Squad until Jan

[Archied]

Looks a decent squad to me ,may be wrong but I reckon on paper at this point we have a better or at least as good a squad as Rotherham in they’re 3 promotions so it’s down to warne and his team now to do the magic , this coupled with the hope that we are better situated financially and business plan wise to evaluate and perhaps strengthen where needed in January has me looking forward to the season with a positive mindset 

[TomTom92]

Before the final 3 signings I wasn’t confident of a top 6 finish. I’d say that squad is now top 6 worthy. 
 
Top 2? Maybe, but we’re a top striker short for my liking.

[DerbyAleMan]

15 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Before the final 3 signings I wasn’t confident of a top 6 finish. I’d say that squad is now top 6 worthy. 
 
Top 2? Maybe, but we’re a top striker short for my liking.

What about Waggy, think he is a top forward myself at this level, again time will tell, but 5 goals already is not a bad start. 

[TomTom92]

14 minutes ago, DerbyAleMan said:

What about Waggy, think he is a top forward myself at this level, again time will tell, but 5 goals already is not a bad start. 

Still have my reservations although 5 goals would suggest otherwise. 
 
We may go up top 2 but we’re not as strong as Plymouth or Ipswich in my opinion and that rightly or wrongly is my barometer.

[angieram]

8 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

A squad on paper that should be competing for top 6.

Will the players gel? Will the manager be brave enough to drop certain players if others fit better, (no England manager has done that since Alf Ramsey for instance).

There's a lot of luck/chance/refs decisions etc that go into a promotion season, the only way us fans can influence it is by giving our players confidence and support when they need it and making it hostile for the away team.

 

And the home team at many of our away matches!

[Reggie Greenwood]

59 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Still have my reservations although 5 goals would suggest otherwise. 
 
We may go up top 2 but we’re not as strong as Plymouth or Ipswich in my opinion and that rightly or wrongly is my barometer.

We might not need to be this season as most of the ones who raced away with the top three are gone. Apart from maybe Wigan don’t think the other two relegated clubs will do much ( Blackpool seem to have faded after a bright start ) and the rest Bolton apart are pretty much the same. 
Still not sure how good Portsmouth are no doubt we will see in a couple of weeks. Lincoln seem to be well organised .

Only my opinion of course and could be totally wrong as Exeter and Oxford power to the to two 😅

[davenportram]

To be honest I don’t watch enough football except for us to know how good or consistent  any of these new players really are. 
 

all I know is we beat Posh who were above us at the time.

lost to Oxford - the firm team and Wigan - a team just down and have already wiped out their points deduction

beat two relegation candidates

 

if they improve us at all we’ll be pushing promotion

[IlsonDerby]

Goalkeeper: 

In: vickers 

Out: ??? Lad from blades 

Defence: 

In: Ward, Nelson, Wilson, Elder, Bradley 

Out: Davies, Roberts, Chester 

Midfield: 

In: 

Fornah, Embleton 

Out: 

Knight, Bielek, white 

Forwards: 

In: John-Jules, Waggy, Washington 

Out: McGoldrick, Spriggett, Dobbin 

 

 

How we feeling? 
For me the fact we have actual full backs, younger replacements for Davies and Chester in Nelson and Bradley means that defence personnel are stronger. 

Depending on how Fornah and Embleton do will decide on whether we’ll miss Knight. We won’t miss white or Bielek. 
 

Can Waghorn get to 18+ this season? I think if he can then our forwards as a collective score more goals than our forwards of last season. 
 

Overall despite losing some key players I feel the squad is both bigger (important), younger and stronger. 

[Old Spalding Ram]

The team for the old Papa Johns trophy run out against Lincoln on the 19th looks a bit tasty.

 

                                              Vickers

           Bardell           Rooney          Bradley           Elder

Sibley                   Embleton                 Fornah                   Barkhuizen

                           John-Jules                     Collins

[PistoldPete]

10 hours ago, DCFC1388 said:

So now we are done for this transfer window, unless we get any free agents in, how do we feel about our squad...

Based on a 4231 or 433 which we have played in our last 2 games...

GK - Wildsmith / Vickers / Loach

RB - Ward / Wilson
RCB -  Nelson / Rooney
LCB - Cashin / Bradley
LB - Forsyth / Elder

RCM - Smith / Fornah
LCM - Hourihane / Bird

RM - NML / Sibley
CAM - Embleton / Thompson
LM - Waghorn / Barkhuizen

ST - Washington / John-Jules / Collins

Obviously some players can play other positions (e.g Waggy & Sibley can play across the 3). I put Sibley on the right purely to show 2 in each position.

Squad of 24 plus the likes of Bardell, Robinson & Brown to potentially step up from the academy.

I personally think if we stick to this formation, it suits our players & its good enough for top 2.

I am surprised we didn't get another RB in on loan given two are out long term injured. Maybe with extra midfielders Smith will switch back to RB for now? 

[DCFC1388]

10 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

I am surprised we didn't get another RB in on loan given two are out long term injured. Maybe with extra midfielders Smith will switch back to RB for now? 

Wilson should be back not long after the international break so dont think a RB was needed

[Tombo]

Just now, DCFC1388 said:

Wilson should be back not long after the international break so dont think a RB was needed

Then Ward hopefully only about 2 weeks or so after that. Certainly both due back by the end of October. A blow for sure but hard to justify bloating the squad and wages when Jake Rooney is doing a fine job there for now

[InstaRam]

Good enough squad for top 6 and even push for top 2 I would say. We look more even and with greater depth which I think is very important in L1. Well done after a bad start to the window!

[Marriot Ram99]

Not good enough for top 2 imo, unless Fornah is absolute quality for this league anyone who knows football can see that our midfield is a weak point and is only comfortable playing possession football where not much pressing and defensive play is required.  Also lacking that extra bit of quality out wide and our fullback area is midtable quality. Still a decent squad but no better than last season and we will probably be around 4th to 8th depending on injuries and form of key players.

Would have liked JCH instead of Washington and would have got rid of Hourihane personally for a more athletic and dynamic midfielder if we were really serious about making sure we go up. With Mcgoldrick and Knight going it was always going to be tough to improve the side,the defenders we have signed bar Nelson maybe are bang average to poor and Washington is very average,  Waghorn is a good signing though and hopefully recent 3 new loan signings could make a good difference as well.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Marriot Ram99

[Day]

Best time of the season this now as it's all about the football for 4 months. Bring it on. 

[Jimbo Ram]

Good enough for the play offs.

[Ambitious]

3 hours ago, TomTom92 said:

Still have my reservations although 5 goals would suggest otherwise. 
 
We may go up top 2 but we’re not as strong as Plymouth or Ipswich in my opinion and that rightly or wrongly is my barometer.

Who in the league is as strong as Ipswich and Plymouth? You can’t really compare to two sides that aren’t here now. Waghorn looks a class above at this level, which we need to remember is significantly worse than the championship. 

I don’t see the 6 teams better than us on paper, I’m hard pressed to find two. Bolton and Blackpool are comparative with regards to ability, but that’s it for me. 

[Sparkle]

We are slow in defence and lack cover for injuries and people who can’t perform anymore 

midfield lacks invention 

forwards have experience and no how and I expect a decent return from all of them 

overall we should be fine and get automatic promotion but that is based on the other clubs being inconsistent and more rubbish than we can achieve 

it’s promotion and fear for next season in the championship when we would be exposed every week unless something very strange occurs 

[Marriot Ram99]

1 hour ago, Ambitious said:

Who in the league is as strong as Ipswich and Plymouth? You can’t really compare to two sides that aren’t here now. Waghorn looks a class above at this level, which we need to remember is significantly worse than the championship. 

I don’t see the 6 teams better than us on paper, I’m hard pressed to find two. Bolton and Blackpool are comparative with regards to ability, but that’s it for me. 

Oxford for me, their midfield was alot better than ours at Pride Park and they play well as a team.Wigan are better than us as well and might finish above us even with the point deduction. 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Marriot Ram99

[DCFC Kicks]

If we continue this lob-sided 3-5-2/4-4-2 system.

We're potentially only 2 injures away from not being able to play with 3 CBs

We can't keep getting away with playing NML in RWB. Teams are going to realise what we're doing soon. Rooney was exposed massively at times against Peterborough 

I don't know where NML or Barkhuizen even fit in this system 

I expect Fornah to replace Smith at some point which will hopefully free up Hourihane more.

I still think our players are better suited to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1, but Warne's committed to playing 2 up front now after signing so many strikers.