The Promotion Commotion Transfer Thread 2017

[Prufrock]

Aye, and tbh I'd said during the game last night that we'll never score a goal again.

Some people *cough* do talk about him as if he's essentially Alan Shearer in his pomp and the rest are lucky to share a pitch, rather than the reality: he was our only credible line leader for 16 months and a very good player for two. But we certainly need something up there. As I say, willing to give Walker a chance. If it's not him, then it's going to be tough and require something unorthodox.

That said, Palace's good run under Hodgson started with them playing Zaha and Townsend as a two up top, so Zach and Sammi still an option.

[GhostoftheBok]

I won't pretend to know who can and can't work up top together. I'd feel more comfortable if we had a recognised centre forward, but it's not like there's a queue of brilliant free agents. I'm not convinced you can get away without a physical presence upfront if you also lack a playmaker; but we'll have to wait and see. There are a lot of ways to win football matches.

[TANGODANCER]

You're not going to see passes finding a runner if you've got Henry and Derik pulling the string from midfield.

One of the things that struck me last night was our attempts to fire a pass at a player in their box from thirty yards. Too far, as was proven by the amount of balls that were intercepted or simply blocked and cleared. We need confidence enought to work the ball in shorter distances and run at defenders. It won't happen overnight, but we aren't nearly as poor as some make out. Getting back on our feet financially will be a bit harder, but we'll get there.

[GhostoftheBok]

You're not going to see passes finding a runner if you've got Henry and Derik pulling the string from midfield.

One of the things that struck me last night was our attempts to fire a pass at a player in their box from thirty yards. Too far, as was proven by the amount of balls that were intercepted or simply blocked and cleared. We need confidence enought to work the ball in shorter distances and run at defenders. It won't happen overnight, but we aren't nearly as poor as some make out. Getting back on our feet financially will be a bit harder, but we'll get there.

I think part of that is that we lack a recognised "go to" option now Madine has gone. When the non-footballing footballers in the team got the ball and panicked they could always just hoof it to Gary. Without that, you're going to see people take on passes that aren't really there, pass backwards and generally lose their heads a bit. There's nobody in the midfield that the other players trust to retain possession under pressure and now there's no guaranteed out-ball upfront, so it'll take time to figure it out.

If we'd have got Chungy over the line I think he'd have helped. You can pass to him and know he'll usually hold onto it. Maybe if Clough drops shorter he'll start to become that option - as he tends to either use the ball or get fouled when he's on his game.

It would have been worse were it not for the wingbacks running their legs off all game and providing passing options, so fair play to those lads. Hopefully they can keep up those energy levels over the rest of the season.

[jonnybwfc]

Get Tim Cahill in.

Left Melbourne City last week to get some game-time before the World Cup.

Has said he doesn't need money, just wants to be playing in the next 6 months, so he can get to the World Cup and hopefully score in 4 consecutive Cups.

He's about 90, but still scoring in big games, is a target man, and can put away easy chances.

Must be a reason he can't get into their team?

Decent point, Boz, but are we not in the - give the chap a go - category just now?

Signed for Millwall.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Iles tweets: "Nothing in Victor Anichebe link as things stand. Some doubt as to whether he was even released by Beijing in time to be able to play for a second club. Either way, #bwfc keeping distance for now."
"Fitness-wise, Wanderers being very, very careful not to sign anyone who needs 4-5 weeks to sharpen up. Wasted money. Made that mistake before, too..."

[BWFC_Insane]

Iles tweets: "Nothing in Victor Anichebe link as things stand. Some doubt as to whether he was even released by Beijing in time to be able to play for a second club. Either way, #bwfc keeping distance for now."
"Fitness-wise, Wanderers being very, very careful not to sign anyone who needs 4-5 weeks to sharpen up. Wasted money. Made that mistake before, too..."

Which at this stage means "we're not signing anyone". Can't imagine many free agents out there at this stage would be "ready" to play and match sharp.

I do think that is risky though. Ok, throwing a wage at someone who won't be ready to do much yet is a waste of money in one sense. But getting them in a sharp and having an alternative option at the end of the season might be critical. Whereas waiting and seeing might mean they don't have time to sign someone and get them up to speed.

What if Ameobi gets injured? What if we need a win last game of the season and Ameobi is injured?

I think not signing a striker is leaving way too much to chance.

[boltonboris]

You really do bring me down.

Such a negative mindset

"What if Ameobi gets injured? What if we need a win last game of the season and Ameobi is injured?"

I like you, but fvck me - cry me a fvckin river

[BWFC_Insane]

You really do bring me down.

Such a negative mindset

"What if Ameobi gets injured? What if we need a win last game of the season and Ameobi is injured?"

I like you, but fvck me - cry me a fvckin river

Its realistic. You can't play the crucial end of season run-in relying on an inconsistent wide man as your only outlet up front and then an assortment of midgets who unless they score a wonder goal are being carried.

Call me negative all you want, but you know deep down, as well as I do, that is true.

[Prufrock]

We win the first have without him against 2nd - it's one game, you can't read anything into it.

We get a point against the form team in the league - it's too early to say.

Bolton Wanderers lose an away game (yes, I know, an AWAY game ) - turn off the lights, we're all going to die.

Can't wait for next year's first "you know, we miss Pratley, it's a fact".

[BWFC_Insane]

We win the first have without him against 2nd - it's one game, you can't read anything into it.

We get a point against the form team in the league - it's too early to say.

Bolton Wanderers lose an away game (yes, I know, an AWAY game ) - turn off the lights, we're all going to die.

Can't wait for next year's first "you know, we miss Pratley, it's a fact".

I said after Bristol and after Fulham that whilst the graft and spirit were exceptional that you can't repeat those performances time and time again.

And we do miss Pratley big time. Mainly because Derik is shite.

[Harry Genshaw]

We win the first have without him against 2nd - it's one game, you can't read anything into it.

We get a point against the form team in the league - it's too early to say.

Bolton Wanderers lose an away game (yes, I know, an AWAY game ) - turn off the lights, we're all going to die.

Can't wait for next year's first "you know, we miss Pratley, it's a fact".

[boltonboris]

We win the first have without him against 2nd - it's one game, you can't read anything into it.

We get a point against the form team in the league - it's too early to say.

Bolton Wanderers lose an away game (yes, I know, an AWAY game ) - turn off the lights, we're all going to die.

Can't wait for next year's first "you know, we miss Pratley, it's a fact".

I said after Bristol and after Fulham that whilst the graft and spirit were exceptional that you can't repeat those performances time and time again.

That's the only way we've won this season!!

[BWFC_Insane]

28.5 v Hull City W 1-0
31.4 v Sheff Utd W 1-0
24.4 v Boro L 2-0
31.4 v Cardiff W 2-0
17.2 v Burton L 1-0
29.1 v Brentford L 2-0
24.5 v Ipswich Town D 1-1
20.6 v Bristol City W 1-0
25.1 v Fulham D 1-1
24.3 v Cardiff City L 2-0

Iles posted this. It is (according to whoscored data) the % of "long passes" we've played in recent matches.

Interestingly it confirms my hypothesis that for some unknown reason we tried to play a different game against Burton that failed miserably. The rest seems much of a muchness.

Also puts to bed the idea that "all we did was lump it forward". There are several teams (Cardiff included) with higher ratios than we produced even with our former centre forward.

What it shows though, is that even now with trying to adapt our game a quarter of our passes are long and the majority of those will be aimed at strikers in this system. And if we can't hold up the ball from those "clearances/passes/hoofs" we're going to struggle a lot.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Not necessarily arguing with the rest of your drift, but in the case of Burton: I wasn't there, but didn't they sit deep, allow us possession and invite us on to them? (According to the BBC, we had an unusually high 68% possession.) That would preclude the early long ball forward to "turn them round".

One other thing about long balls - they're generally defined as over 20 yards/metres, so it depends how wide your team goes in possession. By that yardstick (heh), Gerard Pique will play quite a few "long balls" to attacking full-backs - doesn't make them, or us, a John Beck team.

[Prufrock]

I'm not sure it does show that. Would need to know the direction of those passes coz they to me seem to tally quite nicely with taking three passes to work it back to Alnwick to nice person it forward.

[BWFC_Insane]

Not necessarily arguing with the rest of your drift, but in the case of Burton: I wasn't there, but didn't they sit deep, allow us possession and invite us on to them? (According to the BBC, we had an unusually high 68% possession.) That would preclude the early long ball forward to "turn them round".

One other thing about long balls - they're generally defined as over 20 yards/metres, so it depends how wide your team goes in possession. By that yardstick (heh), Gerard Pique will play quite a few "long balls" to attacking full-backs - doesn't make them, or us, a John Beck team.

Of course we're limited by the nature of stats. But 12 teams play more long balls on average than we do in this league. Which I think goes to show a lot of the "all we do is..." is just what applies to over half the league.

Burton sitting back should have allowed us to push up and aim balls in at Madine on the edge of the box and pick up the second ball and create a lot of pressure. Instead we tried to pass through them. It was inexplicable at the time to me, and a failure.

Going back to that game is what worries me about our upcoming games against relegation rivals. Teams will come here and do the same, and I think we've even less to break them down with. Someone needs to go on a real run of goalscoring form and they will have to do it, with relatively few chances to work with.

[GhostoftheBok]

It's the same arguments over and over from both sides. Forgetting Madine for a minute, Parky has been playing what he sees as his best 11 whenever he can (obviously) and we've scored how many this season? 28? That's the third lowest in the league. Then we had to sell our top scorer. Anyone can make any argument they want about the potential for goals, but the fact is something either needs to drastically change or some players need to decide they'll take this league on on their own.

Is it more likely that, under Parkinson, we'll score more with Madine than without him? I'd say it's hard to argue we will, given how we've played all season. We've not added creativity in the middle of the park and we now can't go into a big man up front. I'm sure it'd all work out on Football Manager, but in real life it's a big ask to recover from selling your top scorer when you're already terrible at scoring goals.

If we do stay up it'll be based on the team pulling together and just wanting it more than other sides. Clean sheets and set pieces. It's not sexy football, but there you go. If we suddenly start banging them in, I'll be thrilled; but you'd not bet on it.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

PP, BN:

I think when you look at most clubs, they change their strikers around more than any other position so that the players stay fresh. I think that will be the case for us. We’ll judge it on a game by game basis. I think Sammy (Ameobi) and Alfie (Le Fondre) were bright in spells at Cardiff. Alfie worked hard and I think he was one of our better players. But is it ever going to be settled? I don’t think it will.

[Peter Thompson]

Jan Kirchhoff is a cracking player & would be a fantastic signing - great passer of the ball, admittedly he's injury prone but if he wasn't he wouldn't be available to the likes of us - if any of the Anderson's read this forum please sign this guy up as a DM, we'll have a great chance of staying up if we sign him and you can persuade Parkinson to play him - he's only 27

Same with Chinedu Obasi the striker who scored tonight for the U23's, he's a decent player, 6ft 2, powerful and an ex Nigeria international - decent age 31/32 with a point to prove - like Kirchhoff he would be a very good signing and would offer us something different up front and would certainly give us a better chance of staying up.

Sign them both on short term deals until the end of the season, with the incentive of a 12 month deal if we stay up....both capable of playing at a higher level if we can keep them fit and play them.