The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship 16:57 - Sep 1 with 683 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior | Doesn’t win you points but now over to our manager that we all rate so highly. I’m not going to lose sleep as just having Leif as a natural LB. Pretty sure Ashley Young started a World Cup semi final at LB, Johnson can play there and so can Humphreys. Davis is incredibly robust as well. Matisuwa back up maybe as a true 6 might have been handy but Nunez can do it if we need to and not sure we’d find a bench player better than that. Ok it’s not the perfect balance overall but you can’t name everyone on your bench, it looks fine to me with options all over the park. We simply have to find our best front 4 to consistently start games and kick on! With Nunez creativity, a strong Akpom in the 10 and players running off him we could have something special that no one has even seen yet. I’d have loved the defender in from Mexico and I’m not sold on McAteer, other than that none of us really know how it’s going to shake out but on paper looks a ridiculous amount of talent to work with at the EFL level. |  |
| |  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:10 - Sep 1 with 582 views | pointofblue | If anyone has told us the 25 man squad would include Harry Clarke, Baggott and Humphreys at the end of the window most posters would be asking what went wrong. I agree, the first 20 should be fine but there's an element of being stretched if injuries occur. Bringing in Caceres, someone of Matusiwa's ilk and not splashing out on McAteer would have made it a perfect window (well, maybe with another keeper, but can understand our choice on that one). As it is, it feels like there's a lack of depth for certain positions, and a bunch of strangers who have to learn fast. |  |
|  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:15 - Sep 1 with 539 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:10 - Sep 1 by pointofblue | If anyone has told us the 25 man squad would include Harry Clarke, Baggott and Humphreys at the end of the window most posters would be asking what went wrong. I agree, the first 20 should be fine but there's an element of being stretched if injuries occur. Bringing in Caceres, someone of Matusiwa's ilk and not splashing out on McAteer would have made it a perfect window (well, maybe with another keeper, but can understand our choice on that one). As it is, it feels like there's a lack of depth for certain positions, and a bunch of strangers who have to learn fast. |
I don’t disagree to an extent but after Townsend went down always thought Humphreys might be in. We clearly tried for the LW replacement but the money didn’t work. Hopefully one we can revisit if we need. We have enough options in midfield to make it work. Nunez has played the deep breaking up play role before but you would lose some creativity if he was doing Matisuwa job maybe. Still don’t think it’s impossible to see him and Cajuste pairing for the odd game though. Not sold on McAteer but seems a different role to the Burns/Ogbene type. It’s really about figuring out our best attacking players to start games and fit into the system. Harry Clarke does seem a wasted place, he’s not in our plans. [Post edited 1 Sep 17:17]
|  |
|  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:24 - Sep 1 with 440 views | muccletonjoe | No one has even seen it because they haven't come close to doing it 🙂 |  | |  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:37 - Sep 1 with 347 views | Marshalls_Mullet | Greaves can fill in at LB if needed. |  |
|  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:52 - Sep 1 with 263 views | _clive_baker_ | Good post. We've got a lot of versatility in the squad which based on McKenna's comments in the past is certainly by design. Greaves has also played left back which could bring Kipre alongside O'Shea. Nunez could play in the 10 ahead of both Cajuste and Matusiwa. Taylor gets a tough rep at times but he's dependable enough and handy cover. Akpom can play 10, left, #9 potentially. Clarke has played off both sides, so has Philogene. Burns coming back. Egeli is an exciting one given his reputation, he's another who has played off the right, 10, 9. Only comment I disagree on is I do like McAteer, I liked him at Leicester and my only gripe is we paid a touch too much, but its not my money. He'll have a role to play for sure. We've got loads of depth, loads of versatility, loads of ability. It will take a bit of time but hopefully those first few wins aren't far away and McKenna and his team can get stuck in to this group, form a new identity, make way for some new heroes and get us pushing up the league. We've also got a new window in 20 games time and we've shown in the past how effective we can be in it. Time to back the boys now, first W against the Blades and onwards and upwards from there. |  | |  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:53 - Sep 1 with 258 views | BtreeBlueBlood |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:15 - Sep 1 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior | I don’t disagree to an extent but after Townsend went down always thought Humphreys might be in. We clearly tried for the LW replacement but the money didn’t work. Hopefully one we can revisit if we need. We have enough options in midfield to make it work. Nunez has played the deep breaking up play role before but you would lose some creativity if he was doing Matisuwa job maybe. Still don’t think it’s impossible to see him and Cajuste pairing for the odd game though. Not sold on McAteer but seems a different role to the Burns/Ogbene type. It’s really about figuring out our best attacking players to start games and fit into the system. Harry Clarke does seem a wasted place, he’s not in our plans. [Post edited 1 Sep 17:17]
|
Burns is out injured till when. Ogbene has gone out on loan - we bought him for the prem , so why isn’t he good enough now? Still got Jaden and Jack to me both lightweight and haven’t shown anything for the value they were bought for! I think the fact that we had money we’ve actually been seen as gold mine for other clubs. |  | |  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 18:04 - Sep 1 with 196 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:53 - Sep 1 by BtreeBlueBlood | Burns is out injured till when. Ogbene has gone out on loan - we bought him for the prem , so why isn’t he good enough now? Still got Jaden and Jack to me both lightweight and haven’t shown anything for the value they were bought for! I think the fact that we had money we’ve actually been seen as gold mine for other clubs. |
If you’ve have followed me a while on here I’ve stated many times how I hated our transfer strategy after promotion to the PL. So many inflated fees on EFL players, compared to what the likes of Sunderland have done this summer. It’s painful how we approached it and I think we are still paying for it. However, this is a post about the squad we’ve got now at this level and I think our summer window was better than last with Matisuwa, Nunez, Walle Egeli in particular but time will tell. [Post edited 1 Sep 18:06]
|  |
|  |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 18:05 - Sep 1 with 182 views | _clive_baker_ |
The starting 11 and bench will be elite for the Championship on 17:53 - Sep 1 by BtreeBlueBlood | Burns is out injured till when. Ogbene has gone out on loan - we bought him for the prem , so why isn’t he good enough now? Still got Jaden and Jack to me both lightweight and haven’t shown anything for the value they were bought for! I think the fact that we had money we’ve actually been seen as gold mine for other clubs. |
Its hard to not get fleeced when you've got deep pockets but the Cajuste deal and obligation is cheap if he stays fit, and on early evidence Matusiwa is good value and Rennes actually sold him at a loss having paid 16m EUR for him. Nunez I don't think is silly money for a 25 year old international. Furlong perhaps a touch too much, but relatively insignificant in the scheme of things. Egeli who knows, it could be a very expensive mistake or a stroke of genius but time will tell on that. McAteer is the only one who really sticks out a bit IMO, he feels every bit an £8m player but other than him I think we've bought fairly well this summer. We've sold quite well too, especially Broady and holding firm on Omari. The biggest mugging is only getting £30m for Delap but our hands were tied on that. [Post edited 1 Sep 18:07]
|  | |  |
| |