Transfer window now closed - time to rate our squad

golfaddick

As the title says. Lots of transfers in & out over the summer and so now transfer dealings have been done for the next 4 months (bar out of contract players) how do you rate our squad. I'll go first...........

7.5 out of 10.

Some decent signings in Berry, Doc, Godden, Mitchell & Edwards, but cant comment yet on Campbell (A). Ahadme has been disappointing but let's see after 10 or 12 games. 

Certainly the defence looks a lot better & again cant really comment on Mannion as he's not been tested much. An experienced keeper would be good but dont want an aging ex-Prem merchant. 

Still need a playmaker in midfield. A Ricky Holmes/Claus Jensen type who can not only put players through but can also take a free kick. 

Conclusion. Losing May without a likewise replacement looks careless to me. Could be the difference between top 6 and top 10. Top 2 is out of the question imo. Defence will stop us being anywhere near bottom 4 & we should finish safely in the top half. 

Over to you.....

shirty5

sam3110

Docherty and Berry have already scored as many goals this season than Fraser and L.Watson last season. Yes we lost Alfie's goals but we'll gain more Leaburn goals, hopefully more Aneke goals, and I hope Godden, Kanu, TC, Dixon and Ahadme will score more than the dozen or so the rest of our attackers put up last season in total.

Overall I give it a 7, add 2 more decent free agents and it goes up to an 8

Gribbo

Time will tell.

Reckon that all you can rate at this point is intent from the owners, which I'd give a solid 8.

Can't see how anyone can give a realistic rating on the individual player ins / outs decisions until at least 10 games in, upto Christmas and maybe even once we know where we finish.

eastterrace6168

SMT intent...10/10
Actual so far...3/10
As Gribbo said, come back after a couple of months for any realistic ideas...

Bedsaddick

Way too early to say. 

Lincsaddick

still a couple of holes in the squad, goalkeeper and striker .. otherwise I reckon we now have a decent bunch of players .. e.g. yesterday we were a match for Reading, except for scoring and i m o, our keeper should have, rather than could have saved their first goal

ross1

Would have been interested if this was done before and after yesterday's game. Imagine more would have lowered their score

carly burn

Should we not be using the Rodwell 8+8+8 formula when assessing the squad 

GetYerCoreyOut

Lincsaddick said:

still a couple of holes in the squad, goalkeeper and striker .. otherwise I reckon we now have a decent bunch of players .. e.g. yesterday we were a match for Reading, except for scoring and i m o, our keeper should have, rather than could have saved their first goal

No keeper in this division is saving their first goal.

fenaddick

I'd say our squad is about a 7.5. It's quite hard to judge fully without knowing how good Leaburn will be when fit and playing regularly as I think opinion on Ahadme could change when he's a bench option. Would still like another LCB to at least provide some competition and if a GK becomes available I think that could be sensible too. I'm not overly worried about the gaps though.

fenlandaddick

Only as good as your last game... 3/10 so far

Sage

I think Mitchell, Edwards, Docherty, Berry, and Godden are very good signings and will prove to be. All of them look to be able to play at a higher level.

I think Mannion has done okay but failure to bring in a proper top number one is a worry. It was the position we needed most in my opinion, it could be the difference between where we want to be and where we could end up. As said, he’s done okay but he’s not the level I think a promotion team would have.

I don’t think Ahadme is good enough and we’ll be hoping and praying Leaburn is back in the team soon and stays fit and healthy.

We can’t judge Allan Campbell or Dixon yet. Both come with promise and potential for different reasons. Both could turn out to be great signings, we just don’t know yet.

Losing May is a huge blow to us and I am absolutely certain he’s going to score 20-30 goals for Birmingham this season, even with Stansfield and Dykes signing, he’s scoring and they’re not taking him out the team all the while he does.

Failure to bring in another left sided defender is a worry and I really hope we sign Potts soon and he is able to stay fit. We conceded so many goals last season and let go of 3 central defenders, all of whom were not good enough, but we’ve only got in Mitchell. We need one more. An injury to any of the 3 centre backs would have me worried moving forward.

The squad is quite large but I feel we are still carrying too many players who won’t feature much. You then have some younger ones who need football but won’t get that here and haven’t gone on loan. Players who fall into these categories are Asiimwe, Z.Mitchell, Edun, Taylor, potentially even Kanu once Leaburn and Dixon are in the mix.

Overall, a 7 is as good as it can be right now. Bring in Potts and have Campbell and Dixon look good and that goes to an 8. Sign a proper keeper in January and it’ll help us win far more games. If Godden can score regularly we won’t miss May so bad.

There are a lot of things that need to happen and fall into place. I just really hope it all comes together and the performances follow soon.

Callumcafc

Gribbo said:

Time will tell.

Reckon that all you can rate at this point is intent from the owners, which I'd give a solid 8.

Can't see how anyone can give a realistic rating on the individual player ins / outs decisions until at least 10 games in, upto Christmas and maybe even once we know where we finish.

Agree with this. If you asked people to rate our squad in September 2018 I doubt we’d have seen marks higher than a 6. Signings proved their worth, young players grew in stature and by the end of that season you were probably looking at 8s and 9s.

On the flip side, I think there was a lot of excitement last summer around the signings of Camara, May etc. which would’ve meant lots of 7s and 8s, we finished the season in 16th.

bolloxbolder

At the start of the window I suspect we all agreed the problem positions were keeper and centre half.

Jones certainly recognised the keeper problem but for various reasons we have failed to recruit an experienced number 1. To date we have only bought 1 centre half (albeit a good one).

When evaluating a transfer window you also have to consider the outs. With the exception of Alfie, we did good business, but we should have got rid of a few more. Hopefully some NL loans will be sorted out for our youth this month.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the parlous decision to let May go. I'm sorry but if we wanted to keep him, we would have, in spite of his personal circumstances.

I have always maintained it was a ridiculous decision. Should we miss out on the play offs, it will ostensibly be down to a lack of goals. That, I'm afraid, will be down to that terrible decision by Jones. To me it smacks of a no man is bigger than me statement, when it needed an arm around the shoulder approach to resolve the issues between then for the better good.

6/10.

swordfish

carly burn said:

Should we not be using the Rodwell 8+8+8 formula when assessing the squad 

No because it just over complicates matters unnecessarily and I'd be surprised if it features at all in our manager's thinking.

MarcusH26

7/10 , think the midfield is a lot stronger with the additions of Berry,Docherty and Allan Campbell so that's a big bonus. Josh Edwards looked a top top signing before the awful challenge from Clare and I think he'll slide straight back in over Small when fit. 

I have doubts over Ahadme and expect Godden to be a regular over him alongside Leaburn once fit.

GK does slightly concern me - Mannion is decent but I'm concerned we failed to land an outright No1. I don't see the free agent market being able to help with this. 

Just feels like we might be a couple of pieces light , I just hope we can get to January in a strong position with what we've got. 

Gisappointed

I rate Edwards but surprised that a shorter Ramsay has played CB, while he only got a short cameo vs AFCW.

However reports of Gilly seem to point to decent performances and not the lack of pace that concerned me last year.

Billy_Mix

Most of them look to be at least adequate to decent
Exceptions are Ahadme who's not worth his place atm, Gillesphey always has a dismal blunder in him but has no direct competition for his role, Berry is a stupid hothead 3 yellow cards already two for dissent one of which got Sean Clare off the hook of the deserved red for his assault on Edwards
TC is getting used to his new role and that job would be much easier of his striking partner wasn't hopeless

altrinchamaddick

Gillesphy appears to be the new whipping boy, both on this thread and on the marks given on the marks for each match. I dislike how fans seem to latch onto a player that they want to citicise. It happens every season, one player that for whatever reason, gets lambasted every game, even when they've played pretty well.

eastterrace6168

altrinchamaddick said:

Gillesphy appears to be the new whipping boy, both on this thread and on the marks given on the marks for each match. I dislike how fans seem to latch onto a player that they want to citicise. It happens every season, one player that for whatever reason, gets lambasted every game, even when they've played pretty well.

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