(That long since we've had any, couldn't find the thread)

Alan Nixon: "Top Liverpool starlet Cameron Branagan will Ben allowed out on loan in Jan.

Bolton lead the race for the 20 year old midfielder"

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Ratwhite

I know there's a lot more under the surface, there's clearly something that Evatt has seen from Wilson to pull out of the deal and I'm sure they're all working hard to make us stronger.

But I definitely understand fans frustrations at the minute. Because currently, the squad is weaker as of this moment compared to the end of the season.

Losing Traff and Conor, our 2 best players will make it difficult for Baxter and Cogley(who I don't think is our starter?) to replace. We lost another 3/4 players, MJ is leaving and Johnston could likely be out for the season.

Our strike force is the same as last season's, in which Evatt said we need to score more goals.

This isn't looking as if it's doom and gloom, it's just being realistic. Yes there's 6 weeks of the window to go, but we are firmly in pre season and just a few weeks away from the start of the season.

We've got a very particular way of playing that requires as much time as possible on the training pitches. Victor, Dan and others were given the excuse of not having a proper pre season to gel in. I don't want the same excuse to happen for other players not coming in and settling.

I don't wanna take away how difficult a transfer window can be. But we are going for the top 2 places, our competitors Pompey and Derby have got a number of good players in and are doing so early.

We need at least a good 5/6 players in to make us stronger than last season 

Quote

We've got a very particular way of playing that requires as much time as possible on the training pitches. Victor, Dan and others were given the excuse of not having a proper pre season to gel in. I don't want the same excuse to happen for other players not coming in and settling.

Yeah - this is a downside of not getting them in early doors - only 3 weeks or so until the season starts - but I'm sure they'll arrive and I'd rather we hold out for quality that fits.

2 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

It is a bit odd that the very first thing Evatt said after Barnsley knocked us out was that we didn't score enough goals. We've added no players to that part of the team and the most recent suggestion was that we're targeting a centre mid and another wing-back.

We scored 20 less than the four teams above us (40 less than Ipswich). You'd have to be very optimistic about JDB's fitness or Victor/Dan coming good to think we're going to make that up.

We don't score enough goals because we take so fckg long to switch from the back to the front. I don't want to return to hoof-ball but 35 passes & gaining zero yards will get is nowhere.

Interesting to me that our vg runs & scoring payloads was when Santos was out. There's no doubt he's class, but he also forces the pitta-pat game.

33 minutes ago, Lostock Whites said:

I know there's a lot more under the surface, there's clearly something that Evatt has seen from Wilson to pull out of the deal and I'm sure they're all working hard to make us stronger.

But I definitely understand fans frustrations at the minute. Because currently, the squad is weaker as of this moment compared to the end of the season.

Losing Traff and Conor, our 2 best players will make it difficult for Baxter and Cogley(who I don't think is our starter?) to replace. We lost another 3/4 players, MJ is leaving and Johnston could likely be out for the season.

Our strike force is the same as last season's, in which Evatt said we need to score more goals.

This isn't looking as if it's doom and gloom, it's just being realistic. Yes there's 6 weeks of the window to go, but we are firmly in pre season and just a few weeks away from the start of the season.

We've got a very particular way of playing that requires as much time as possible on the training pitches. Victor, Dan and others were given the excuse of not having a proper pre season to gel in. I don't want the same excuse to happen for other players not coming in and settling.

I don't wanna take away how difficult a transfer window can be. But we are going for the top 2 places, our competitors Pompey and Derby have got a number of good players in and are doing so early.

We need at least a good 5/6 players in to make us stronger than last season 

Very good post.  Baxter looks a solid signing, but you are not getting better than a 19m goalie. Cogley? Again, replacing a Northern Ireland international in Bradley is not easy at this level, but Cogley is a wait and see, havin played most of his career in the bottom division. Midfield, weaker than last season, forward line, with exception of Bod, still the same, so, im sure we all agree that we are weaker now, and the emphasis is on now, than last season. 

Alot of work to do for Evatt and Co, the pressure is on big time this season, as the league does  look slightly weaker than last season. Promotion as got to be a must this season. Managed the play offs last season, lets go one further.

14 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

 

Interesting to me that our vg runs & scoring payloads was when Santos was out. 

the 2 5-0s featured santos and not bradley

just saying

7 minutes ago, Casino said:

the 2 5-0s featured santos and not bradley

just saying

Facts, facts ruin everything.

3 minutes ago, woolli said:

Very good post.  Baxter looks a solid signing, but you are not getting better than a 19m goalie. Cogley? Again, replacing a Northern Ireland international in Bradley is not easy at this level, but Cogley is a wait and see, havin played most of his career in the bottom division. Midfield, weaker than last season, forward line, with exception of Bod, still the same, so, im sure we all agree that we are weaker now, and the emphasis is on now, than last season. 

Alot of work to do for Evatt and Co, the pressure is on big time this season, as the league does  look slightly weaker than last season. Promotion as got to be a must this season. Managed the play offs last season, lets go one further.

If you put out a starting 11 today vs last season then we’d have JDB in (upgrade), same midfield 3, Cogley for Bradley (assume downgrade), Baxter for Traff (I don’t think there’ll be much in it) and Iredale at LWB (upgrade).

The squad might be weaker, because we’ve let go some of the weaker squad members so far and haven’t replaced them yet, but that’s just all part of a transfer window - expecting it all to be done with 4 weeks to the first game is unrealistic.

People need to calm down and trust the process. Evatt is continuously improving the squad by letting the weaker players go (that were once the strongest - I.e it’s now MJ’s turn) and replacing with players that challenge for the first team. So far he’s done the first bit this window, created the space in the squad and will now work on filling it with the stronger players.

12 minutes ago, Casino said:

the 2 5-0s featured santos and not bradley

just saying

Scored in them both didn’t he 🤣

Confirmed Johnston likely out for the season.

 

2 hours ago, Marc505 said:

If Johnston is out for the season or most of it then...

Confirmed

32 minutes ago, Eddie said:

If you put out a starting 11 today vs last season then we’d have JDB in (upgrade), same midfield 3, Cogley for Bradley (assume downgrade), Baxter for Traff (I don’t think there’ll be much in it) and Iredale at LWB (upgrade).

The squad might be weaker, because we’ve let go some of the weaker squad members so far and haven’t replaced them yet, but that’s just all part of a transfer window - expecting it all to be done with 4 weeks to the first game is unrealistic.

People need to calm down and trust the process. Evatt is continuously improving the squad by letting the weaker players go (that were once the strongest - I.e it’s now MJ’s turn) and replacing with players that challenge for the first team. So far he’s done the first bit this window, created the space in the squad and will now work on filling it with the stronger players.

Even weaker now, Johnston out for the season!

14 minutes ago, BeeversLeftPeg said:

Confirmed Johnston likely out for the season.

 

MJW wouldve been perfect for that role

get him back

offer a million

12 hours ago, Deanu said:

Pompey also with another solid signing in Regan Poole

Pompey fans buzzing with that signing, Lincoln's Player Of Season, was expected to move to the championship apparently.

6 hours ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

That'd be a new one even for us, actually signing someone whilst injured rather than them getting injured in pre-season.

 

That made me laugh 😃  Cut out the middle man, sign them ready-injured.

Injuries can happen in games/training but I’m not a fan of playing these clogging teams always some prick going in hard or the pitch isn’t up to it

Edited July 11, 20232 yr by radcliffe white

58 minutes ago, Eddie said:

If you put out a starting 11 today vs last season then we’d have JDB in (upgrade), same midfield 3, Cogley for Bradley (assume downgrade), Baxter for Traff (I don’t think there’ll be much in it) and Iredale at LWB (upgrade).

 

As a group, I'd take Trafford, Bradley, Nlundulu (or Victor) and Randell over the four you've mentioned and it's not even close.

If Baxter and Cogley give us 60% of what we had with Traff/Bradley they will have been very good signings.

2 hours ago, DazBob said:

Bradley and Traf have been replaced haven't they?

Dapo won't be replaced like-for-like because he wasn't suited to a position that fitted in with how we play.

That just leaves a replacement for Lee being critical as MJ didn't get near our strongest team anyway.

Be reet.

Are those replacement signings for Traf and Brad as good though Bob? Dapo was a wild card I agree but one who could change a game and unlock defences. Whether he fitted into Evatt’s system is debatable but he scored goals which we missed after he went. MJ was our only true defensive midfielder and it’ll be very difficult to replace KL with anyone nearly as good, therefore that to me makes us just now much weaker as a squad. You may disagree but having now also lost Johnson for the season and Toal for an undetermined period as well that’s another big blow and leaves us weaker still, all in my opinion of course. Ian has a massive job to do in the weeks ahead so let’s just hope he’s up to it and can find the right players to fill the void? 🥴

Plenty Time but am not feeling it for a stab at the top two yet, certainly not lumping on us like last season

Top six obviously

Losing Johnston and Toal not being ready is a big blow so hopefully the PV lad is ready to go  

Surprised John is still here so hopefully he's knuckling down ready to start as first choice LWB 

Randall can start on the right 

Just need to sort the midfield out 

Am assuming he's done up top in terms of new faces

 

I never rated Iredale as a LWB so hopefully he will have to play as LCB now. 

3 hours ago, barrycowdrill said:

get one or 2 in who gives us that and Charles will get his 20 again, JDB 12-15? The other 3 a dozen or so between them and it’s fair healthier 

I was surprised looking at Charles league goals from open play, there were only 10.  Of those, we lost 3 anyway, and won 6.  His first goal was in our 16th game, the defeat to Oxford and the first point his goal earned us was the last minute equaliser v Bristol in December.  All but 1 were between end Oct and end Feb.

Charles has more to his game than just being a goalscorer so of course he justifies his place in the team, but rather than "another 20 goal season" I think if we're going for top 2 and we all agree we need more goals, we need him to be scoring  in the league consistently not just in the winter months.

 

3 hours ago, Lostock Whites said:

I know there's a lot more under the surface, there's clearly something that Evatt has seen from Wilson to pull out of the deal and I'm sure they're all working hard to make us stronger.

But I definitely understand fans frustrations at the minute. Because currently, the squad is weaker as of this moment compared to the end of the season.

Losing Traff and Conor, our 2 best players will make it difficult for Baxter and Cogley(who I don't think is our starter?) to replace. We lost another 3/4 players, MJ is leaving and Johnston could likely be out for the season.

Our strike force is the same as last season's, in which Evatt said we need to score more goals.

This isn't looking as if it's doom and gloom, it's just being realistic. Yes there's 6 weeks of the window to go, but we are firmly in pre season and just a few weeks away from the start of the season.

We've got a very particular way of playing that requires as much time as possible on the training pitches. Victor, Dan and others were given the excuse of not having a proper pre season to gel in. I don't want the same excuse to happen for other players not coming in and settling.

I don't wanna take away how difficult a transfer window can be. But we are going for the top 2 places, our competitors Pompey and Derby have got a number of good players in and are doing so early.

We need at least a good 5/6 players in to make us stronger than last season 

Good post.

The team is clearly weaker than last season.

I’m concerned too but we have to trust IE & the Board to bring in new signings and spend a bit of money.

 

Dion and the other strikers need to take up goal scoring positions more often and make more runs into the box if they're going to score more goals, but unless we beef up the midfield and get a bit more creativity going forward they'll have to continue chasing around and chasing back instead.

Dion's seasonal heat map shows he covers the whole attacking half but he does take up more positions in and around the box than the others - JDB mainly on the edge of the box and Victor more on the right wing - but they all cover a lot of ground and not necessarily in the right positions.

Great to have the high press and the defensive workrate from the strikers, but if more goals are to come, some of that will have to be sacrificed so the strikers can push on to where they can do the damage - and that means more work for the midfield of whom only Dempsey does the box to box stuff and runs into the area regularly ATM. Sheehan and Morley try to put balls through but they seldom do those runs into the area to join the attack and when we're playing with attacking WBs we need bodies in there and late runs from midfield.

13 minutes ago, captainmed said:

Good post.

The team is clearly weaker than last season.

I’m concerned too but we have to trust IE & the Board to bring in new signings and spend a bit of money.

 

Where I’m at 

I don't get this weaker than last season stuff, no we're not, but Evatt needs to find a way of fitting Sadlier into the team, his crosses are normally pinpoint, he scores goals and he can cover a number of positions, add to the fact Iredale and Bodvarsson will be back in the fold, I don't see a weaker team.

5 minutes ago, DomRepWanderer said:

I don't get this weaker than last season stuff, no we're not, but Evatt needs to find a way of fitting Sadlier into the team, his crosses are normally pinpoint, he scores goals and he can cover a number of positions, add to the fact Iredale and Bodvarsson will be back in the fold, I don't see a weaker team.

Not weaker? Lets just evaluate.

Baxter, freebie, Trafford, 19 million.  Baxter looks a solid signing though.

Cogley, played most of his career in the bottom division, Bradley, Northern Ireland international.

Forrester,  potential apparently, but not the finished article.

Johnston, out all season

MJ Williams gone

Kieran Lee, gone

Toal, injured.

How are we not weaker?