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Thread | Delap v Hirst
at 09:18 12 Oct 2024
What a start to the season for Delap, 4 goals in the PL & already talk of him being a target for numerous Champions League chasing sides with figures of £50m - £80m being suggested. It could hardly have gone better, could it.
Well, for him on a personal level it certainly couldn't, but does he offer the team the best option for goals/success, when you look to compare with how we played with Hirst as the #9 in League 1 & the Championship?
Burns, Chaplin & Broadhead, are no longer the preferred line up as the 3 behind the striker, however we have looked to sign upgrades in those positions, as opposed to going with a totally different style or formation, so the same tactical plays should still work with Clarke, Szmodics & Hutchinson/Ogbene.
Of course the PL is a totally different level of football & defending to what we were used to, and therefore we have to respect it & modify our approach, but good hold up play, clever knock downs & link play in & around the box are always a positive surely.
Delaps strength, direct running & shooting confidence have proven very effective thus far, and have given the whole team something to grasp to, as defences try to get to grips with him, and yet it does not seem to have opened up the scoring opportunities for our other attackers that we might have expected. They have all proven that they are good finishers when given the chance, but our only non-Delap goals are 1 each from Szmodics & Morsy, which is surprising.
Again, maybe it is purely down to the quality of the sides we are now playing - Burns scores against Huddersfield, but Pau Torres gets back to block a similar chance against Villa.
It would be crazy to switch Delap out at the moment, given his form & confidence, but I wonder would we be seeing more from the #10s were we to start with Hirst up front in a couple of targetted games? No defender is going to want to see Delap coming into the game on 60 minutes. |
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Thread | When Morsy is suspended, who starts?
at 07:12 3 Oct 2024
2 weeks ago I would have confidently said that Cajuste would come in alongside Philips, but he wasn't even in the matchday squad to face Villa on Sunday, despite them having a very strong midfield to combat against.
Obviously Philips plays, & hopefully will be up to speed for completing the 90+ minutes by then; but with the next run of games so important for us in looking for at least 1 win, we will need a strong midfield unit.
Taylor has been decent when coming on for the last 20 minutes or so, & seems to have adapted his game somewhat for the PL, but I would worry about starting him in a new partnership, against Everton or at Brentford.
We know what Luongo can do & he would certainly put himself about & give his all for 65 minutes if he got the nod, but Cajuste just has that extra bit of quality on the ball & the strength/presence to play at this level, IMO.
Why wasn't he in the squad for Villa though? No mention of an injury, that I've seen. Is there an issue I wonder. |
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Thread | On the bench
at 08:45 20 Sep 2024
With pretty much a fully fit squad now, competition for a place on the bench is going to be nearly as keen as for getting into the starting XI. Some very serious players are going to find themselves out of the matchday squad over the coming weeks.
Walton will be there, but McKenna doesn't prioritise defenders in his subs & uses the versatility of his players to plug gaps when needed, so a max of 2 is likely, Johnson & Woolfie or Townsend depending on the game perhaps.
Cajuste or Luongo as the midfield replacement, but probably not both too often, as that reduces the number of forward options down from 5 to 4, and McKenna likes to change the entire front 4 between the 60th (earlier against Brighton) and 75th minute, & will want cover/options within that.
If we look at the likely '2 options for each position' in the front 4, we have Burns/Ogbene on the right, Clarke/Broadhead on the left, Hutchinson/Szmodics in the middle, with Delap/Hirst as centre forward.
In a situation where both Cajuste & Luongo are on the bench, we are seeing Chaplin, Al Hamadi, Taylor, Burgess, H Clarke & either Woolfenden or Townsend out of the matchday squad.
- Arguably Broadhead could lose out instead of Chaplin, with Szmodics a left side option, but either way, one of Chappers & Broadhead are likely to dropped from the matchday squad, while fully fit, on a few occasions this season, which seemed unthinkabe not too long ago.
Of course, unfortunate injuries & suspensions will likely free up spaces as the season goes on, but it's a measure of where we have gotten to, so quickly, that we can even consider such possibilites. |
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Thread | With both match fit, who is our starting centre forward, Delap or Hirst?
at 06:46 19 Sep 2024
Delap has had a great start for us & looks like a beast even against experienced PL defenders, but he is still young & learning the role. Hirst knows the role better & arguably provides more in the way of linking with the 3 forward players in behind, & indeed with Davis when he gets forward.
Maybe the Southampton game is still a bit early for him post-injury, but McKenna loves Hirst - he immediately favoured him over Kieffer Moore when back from injury last season, despite Kieffer having been really effective for us - so I think he may well start him, with Delap coming on as a devastating powerhouse of a sub on 60 minutes or so, by the Aston Villa game. |
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Thread | After Brighton game, the preferred starting XI is becoming clearer
at 06:50 15 Sep 2024
Kieran MxKenna will continue to use his squad to their best of their abilities, game to game, like he did when bringing Edmundson in a couple of times last season, but all things being even, his favoured starting XI this side of January (for Southampton) will likely be:
Muric
Tuanzebe, O'Shea, Greaves, Davis
Morsy, Phillips
Burns, Hutchinson, Clarke
Delap.
At this point the only possible changes are perhaps starting a fit Hirst & having a fresh Delap come on; starting Szmodics in some games ahead of Clarke if we go more defensive with 2 #10s behind the CF, or starting Cajuste in a couple of weeks when Morsy gets suspended for reaching 5 bookings, and probably again in December when he hits 10!! |
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Thread | Ioannidis
at 08:12 8 Sep 2024
I watched a Euro Nations round up show last night and saw that he scored 2, & set up the other goal (an OG) with a good first touch & nicely weighted lay off for the overlapping left back to put a dangerous ball in (sound familiar?), for Greece against Finland. The 2 he scored were a good flicked header from a corner & great awareness, speed and quick feet for a little flick over the keepers leg, when he pounced on a poor touch. He also showed well with some other touches, sharp turns, strength & shots in those highlights.
He is not our player, but the reason I am bringing up the above is because he looked exactly what we want in a centre forward & I can totally see why we were prepared to pay a reported £25m for him (similar to Broja), even though most of us had never heard of him before this Summer.
The club is sometimes accussed of not looking to foreign markets enough for transfers, but McKenna, Ashton & theanalytics department were out of the blocks early on this one. It's a pity he wasn't willing to take a chance on us, allegedly due to our favourites for relegation tag. Perhaps if we perform well between now & Christmas, and if Panathinaikos are out of Europe by then (!), we may have a better shot should we make another attempt in January. We know that McKenna doesn't just give up when he fails to get a player he really wants in one transfer window.
Greece play against Ireland on Tuesday & then England in October, so that'll give us a better chance to have a look at him; of course other clubs will be looking at him too. |
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Thread | Tansfer window value
at 06:36 3 Sep 2024
The cost of players in the current market is crazily over inflated, but that is the reality the club had to negotiate in the window just gone. We paid some huge fees, which concerned many as to our financial viability at the end of the season, should we fail to stay up. However, it would appear that may well have played a blinder yet again.
Apart from all our remaining League 1/Championship players will now carry a Premier League premium should they need to be sold, the new players we have signed are already proving to be very shrewd bits of business, with Hutchinson, Delap & Greaves in particular, all proving their quality at this level, getting noticed, and are arguably worth significantly more already, than the fees we have paid, given their youth & length of contract.
The measure of their value is in the resale potential, but also in their value to us right now & over the length of their contracts, so again, someone like Szmodics who wasn't a cheap purchase, has already demonstrated his worth, through proving his quality at PL level & his immense work rate.
Of course Muric has had a rocky start for an £8m+ signing, & we are yet to see Dara O'Shea tested in the PL to assess his £12m+ investment, but overall, it does look like we have given ourselves a really good chance of survival with the squad assembled, and yet will not be jeopardised financially should the worst happen in May. [Post edited 3 Sep 6:40]
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