Squad Watch 2022/23

[Zip]

Agree with Ian. We really don’t need another striker.

[Snowflake Royal]

Do agree the passing wasn’t good enough yesterday. Ovie was poor and kept losing it, Fornah had a poor game. Yiadom and Ince struggled to retain it. Thought Hendrick improved as it went and Hoilett did well

But that’s great prep for playing a poorer standard next week. Not too worried by it really

Graham Potter is a very good manager. They were impressive. Found it hard to watch though. Ejaria has to do better. He could so easily have been punished for giving the ball away in dangerous positions.

This is a shocking turn of events!

[Snowflake Royal]

If Sarr signs I’m guessing he will move to cdm. A tough tackler and organiser who will hopefully be more influential than Van Den Berg.

Is Sarr right or left footed? We seem to be building a lot of similarly positioned players and I can already hear Ian saying something about square pegs and round holes.

Left footed. Don’t listen to master Royal. You cannot take someone seriously when they are usually dressed head to toe in orange with “Lib Dems” on the front of his shirt and “winning here” on the back.
Just give him hell Sethmondo.

No problem with genuine utility players like Hutch. Can play CB and DM.

Prefer a RF - LF combination at the back, but if RF players can play LCB & LB & LW then the same should be true in reverse.

Concerned we still don't have a single genuine LB or LWB, but we're clearly focusing on it.

You Corbyn loving red leather crotchless chaps wearing Commie.

[blythspartan]

I was watching Ejaria yesterday and as mentioned already he gave the ball away in dangerous places in the first half but I did think he improved in the second half. For me he doesn’t have the passing ability of Swift so I’d like to see him driving forward with the ball and scaring the shit out of defenders. He has that in his locker but most of the time the ball goes to him the play is slowed right down as he fannies around with the ball and the opportunity is lost.

I am not going to judge him based on yesterday’s performance as Brighton were quality. However, he has the opportunity to become a club legend this season if he can find much more consistency. Also, I can never make up my mind about how quick he is or how quick any of our players are. We often look really laboured and we don’t seem to be able to break really quickly from back to front.

[Zip]

Do agree the passing wasn’t good enough yesterday. Ovie was poor and kept losing it, Fornah had a poor game. Yiadom and Ince struggled to retain it. Thought Hendrick improved as it went and Hoilett did well

But that’s great prep for playing a poorer standard next week. Not too worried by it really

Graham Potter is a very good manager. They were impressive. Found it hard to watch though. Ejaria has to do better. He could so easily have been punished for giving the ball away in dangerous positions.

This is a shocking turn of events!

Well it’s Ovie time or bust for him this season. Always liked him but he cannot flatter to deceive this season because the other ten options are not great.

[Snowflake Royal]

We could possibly play Azeez upfront too. Would much prefer a focus on another ten. There isn’t much creativity in central midfield now that we have lost Swift and Olise.

Yeah, depending on how we play. Think Hoilett could get a fair few assists crossing from the right. Ince has the potential.

We've got quite a lot of strikers... too many who are better elsewhere or very early in their career to take a full role though.

One or or maybe two of Azeez, Melvin-Lambert, Clarke and Ehibhatiomhan should probably go out on loan for the experience.

If we get another striker, they need to be one we can be confident can play a lot of games, in which case I think it makes Long rather redundant.

Azeez we need. Two of the others can go. Clarke does score goals at u23, think he’s perfectly adequate 4th choice when we’ll often play one up top anyway imo

But if Long or Joao are injured then can use the loan there I reckon. Aware Grabban is a free not a loan, would have been a terrible use of a loan if he wasn’t

Ejaria, Ince, Hoilett, Hendrick can all play that ten role if that’s how we choose to play it. But if a good option became available then fair enough

Agree on Azeez. Bags of promise there. Clarke would fit as back up or on loan for me. Feel like maybe Melvin-Lambert could benefit with the back up experience this season and then a L1 loan next with Clarke going out this. Dunno.

Loan might be a bit soon for Ehib. Not sure.

Agree the window gives us plenty of time to see how bad Long and Joao are injury wise, plus whether Puscas actually goes, plus how we start before signing another striker.

And we'd be wise to be carefully monitoring and keeping tabs on Carroll, as he's a good fit if Joao is out longer term and could be brought in after the window closes again

[Nameless]

Yeah, depending on how we play. Think Hoilett could get a fair few assists crossing from the right. Ince has the potential.

We've got quite a lot of strikers... too many who are better elsewhere or very early in their career to take a full role though.

One or or maybe two of Azeez, Melvin-Lambert, Clarke and Ehibhatiomhan should probably go out on loan for the experience.

If we get another striker, they need to be one we can be confident can play a lot of games, in which case I think it makes Long rather redundant.

I don’t think 3 strikers plus Meite is in any way excessive.

Joao, Puscas, Long, Clarke, Melvin-Lambert, Meite, Ehibhatiomhan and Azeez are all either strikers, or can play there. That's at least six, potentially up to 8.

I thought you wanted me to put you on ignore, but about 12 hours later you're talking to me and quoting me.

On the basis Puscas will leave and M-L, Clarke and Ehib are not close to being first team starting material I think my numbers are accurate.
Me suggesting you put me on ignore is a solution to your tedious attempts to pick fights. It’s got nothing to do with whether I debate with you. You obviously don’t know how the ignore function works.... you obviously cba.

[Hound]

Suprised Carroll hasn’t been mentioned at all in rumours. Do wonder if something behind the scenes took place as you’d think it’d have been an obvious one to Go back to on paper

Ejaria did improve and there were some good signs in there. But Brighton we’re right onto him - minute he got the ball there were two on him and tbf he received the ball a number of times it a difficult situation and he didn’t have the ability to get out of them. Poor game from him but again not too worried generally. He did put in some good defensive work again

[From Despair To Where?]

I wonder if Carroll's wage demands might price him out. One tocreturn to after the window closes, maybe?


Certainly fits the big, aggressive lump profile.

[Snowflake Royal]

Suprised Carroll hasn’t been mentioned at all in rumours. Do wonder if something behind the scenes took place as you’d think it’d have been an obvious one to Go back to on paper

Ejaria did improve and there were some good signs in there. But Brighton we’re right onto him - minute he got the ball there were two on him and tbf he received the ball a number of times it a difficult situation and he didn’t have the ability to get out of them. Poor game from him but again not too worried generally. He did put in some good defensive work again

Disappointed I missed the game.

Going to have to get back into the swing of watching. With a bit of luck we might be heading towards not being badly run, depressing and continually disappointing

[Nameless]

Suprised Carroll hasn’t been mentioned at all in rumours. Do wonder if something behind the scenes took place as you’d think it’d have been an obvious one to Go back to on paper

Ejaria did improve and there were some good signs in there. But Brighton we’re right onto him - minute he got the ball there were two on him and tbf he received the ball a number of times it a difficult situation and he didn’t have the ability to get out of them. Poor game from him but again not too worried generally. He did put in some good defensive work again

At the risk of being told off I knowCarroll loved his time here. He would happily have stayed but WBA could pay him much more. If there was a choice between him or Grabban I’d probably opt for Grabban but both might be wanting more than we could pay. I’d probably prefer someone different in style but we’re picking from what’savailable.
Good news the transfer window is less significant for us as we are recruiting from the pool who are all without clubs anyway (bar possible loans)

[Hound]

I got the impression he did enjoy his time which makes it all the more surprising to me he hasn’t been mentioned as coming back.

[Nameless]

I got the impression he did enjoy his time which makes it all the more surprising to me he hasn’t been mentioned as coming back.

Failing a medical in Belgium possibly a factor ?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I got the impression he did enjoy his time which makes it all the more surprising to me he hasn’t been mentioned as coming back.

I did see a post the other day about a few free agents still available that we could sign and both Carroll and Drinkwater were mentioned. It wasn't so much a rumour, more of just what is available that could prove useful this season.

[Snowflake Royal]

Depends what we mean by mentioned. He's certainly been mentioned on here 3/4/5 times as an option. A bunch of the players who have been mentioned here and/or on twitter don't seem to have ever been in the running anyway.

With 0 left backs and ~6/7 strikers I don't think it's been to the fore of most people's minds as important. Until we potentially got injuries to two of our three 'best' choice strikers in the last day or two.

[Hound]

Mentioned or rumoured in the press - was expecting to see him linked with us but seemingly nothing. Guess It could still happen esp if Joao injury is anything - FWIW (nothing) I don’t think it is looking at it - just bumped knees together

[blythspartan]

Derby and Sheff Weds are trying to sign Kemar Roofe on a season long loan from Rangers. It’s a shame we can’t compete for him.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

The only reason I'd want us to sign a striker is if/when Puscas leaves, but I'd rather we waited until that happened first. Wouldn't want it to be the case where we signed someone like Roofe but still kept Puscas because he didn't move (unlikely).

I think at this point now we are probably looking at another LB and another midfielder really to help fill out those positions and then possibly a creative player, or someone who can play as a 10. Ejaria has done alright in that role in pre-season to be fair, but we could probably use some competition and depth. I think if we can get that then we are going into the season with as good as what most could ask for.

[3points]

I'm still convinced both Joao and Puscas will leave on the basis I think we needed to shift 2 out of Moore, Joao and Puscas to get underneath this season's wage cap. As Moore isn't going anywhere due to injury then we may not have any options. I also think it was the reason Meite started up front against Brighton, as that's Ince's plan A without Joao.

If my hypothesis is correct then e're likely to need another striker as it seems that Shane will have injury issues throughout the season and the likes of Clarke, etc are not ready for regular starting time.

Loan move for Danny Loader anyone?

[Elm Park Kid]

I'm still convinced both Joao and Puscas will leave on the basis I think we needed to shift 2 out of Moore, Joao and Puscas to get underneath this season's wage cap. As Moore isn't going anywhere due to injury then we may not have any options. I also think it was the reason Meite started up front against Brighton, as that's Ince's plan A without Joao.

If my hypothesis is correct then e're likely to need another striker as it seems that Shane will have injury issues throughout the season and the likes of Clarke, etc are not ready for regular starting time.

Loan move for Danny Loader anyone?

I don't think that the EFL have capped our overall wage bill for this season - they're aware that we are effectively at the mercy of whether our high-wage players leave or not. They've simply restricted the weekly wages of any new signings, banned us from paying a fee and put a limit on the total number of players we can have in the squad. I guess that the amount we lose this season could impact what we have to spend next season, but the EFL might just be happy to see our wage bills falling to a certain level by then.