I'd be seriously surprised if NA doesn't bring in another quality CB. He has said many times, goals win games, defense wins championships. We lose Innis for a stretch and we do not have enough cover to maintain a promotion push.
Maybe the idea is to get as close to 30 games out of Inniss as possible & split the remaining games between Gunter and Elerewe.
Barker could fill in right back duties alongside Gunter-Famewo if Inniss & Matthews were out at the same time.
Barker doesn’t seem to have progressed like we thought he would, and Gunter is ok only as a last resort. Elerewe might do the job based on what we’ve seen in friendlies, but he’s unproven in L1. What would happen if he had a shaky first couple of games? I think we have to assume that Inniss may be missing for long periods.
Why isn’t barker progressing? Bowyer was forced to play him as a 17 year old ahead of older u-23 players for non footballing reasons. He then went back to the u-18’s and worked his way up to play for the u-23’s. He has been around the first team squad again this pre season. I would say that he is progressing nicely.
the problem is that because he played aged 17, people expect him to be Gomez or konsa. He is 18!!!! Another year of academy football, then 12 months of being with the squad, then regular game time aged 20.
In the 2 friendlies I’ve been to he has been running round like a headless chicken. Going in for stupid tackles and trying to take players out. The exception was tackling and blocks in the penalty area where his timing was good.
The problem with 433s and 4231s is that unless you have goals from central midfield, you can end up heavily reliant on the number 9 to score your goals unless the wingers are goal scorers as well (the Raheem Sterling types as opposed to the hug the touchline types)
Looking at Posh last season, Clarke-Harris got 33, but they also had scoring midfielder and wingers too - Szmodics with 15, Dembele with 13
For Hull, Wilks got 22, Magennis 19, Lewis-Potter 15
At the moment, we seem short of goals up top, especially with the enigma of Ronnie who seems best suited to a 442 anyway
DJ will get double figures this season as will Stockley and Washington
40 goals from those 3 should be the conservative target.
40 goals between the 3 won't be enough
The Posh 3 got 61 between them, the Hull 3, 56
The number of goals scored doesn’t matter as long as it’s one more than the opposing team. Clean sheets are what is needed.
The problem with 433s and 4231s is that unless you have goals from central midfield, you can end up heavily reliant on the number 9 to score your goals unless the wingers are goal scorers as well (the Raheem Sterling types as opposed to the hug the touchline types)
Looking at Posh last season, Clarke-Harris got 33, but they also had scoring midfielder and wingers too - Szmodics with 15, Dembele with 13
For Hull, Wilks got 22, Magennis 19, Lewis-Potter 15
At the moment, we seem short of goals up top, especially with the enigma of Ronnie who seems best suited to a 442 anyway
DJ will get double figures this season as will Stockley and Washington
40 goals from those 3 should be the conservative target.
40 goals between the 3 won't be enough
The Posh 3 got 61 between them, the Hull 3, 56
The number of goals scored doesn’t matter as long as it’s one more than the opposing team. Clean sheets are what is needed.
Clean sheets don't matter as long as we score one more than the opposing team. Goals are what is needed.
P.S. My source suggests Ian Maatsen is self-isolating.
Clean sheets matter, scoring goals matter, both in equal numbers, can't say that there has been a time when we have scored enough goals in a game, from an entertainment point of view, the more you score, the more you want to score that's the aim of the game isn't it.
Totally totally agree with Mendonca above, not the one in Asdas. Really appreciated Maatsen’s efforts last season, but aerially I do not think he is so good and if we are not playing with a 4 across the middle with a wide man that tracks back, fear he will be exposed a fair bit and will become a scapegoat when crowds return. What happy thoughts… Anyhow, ok if we get him, would prefer a more reliable option.
I like Maatsen but would just prefer a more solid LB and maybe with more aerial presence.
We have Purrington for that, makes more sense to add an attacking LB to the squad (not necessarily Maatsen), especially as Matthews and Gunter aren’t great going forward either.
I like Maatsen but would just prefer a more solid LB and maybe with more aerial presence.
We have Purrington for that, makes more sense to add an attacking LB to the squad (not necessarily Maatsen), especially as Matthews and Gunter aren’t great going forward either.
Exactly. The number of times he passed the ball to the opposition in a dangerous area reminded me of his age. The problem with loans from Chelsea and Liverpool is that they put fee related clauses that they must be first team players. I'd like us to aim elsewhere personally.
We will score more goals and concede less goals just by keeping the ball better and winning it back quicker.
Having a more defined system and style of play and being better at set pieces will also contribute. I am predicting 10 plus goals from defenders this season.
I'd be seriously surprised if NA doesn't bring in another quality CB. He has said many times, goals win games, defense wins championships. We lose Innis for a stretch and we do not have enough cover to maintain a promotion push.
I'd agree with that.
And no doubt they'll be times, horses for courses, when 3 CBs are needed for 3-5-2 formation?
Last season we didn't score enough. And we had injury prone Centre halves. Looking ahead to this season we have got rid of Shinnie, Aneke, Pratley. All wrong decisions. (Particularly Shinnie) And we look at Ipswich who have brought in goalscorers aplenty. I can see Bonne and Piggot both getting 20+. And all the other signings have goals in them. I also don't see much coming from the guy from Preston. Definitely NOT an Aneke replacement. I think Adkins is a good manager and I actually thought he did very well in the run in. But this season ahead with this current squad I see us sliding..we need 3 new forwards. Cover in all four back positions. And a playmaker in the centre of the park.
When TS said "we will p*** this division next season" (words to that effect) I couldn't stomach it..perhaps it's a Danish peccadillo to put a tonne of unnecessary pressure on your depleted squad but in England it is not even ironic. We will see come May 2022 but as the squad stands today ~ this club isn't going up.
Bonne and Piggott are!
Piggott maybe, but Bonne? Not unless Ipswich are going to be playing in the National League.
We will score more goals and concede less goals just by keeping the ball better and winning it back quicker.
Having a more defined system and style of play and being better at set pieces will also contribute. I am predicting 10 plus goals from defenders this season.
Absolutely. During the awful form of last season where every long range shot seemed to end up in Amos’ net, if we’d changed it up in midfield and stopped conceding possession so much, don’t believe we would have conceded 2 goals per game for however many games in a row it was.
The problem with 433s and 4231s is that unless you have goals from central midfield, you can end up heavily reliant on the number 9 to score your goals unless the wingers are goal scorers as well (the Raheem Sterling types as opposed to the hug the touchline types)
Looking at Posh last season, Clarke-Harris got 33, but they also had scoring midfielder and wingers too - Szmodics with 15, Dembele with 13
For Hull, Wilks got 22, Magennis 19, Lewis-Potter 15
At the moment, we seem short of goals up top, especially with the enigma of Ronnie who seems best suited to a 442 anyway
DJ will get double figures this season as will Stockley and Washington
40 goals from those 3 should be the conservative target.
40 goals between the 3 won't be enough
The Posh 3 got 61 between them, the Hull 3, 56
Yeah hense the Conservative part, ideally it's 50+. Despite our apparent lack of goals last season, only 3 teams scored more than us.
If we can pick up another midfielder that can chip in with 10, we are only 10 short of what we achieved last season (70 goals). Keep Innis fit and that's another 5 from corners.
I like Maatsen but would just prefer a more solid LB and maybe with more aerial presence.
Last season I’d of agreed with this as I wasn’t a fan of his defensive capabilities. But he’ll be a year more mature if he comes back and he did improve under Adkins. Also worth noting we had Jay Dasilva on loan twice and he massively improved the second time around, very similar scenario.
I'd be seriously surprised if NA doesn't bring in another quality CB. He has said many times, goals win games, defense wins championships. We lose Innis for a stretch and we do not have enough cover to maintain a promotion push.
Indeed - Burton were automatically promoted having scored 57 goals in 46 games with 85 points and conceded 37. Their top scorer that season was Akins with 12 goals and no other player even reached double figures.
That's not to say that we need to be quite so defensive but as we found when Famewo and Inniss were out last season we struggled to win games because we were conceding so many.
Comments
P.S. My source suggests Ian Maatsen is self-isolating.
Too hot for me coat, so i will just bugger off!
Having a more defined system and style of play and being better at set pieces will also contribute. I am predicting 10 plus goals from defenders this season.
And no doubt they'll be times, horses for courses, when 3 CBs are needed for 3-5-2 formation?
Should this be on the House of Commoners thread?
Nothing bad, just feel sorry for him being left out of all this talk about Ian Maatsen!!
Would have him back happily.
Indeed - Burton were automatically promoted having scored 57 goals in 46 games with 85 points and conceded 37. Their top scorer that season was Akins with 12 goals and no other player even reached double figures.
That's not to say that we need to be quite so defensive but as we found when Famewo and Inniss were out last season we struggled to win games because we were conceding so many.