Darren Higgs
Player Valuation: £1.5m
bit of a long winded outpouring rather than comments on half a dozen threads.
Where do I start? I suppose the summer
To say koeman was the only one we wanted it seem to take an age to sort it out. An even when we did he flew off for a second holiday. If it had been me I would have taken an extra 2 weeks to study videos of the games last season and get to know about the club and start to think about what issues need sorting out. As we all know the transfers in the summer was a complete disaster. I don’t put this all down to the manager as we took far to long in appointing Walsh and we had dithering bill negotiating deals.
Reviewing what we ended up with.
· Stek a keeper seen by most as the new spare keeper once the proper one was bought.
· Williams in my eyes was a short-term replacement for jags that we wanted to pair with kone from Sunderland but as we know Moyes wouldn’t play ball. I do think if we had thrown jags in to the offer this might have happened but I suspect they didn’t want to upset the fan base with stones going as well.
· Bolasie to me he was more of a luxury signing as he didn’t bring anything new to what we had in Mirrallas, delefou and lennon. Truth be told I think we would have gone for Depay instead had it looked like he could leave.
· Gana brilliant piece of business.
Pointless going on about Witsel, Mata and Kiloubaly as we know they are gone but we had been heavily linked with Schneiderlin in the summer so why did we not push it though then. It was clear a second centre mid was needed especially with Besic doing his knee ligaments.
The team
Other than the few times we have played with a back 3 the formation and personnel have pretty much been the same as last season. Stek in goal is no better or worse than Howard or Robles. Williams is like jags from 2 years ago and Gana is a replacement for McCarthy (a ball winner). Bolasie is quick but with no end product and so doesn’t add anything different. So we really have the same team with the same set up. So what’s the problem with the team? At the back we have 2 centre halves with limited pace and so they daren’t push up in case the ball comes over the top and they end up in a race. The full backs like to push on but when they do the opposition target the space left when they win the ball back. I think this is a particular problem on the left hand side, as Barry doesn’t have the pace to get back and cover for Baines that Gana perhaps does for Coleman. In the midfield we tend to have Ross playing as a number 10 so that leaves Barry and Gana in the centre usually against a 3-man centre midfield and often having to fill the voids from our full backs. When we do get the ball both Ross and Lukaku have their backs to goal and you get the usual pass back to the centre midfielders who are then under pressure. For me Ross has to move back to get on the ball facing the goal and start making the direct runs and taking more shots on goal. With a 3 man midfield it would leave us with at least 2 when the 3rd drops in to cover the full back. Going forward is difficult as I feel the issues in the middle and at the back have such a drain on how we play. When playing the poorer teams they know if they can set up with men behind the ball and then target the space left by our full backs they have a good chance of getting something from the game. Against the better sides we tend to get pegged back and then the wingers cant get far enough up the pitch to influence the game leaving lukaku isolated. I think if we get the right players at the back and in the centre mid we would be much better in a 433 telling our wingers to stay forward as it will keep the opposition full backs from attacking, offer better support to rom and give the likes of a Ross a passing option more than 5 yards away.
Current Squad in’s and out’s
Stek Keep in the Short term but need to replace in the summer
Robles Keep as a decent backup
Coleman Keep
Holgate Keep but maybe loan out gaining more experience
Baines Keep
Oviedo Sell (I like him but I think he hasn’t been the same since the injury
Galloway Keep (Recall from WBA and seek another loan with game time)
Jags Keep but he has to be told he is now a back and last resort. Coach?
Mori Keep for now, as he is the only experienced CB with any mobility an review in the summer
Williams Keep
Barry Back up Player / Coach
Gibson Sell / Give away
Besic need to see what he is like after the injury.
McCarthy Sell
Cleverley Sell
Barkley Keep but he needs moving to centre mid and we need help for him
Davies Keep but would consider a loan deal should we buy a couple of experienced players.
Mirallas ?????? Really not sure could be more affective if we solve other problems
Delefeou same as Mirallas
Lennon Sell. (I like him as he works hard but we need a bit more quality)
Bolasie going to be out for a year so staying
Lukaku keep
Kone Give away
Niassi sell /loan forget we had him
We apparently have a £100 mil still left from the summer plus what we can raise from sales so he would I like to see.
Schenderlin 18mil
Depay 22mil
Lookman 10mil
Haller 15 mil
Van Dijk 35 -40mil
Line up after the Winter Window 433
GK Stek
RB Coleman
LB Baines
RCB Van Dijk
LCB Mori
RCM Gana (Davies during African Cup)
CM Barkley
LCM Schenderlin
LF Depay
CF Lukaku
RF Mirallas
Bench
Robles
Williams
Holgate
Davies
Delefeou or Lennon if he has been sold / loaned
Lookman
Haller
Where do I start? I suppose the summer
To say koeman was the only one we wanted it seem to take an age to sort it out. An even when we did he flew off for a second holiday. If it had been me I would have taken an extra 2 weeks to study videos of the games last season and get to know about the club and start to think about what issues need sorting out. As we all know the transfers in the summer was a complete disaster. I don’t put this all down to the manager as we took far to long in appointing Walsh and we had dithering bill negotiating deals.
Reviewing what we ended up with.
· Stek a keeper seen by most as the new spare keeper once the proper one was bought.
· Williams in my eyes was a short-term replacement for jags that we wanted to pair with kone from Sunderland but as we know Moyes wouldn’t play ball. I do think if we had thrown jags in to the offer this might have happened but I suspect they didn’t want to upset the fan base with stones going as well.
· Bolasie to me he was more of a luxury signing as he didn’t bring anything new to what we had in Mirrallas, delefou and lennon. Truth be told I think we would have gone for Depay instead had it looked like he could leave.
· Gana brilliant piece of business.
Pointless going on about Witsel, Mata and Kiloubaly as we know they are gone but we had been heavily linked with Schneiderlin in the summer so why did we not push it though then. It was clear a second centre mid was needed especially with Besic doing his knee ligaments.
The team
Other than the few times we have played with a back 3 the formation and personnel have pretty much been the same as last season. Stek in goal is no better or worse than Howard or Robles. Williams is like jags from 2 years ago and Gana is a replacement for McCarthy (a ball winner). Bolasie is quick but with no end product and so doesn’t add anything different. So we really have the same team with the same set up. So what’s the problem with the team? At the back we have 2 centre halves with limited pace and so they daren’t push up in case the ball comes over the top and they end up in a race. The full backs like to push on but when they do the opposition target the space left when they win the ball back. I think this is a particular problem on the left hand side, as Barry doesn’t have the pace to get back and cover for Baines that Gana perhaps does for Coleman. In the midfield we tend to have Ross playing as a number 10 so that leaves Barry and Gana in the centre usually against a 3-man centre midfield and often having to fill the voids from our full backs. When we do get the ball both Ross and Lukaku have their backs to goal and you get the usual pass back to the centre midfielders who are then under pressure. For me Ross has to move back to get on the ball facing the goal and start making the direct runs and taking more shots on goal. With a 3 man midfield it would leave us with at least 2 when the 3rd drops in to cover the full back. Going forward is difficult as I feel the issues in the middle and at the back have such a drain on how we play. When playing the poorer teams they know if they can set up with men behind the ball and then target the space left by our full backs they have a good chance of getting something from the game. Against the better sides we tend to get pegged back and then the wingers cant get far enough up the pitch to influence the game leaving lukaku isolated. I think if we get the right players at the back and in the centre mid we would be much better in a 433 telling our wingers to stay forward as it will keep the opposition full backs from attacking, offer better support to rom and give the likes of a Ross a passing option more than 5 yards away.
Current Squad in’s and out’s
Stek Keep in the Short term but need to replace in the summer
Robles Keep as a decent backup
Coleman Keep
Holgate Keep but maybe loan out gaining more experience
Baines Keep
Oviedo Sell (I like him but I think he hasn’t been the same since the injury
Galloway Keep (Recall from WBA and seek another loan with game time)
Jags Keep but he has to be told he is now a back and last resort. Coach?
Mori Keep for now, as he is the only experienced CB with any mobility an review in the summer
Williams Keep
Barry Back up Player / Coach
Gibson Sell / Give away
Besic need to see what he is like after the injury.
McCarthy Sell
Cleverley Sell
Barkley Keep but he needs moving to centre mid and we need help for him
Davies Keep but would consider a loan deal should we buy a couple of experienced players.
Mirallas ?????? Really not sure could be more affective if we solve other problems
Delefeou same as Mirallas
Lennon Sell. (I like him as he works hard but we need a bit more quality)
Bolasie going to be out for a year so staying
Lukaku keep
Kone Give away
Niassi sell /loan forget we had him
We apparently have a £100 mil still left from the summer plus what we can raise from sales so he would I like to see.
Schenderlin 18mil
Depay 22mil
Lookman 10mil
Haller 15 mil
Van Dijk 35 -40mil
Line up after the Winter Window 433
GK Stek
RB Coleman
LB Baines
RCB Van Dijk
LCB Mori
RCM Gana (Davies during African Cup)
CM Barkley
LCM Schenderlin
LF Depay
CF Lukaku
RF Mirallas
Bench
Robles
Williams
Holgate
Davies
Delefeou or Lennon if he has been sold / loaned
Lookman
Haller
