Did We Get The Right Balance Of Players In, During The Summer?

[ram59]

LR mentioned on more than one occasion, that he was looking for certain types of character, when making his summer signings. But has it left us with a team consisting only of 'nice' blokes, who you'd like to have a kick around with and invite round for a BBQ?

Warne alluded to this in his post match interview on Tuesday about the players in the dressing room and I think that the club is lacking a few more 'competitive' players. Players who get in the opposition and officials' faces, players who put in a few hard and/or cynical challenges, players who will let their team mates know when they're not pulling their weight, players like Rioch and Roy Mac from our title winning sides.

It's about balance though, it doesn't have to be one way or another, I feel that our current squad is too 'nice' and needs 2 or 3 competitive type additions, to get a better balance.

[DerbyRevolution]

Certainly not the right balance of age or fitness no. To many under 20s or over 30s, nothing in between. 

With injuries and form I think we're in for a very inconsistent few months until Warne can make some additions where he sees fit.

A late run into the play offs is about as much as we can hope for now with this group and Warnes January additions.

With the embargo still active, I'm not sure the best thing would be to get promoted this season anyway, it would need another big haul in the summer to compete in the championship with this group.

[Rich84]

Collins and Chester probably the only ones in the 'tough' category, missed Collins on Tuesday night, expecting to see Dobbin with him on Saturday. Osula suits away games where there may before space in the opposition final 3rd. Looked inexperienced last couple of games, which he is, but sure he'll get better as season goes on.

 

[RadioactiveWaste]

To do what Liam wanted I think we recruited about as well as could possibly be achieved.

To 180 on that towards a manager who values very different attributes, it's a very different looking recruitment window.

Had Paul Warne been here in yhe summer we'd probably have a different looking squad. Would it be better? Well, it'd be better suited to his style,but probably not an "on paper" better squad.

[Magicman]

5 minutes ago, DerbyRevolution said:

Certainly not the right balance of age or fitness no. To many under 20s or over 30s, nothing in between. 

With injuries and form I think we're in for a very inconsistent few months until Warne can make some additions where he sees fit.

A late run into the play offs is about as much as we can hope for now with this group and Warnes January additions.

With the embargo still active, I'm not sure the best thing would be to get promoted this season anyway, it would need another big haul in the summer to compete in the championship with this group.

Under 21s       Roberts Osula Dobbin Thompson Oduroh Rooney Cashin 

Over 20s         Sibley Bird Knight Barks Wildsmith 

Just over 30s  NML Collins Smith 

Well over 30s  Davies Stearman Hourihane Loach 

We need some in the 23/30 range especially for defence. 

 

[Ram@Lincoln]

What I'd give for someone like Sam Morsy in the middle smashing tackles in non stop. Shinnie could easily be this one if there's a way to bring him back.

[duncanjwitham]

22 minutes ago, DerbyRevolution said:

Certainly not the right balance of age or fitness no. To many under 20s or over 30s, nothing in between. 

That's almost unavoidable though, given the transfer restrictions. You don't get that many mid-20s players on frees or loans.  January (and the next 2 windows too) will be the same, assuming the financial restrictions carry on.

[Ghost of Clough]

42 minutes ago, ram59 said:

LR mentioned on more than one occasion, that he was looking for certain types of character, when making his summer signings. But has it left us with a team consisting only of 'nice' blokes, who you'd like to have a kick around with and invite round for a BBQ?

Warne alluded to this in his post match interview on Tuesday about the players in the dressing room and I think that the club is lacking a few more 'competitive' players. Players who get in the opposition and officials' faces, players who put in a few hard and/or cynical challenges, players who will let their team mates know when they're not pulling their weight, players like Rioch and Roy Mac from our title winning sides.

It's about balance though, it doesn't have to be one way or another, I feel that our current squad is too 'nice' and needs 2 or 3 competitive type additions, to get a better balance.

Right character doesn't mean 'nice'. Shinnie would fit the character profile, but he was afraid to get stuck in to a challenge or scream in the ref's face.

31 minutes ago, DerbyRevolution said:

Certainly not the right balance of age or fitness no. To many under 20s or over 30s, nothing in between. 

With injuries and form I think we're in for a very inconsistent few months until Warne can make some additions where he sees fit.

A late run into the play offs is about as much as we can hope for now with this group and Warnes January additions.

With the embargo still active, I'm not sure the best thing would be to get promoted this season anyway, it would need another big haul in the summer to compete in the championship with this group.

We didn't get enough 'peak age' players in the 23-30 bracket because of our restrictions. They don't tend to be available on frees and rarely on loan either, unless they're injury prone. The players in that age who we'd like to sign would also like deals longer than the 2 years we're allowed to offer, and the players who'd be willing to accept it are unlikely to be good enough.

[Yani P]

I wonder if that's part of the thinking behind a 4 year deal...first 2 with hands tied making do with what we are allowed to bring in?

[Old Spalding Ram]

I can’t believe some of the stuff on here lately!
 

Whats kept this club going over the last eighteen months has been the relationship between the supporters the different management teams and the encouragement towards players, the all in this together, never give up, fight to the end attitude that has served us well unfortunately seems to be disappearing fast.

I will not criticise Rosenior or any player that decided to stay or sign for this club in extraordinary times.

Considering that just a few months back we were on the verge of folding then handing the club to Kirchner, had five players under contract, were scouring the leagues for loan kids, ageing players out of contract and had no pre season the performances so far are to quote a well known ex manager of this famous football club “nothing short of remarkable”.

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

We probably didn't no,but what else could rosenior do,without the knowledge if he was staying or being replaced.?

He did the best he could at the time.

But.....the last window doesn't matter now,the past has gone....it's the next influx/exit of players under Warne that counts.

Looking back to roseniors brief and temporary time in charge is pointless,let's look to the future.

Edited October 27, 2022 by kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong

[Ramarena]

3 hours ago, Rich84 said:

Collins and Chester probably the only ones in the 'tough' category, missed Collins on Tuesday night, expecting to see Dobbin with him on Saturday. Osula suits away games where there may before space in the opposition final 3rd. Looked inexperienced last couple of games, which he is, but sure he'll get better as season goes on.

 

I think Osula will massively benefit from having Collins around. Collins can do the closing down and make a nuisance of himself occupying the opposition CB's, whilst Osula finds the gaps he creates and exploits it with pace. 

[Day]

We did what we could with our hands tied behind our backs. Really couldn’t sit here and say we got it wrong. 

It wasn’t a “normal” summer, with the transfer restrictions, Rooney leaving at the last minute we’ve assembled a small squad that can at least compete at this level, Rosenior recruited for himself and now we have a manager that wants something different which is the norm. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager come in and say this squad is great, I don’t need anyone.

[LazloW]

Beggars couldn’t have been choosers.  We did remarkably well to get the players we did. The challenge for any manager is to get the best out of the squad you have.  If I think they’re doing that then I’ll forgive them the odd poor performance, the odd poor result and a poor league position (eg I didn’t get too disgruntled about Rooney because I think he did almost as much as could have been expected of him).  

Currently, I think the management could be getting a bit more out of what we have but it’s very early days.

What I don’t think we should be doing is fretting about recruitment in the summer when we didn’t know if we’d even be able to put a team out. We had to get numbers through the door. That context is everything.  No way there could or should be any criticism of our transfer dealings in that context (having not read the thread in full, I admit I don’t know if anybody is!)

Edited October 27, 2022 by LazloW

[RoyMac5]

Warne pointed out the lack of players in the 23 - 29 range ('really' we all thought, as if we hadn't tried to recruit).

I'll be amazed to get any players of that age bracket in based on the restrictions we'll be under, unless the EFL loosen the strings. But also I can't see them being keen on risking a move to us if they've potential, if it doesn't look like we'll be challenging for Top 6 in January.

Edited October 27, 2022 by RoyMac5

[Ambitious]

The recruitment was absolutely exceptional considering the restrictions in place, I'd love to hear how we could've possibly made it any better.

[BramcoteRam84]

We got the only people we could in and the best quality we could, not LR players, not PW players - just A SQUAD to be able to compete this season with.

Objective for first half of the season was always be in touch with playoffs and see if we can get in them the second half. 

[strawhillram]

4 hours ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

We probably didn't no,but what else could rosenior do,without the knowledge if he was staying or being replaced.?

He did the best he could at the time.

But.....the last window doesn't matter now,the past has gone....it's the next influx/exit of players under Warne that counts.

Looking back to roseniors brief and temporary time in charge is pointless,let's look to the future.

LR was only pointless away from home !

[Sparkle]

We did fantastically well with the imposed restrictions