Even if Kubo ended up signing, I’d still sign Tom Fellows for the squad. Kubo a starter, and Fellows on the bench ready to come on if we need to tweak tactics and resort to plan B.
We know how good and accurate Fellows is with crosses from the right flank, and from what we’ve heard, we know Barry is very good aerially. Slight concern with Kubo and Ndiaye behind Barry in a front three, is neither Kubo or Ndiaye have great digits when it comes to assists. Ndiaye is great, but he’s a heads down and run at defenders kind of player and can be seen to be a little selfish. Kubo looks just as exciting, but is he similar on the right flank?
Strikers need service. They’ll come under all sorts of stick from supporters if they’re not scoring goals, but to do that they need to be given service by the wingers and midfield. For all the flack he gets on here by some, McNeil has assists in his locker. Only played 21 games this season due to an injury ravaged season, but in those 21 games, scored four goals and eight assists. What makes that more impressive, is that was in a Dyche and then to a lesser degree, Moyes defensive set up and for a team that was one of the worst in the entire league for scoring goals! You can’t knock those digits.
Fellows also looks to have assists in his locker on the other side. If you’ve got a huge 6’5” striker in the box who’s not only tall, but can actually use his head to good effect, it makes perfect sense to have players on the flanks that can deliver accurate balls in to the box. McNeil can do that on the left, Fellows can do that on the right.
Hasn’t got to be the same tactics in every game, different opponents require different strategies so by all means go Ndiaye Kubo (IF he signs) behind Barry/Beto, but would also be good to have options to mix it up to give the strikers better service by deploying McNeil and Fellows on the flanks delivering balls in to the box.
As it stands, we can’t mix anything up! Tick tok..