Change the formation, to suit the players we’ve got?
Integrate more youth players thinking of next season?
Find a Mark Kinsella type of player that will boss the play / dictate the game?
Recruit some midfielders who can score?
Send back Lee & Leko?
Just go on a long holiday!
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We seem to try and let perfect be the enemy of the good.
Generally every shot results in applause and is seen as a statement of intent. On purely a numbers game if you are having 10 or more shots in a game one may result in a goal or a few corners.
I would ask players to shoot on sight more. Once you start doing that the defenders will be on guard for shots and it may even open up opportunities to then drive into the box.
At present teams work us out in that they don't need to guard against edge of the box shots and can focus on shutting us down in numbers to stifle our attacking play.
Shoot on sight for a few games when in and around the box and follow up on the rebounds and will probably translate to more goals.
Didn't do Wigan any harm
We need some senior players in the squad next season who actually grab a game by the scruff of the neck and don’t hide.
We need to get some decent signings in, how we get shot of some of the ones on long term deals is the harder part
Do as much as we can to tie down the best of the U18's to contracts. Get to safety and then give some of them a go to see if they can step up next season.
Warm up the big PL teams to loans for next season. If free and not silly wages I would keep Lee and Leko but as squad players rather than first teamers.
Figure out the best L1 and L2 players out of contract and target the best ones early with decent wages saved from those released (we should have been all over Twine last summer for example).
Need two left backs ✅
A couple of midfielders ✅
A few wingers ✅
Without much consideration of what we are actually going to do with them once we have got them. We have recruited squads, not teams.
Then pick up a couple of experienced out-of-contract players in the summer. Put them on decent short term contracts with a nice bonus, and see if that helps us at least challenging for promotion.
Noticed Jagielka still doing a job at Stoke at 39 years old.
Look for some experienced coaches that would add value to the squad set-up.
Pay the going rate and sell them the dream of playing here.
That may sound obvious ... but there are two distinct answers to that question ... the first is promotion from League 1, the second is to build the nucleus of a squad which will progress into the Premier League in a sensible timeframe. Remember that this was Sandgaard's original stated intent.
Of course, the two objectives can overlap, but you could set about focussing purely on achieving promotion from League 1 in the first instance, and then re-build over two or three years to try to progress through the Championship.
I have to say that the recent re-signing of Aneke on a 3.5 year deal worries me. That level of commitment by the Club suggests either that the thinking is confused or that Aneke is seen as a core member of any potentially successful Championship squad. His track record at Championship level would not support that.
We have others on long contracts. Three more years of Jaiyesimi ... Yaay! It's the same point. He is not going to be a regular in any Championship side which might challenge for promotion.
So ... what do we need to do? Sandgaard needs to be clear what he is trying to achieve. Putting together an 'instant' team to get out of League 1 could be done relatively simply, but at significant cost. The target players are proven individuals, but not necessarily players for the future. The brief is merely to get us up, and then we start again in the Championship.
It's more strategic to try to build a squad which will be good enough to get promotion from League 1, but with the potential to improve and which would benefit from only a few additions if and when we get to the Championship.
Ask yourself now, from the current squad, do we have any players in either category (proven individuals or those with the potential to improve and compete at Championship level)? There aren't many.
So, it feels like another rebuild over the next six months. But with clarity of objective, please ... not just opportunism because players like Aneke become available.
Though long term that does not necessarily solve our issues.
For me we need a complete ethos change from top to bottom, and back around again. It feels like we have been playing the same slow, rigid uninspiring football for a long time now. There was a hint of trying something different under Adkins, but it didn’t go far enough, was implemented poorly both on and off the pitch and behind the scenes, and because of that was rightly not given enough time.
Funny enough our best 3 spells have been when either a new manager has hammered square pegs into round holes to fit a system or we have had to pick what we have had a get on with it. What ever system we have used, and Bowyer used most of them, it never feels right for the squad.
I honestly thought we would get it right last summer, with the way we ended last season and the sense of clarity we had preseason. That was gone after 3 games, 3 games, not even 3 months! I couldn't have been more wrong.
So if you really know what I think.....
Bin Pearce, Watson, Gunter, Matthews, Suare, JFC & Davison. Send Leko back. Sell Kirk.
Keep the others & sign Lee.
Make the priority a pacey striker. That is a 20 goal a season striker. Then midfielders who score & alao midfielders who can pick a pass. Then sign proper wingers who can cross on the run & play them on the "right" side.
Sign a proper right back & back up for Purrington.