Haha ok might have misread that slightly. my view is this seems a gamble there’s a number of players in there wii could go either way, it seems a failed convulsive strategy, and not how the team was intended to look.
I don’t think we have the attacking edge we had last season, players like Aneke or Millar nor can I see NA getting as much out of players (until the wheels came off) that Bowyer did.
Haha ok might have misread that slightly. my view is this seems a gamble there’s a number of players in there wii could go either way, it seems a failed convulsive strategy, and not how the team was intended to look.
I don’t think we have the attacking edge we had last season, players like Aneke or Millar nor can I see NA getting as much out of players (until the wheels came off) that Bowyer did.
We haven’t got an attacking edge like Aneke, no chance, but from the attacking players we do have, we have replaced Millar. Kirk, Leko, and Lee all together will contribute more than Millar I am certain of it. Millar was very good for us, but I am sure the players I have mentioned can and will also be very good for us too.
Haha ok might have misread that slightly. my view is this seems a gamble there’s a number of players in there wii could go either way, it seems a failed convulsive strategy, and not how the team was intended to look.
I don’t think we have the attacking edge we had last season, players like Aneke or Millar nor can I see NA getting as much out of players (until the wheels came off) that Bowyer did.
I'll agree that having Aneke to replace or come on to partner Stockley was a huge plus. Cannot agree about Millar, was a decent player but we've got Leko, Kirk and CBT as well as Lee. We're going to play in a different way so I think you have to look at things differently. Under Bowyer we were starting Stockley and Washington with Aneke on the bench, this season we could well start with 3 AM/Wingers behind Stockley and still have 2/3 on the bench. We were one dimensional last season in my opinion because we lacked options other than Aneke. Of course he was so good that losing him was a blow, but I think it's totally wrong to say that it ends our chances, we will play a different style and we have the different options to do so.
The beautiful thing is the season is so early, the transfer window so freshly slammed and League One being as it is we have no idea. All of Razils comments about players individually have some fairness/merit but can equally be spun around to positives. Arter, way too good for L1 or unable to get into a shit Notts Forest team heading to L1 rapidly? Really who knows. He could be great, he could keep Watson company?
So many of our signings are like that in terms of not really knowing if they will be good or bad I have no idea if we will be challenging top 6 or hovering around lower mid table throughout.
Hopefully makes for an enjoyable journey, win, lose or draw.
All seems like not enough goals in the team to me, and too many gambles: Arter (past it?) Leko (not recovered form after major injury) Lee (a loan from a bottom championship side where he was surplus) a failed prospect who fell out of a League 2 team on a short contract, only 2 players of the recent haul being of the possible standard we might have expected.
All smacks of a window that really didn’t go to plan, a failed strategy that is either malfunctioning, underfunded, badly flawed or all of the above. A desperate scramble at the end and even then still not resourced that well. Would be surprised if we get near the top six personally, but then maybe all were interested in is clean sheets.
Even Golfie gave this window 7.5 out of 10, sounds like you’re giving it about a 2. By not getting near the top 6 you’re saying top half at best. Maybe playoffs will turn out to be overestimating this window but I can’t see how we’ll be miles off last season’s 7th place.
What were you expecting?
No doubt it didn’t initially go to plan and moved slowly but we’ve ended the window signing four players who should perform at the level we need.
We have depth at CB, CM and out wide to cope with injuries and we’re looking to add two free agents.
There’s been a lot of comparisons to Powell’s signings in summer 2011 in this thread. If you look at that window there were plenty of gambles in there.
Yann - the Leicester reject who didn’t score goals and missed that penalty. Why did we give him a 2 year deal!! Desperation after the window closed
Hayes - struggled in the Championship
Morrison - not good enough for Wednesday, not good enough for us
Taylor and Green - from Exeter and Dagenham, not up to the standard
Hamer - loaned from Reading to Exeter, as above
Hughes - journeyman in his 30s who didn’t play much Scunthorpe
Solly and Wagstaff - from the academy but not good enough for a promotion side
Cort - 31 and not played much football in recent years (past it?)
Euell - as above
Pritchard - 25 from non-league, smacks of a limited budget and more desperation
Alonso - looks a great signing, will add technique and composure to our midfield
Stephens, Hollands and Wiggins - good signings but it’s not enough, how are we going to keep clean sheets and who will score goals alongside BWP?
All seems like not enough goals in the team to me, and too many gambles: Arter (past it?) Leko (not recovered form after major injury) Lee (a loan from a bottom championship side where he was surplus) a failed prospect who fell out of a League 2 team on a short contract, only 2 players of the recent haul being of the possible standard we might have expected.
All smacks of a window that really didn’t go to plan, a failed strategy that is either malfunctioning, underfunded, badly flawed or all of the above. A desperate scramble at the end and even then still not resourced that well. Would be surprised if we get near the top six personally, but then maybe all were interested in is clean sheets.
Wasn't anywhere near as bad as you're making out. We've signed Stockley, Arter, Lee, Kirk, Leko, Famewo, Lavelle plus others.
Obviously we need to replace the goals from Aneke but in signing Leko, Kirk and Lee we're going to create a lot more than we did last season.
All seems like not enough goals in the team to me, and too many gambles: Arter (past it?) Leko (not recovered form after major injury) Lee (a loan from a bottom championship side where he was surplus) a failed prospect who fell out of a League 2 team on a short contract, only 2 players of the recent haul being of the possible standard we might have expected.
All smacks of a window that really didn’t go to plan, a failed strategy that is either malfunctioning, underfunded, badly flawed or all of the above. A desperate scramble at the end and even then still not resourced that well. Would be surprised if we get near the top six personally, but then maybe all were interested in is clean sheets.
Still trying to work out if this is WOOSH bait or not, maybe il run a poll.
All seems like not enough goals in the team to me, and too many gambles: Arter (past it?) Leko (not recovered form after major injury) Lee (a loan from a bottom championship side where he was surplus) a failed prospect who fell out of a League 2 team on a short contract, only 2 players of the recent haul being of the possible standard we might have expected.
All smacks of a window that really didn’t go to plan, a failed strategy that is either malfunctioning, underfunded, badly flawed or all of the above. A desperate scramble at the end and even then still not resourced that well. Would be surprised if we get near the top six personally, but then maybe all were interested in is clean sheets.
Surely you're just after some cheap LOL's with this post
All seems like not enough goals in the team to me, and too many gambles: Arter (past it?) Leko (not recovered form after major injury) Lee (a loan from a bottom championship side where he was surplus) a failed prospect who fell out of a League 2 team on a short contract, only 2 players of the recent haul being of the possible standard we might have expected.
All smacks of a window that really didn’t go to plan, a failed strategy that is either malfunctioning, underfunded, badly flawed or all of the above. A desperate scramble at the end and even then still not resourced that well. Would be surprised if we get near the top six personally, but then maybe all were interested in is clean sheets.
The thing is we are a third division club buying in the bargain basement (Lidl, Aldi, yellow ticket area) looking at the close to expired, slightly damaged, odd, unpopular and untried and tested items looking for the odd gem, If we were shopping in the M&S and Waitrose part of the league, with proven, consistent quality, and popular requisites we wouldn't be able to afford them and they wouldn't want to come to us anyway.
Anyone that thought we would be in a relegation battle 2 weeks ago was over reacting. People that are saying we are miles away from a play off team are over reacting now. Anyone that said we were going to blow this league out of the water were also over reacting.
Remember last season we won 4 games out of 20 and were still in the top half.
We have a much better squad now that what we had pre January last season, you could argue we have a better one than post January as well.
Of course you can't guarantee promotion or even the play offs, but if we don't get in the play offs we will be bloody close.
In terms of goals only 1 of the 4 play off teams last season scored more than us, none conceded more.
One more goal than every team we play will do for me. Personally I don’t see goals as a massive problem this season.
Lose Stockley and things could be tricky.
Adkins would have to change his system.
Now we have brought in players that add flexibility, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt to a different but effective gameplan.
I think Adkins' is probably smart enough to know that if Stockley is injured he couldn't just put Washington or Leko into the same role and expect it to work the same way.
He has a preferred system for sure (most managers do) but I don't think he's on the Robinson level of only having one he will/can ever use.
If that had ever happened to me and I knew about it I would tell the employer to roundly get stuffed simply because one would always be thinking,'What do they think of me and a small error in something would be undermining to say the least.
In the outside world it would be great to tell a prospective employer to do one, maybe some have been in that scenario, until reality sets in and you realise it is your bread and butter you are gambling with, I am sure Lavelle wanted to join us and was prepared to wait, i'm afraid in the football world that is the nature of the beast, as Greavsie said "Its a funny old game" Main thing is he has signed and we have a young hungry player on our hands who actually wanted to come and join the club.
Haha ok might have misread that slightly. my view is this seems a gamble there’s a number of players in there wii could go either way, it seems a failed convulsive strategy, and not how the team was intended to look.
I don’t think we have the attacking edge we had last season, players like Aneke or Millar nor can I see NA getting as much out of players (until the wheels came off) that Bowyer did.
But you can’t just exclude the period where the wheels fell off. That’s the whole downside of having a manager with poor man management skills.
Also don’t agree about the transfer window. For a team in League One, with reasonable budgetary constraints, I think it’s been a very good one. Yes, there are a number of players that ‘could go either way’, but when has that ever not been the case? Happens from the Premier League downwards.
All seems like not enough goals in the team to me, and too many gambles: Arter (past it?) Leko (not recovered form after major injury) Lee (a loan from a bottom championship side where he was surplus) a failed prospect who fell out of a League 2 team on a short contract, only 2 players of the recent haul being of the possible standard we might have expected.
All smacks of a window that really didn’t go to plan, a failed strategy that is either malfunctioning, underfunded, badly flawed or all of the above. A desperate scramble at the end and even then still not resourced that well. Would be surprised if we get near the top six personally, but then maybe all were interested in is clean sheets.
Madger Gomes who was on trial with us, before moving on has signed a two year deal at Crewe.
Given their performance and how things look in general at Crewe, I think it's fair to say that him being good enough for Crewe is proof he is not good enough for us (or at least, where we want to be.)
Then one could say the same about Charlie Kirk. He was there a while.
You could say it but Crewe look much poorer this season than they have for a long time having lost a lot of their best players over the past few seasons - including Kirk. He was part of a good Crewe team, Gomes seems to have joined a sinking ship.
True but you did say being good enough for Crewe makes Gomes unsuitable for Charlton. That then must apply to Kirk or Lowery. Gomes like one of the Crewe players scored twice ,iirc, against Charlton last year.
It's @thenewbie's fault for not being clear and putting his comment in context. If he'd wanted to avoid any misunderstanding, he could've just stuck something at the front along the lines of,
"Given their performance and how things look in general at Crewe..."
If he'd wanted to make it really unambiguous, he could've gone as far as to add something at the end like,
"...(or at least, where we want to be.)"
Some posters don't help themselves when they fail to articulate their thoughts clearly.
It is easy done. I do it sometimes typing on a mobile. However then not admitting it and producing another argument is annoying.
Do we tell him? I feel like we probably should but it might be upsetting.
We still keep going on about not enough goals in the team and not replacing Aneke. Personally I think we have replaced him with Elliott Lee. Yes Aneke was unique by getting his off the bench but his record was 15 in a 46 game season. Lee got 6 in 18 in L1 last season, his record at Luton was averaging around 3.5. Lee is just as capable of getting into double figures as Aneke would have been by replicating last season's form. Stockley will score more than 8 in a full season and I fully expect both Leko and Kirk to get more than Millar. Washington may have limited game time so getting 11 like last season might be stretching it but wouldn't be surprised if he and DJ get more between them this season than they did last.
We still keep going on about not enough goals in the team and not replacing Aneke.
Personally I think we have replaced him with Elliott Lee. Yes Aneke was unique by getting his off the bench but his record was 15 in a 46 game season. Lee got 6 in 18 in L1 last season, his record at Luton was averaging around 3.5. Lee is just as capable of getting into double figures as Aneke would have been by replicating last season's form. Stockley will score more than 8 in a full season and I fully expect both Leko and Kirk to get more than Millar.
Washington may have limited game time so getting 11 like last season might be stretching it but wouldn't be surprised if he and DJ get more between them this season than they did last.
Maybe Washington makes most of his appearances from the bench, when his movement and workrate undermines tiring defences?
I wouldn't even measure Washington's contribution purely by his own goals scored/assists statistics - especially his contribution as a team player, enabling others to score goals.
I doubt he'd score from the bench the 15 goals that Aneke did. But he could enable others to score an equivalent number collectively.
We still keep going on about not enough goals in the team and not replacing Aneke. Personally I think we have replaced him with Elliott Lee. Yes Aneke was unique by getting his off the bench but his record was 15 in a 46 game season. Lee got 6 in 18 in L1 last season, his record at Luton was averaging around 3.5. Lee is just as capable of getting into double figures as Aneke would have been by replicating last season's form. Stockley will score more than 8 in a full season and I fully expect both Leko and Kirk to get more than Millar. Washington may have limited game time so getting 11 like last season might be stretching it but wouldn't be surprised if he and DJ get more between them this season than they did last.
Aneke's goals per minutes on the pitch was what made him such an asset. Lee isn't an impact sub in the same way, his 6 in 18 was 6 in 15 starts and 3 sub appearances
We still keep going on about not enough goals in the team and not replacing Aneke. Personally I think we have replaced him with Elliott Lee. Yes Aneke was unique by getting his off the bench but his record was 15 in a 46 game season. Lee got 6 in 18 in L1 last season, his record at Luton was averaging around 3.5. Lee is just as capable of getting into double figures as Aneke would have been by replicating last season's form. Stockley will score more than 8 in a full season and I fully expect both Leko and Kirk to get more than Millar. Washington may have limited game time so getting 11 like last season might be stretching it but wouldn't be surprised if he and DJ get more between them this season than they did last.
Aneke's goals per minutes on the pitch was what made him such an asset. Lee isn't an impact sub in the same way, his 6 in 18 was 6 in 15 starts and 3 sub appearances
But at the same time, at least in the pre January, you need to add in the minutes of whoever played the first 30-60 minutes, because they didn't score. If that's Bogle, Smyth or someone else.
Individually Aneke is impossible to replace but if you add Smyth, Bogle and Ronnie together it's only about 20 goals.
It's actually 20 goals in 88 games. Or 1 every 4.5 games. That's a goal every other game, on average from Kirk, DJ, Lee, Leko, CBT or who ever else plays in those 4 positions.
Aneke (particularly last season's Aneke) was an absolute fluke, the chance that any one player could replicate those numbers is remote to say the least. There's a very strong case that even Aneke wouldn't actually hit that level of goals-per-minute two seasons in a row based on his previous form.
When it comes down to it, the number of goals a team scores is more important than the number scored by any one player. You're better off with two players scoring six goals a season than one scoring ten.
We still keep going on about not enough goals in the team and not replacing Aneke. Personally I think we have replaced him with Elliott Lee. Yes Aneke was unique by getting his off the bench but his record was 15 in a 46 game season. Lee got 6 in 18 in L1 last season, his record at Luton was averaging around 3.5. Lee is just as capable of getting into double figures as Aneke would have been by replicating last season's form. Stockley will score more than 8 in a full season and I fully expect both Leko and Kirk to get more than Millar. Washington may have limited game time so getting 11 like last season might be stretching it but wouldn't be surprised if he and DJ get more between them this season than they did last.
Aneke's goals per minutes on the pitch was what made him such an asset. Lee isn't an impact sub in the same way, his 6 in 18 was 6 in 15 starts and 3 sub appearances
Totally agree about what you say about Aneke, my point is about those who say we haven't replaced him. How can you possibly do that 'like for like'? How many players in any league scores 15 from the bench? If he could start a game, didn't blow out his arse after 30 mins and you didn't have to manage his game time he would never have played for us and he would be at a better team than Birmingham City now. What I was trying to get at is we may have replaced his goals with Elliott Lee and the stats you mention appears to back that up.
Comments
So many of our signings are like that in terms of not really knowing if they will be good or bad I have no idea if we will be challenging top 6 or hovering around lower mid table throughout.
Hopefully makes for an enjoyable journey, win, lose or draw.
What were you expecting?
No doubt it didn’t initially go to plan and moved slowly but we’ve ended the window signing four players who should perform at the level we need.
We have depth at CB, CM and out wide to cope with injuries and we’re looking to add two free agents.
There’s been a lot of comparisons to Powell’s signings in summer 2011 in this thread. If you look at that window there were plenty of gambles in there.
Yann - the Leicester reject who didn’t score goals and missed that penalty. Why did we give him a 2 year deal!! Desperation after the window closed
Hayes - struggled in the Championship
Morrison - not good enough for Wednesday, not good enough for us
Taylor and Green - from Exeter and Dagenham, not up to the standard
Hamer - loaned from Reading to Exeter, as above
Hughes - journeyman in his 30s who didn’t play much Scunthorpe
Solly and Wagstaff - from the academy but not good enough for a promotion side
Cort - 31 and not played much football in recent years (past it?)
Euell - as above
Pritchard - 25 from non-league, smacks of a limited budget and more desperation
Alonso - looks a great signing, will add technique and composure to our midfield
Stephens, Hollands and Wiggins - good signings but it’s not enough, how are we going to keep clean sheets and who will score goals alongside BWP?
Obviously we need to replace the goals from Aneke but in signing Leko, Kirk and Lee we're going to create a lot more than we did last season.
Remember last season we won 4 games out of 20 and were still in the top half.
We have a much better squad now that what we had pre January last season, you could argue we have a better one than post January as well.
Of course you can't guarantee promotion or even the play offs, but if we don't get in the play offs we will be bloody close.
In terms of goals only 1 of the 4 play off teams last season scored more than us, none conceded more.
Now we have brought in players that add flexibility, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt to a different but effective gameplan.
He has a preferred system for sure (most managers do) but I don't think he's on the Robinson level of only having one he will/can ever use.
Main thing is he has signed and we have a young hungry player on our hands who actually wanted to come and join the club.
I'd heard that we had someone in reserve, we now know it Lavelle, in case Kerr was nicked off us and so it proved.
I wouldn't even measure Washington's contribution purely by his own goals scored/assists statistics - especially his contribution as a team player, enabling others to score goals.
I doubt he'd score from the bench the 15 goals that Aneke did.
But he could enable others to score an equivalent number collectively.
Last season our "strikers" managed just over 30 goals between them.
In 2018/19 they got about 45.
Because we only play one out and out striker its not like for like but I expect our front 4, who ever is playing, to score over 40.
Individually Aneke is impossible to replace but if you add Smyth, Bogle and Ronnie together it's only about 20 goals.
It's actually 20 goals in 88 games. Or 1 every 4.5 games. That's a goal every other game, on average from Kirk, DJ, Lee, Leko, CBT or who ever else plays in those 4 positions.
When it comes down to it, the number of goals a team scores is more important than the number scored by any one player. You're better off with two players scoring six goals a season than one scoring ten.