Summer Transfers Window 2020

[abdulaziz1]

19 minutes ago, Mat Kendrick's Dentist said:

We averaged 1 point per game after lockdown. How does that tell you we wouldn't be in a relegation battle?

We played:

Chelsea, Wolves, Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal. Lets alone the fact that we were in a bad situation to start playing freely. We’ve done pretty well. With no fans at home too (were we played well the year before). We didn’t have fans in our biggest two games of the season (Wolves and Utd).

[abdulaziz1]

58 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Nope, not to us anyway. He clearly wants to stay in Germany.

I don’t think that’s a conclusion. Apart from Leipzig I’m not sure any German CL team would take him. Ofcourse PL itself is an upgrade wether it’s from PR side or even wages.

[rayk]

26 minutes ago, sparrow1988 said:

This account was right about the home and away kits so there might be something to this.

Maybe two moves on the way. Of course it's a vague tweet but the part about leaks to the press is interesting.

Does that just mean we’re still in for two or was one of those two the one where negotiations got cancelled?

[Mat Kendrick's Dentist]

10 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said:

We played:

Chelsea, Wolves, Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal. Lets alone the fact that we were in a bad situation to start playing freely. We’ve done pretty well. With no fans at home too (were we played well the year before). We didn’t have fans in our biggest two games of the season (Wolves and Utd).

Nobody had fans, that's not relevant. We played Palace, West Ham, Everton, Arsenal, Newcastle sides who had nothing to play for. I'm not trying to downplay surviving - I was as ecstatic as anyone to stay up. But we picked up 35 points, and conceded a horrendous 67 goals. I don't think it's over the top to suggest we could do with a defender or two

[HanoiVillan]

I don't understand the argument that our defence is fine. We have an urgent need at CB and a less urgent, but still important, need at LB.

Mings is a good defender, and Konsa a promising prospect, but they would both benefit from being the junior partner in a CB partnership. Mings is probably the better player, but is also capable of ricks and of losing concentration and position. He's a big character, but I also think he's a smart guy, and if given a CB partner he could respect he would learn from them. This is why a Cahill signing would have been perfect. We need to abandon only signing prospects and projects under 25 for this position IMO.

At LB, as everyone has already said, Targett is pretty good especially going forward, but Taylor is a Championship level player who is only any use as a warm body in the defensive line when we are backs to the wall. I doubt we will be able to sell him, but we should be looking for someone else to challenge Targett.

We won't be able to play as defensively as we did post-lockdown for a whole season. Managers soon feel the pressure if fans are watching turgid, defensive football *and* bad results. Meanwhile better defenders would allow our attackers to do more attacking.

[TRO]

40 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Just because we lost games doesnt mean we played rubbish, it just means we lost. There were many games that before lockdown where we should of won them but because of a midfield and frontline that were struggling to work properly. We found ourselves under complete stress for large periods in some games but again we still managed to give a good game up until we let goals in and theres a number of reason for that. 

Smith said that he tried to go for the win against all team before lockdown and admitted you cant always play like that but that's who he is. He said he had to change and grind some wins out and so we did after lockdown.  Thing is we were playing very good alot of the times despite those losses and if Smith had us play football like we did after the LD, then we most likely wouldnt of been in a relegation battle I dont think, we would of just been out of it obtaining enough points to be safe well before things came down to the wire.

 

 

Your second paragraph, is precisely what some of us were referring to on here....hence some of our criticisms......just glad he got it in time.

[DakotaVilla]

You’re statistically incorrect. In the majority of games we played after lockdown we outperformed our opponents in terms of expected goals conceded and expected goals scored. The difference was that we didn’t have anything approaching a goal scorer and grealish wasn’t up to speed until the final few games. 

[Philosopher]

6 minutes ago, Mat Kendrick's Dentist said:

Nobody had fans, that's not relevant. We played Palace, West Ham, Everton, Arsenal, Newcastle sides who had nothing to play for. I'm not trying to downplay surviving - I was as ecstatic as anyone to stay up. But we picked up 35 points, and conceded a horrendous 67 goals. I don't think it's over the top to suggest we could do with a defender or two

Personally I think we need better fullbacks. Defensively they're too easily beaten.

[DakotaVilla]

Of course the defence can be improved In multiple positions but are you really going to prioritise signing a cb over a striker, winger, GK etc? Those positions have much more of a pressing need for this window.

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I don't understand the argument that our defence is fine. We have an urgent need at CB and a less urgent, but still important, need at LB.

Mings is a good defender, and Konsa a promising prospect, but they would both benefit from being the junior partner in a CB partnership. Mings is probably the better player, but is also capable of ricks and of losing concentration and position. He's a big character, but I also think he's a smart guy, and if given a CB partner he could respect he would learn from them. This is why a Cahill signing would have been perfect. We need to abandon only signing prospects and projects under 25 for this position IMO.

At LB, as everyone has already said, Targett is pretty good especially going forward, but Taylor is a Championship level player who is only any use as a warm body in the defensive line when we are backs to the wall. I doubt we will be able to sell him, but we should be looking for someone else to challenge Targett.

We won't be able to play as defensively as we did post-lockdown for a whole season. Managers soon feel the pressure if fans are watching turgid, defensive football *and* bad results. Meanwhile better defenders would allow our attackers to do more attacking.

Your last line is so pertinent.....and not always picked up by many.

That is precisely, what better defenders do, they have a marked effect on the attack.

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

Personally I think we need better fullbacks. Defensively they're too easily beaten.

Spot on

[Mjvilla]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

Your last line is so pertinent.....and not always picked up by many.

That is precisely, what better defenders do, they have a marked effect on the attack.

And vice-versa....

[Mat Kendrick's Dentist]

10 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

Of course the defence can be improved In multiple positions but are you really going to prioritise signing a cb over a striker, winger, GK etc? Those positions have much more of a pressing need for this window.

Not sure if this is directed at me, but I've said multiple times that a striker/winger are priorities. I fully expect us to make more than 2 signings though, and I'm hoping we strengthen defensively. I don't think a keeper is a high priority if Heaton is expected back in October, although I would like a loan deal if possible

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

Of course the defence can be improved In multiple positions but are you really going to prioritise signing a cb over a striker, winger, GK etc? Those positions have much more of a pressing need for this window.

That is true....but folk are just saying the defence is not perfect either.

I think we all know a Striker and winger of suitable quality is paramount, but touching on other positions is right too.

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, Mjvilla said:

And vice-versa....

Yep.

[DCJonah]

40 minutes ago, Mat Kendrick's Dentist said:

It clearly isn't though, is it? You can throw 10 men behind the ball every game and you'll concede fewer but that doesn't mean you're improving.

We shifted the balance of our team to be much more defensive. As a result we conceded fewer, but couldn't score for toffee. We still averaged 1 point per game (relegation form) even against largely unmotivated teams.

If we sign better defenders, we won't need to drop so deep, and will score more goals. Obviously we need to sign a striker and a winger, but given we had the 2nd worst defence in the league last season, we definitely need some defenders as well

Of course it does. If you concede less then you've improved defensively. 

Pretty much every defensive stat improved after lock down. We conceded less, we allowed less shots etc..  we improved defensively, I'm not sure how anyone can argue we didn't. 

[rayk]

1 minute ago, Mjvilla said:

And vice-versa....

I do think there was a clear relationship between our attackers not being able to score and our defence conceding.

i mean if we’d scored more, I don’t think our defence would have been under as much pressure and therefore not conceded as many.

It’s a gut but logical reaction....I have no stats to prove it either way.

[Dave-R]

23 minutes ago, Mat Kendrick's Dentist said:

It clearly isn't though, is it? You can throw 10 men behind the ball every game and you'll concede fewer but that doesn't mean you're improving.

We shifted the balance of our team to be much more defensive. As a result we conceded fewer, but couldn't score for toffee. We still averaged 1 point per game (relegation form) even against largely unmotivated teams.

If we sign better defenders, we won't need to drop so deep, and will score more goals. Obviously we need to sign a striker and a winger, but given we had the 2nd worst defence in the league last season, we definitely need some defenders as well

Theres more to it than just blaming defenders of ours for a 2nd worse goal record in league, theres a few things that come into play. Like how defence is bombarded for upto 70 mins a game, that's not the defenders fault and you could put the best defence in the world in that scenario and you can almost guarantee goals are going to leak. That then tells you it's way more than our defenders, it's a midfield and up front issue because they should be the ones denying the opposition any time on the ball and moving it forward.

Defence took a battering from people on here last season and so did our keepers and it's not there fault as much as people think it is. 

If you put our defence in any of the top clubs teams, they would of looked world class because of how those top clubs midfield and frontline players deny opposition any ground or time on the ball whatsoever. Those top clubs do not give you room to advance in midfield let alone there Wingers and even strikers that will chase you all over the pitch till your gasping for air or have given the ball up.

The way it should work is our Wingers, Strikers, midfielder should be on the case of getting that ball, taking it off opposition fast, keeping said ball and moving it around with pace, accuracy and determination to move that ball forward without making silly mistakes. We limited ourselves  before lockdown on any of that and we struggled and in return our defence was pummeled because of it. If all we do is go after signing some defenders then seriously, we may as well book a place in the championship right now. 

I forgot who said it but some manager said the first two things you get right are your striker and your attacking midfielder because if you can bang the goal in that's half your problem sorted, then you just branch out and sort the rest. There is some truth to it as well because without firepower you are basically rendered useless on the pitch.  

We need firepower in our front positions, we also need a new midfielder, we get those right and our defence will get alot less wrong because they will see alot less of the ball. That's what you should be aiming for, your defence and keeper seeing hardly anything of the ball to the point they look amazing at the end because they have not had to do a thing and the only way to accomplish that is get your midfield, Wingers and strikers bang on.

[Philosopher]

7 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I don't understand the argument that our defence is fine. We have an urgent need at CB and a less urgent, but still important, need at LB.

Mings is a good defender, and Konsa a promising prospect, but they would both benefit from being the junior partner in a CB partnership. Mings is probably the better player, but is also capable of ricks and of losing concentration and position. He's a big character, but I also think he's a smart guy, and if given a CB partner he could respect he would learn from them. This is why a Cahill signing would have been perfect. We need to abandon only signing prospects and projects under 25 for this position IMO.

At LB, as everyone has already said, Targett is pretty good especially going forward, but Taylor is a Championship level player who is only any use as a warm body in the defensive line when we are backs to the wall. I doubt we will be able to sell him, but we should be looking for someone else to challenge Targett.

We won't be able to play as defensively as we did post-lockdown for a whole season. Managers soon feel the pressure if fans are watching turgid, defensive football *and* bad results. Meanwhile better defenders would allow our attackers to do more attacking.

I disagree with you on Mings. I believe he will be a better player next season, thanks to his experiences last season. He's had to fast track gaining experience at cb and will have learnt a lot last season. He also has Terry imparting his knowledge. The RCB I would like either an experienced head (with a bit of pace) or a very talented 23-25 year old. 

The problem with our defence was the fullbacks getting beaten too easily meaning our CB's getting pulling out of position in order to cover, leaving acres of space in the middle to exploit.

[DCJonah]

11 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I don't understand the argument that our defence is fine. We have an urgent need at CB and a less urgent, but still important, need at LB.

Mings is a good defender, and Konsa a promising prospect, but they would both benefit from being the junior partner in a CB partnership. Mings is probably the better player, but is also capable of ricks and of losing concentration and position. He's a big character, but I also think he's a smart guy, and if given a CB partner he could respect he would learn from them. This is why a Cahill signing would have been perfect. We need to abandon only signing prospects and projects under 25 for this position IMO.

At LB, as everyone has already said, Targett is pretty good especially going forward, but Taylor is a Championship level player who is only any use as a warm body in the defensive line when we are backs to the wall. I doubt we will be able to sell him, but we should be looking for someone else to challenge Targett.

We won't be able to play as defensively as we did post-lockdown for a whole season. Managers soon feel the pressure if fans are watching turgid, defensive football *and* bad results. Meanwhile better defenders would allow our attackers to do more attacking.

I don't think anyone said our defence is fine. But the attack needs to be the priority IMO. We will rightly spend more money in that area this summer. 

Hopefully we can improve in both areas though