute. 

Do we even know if Davies is fit enough to play a single game of football? In his interview, he said that the medical team didn't think he'd last 15 minutes out there... It seems silly not to bring in a 3rd centre back given that he's played 10 minutes in the past year and he's a badly ageing cb. Mcdonald had 3 starts last season I believe and a few sub appearances (according to his profile on Derby's website), Ebosele had a few sub appearances from memory so it's maybe not the worst idea to bring in a backup but certainly not first on the list I admit. 

I don't know what wages forsyth is on tbh but it's not a bad idea to bring in someone who can challenge when Buchanan does go off the boil as he did last year. Again though not the biggest priority but i think it's something that should be happening. 

Being involved in 34 goals in 3 seasons is precisely the definition of an average inconsistent championship winger. It's scoring or assisting an average of 11 a season which is basically 1 in 4. That's exactly the type of player he is... 
Tbh, I'd offload Roos and get someone else in yes as I've never rated him at this level. This club last season did have an issue with poor goalkeeping. 

I'd be looking at loaning out some of the younger players like watson, Stretton, Duncan, Dixon, Bardell, Ebosele for them to get some first team experience lower down the pecking order and bring in some more experienced players. The difference between reading and us is that reading just missed out on the top 6, we just avoided relegation. The difference in quality is quite stark and that's why we need some substantial changes. Pretending that our squad with 5 or 6 changes that match what we had last year will suddenly be similar to reading's is unrealistic. Yes, it will be similar in numbers but not in quality which is the key. 

I think a lot of our differences stem from how we assess the quality of our younger players. I've done this to death in the past but I don't think they're as good as people think. Currently, the squad has no recognised fit cb and one very old striker who ran completely out of steam last season and doesn't have a track record of scoring many goals. Our midfield that no-one is discussing any major improvement to was completely bereft most of the season contributing nothing in attack and offering the defence little protection either. This team didn't average a point per game and it was a miracle we stayed up- it's probably the worst Derby team I've seen since the phil brown years quite honestly. 

Edited July 6, 2021 by Leeds Ram