January 2023 Transfer Window

[BWFC_Insane]

I’d say that we send Beck back if we can and try and find a hybrid like Iredale who can cover LCB and LWB.

If Evatt trusts Beck and is playing him against Plymouth then fair enough keep him. But if not he’s taking a squad place for little pay off. And we need someone to cover what Iredale offered in that back line versatility now we have a bona fide wing back in the house.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I’d say that we send Beck back if we can and try and find a hybrid like Iredale who can cover LCB and LWB.

Hang on mate didn’t you spend months and months saying there’s no such thing?!

[GhostoftheBok]

If Evatt trusts Beck and is playing him against Plymouth then fair enough keep him. But if not he’s taking a squad place for little pay off.

Eeeeeeeeeeeh...maybe.

A useful squad player doesn't necessarily need to be someone you ideally want to throw in against the best side in the division. Especially not when it's a kid.

It may well be that Beck hasn't worked out as Evatt had hoped, but I'm not sure we can say that if the more experienced Williams is thrown straight in.

It depends how long term our vision was for his development here and how much of it relates to our relationship with Liverpool and the possibility of him staying beyond this season. He looked like a youth player in his starts, but a talented one. You can tell how much less experienced he is than Bradley, though. You can almost hear the gears grinding in his head as he figures out what he's meant to be doing at any time.

[The_Gun]

Presumably Liverpool will only want him to remain here if he's going to play? I don't think they'd be offended if we tell them it hasn't worked out and he's not going to get much game time, so if we can bring someone else in that will make a bigger impact then we should do it.

[Worthy4England]

I’d say that we send Beck back if we can and try and find a hybrid like Iredale who can cover LCB and LWB.

Hang on mate didn’t you spend months and months saying there’s no such thing?!

And fairly specifically not Iredale!

[BWFC_Insane]

I’d say that we send Beck back if we can and try and find a hybrid like Iredale who can cover LCB and LWB.

Hang on mate didn’t you spend months and months saying there’s no such thing?!

Sure. You don't want your wing back to be a centre half hyrbid. But given we now have something approaching natural wing backs (ish) for each side and we're in January and have lost someone who offered cover for both areas albeit far from ideal as wing back, I'd say finding someone who can fill a similar role is the best we can do. Ideally we find cover for LCB and cover for both wing back positions. Or at least one side. But I think that's not realistic.

And we have the games where I suspect we want an 'Iredale' solid type at LWB - your SW away's etc...

Anyhow, interesting to see what we do.

[BWFC_Insane]

If Evatt trusts Beck and is playing him against Plymouth then fair enough keep him. But if not he’s taking a squad place for little pay off.

Eeeeeeeeeeeh...maybe.

A useful squad player doesn't necessarily need to be someone you ideally want to throw in against the best side in the division. Especially not when it's a kid.

It may well be that Beck hasn't worked out as Evatt had hoped, but I'm not sure we can say that if the more experienced Williams is thrown straight in.

It depends how long term our vision was for his development here and how much of it relates to our relationship with Liverpool and the possibility of him staying beyond this season. He looked like a youth player in his starts, but a talented one. You can tell how much less experienced he is than Bradley, though. You can almost hear the gears grinding in his head as he figures out what he's meant to be doing at any time.

The impression I get with Beck is we were expecting him to be further along his development than he is. He's looked promising in snippets but its clear to me Evatt wouldn't play him by choice and given where we're at I don't think holding a Liverpool youth player in the squad makes sense if he's not going to get ahead of a right footed non wing back for selection as LWB.

I haven't come close to seeing enough of him to say whether he could or should play more but if Evatt doesn't really see him as an option - say we make the play offs and have two injuries to Williams and Johnstone and we HAVE to play Beck from the cold...it doesn't feel great as an option for the biggest game of the season.

[GhostoftheBok]

The impression I get with Beck is we were expecting him to be further along his development than he is. He's looked promising in snippets but its clear to me Evatt wouldn't play him by choice and given where we're at I don't think holding a Liverpool youth player in the squad makes sense if he's not going to get ahead of a right footed non wing back for selection as LWB.

I haven't come close to seeing enough of him to say whether he could or should play more but if Evatt doesn't really see him as an option - say we make the play offs and have two injuries to Williams and Johnstone and we HAVE to play Beck from the cold...it doesn't feel great as an option for the biggest game of the season.

My take on it is that if Evatt simply doesn't rate him then he should go back. If he's a player Evatt is okay playing against the lesser lights, but not against the top sides, he still have utility - especially if he will improve game-on-game.

I agree that the impression is that we expected him to adapt to what we do faster than he has and that when he's talked about it's as though we view him as a lot younger than Bradley, even though he's actually older.

If we don't expect him to play at all we will likely tell Liverpool that and it'll get sorted out. I do expect him to stay, but who knows.

[Worthy4England]

Cover would be good, but I'm not sure the "Squad" space thing is a particular problem for us, given his age. He doesn't count to our 22 players over age 21 and I think we could go higher than we are on total squad numbers...so whilst he's maybe not considered as useable cover, I'm equally not sure he's causing us a "problem" in that regard...

[The_Gun]

Cover would be good, but I'm not sure the "Squad" space thing is a particular problem for us, given his age. He doesn't count to our 22 players over age 21 and I think we could go higher than we are on total squad numbers...so whilst he's maybe not considered as useable cover, I'm equally not sure he's causing us a "problem" in that regard...

Isn't it more that he's taking up a loan space?

[Worthy4England]

Cover would be good, but I'm not sure the "Squad" space thing is a particular problem for us, given his age. He doesn't count to our 22 players over age 21 and I think we could go higher than we are on total squad numbers...so whilst he's maybe not considered as useable cover, I'm equally not sure he's causing us a "problem" in that regard...

Isn't it more that he's taking up a loan space?

Ahh gotcha.

[GhostoftheBok]

Right then.

We've signed a rapid, tricky, attacking LWB in Williams (all hail).
We've got a quick, athletic, unit of a striker arriving next week in Nlundulu: someone who can both shift with the ball and hold it up.

What's the "priority" for everyone now? Not my usual thing of "what might Evatt do?" (apparently we have a bid in for another forward), but what do you think the most important issue with the squad is that we must fix next if we want to really kick-on?

[Prufrock]

I don't think there's a glaring hole now, so it would very much depend on who was available, for how much, and who they'd replace. Which I don't know. Am I doing this right ?

Two things in my mind are:

1) what do we do about Kieran? I love the man, he'd be in my starting XI all day, but he struggles to last 90 and we don't really have a plan B there. Who's going to replace him. Is it Sheehan? If not I'd have an eye on who was available there.

2) who the f is going to be in nets next year. Even if we go up we might not be able to keep Traf. And Dixon is surely gone. Can we get at least one keeper in now even if they're only going to be #2 next year (and in case Traf gets injured this year).

[BWFC_Insane]

Right then.

We've signed a rapid, tricky, attacking LWB in Williams (all hail).
We've got a quick, athletic, unit of a striker arriving next week in Nlundulu: someone who can both shift with the ball and hold it up.

What's the "priority" for everyone now? Not my usual thing of "what might Evatt do?" (apparently we have a bid in for another forward), but what do you think the most important issue with the squad is that we must fix next if we want to really kick-on?

In terms of making us better a mobile, ball winning but progressive midfield player. Someone who can get up and down, start moves, create turnovers.

OR

A bona fide number 10 who can score goals, create goals and has the engine and stamina to play in this team in that role.

And as I say, some further defensive cover.

[The_Gun]

Right then.

We've signed a rapid, tricky, attacking LWB in Williams (all hail).
We've got a quick, athletic, unit of a striker arriving next week in Nlundulu: someone who can both shift with the ball and hold it up.

What's the "priority" for everyone now? Not my usual thing of "what might Evatt do?" (apparently we have a bid in for another forward), but what do you think the most important issue with the squad is that we must fix next if we want to really kick-on?

In terms of making us better a mobile, ball winning but progressive midfield player. Someone who can get up and down, start moves, create turnovers.

OR

A bona fide number 10 who can score goals, create goals and has the engine and stamina to play in this team in that role.

And as I say, some further defensive cover.

Aren’t you describing Dempsey here? I’m not sure we’re very likely to get better than him in this window.

[Worthy4England]

Right then.

We've signed a rapid, tricky, attacking LWB in Williams (all hail).
We've got a quick, athletic, unit of a striker arriving next week in Nlundulu: someone who can both shift with the ball and hold it up.

What's the "priority" for everyone now? Not my usual thing of "what might Evatt do?" (apparently we have a bid in for another forward), but what do you think the most important issue with the squad is that we must fix next if we want to really kick-on?

In terms of making us better a mobile, ball winning but progressive midfield player. Someone who can get up and down, start moves, create turnovers.

OR

A bona fide number 10 who can score goals, create goals and has the engine and stamina to play in this team in that role.

And as I say, some further defensive cover.

Aren’t you describing Dempsey here? I’m not sure we’re very likely to get better than him in this window.

Agree with Insano (and Gun)...Dempsey might be the progressive mf player, but I think we're going to need to see it a bit more consistently than current - and preferably with less niggling injuries.

No10 for me is still "outstanding" - like Pru, I think Lee is excellent, but maybe at his age a little short of 90 minutes and some way short of every 90 minutes...

[Prufrock]

Right then.

We've signed a rapid, tricky, attacking LWB in Williams (all hail).
We've got a quick, athletic, unit of a striker arriving next week in Nlundulu: someone who can both shift with the ball and hold it up.

What's the "priority" for everyone now? Not my usual thing of "what might Evatt do?" (apparently we have a bid in for another forward), but what do you think the most important issue with the squad is that we must fix next if we want to really kick-on?

In terms of making us better a mobile, ball winning but progressive midfield player. Someone who can get up and down, start moves, create turnovers.

OR

A bona fide number 10 who can score goals, create goals and has the engine and stamina to play in this team in that role.

And as I say, some further defensive cover.

Aren’t you describing Dempsey here? I’m not sure we’re very likely to get better than him in this window.

Agree with Insano (and Gun)...Dempsey might be the progressive mf player, but I think we're going to need to see it a bit more consistently than current - and preferably with less niggling injuries.

No10 for me is still "outstanding" - like Pru, I think Lee is excellent, but maybe at his age a little short of 90 minutes and some way short of every 90 minutes...

The prick is three weeks younger than me. How did that happen?

[boltonboris]

I know the Kit man at 'ull and he told me this..

"got a lot of ability but for numerous reasons he's not really had a chance with us. Should be a good player in league 1 but he's not physically there for the Championship.

He's fast and got a good left foot"

[Worthy4England]

The prick is three weeks younger than me. How did that happen?

[The_Gun]

I know the Kit man at 'ull and he told me this..

"got a lot of ability but for numerous reasons he's not really had a chance with us. Should be a good player in league 1 but he's not physically there for the Championship.

He's fast and got a good left foot"

Not physically there for the Championship but he would be for League One? Not really sure what he means by that.