Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[GhostoftheBok]

I'm interested to know what your view / opinion is about what 'a pretty serious player' is ?

Someone at least at Johnston's level, but preferably higher. Mostly I'd like them to be a superior athlete and bigger.

I thought previously (based on what Evatt said) we were done at centre back, but if we're not it needs to be more than a squad player that comes in. Otherwise just keep John and go with the options we have.

Evatt will have expected most departments to have been a bit stronger at this point than they are. Which is often the case.

The defence is basically what he thought he'd have, but minus Johnston. That's a sizeable quality gap. It needs filling.

In midfield he was expecting the experience of Baccus and down the flanks he thought he'd have Wilson.

Maghoma is quality, but he's still not quite where we'd have been with Baccus for certain kinds of games.

I think there's space in the squad now for top level players at RWB and in that hybrid CB/DM slot. If two young loanees show up I think that'll be a case of necessity and not want. A versatile defensive player with some real quality could improve out options in the back three and midfield, which would close that gap between expectation and reality for the manager.

Someone told me there's a photo going round that apparently shows them filming a new signing interview, but I've not seen it so no idea if that's true.

[Mar]

Filming a new signing probably sounds about right. Perhaps it's a case of having a meeting with Sharon and getting approval all at once and then having the signing and meetings on consecutive days, helps with photo shoot and engagement with fans I'd imagine.

Would be surprised if its another CB, perhaps a loan centre half or one that had come from a surprising source ala Toal.


It's interesting that we made a big show of being able to expand our scouting network to abroad but we've seen the fruits of that or have even any potential talks about it. Could it be that we are playing catchup in terms of scouting further afield or just navigating the minefield that is foreign work visas.

[Prufrock]

A week ago or so I was worried. Carlos and Paris I'm fine. If we can get a first choice RWB I'll be happy.

I worry about up top but think we're done there. I think you can teach large parts of that final bit. Pep and Sterling just hit the back part springs to mind. Different with our shape but I think you definitely can teach that second movement bit, and a big part is eye contact and individuals working together.

One RWB away from being set for me, though I'll take a midfielder too.

[jmjhb]

Re: strikers, Leroy Lita scored against Coventry tonight.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Someone told me there's a photo going round that apparently shows them filming a new signing interview, but I've not seen it so no idea if that's true.

[Worthy4England]

^^ Dan Barnes says that's Nathan Baxter doing an interview for the club...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

∆ Makes sense.

I note that a Spurs journo said this week that the club are likely to loan out Alfie Devine, mentioned in dispatches hereabouts. But as a tricky 10 with no league experience who turned 19 yesterday, is he more of the type we were seeking in January and we've now moved on? Or is he good enough that we'd take him anyway?

Seems to me that - with CMG & Maghoma beefing up the midfield options - we're now unlikely to be able to promise the level of "development minutes" that Bradley and Trafford got. Unless perhaps an absolute barnstormer of a wingback appeared (either side - if a LWB, Randy could battle JDC)?

[BWFC_Insane]

Evatts comments on goals and strikers…strip out the usual ‘need goals throughout the team comments’ he’s definitely piling the pressure on here. Lack of goals last season down to a failure to convert chances (of which he believes we creeated more than enough)

Last season we didn’t score enough goals but had a defensive record that should have got automatic promotion and in recent times we have been one of the only teams in the whole EFL to have under-performed our XG,” he said.

“It isn’t for a lack of creating chances, we just haven’t taken them often enough and that can sometimes be an anomaly…….

So I don’t buy into the fact that we need more strikers, more this, more that, we just need our strikers to perform and I believe they will.

It’s interesting. Because I think the sentiment from some on here has been we need to create clearer chances. But Evatt doesn’t see it that way. That means that those half chances we create a lot of are the ones our strikers need to take. We missed a few clear chances but everyone does. For me the ones we clearly didn’t do so well on are the Alfie May goals. Edge of box with a defender in front. Clearly Evatt expects his strikers to deliver there.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

For me the ones we clearly didn’t do so well on are the Alfie May goals. Edge of box with a defender in front. Clearly Evatt expects his strikers to deliver there.

Aye - or midfielders, if we're against a phalanx defence parked in their box. That winner against West Brom - CMG having the 360 vision to find Morley behind him, Moz having the permission/idea/ability to find the corner from 20 yards – that sort of thing can make a huge difference.

'Cos as a defender, if you know the oppo won't/can't shoot from distance, you're much happier to let them have it just outside the box. Whereas if you think they might, someone's gotta close down - and that leaves a gap to move/pass into.

[Mar]

For me the ones we clearly didn’t do so well on are the Alfie May goals. Edge of box with a defender in front. Clearly Evatt expects his strikers to deliver there.

Aye - or midfielders, if we're against a phalanx defence parked in their box. That winner against West Brom - CMG having the 360 vision to find Morley behind him, Moz having the permission/idea/ability to find the corner from 20 yards – that sort of thing can make a huge difference.

'Cos as a defender, if you know the oppo won't/can't shoot from distance, you're much happier to let them have it just outside the box. Whereas if you think they might, someone's gotta close down - and that leaves a gap to move/pass into.

I think this may have been one of our bigger issues last season. The opposition could tell what we were comfortable with and how we were going to play and therefore setup against us accordingly. You could see the drop off from Bradley having a free reign to attack the defence vs him being closed down and our right wing effectiveness nullified somewhat.

I suspect that's what the backroom staff have worked on. Giving us alternative options for unlocking a defence.

[Worthy4England]

For me, far too obvious and laboured to get the ball into the high xG zone. Sometimes to the point of statistical stupidity.

Across many chances, xG says you score more from position A than position B, given a limited set of variables (and by limited, I mean 5-600).

But we need to discern for any given attack, whether those things apply or whether a different position, on this occasion, looks like a better opportunity than the high xG position.

Obviously, that means players looking up and making a decision. More of it please.

[GhostoftheBok]

Evatts comments on goals and strikers…strip out the usual ‘need goals throughout the team comments’ he’s definitely piling the pressure on here. Lack of goals last season down to a failure to convert chances (of which he believes we creeated more than enough)

Last season we didn’t score enough goals but had a defensive record that should have got automatic promotion and in recent times we have been one of the only teams in the whole EFL to have under-performed our XG,” he said.

“It isn’t for a lack of creating chances, we just haven’t taken them often enough and that can sometimes be an anomaly…….

So I don’t buy into the fact that we need more strikers, more this, more that, we just need our strikers to perform and I believe they will.

It’s interesting. Because I think the sentiment from some on here has been we need to create clearer chances. But Evatt doesn’t see it that way. That means that those half chances we create a lot of are the ones our strikers need to take. We missed a few clear chances but everyone does. For me the ones we clearly didn’t do so well on are the Alfie May goals. Edge of box with a defender in front. Clearly Evatt expects his strikers to deliver there.

I think you need to put that into the context he's provided previously where he's said the issue isn't just the strikers and that we're working in preseason to get the ball into better positions.

I don't think anyone is claiming strikers don't need goals.

[BWFC_Insane]

Evatts comments on goals and strikers…strip out the usual ‘need goals throughout the team comments’ he’s definitely piling the pressure on here. Lack of goals last season down to a failure to convert chances (of which he believes we creeated more than enough)

Last season we didn’t score enough goals but had a defensive record that should have got automatic promotion and in recent times we have been one of the only teams in the whole EFL to have under-performed our XG,” he said.

“It isn’t for a lack of creating chances, we just haven’t taken them often enough and that can sometimes be an anomaly…….

So I don’t buy into the fact that we need more strikers, more this, more that, we just need our strikers to perform and I believe they will.

It’s interesting. Because I think the sentiment from some on here has been we need to create clearer chances. But Evatt doesn’t see it that way. That means that those half chances we create a lot of are the ones our strikers need to take. We missed a few clear chances but everyone does. For me the ones we clearly didn’t do so well on are the Alfie May goals. Edge of box with a defender in front. Clearly Evatt expects his strikers to deliver there.

I think you need to put that into the context he's provided previously where he's said the issue isn't just the strikers and that we're working in preseason to get the ball into better positions.

I don't think anyone is claiming strikers don't need goals.

No I don’t because he was answering about last season. Why we didn’t score enough. He clearly says it’s not a lack of chances. It’s a lack of taking them.

And strikers need to perform.

I agree with him because I don’t see many sides creating bagfuls of 8 yard out clear chances game after game down here. We need better box delivery. But ultimately it’s those half chances…can a striker create half a yard and bury from edge of the box or beat the defender before showing composure to drag it back and score. It’s basically needing our strikers to look more like Alfie May and less like they are going to snatch at everything. Show composure in and around the box.

He’s pretty clear in what he’s saying. Yes we need goals from all over nobody would say it’s all on the strikers but for me last season we lacked real quality in and around the box. We need to step up there this season. That’s how we will score more.

[GhostoftheBok]

No I don’t because he was answering about last season. Why we didn’t score enough. He clearly says it’s not a lack of chances. It’s a lack of taking them.

We've been working on getting the strikers more and better chances all preseason.

Everything Evatt has said to and about them has related to that. "Positional discipline" and playing between the posts has been the main focus consistently.

Evatt feels all the players can improve. He's said that consistently too. "There's more to come from this group of players" has come up in several interviews and been something he's said whilst talking to fans at the games.

So, yes, he will demand more from his strikers.

He very clearly doesn't think that doing the same things as last season and hoping finishing is better is the answer, though. Everything we've seen and heard all preseason has been about creating more and better chances for the strikers and the midfielders.

[BWFC_Insane]

No I don’t because he was answering about last season. Why we didn’t score enough. He clearly says it’s not a lack of chances. It’s a lack of taking them.

We've been working on getting the strikers more and better chances all preseason.

Everything Evatt has said to and about them has related to that. "Positional discipline" and playing between the posts has been the main focus consistently.

Evatt feels all the players can improve. He's said that consistently too. "There's more to come from this group of players" has come up in several interviews and been something he's said whilst talking to fans at the games.

So, yes, he will demand more from his strikers.

He very clearly doesn't think that doing the same things as last season and hoping finishing is better is the answer, though. Everything we've seen and heard all preseason has been about creating more and better chances for the strikers and the midfielders.

Nobody would argue that creating more chances is a bad thing. But Evatt is of the view we created enough last season we just failed to take them. The bottom line is strikers can’t have stuff laid on a plate always for them. They have to be putting the harder things away too. Showing the composure in the box and around it. That for me is the question mark. Can they do that? Many strikers can head in or shoot 6 yard out balls on a plate. But the test isn’t that.

[GhostoftheBok]

The bottom line is strikers can’t have stuff laid on a plate always for them.

Completely agree with that. However, sometimes they can.

My biggest issue with Evatt is the self-publicist bit of it. He will never criticise his own football, aside from banal stuff about "I am learning too" and the like. He won't come out and say "This aspect of what we did last season was crap."

Much like in his interview with Markham recently where Chris kept talking about how "we do this" and Ian just talked about how "I do this." Turning almost every question into a complement for himself.

Evatt's coaching in preseason and his detail work with the forwards speaks volumes.

The players we have have to improve season on season. There's no escaping that. The strikers need to be better than they were last season. Charles scored 11 league goals from open play and was out top scorer. It's nowhere near enough.

Dad Bod was injured too much, so he gets a pass. Vic and Dan didn't have the impact they'd have wanted to. Dan I think can be entirely excused due to injuries. Vic at least scored 3 and created chances, but he has to improve this season.

[Worthy4England]

I'm thinking if everyone believed we created enough decent chances, we wouldn't have spent 12 months on here saying the chances we created were often poor, with Bradley often being the focus if that.

For sure having strikers that can make an average chance into a good shooting opportunity is also part, I doubt it's either/or and we want to do a bit more of both.

[Spartan2]

I'm thinking if everyone believed we created enough decent chances, we wouldn't have spent 12 months on here saying the chances we created were often poor, with Bradley often being the focus if that.

For sure having strikers that can make an average chance into a good shooting opportunity is also part, I doubt it's either/or and we want to do a bit more of both.

Personally I never bought that narrative, I thought Bradley -and others but mainly Bradley- created a lot of excellent chances and our strikers fluffed them over and over. Of course its always a bit of both.

[Mar]

I'm thinking if everyone believed we created enough decent chances, we wouldn't have spent 12 months on here saying the chances we created were often poor, with Bradley often being the focus if that.

For sure having strikers that can make an average chance into a good shooting opportunity is also part, I doubt it's either/or and we want to do a bit more of both.

Personally I never bought that narrative, I thought Bradley -and others but mainly Bradley- created a lot of excellent chances and our strikers fluffed them over and over. Of course its always a bit of both.

I got the impression that Bradley was good at getting the ball into the area where we would be dangerous but then failed in his final cross. Sort that part of his game out and he'll no doubt be Premiership level.

As for Evatt speaking about we created enough chances, I think we would have to define what is meant by that. A chance might mean at the point where the wide man gets into a decent position or it may mean the point at which the striker receives the ball. Either way, I wasn't overly enamoured last season with our ability to get the right ball to the forwards.

Last season we massively increased our defensive ability and struggled to get the Fossey esque levels of delivery. Bradley was great for us, but I think he would've really benefitted from an increase in attacking speed up the pitch or an increase in crossing support. As it stood last season it very much felt like Bradley got the ball and the opposition was ready.

[BWFC_Insane]

The bottom line is strikers can’t have stuff laid on a plate always for them.

Completely agree with that. However, sometimes they can.

My biggest issue with Evatt is the self-publicist bit of it. He will never criticise his own football, aside from banal stuff about "I am learning too" and the like. He won't come out and say "This aspect of what we did last season was crap."

Much like in his interview with Markham recently where Chris kept talking about how "we do this" and Ian just talked about how "I do this." Turning almost every question into a complement for himself.

Evatt's coaching in preseason and his detail work with the forwards speaks volumes.

The players we have have to improve season on season. There's no escaping that. The strikers need to be better than they were last season. Charles scored 11 league goals from open play and was out top scorer. It's nowhere near enough.

Dad Bod was injured too much, so he gets a pass. Vic and Dan didn't have the impact they'd have wanted to. Dan I think can be entirely excused due to injuries. Vic at least scored 3 and created chances, but he has to improve this season.

Where I am I think is we just don’t have a natural finisher.

Charles is halfway there his movement and instincts get him in superb positions which is half the job but he probably misses as many as he scores.

After that we’ve simply not got that natural finisher the McGinlay, ALF, Walker, Anelka who you’d back to take chances most of the time. If the strikers who are not Charles all chip in with say 8 it looks really good. If only one does then it looks problematic.