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The midfield conundrum
Discussion started by Steway , 15 July, 2014 15:45
The midfield conundrum
Steway 15 July, 2014 15:45
Having signed Rowe and van la Parra, I'm finding it increasing difficult to work out who's going to start in midfield for the new season. McDonald and Price are pretty much a given, but it's really 6 into 3 for the rest of the spots, with Jacobs, Henry, Sako, Rowe, van la Parra and Dangerous Dave. Hard one to call at the moment, who do you think will start the season? Got a feeling Jacobs might give way to van la Parra unfortunately, he looked good in the Shamrock game (albeit a lesser standard of opposition to Norwich).

Re: The midfield conundrum
cedric harper 15 July, 2014 15:56
Well Jacobs was pants last night.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Badge32 15 July, 2014 16:45
Rowe out for 5 weeks with broken toe.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Lupy 15 July, 2014 21:11
I feel that having this number of midfielders who bring different qualities to the game will give KJ a nice set of options. I fully expect the midfield to be shuffled quite significantly throughout the season as players settle in to the new pressures of the championship.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Steway 15 July, 2014 21:33
Have to agree with that Lupine, much like last season really. Don't think midfield was where we should have been getting two new players in, would happily swap one of them for a decent centre forward.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Lupy 16 July, 2014 08:40
It has been disappointing that despite gaining promotion we still refuse to invest any real money on new players to keep pushing forward. This seeming lack of ambition fails to inspire me in regard to us having a particularly good season this year.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Meditate today 16 July, 2014 09:22
Problem is the eight loanees are taking up most if not all the £8mill parachute money in salary for doing nowt .Until we get them out the club I cant see morgan being aggressive in the market.

If there is no progress before september we might as well pay them to go away.

But we have to get a striker in as we are vulnerable to injury and suspension.Either that or play 4-6-0.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Steway 16 July, 2014 10:49
Agree with both of you Lupine and FBBY. Think success this season depends on us ridding ourselves mainly of O'Hara, Johnson, Boukari and Doumbia. The sooner we do it, the better chance we've got of getting two or three good players in and getting anywhere near the play offs. If we don't get rid, can see us struggling in lower mid table. Some don't rate him but I imagine Billy Sharp being the kind of player we should be looking at, season-long loan maybe or short term deal. Scores goals at this level and would give us good options up front, with McAlinden, Dicko and Clarke. Still wouldn't be enough to mount any sort of serious threat but would give us a decent grounding for consolidation.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Cheshire wolf 16 July, 2014 16:31
I have to wonder whether Jacobs and Henry were stars for us in the 1st Division, but will struggle to perform in the Championship, as they did for their former teams. As with most posters on here I seriously doubt Clarke will become a force to be reckoned with at this level either.
As Doyle and Ward have been left at home rather than being included on a tour to their homeland, that's two more strikers who are likely to leave, so I would agree some new blood up front is going to be required.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Steway 16 July, 2014 19:48
I think Jacobs and Henry will do fine to be honest Cheshire mate, it's the front line and back four I worry about moreso. Stearman stepping up a level again, has always looked fairly shaky when faced with better opposition, Golbourne relatively unproven at Championship level, defensively he doesn't fill me with confidence, although going forward he can cause problems. Luckily Batth and Ricketts provide that bit of steel. And up front, as you say Clarke isn't going to set the Championship alight (couldn't do it in League One either really), McAlinden, whilst being someone I'm looking forward to watching progress, is far from the finished article, and that really leaves poor Nouha to take all the goalscoring weight on his shoulders. We were lucky we had a midfield capable of scoring goals in League One, else we would have struggled with only Dicko of note in the latter half of the season. I personally, in an ideal world, would like to see 2 new strikers to complement Dicko, sod Clarke off ala Johnson and have McAlinden as a fourth option. It won't happen though.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Meditate today 16 July, 2014 21:27
Another two for clarke tonight against Bohemians.

Re: The midfield conundrum
cedric harper 16 July, 2014 21:48
Must be something in the air FB

Re: The midfield conundrum
Meditate today 16 July, 2014 23:24
As angry/happy would remind us friendlies are pretty meaningless-however for strikers scoring is all about confidence so let the lad have a few beers kj

Re: The midfield conundrum
2longinthetoothWolf 17 July, 2014 11:09
Have to say that for the past few seasons our "friendly" results have been in the large part uninspiring. Now I know that we can't glean too much from the 3 games thus far, but at least the boys have continued with the same winning mentality as where they left off in L1.

Don't want to go over old ground, but paying off the "wasters" simply isn't an option for the club from a cashflow perspective.

So long as they're not upsetting the apple-cart with the core squad, then paying them on a weekly basis, keeping them away from the group, and with a chance of moving them out on loan, is a much more sensible option from a financial perspective. Better that than crystalising the remainder of their contracts in full, upfront, in one fowl swoop.

We don't have to settle, but we do have to pay them. Let them rot. Its not a game of chicken, but they've more to lose than we have. Even O'Hara is now making noises about taking a pay cut to gain first team football...how noble of him!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 17/07/2014 14:49 by 2longinthetoothWolf.

Re: The midfield conundrum
Meditate today 17 July, 2014 21:17
Kj has reiterated no payoffs today.

And with eight in the queue fair enough.

Reckon we will do a deal with the last one still with us whoever that turns out to be.


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