Bye, bye to Roberts, Lowe and Grimes???
- Thread starter CroJack
- Start date
Yankee_Jack
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Yankee_Jack
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I see nothing but a blip from BBC on Burnley interest in Roberts. Nothing on Grimes. I don’t see Grimes going anywhere … to old to attract attention, not accomplished enough.
Yankee_Jack
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agreed. What’s the point of this season.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Ollie Cooper loaned out to Newport
Yankee_Jack
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He hasn’t been given a look in any of the matches so far. He’ll get lots of opportunity there. Hopefully he’s available for recall in case of need.
Yankee_Jack
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Roberts is now a Burnley player
Yankee_Jack
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Hence the Laird loan. Not even a fair replacement.
CroJack
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So, with Lowe and Roberts departures we've just lost 19 goals and 7 assists. If Grimes leaves that's 22 goals and 10 assists. Add to these numbers Ayew's 17 goals and 4 assists, and we suddenly have a deficit of 39 goals and 14 assists.
Ok, let's be optimistic and say Piroe can score 20 goals this season. At his current form it's not impossible he scores between 20 and 25. Then we have Whittaker and Cullen who should score 10 goals each. Not impossible. But even if our strikers score 40 goals between them that's not enough. Having in mind that we concede a lot of goals, we'll need 20-30 goals more just to avoid relegation. And who is going to score these goals? Bidwell? No. Laird? No. Paterson? A couple of goals. Fulton? A couple of goals.
Apart from our three strikers, I can't see anyone in our squad who can score more than 3 goals per season, and that's a huge problem.
What can we do?
1. We can keep playing with wing-backs, but then we have to sign today two goal-scoring wingers who can play as wing-backs. Also, we have to sign today two goal-scoring attacking midfielders. Neither of this is going to happen.
2. We can change our formation and style of play to a more defensive one, and start playing counter-attacking football. If we can't score many goals when we dominate possession, then we can at least stop conceding goals. But Martin is not going to change his philosophy, so this is not going to happen either.
3. Improve our passing accuracy and our pressing so dramatically that there aren't any sloopy passes anymore and we recover the ball in no time. I am not sure Martin will be able to do that with this squad but it seems he has no other options.
Yankee_Jack
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This is very similar to the challenge and deficits faced by Sousa when he took over from Martinez. Scotland (20 league goals, 8 assists), Gomez (12 league goals, 6 assists), Bodde (7 league goals, 3 assists - cut short due to injury) - all disappeared. 39 goals and 15 assists disappeared.
@CroJack Your goal difference calculation to avoid relegation is spot on. Sousa started the season with a -23 GD budget based on the loss of goals from the prior season. Sousa inherited Pintado and Bauza and was given Sick Note Beattie and that Finnish guy - basically no goal scoring punch whatsoever. So Sousa turned us into a defensive brick wall ... it was the only thing he could do ... not concede goals.
We have goal scorers, which is what annoys me no end about the rumor of that Hibs fellow, we need a #10 and wide players who can create and provide service up the middle and down the wings . Paterson is not the answer as #10. He won't even play up the center of the field and he's not a big enough physical presence to be in the center of the field. We've just lost Oli Cooper on loan who is an attacking midfield player.
Our assist leaders last season were Bidwell and Roberts .... FFS we lost half of our creative element.
Unless Martin comes up with an innovative formation that gets Piroe up top with Whittaker and Cullen both on the field as creative co-#10s with WB/FB overlapping then I don't see how we score goals.
And Paterson cannot be on the field because he's invisible defensively.
CroJack
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We can play 3-4-3 or even 4-3-3 with both Piroe, Whittaker and Cullen up front. We will have had enough pace to counter-attack and press high.
In 3-4-3 formation I would use Manning instead of Bidwell. Manning is simply a more mobile and overall better footballer than Bidwell. Bidwell is hopelessly left-footed. Laird can play as wing-back on the other flank.
Fulton must play in the midfield, and Williams should be his partner there.
Back three? Cooper on the left, Cabango centrally, and either Naughton or Lati on the right.
As for Paterson not helping in defence, well, his job is not to defend. We play 3 at the back and if we can't defend with 7 players + goalkeeper then we shouldn't be in this, or any other division. When we defend, Paterson, Piroe and Cullen should be ready to counter-attack.
If we switch to 4-3-3 then I would play Paterson and Williams behind Cullen, Whittaker and Piroe. Fulton as defensive anchor, just like Liverpool's Fabinho. Laird and Manning as full-backs.
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Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Against PNE we were woefully out manned in midfield. As your analysis showed, too often Fulton was there by himself, Grimes trailing the play and out of position and Paterson spectating up field. We need 3 players in the middle of the park that can go box to box and inter-change.
Yankee_Jack
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I presume from your last post that you think Grimes is gone but not announced yet.
CroJack
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That's because of Grimes, not Paterson. We played 3-4-2-1 fornation with Paterson and Cullen ordered to play too wide up front, and wing-backs pushing too high when we had the ball. I was shocked when I saw how naive we were formation-wise. Grimes lacked discipline, not Paterson.
Yankee_Jack
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Lowe is officially gone. No fee disclosed.
CroJack
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£1.5m
JackBarSteward
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A bargain. A steal yet again, to competitors.
KVetch
Key Player
We finally got Obafemi Southampton Striker Michael Obafemi heading to Swansea