M_Afro

I still don’t believe we are finished. All the noise from the owners has been about challenging for European football. Our chances of that as things stand are very slim. Surely they are still working away at stuff!

It’s partly a reflection of where we are in terms of injuries and new signings but I am genuinely concerned about this one. We should be entering a home fixture with Brentford full of confidence and expectation. There are mitigating circumstances as to why I don’t feel like that but I do still have concerns over our squad balance, even when the squad is fully fit. Hopefully they prove me wrong but at the moment I can’t see us winning this one.

As various sources have stated, I think we are waiting to offload before doing any more business. We still want a GK and a DCM but need to make room first. If we don’t, then I think we are done.

13 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I don't see a benefit to letting Anwar go this window, maybe in January as Trez will be back Bailey/Buendia bedded in and JPB with more experience. But letting him go now this window weakens us.

Maybe it will enable us to bring in a younger replacement such as Alvarez. AEG is utter rubbish in my view. Really top bloke who totally stokes a penalty but he starts more opposition attacks by losing possession than any of the actual players.
You can’t always get perfect timing for these things either. As @Delphinho123said he is at his optimum value now. £15m is way too good to turn down.

6 minutes ago, gwi1890 said:

Who’s feeling a better about not bringing players in after the display of the young lads last night?

It was really encouraging but we need to remember that in old money, Barrow are a poor fourth division team. None of our young lads are ready to start many PL games. 

Surely he won’t want to waste a season at his stage of career. I imagine he will go out on loan somewhere. I could actually see him at Fulham. I think he would be well suited to them. Maybe we could use him as part swap for Anguissa!

He’s a lovely football player. He just glides with the ball at his feet. Once he works out how to get more involved in matches it is going to be difficult to stop him starting first team matches. 

3 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

is Benhrahma better than El Ghazi?

At what?

Sign McKennie and Doukoure. If we really are serious about pushing up the table then, if they are open to the move, we would be mad not to. We would be able to find clubs for Connor (probably loan) and Marvelous. We need to be ruthless here.

Having said that, either would be most welcome.

7 minutes ago, Monkeypuzzle said:

What's wrong with Steer? Has he done anything to deserve this lack of faith? He was good for us in the Championship, helped us get promoted. Many people thought he should have been given a chance as our number one for our first season back in the Premier League. I don't remember him having any howlers for us. Ok he's not as good as Martinez but as a back up and filling in for a few games a year, surely he is fine.

I think some people just assume he's terrible because they haven't seen him play for ages and he's not our first, or sometimes even second choice. Having a second top class goalkeeper sitting on the bench all season is not going to be realistic unless we have European competition to rotate them in. So wait until next season and give Steer a break for goodness sake!

He’s 28 and barely ever played above league 1 level. He’s a top lad Jed and he’s given us a couple of cracking moments but he is not a PL level keeper in a million years. I will be amazed if we don’t sign another keeper.

8 minutes ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said:

If this Harroui fellow had a choice between being our fifth choice CM or Forest where he'll be first on the team sheet, then, in some ways fair play to him. Obviously, I now fully envisage us paying £30m to purchase him next summer but hey.

I am sure we could have agreed to sign him and then loan him to a championship club if that was what he wanted. I doubt we were ever interested.

1 hour ago, Kiwivillan said:

Luiz and McGinn last season we won games. Do they not count?

Not good enough for where we want to go in my opinion. SJM needs to play further forwards to be at his most effective. As a holder, in a two, he is ineffective.

6 hours ago, Jas10 said:

I just loved Ezri’s reaction to the goal…

 

Ha ha. Me too. It was a real wtf moment.

3 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

Yeah with the current squad, Bailey, Buendia and Ings with Young are great signings, our goal output has probably increased by a good amount, as good as Grealish is, he didn’t score very many, he just looked good because the alternatives were El Ghazi and Trezeguet who are both woefully wasteful. 
 

We now have TWO goal scorers who will reach double figures, and new players who can score goals, and pick a killer pass and cross a ball. 

i mean, once fully fit and settled, we are going to be dangerous, and that is added to our already strong defensive unit. 

We don’t need a DM, would be be good to have one sometimes, sure, options are always welcome, but this squad is looking real top half quality and we should all be excited for the season ahead.    

I think Dean will play a two man central midfield at times. If he does this then we desperately need an athletic, physical and intelligent DCM. I also think having that type of player in a three would improve us and give the other two greater license to get forward.

3 hours ago, lexicon said:

Buendia didn't look at all right when he was in the centre. Much better for him to play as a RW and cut inside. 

For me we need to go 4-3-3:

LW Bailey
ST Ings or Watkins
RW Buendia

That's our strongest front line - change up the striker depending on the oppo. 

I agree with this. The three in the middle is interesting though. I keep changing my mind virtually on the hour every hour. At the moment I am with Luiz as a six and SJM and Sanson as eights. Very harsh on Ramsey though after the last couple of weeks.

He’s just a class football player. He will be fantastic when he settles and gets used to his surroundings. He can’t dribble like Grealish but his vision and quality of passing is better in my view. He is also better defensively. 

1 minute ago, villabromsgrove said:

Yves Bissouma was exceptional against Watford. He looked like the real deal yesterday and has probably added 10/15 million to his asking price in just two games.

I didn't think he was the finished article last season although he had some outstanding qualities, but I was wrong. He's now a CM who can win matches for his team with his dominating performance.

Yes he is possibly beyond us now. Brighton paid £15m for him three years ago and he is probably now worth 4x that! We need to target the new Bissouma and develop him. 

2 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

I’m loving the new long throw. It’s just such an obvious weapon as well. As soon as you win that first header (Mings), it’s pandemonium in the box.

I absolutely hate defending against it so it’s great to see us using it against other teams. It’s not pretty, but if it gets us 5 goals this season, job done.

Me too. Our bloody awful set pieces have been an annoyance for too long. Great to see us causing problems from them at the moment.

1 minute ago, ferguson1 said:

Would anyone be happy if we perhaps get a Loftus-Cheek, Ampadu, Winks, Ndombele type loan on the final day of the window?

Can see this type of loan happening if we shift a couple ourselves in the next week or so. 

I know what you mean about loans. I think there would be some decent players available on loan. I wonder whether Fulham would be tempted to loan Anguissa? Some foreign clubs who are having financial difficulty might be open to shifting some players on loan.

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I think Smith likes AEG too much so I doubt he’s going, Davis is injured so unlikely him going.  Connor and Freddie maybe. I don’t think Wes will go because of the investment we put into him so they obviously seen something initially and I guess they’ll want to see if that’s there although how he gets game time I don’t know.

Maybe a loan for Wes would work best? Get his wages covered and hopefully see him find some form playing elsewhere.

He is the best passer of the ball that we have. He just needs to get used to his new surroundings and team mates. I thought he was ok yesterday and he will get much better. As others have said, having Ollie in the team will help him too. He needs someone to hit. Players like him rely on the clever movement of others. He can then create things with his clever passing. We were too static yesterday but that will improve as we hopefully move towards a more settled team.

Even if we don’t sign anybody it would still be good to see some leave. AEG, Connor, Guilbert, Wesley, Davis. None of those guys are going to play a huge part this season and all can be covered from elsewhere if required. It would all help with ffp and give us greater flexibility in the future.

12 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

Genuinely one of the only players I know that I’d spend 50/60m on. 

If no other team comes in for him, we may have the smallest chance of signing him towards the end of the window.

Superb player and perfect for us. 

Just watched him on motd. He is so good. He would really help bring control and continuity to our play. It would also stuff Brighton up who I think will have a good season. 
For those people who don’t think we need a central midfield player I urge you to watch Bissouma play. He is the complete midfielder.

He is not good enough but you can’t fault his professionalism. He just does his job when called upon and never bitches and moans. He is a good teammate as Dean would say.

I agree with those that say we should sell him though if possible. He only has 2 years left on his contract and he probably is at his optimum value now. Whether we like it or not, we do have to keep selling players to evolve. He is only playing because Bailey, Watkins and Traore are all injured. One of those comes back and AEG drops out.

If you get £15m for him from a lower PL team you could reinvest some of that on a younger player with a much higher potential ceiling. Someone like Alvarez. That’s how clubs like us evolve. Keep our core together, sell ancillary players for decent profits and re-invest in up and coming stars.