Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[BWFC_Insane]

Listened to The Wanderer podcast review of the season and Jack Dearden made a couple of points.

He thinks we need to sign 2 strikers this window on top of Bod, Jerome, Vic and Dion.

He also thinks Evatt will try and build a side that delivers the ball into the box more often next season.

Now obviously these are opinions but Jack is up and down the country covering us and spends a lot of time with Evatt and the backroom staff. I've also heard Iles expects strikers this summer too.

[GhostoftheBok]

He also thinks Evatt will try and build a side that delivers the ball into the box more often next season.

I could build a side that delivers the ball into the box more if I were using Lego, so no doubts there. We need to be able to put the ball in with quality from more angles if we're going to get the most out of the attackers we have in the building.

I've no idea what the plan is, but it'll be fun finding out.

[Worthy4England]

Listened to The Wanderer podcast review of the season and Jack Dearden made a couple of points.

He thinks we need to sign 2 strikers this window on top of Bod, Jerome, Vic and Dion.

He also thinks Evatt will try and build a side that delivers the ball into the box more often next season.

Now obviously these are opinions but Jack is up and down the country covering us and spends a lot of time with Evatt and the backroom staff. I've also heard Iles expects strikers this summer too.

At the minute, if my maths is right, we have 17 players (notwithstanding some could be sold or go out on loan etc.). We're allowed 22 (young uns aside)

As it stands, there are 5 free places and we're missing probably 2 RWB's and 2 GKs...before all the "lets have a discussion about it" positions...

[BWFC_Insane]

Listened to The Wanderer podcast review of the season and Jack Dearden made a couple of points.

He thinks we need to sign 2 strikers this window on top of Bod, Jerome, Vic and Dion.

He also thinks Evatt will try and build a side that delivers the ball into the box more often next season.

Now obviously these are opinions but Jack is up and down the country covering us and spends a lot of time with Evatt and the backroom staff. I've also heard Iles expects strikers this summer too.

At the minute, if my maths is right, we have 17 players (notwithstanding some could be sold or go out on loan etc.). We're allowed 22 (young uns aside)

As it stands, there are 5 free places and we're missing probably 2 RWB's and 2 GKs...before all the "lets have a discussion about it" positions...

GKs don't count do they? So that's 2 more. Plus anyone under 21. So probably in all likelihood at least one or two of those ages will be added.

[Worthy4England]

Listened to The Wanderer podcast review of the season and Jack Dearden made a couple of points.

He thinks we need to sign 2 strikers this window on top of Bod, Jerome, Vic and Dion.

He also thinks Evatt will try and build a side that delivers the ball into the box more often next season.

Now obviously these are opinions but Jack is up and down the country covering us and spends a lot of time with Evatt and the backroom staff. I've also heard Iles expects strikers this summer too.

At the minute, if my maths is right, we have 17 players (notwithstanding some could be sold or go out on loan etc.). We're allowed 22 (young uns aside)

As it stands, there are 5 free places and we're missing probably 2 RWB's and 2 GKs...before all the "lets have a discussion about it" positions...

GKs don't count do they? So that's 2 more. Plus anyone under 21. So probably in all likelihood at least one or two of those ages will be added.

Yeah - right on GKs so that's a help!

If we worked on 7 empty slots and assumed for a sec no bugger left. I'd probably want

2 RWB's
I CB
2/3 MF
1/2 strikers/forwards

So I'm certainly expecting one striker (as depending whether you count Kacha as a striker or not), we've lost 2. Kacha/N'lundulu..

[BWFC_Insane]

Listened to The Wanderer podcast review of the season and Jack Dearden made a couple of points.

He thinks we need to sign 2 strikers this window on top of Bod, Jerome, Vic and Dion.

He also thinks Evatt will try and build a side that delivers the ball into the box more often next season.

Now obviously these are opinions but Jack is up and down the country covering us and spends a lot of time with Evatt and the backroom staff. I've also heard Iles expects strikers this summer too.

At the minute, if my maths is right, we have 17 players (notwithstanding some could be sold or go out on loan etc.). We're allowed 22 (young uns aside)

As it stands, there are 5 free places and we're missing probably 2 RWB's and 2 GKs...before all the "lets have a discussion about it" positions...

GKs don't count do they? So that's 2 more. Plus anyone under 21. So probably in all likelihood at least one or two of those ages will be added.

Yeah - right on GKs so that's a help!

If we worked on 7 empty slots and assumed for a sec no bugger left. I'd probably want

2 RWB's
I CB
2/3 MF
1/2 strikers/forwards

So I'm certainly expecting one striker (as depending whether you count Kacha as a striker or not), we've lost 2. Kacha/N'lundulu..

We're fine at CB for me. I mean sure - we could do with Santos cover - but MJ might have to be it. When Santos didn't play our results were good. Jones back too. So Jones/Toal Santos/MJ Johnston/Iredale.

That looks and feels fine to me.

Deffo need WBs - 1RWB - maybe a hybrid option - IF John goes we need a LWB too but that's a replacement in numbers terms. So perhaps 2 WBs on top of what we have.

Midfield - its that dynamic hardrunning number 8 and then whatever we need to add more goals and quality into that area. So 2 I think.

Then a striker.

So that's 5.

I think after that its more about whatever improvements we can get - where we can get top quality into the side....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Toal is probably the cover for Santos, but we'll have to work on his distribution. MJ a more straightforward option. Either way I'm not sure we add a CB unless a genius drops in our laps.

I would agree we need 2x WB, but wouldn't surprise me if again one is a non-counting young loanee (hopefully more Bradley than Beck – which is not to say Beck won't make it, but that Bradley was oven-ready).

That leaves three gaps (assuming Bod signs and nobody leaves, eg John or, er, Sadlier). Right now I'd specify one up top and one in midfield; the other is a wildcard, depending who's available, and anyway might be someone in between those two departments....

[Worthy4England]

Toal is probably the cover for Santos, but we'll have to work on his distribution. MJ a more straightforward option. Either way I'm not sure we add a CB unless a genius drops in our laps.

I would agree we need 2x WB, but wouldn't surprise me if again one is a non-counting young loanee (hopefully more Bradley than Beck – which is not to say Beck won't make it, but that Bradley was oven-ready).

That leaves three gaps (assuming Bod signs and nobody leaves, eg John or, er, Sadlier). Right now I'd specify one up top and one in midfield; the other is a wildcard, depending who's available, and anyway might be someone in between those two departments....

The WB thing is "interesting" - most of Iredale's playing time was out on the LB/LWB space. Whoscored has him out there something like 14 vs 3 in the CB role...If we're serious about having cover, then currently we have 2 LWB's no RWB's. Course, Jones could push out right, Iredale could push out left, but then you drop cover for CB's. This might be a "development player" rather than a nailed on starter...

We were actually quite lucky in a number of ways with Bradley as he didn't get injured to any great extent...

[GhostoftheBok]

None of us actually know what Evatt thinks he has in his various defensive positions.

We could have 6 centre backs, or 3. We could have 3 wingbacks, or 1.

Williams, Santos, Toal and Johnston we can be pretty sure of. Iredale and Jones would be either wingback or centre back options. MJ could be Santos cover or a midfielder (or an extraneous utility man).

We could as easily sign 2 centre backs and a RWB as three wing backs and no centre backs. We could also sign 3 wing backs and a centre back.

What Evatt said he wanted was one defensive wing back option and one attacking. So that could be Iredale/Williams on one side and Jones/???? on the other - but that could have all changed since he said it.

Versatility will be important, but in the end we need 10 players between those roles.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Jack Iredale did some solid shifts at LWB when we had little other option – although he was still occasionally deselected in favour of a Dapo or a Sadlier. Maybe that speaks to the "one attacking, one defensive" idea, which does ring a bell, and makes a certain amount of sense given we're not going to have four players who each tick all the boxes. That said, the idea of the more defensive Iredale at LWB does not, to me, speak of a problem solved in the chance-creation department.

But yeah - if we have players who can cover two positions, we can to an extent 'cut corners' in the two-per-position quota... although as we've seen, too much of that leaves you open to problems when injuries strike.

[GhostoftheBok]

That said, the idea of the more defensive Iredale at LWB does not, to me, speak of a problem solved in the chance-creation department.

He's pretty close to Bradley on key passes and XA per 90. I'd very much like another option on the left, but I think Iredale was more creative than people gave him credit for.

As I said when he signed him, I like him as a LCB; but Iles was adamant Evatt saw him as an option down the left flank from the beginning.

[Worthy4England]

Jack Iredale did some solid shifts at LWB when we had little other option – although he was still occasionally deselected in favour of a Dapo or a Sadlier. Maybe that speaks to the "one attacking, one defensive" idea, which does ring a bell, and makes a certain amount of sense given we're not going to have four players who each tick all the boxes. That said, the idea of the more defensive Iredale at LWB does not, to me, speak of a problem solved in the chance-creation department.

But yeah - if we have players who can cover two positions, we can to an extent 'cut corners' in the two-per-position quota... although as we've seen, too much of that leaves you open to problems when injuries strike.

I looked at some figures from https://www.fotmob.com/ for Bolton players on chance creation - not sure how accurate they are, and you can't tell for Adeboyejo and N'Lundulu how many chances they created for Bolton vs their previous L1 Club (although you can get to all the rest)...

If you sort by Chances per 90, Morley is out in front with Sadlier (at 2.1 per game) then it goes, Randy, Sexy, John, Dapo, Shortire, all above 1.3...Most of them, we're probably not expecting to be here next season, some already not, and Morley takes all the dead balls, so you'd probably expect he created a few more than some of the others...

As Ghost says, these stats suggest there isn't a lot between Iredale and Bradley - from these figures Iredale is 1.2 / 90, Bradley 1.1...

[Prufrock]

We're all assuming all those under contract will be here, I mean until there are at least rumours otherwise I suppose we have to, but it's always possible others beyond John and Sads might leave.

MJ's was contractual, so might not be part of plans though he seems a good egg and covers a few positions. There are others with only one year left we probably don't want to see go for free. Johnstone seemingly the most "valuable".

You'd also hope we're pretty high up the list for loanees from our bigger rivals but feck knows who they'd be.

[Prufrock]

Jack Iredale did some solid shifts at LWB when we had little other option – although he was still occasionally deselected in favour of a Dapo or a Sadlier. Maybe that speaks to the "one attacking, one defensive" idea, which does ring a bell, and makes a certain amount of sense given we're not going to have four players who each tick all the boxes. That said, the idea of the more defensive Iredale at LWB does not, to me, speak of a problem solved in the chance-creation department.

But yeah - if we have players who can cover two positions, we can to an extent 'cut corners' in the two-per-position quota... although as we've seen, too much of that leaves you open to problems when injuries strike.

I looked at some figures from https://www.fotmob.com/ for Bolton players on chance creation - not sure how accurate they are, and you can't tell for Adeboyejo and N'Lundulu how many chances they created for Bolton vs their previous L1 Club (although you can get to all the rest)...

If you sort by Chances per 90, Morley is out in front with Sadlier (at 2.1 per game) then it goes, Randy, Sexy, John, Dapo, Shortire, all above 1.3...Most of them, we're probably not expecting to be here next season, some already not, and Morley takes all the dead balls, so you'd probably expect he created a few more than some of the others...

As Ghost says, these stats suggest there isn't a lot between Iredale and Bradley - from these figures Iredale is 1.2 / 90, Bradley 1.1...

Set pieces also a big factor for Iredale tbf, IIRC he took pretty much everything left footed until his injury. Cross for Gethin's header at MK jumps immediately to mind.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Yep he was our "left-footed" set-piece taker (while IIRC Bradley took zero all season). Not sure how many Jack created from open play.... which most experts agree is The Problem.

(I will, however, happily accept assists from set-pieces.)

[Worthy4England]

^^ His "absolute" total in EFL L1 was 20 from those linked stats, so just surmising if a third were dead ball, then he'd be at about 14 in 21 games, so quite a long way behind Randy...(who I'm not sure took (m)any dead balls)

[Prufrock]

Yeah Bradley was usually the pace at the back cover for our attacking set pieces, so you don't even get the second phase assists or chances when it's knocking about.

You definitely need a set piece threat, it's not nothing, but yeah, open play is a bigger priority for our wing backs. I like Iredale, but I'm not convinced at wing back. He seems perfectly made for that outside centre back role.

I disagree with Ghost in that I think we could get away with 9 rather than 10 across the back 5, but agree 8 isn't enough, and that what combination you sign to get to that 9 or 10 depends very much on what's in Evatt's head. I expect us to sign one RWB, and someone proper and front foot. After that it's a bit of a guessing game.

[GhostoftheBok]

Yep he was our "left-footed" set-piece taker (while IIRC Bradley took zero all season). Not sure how many Jack created from open play.... which most experts agree is The Problem.

(I will, however, happily accept assists from set-pieces.)

His crossing numbers are up there. When you look at the usual "accurate crosses" (completed) he's not great, but when you break it down into zones he hit his numbers were very good.

What it basically seems to indicate is that his crossing is good (and he gets into crossing positions a lot), but we don't get players on the end of things.

Bradley's completion numbers are better, but his crossing positions were very different.

I'd very much like to see what happens if we have more of a dribbly LWB and Iredale as the deeper option at LCB putting the ball into the box when it's on.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'd very much like to see what happens if we have more of a dribbly LWB and Iredale as the deeper option at LCB putting the ball into the box when it's on.

This, I can see. Although I'd say Johnston probably offers more ball-carrying threat from LCB than Jack (small data-set caveat).

[GhostoftheBok]

This, I can see. Although I'd say Johnston probably offers more ball-carrying threat from LCB than Jack (small data-set caveat).

I'd be interested to know how you mean that one.

I'd say Iredale's ball-carrying stats are much, much better than Johnston's at first glance and even in a 2 for Cambridge he was more adept at bringing the ball out of defence and beating men.

What do you count as a ball-carrying threat?