Squad Watch 2022/23

[Hound]

10m yes. Though can’t imagine the offer will be more than 5. Though it is Gourlay of course

[Nameless]

Personally think we'd be daft to refuse £10m. But we all know Dai refuses to sell his trophy players.

At least this time we can't give him a 5 year contract on a PL wage after refusing to sell.

Think, for example, Long and Puscas could be an effective partnership.

That’s never going to be an option though. Puscas isn’t interested in staying and if we get the Puscas deal sorted there should be no reason to sell Joao unless it isn’t for a really significant sum. However without Joao our goal scoring potential drops by about 50%, which will be very hard to replace,

[Snowflake Royal]

Personally think we'd be daft to refuse £10m. But we all know Dai refuses to sell his trophy players.

At least this time we can't give him a 5 year contract on a PL wage after refusing to sell.

Think, for example, Long and Puscas could be an effective partnership.

That’s never going to be an option though. Puscas isn’t interested in staying and if we get the Puscas deal sorted there should be no reason to sell Joao unless it isn’t for a really significant sum. However without Joao our goal scoring potential drops by about 50%, which will be very hard to replace,

Weren't you telling us all just last week that Puscas is the one holding up his move away.

[Stranded]

Tough decision but if Wednesday is indicative of how we will play Joao is not as key to that as he was last year. We will hopefully be less reliant on individual moments.

If he goes, it takes pressure off of shifting Puscas, puts the ball back in our court - it could allow the following to happen:

Joao out

Sarr, Hutchinson & Rahman in alongside say a Grabban or Carroll type forward.

If Puscas then goes then we may even be able to being another striker or revisit a deal for Fulton.

We may, only may, end up with a more rounded squad that is better equipped to survive, plus we will lose Joao in the summer anyway.

Tough choice and would likely err on keeping him but can see why we may decide to agree to the move. Especially if he makes it clear he wants out now.

An unhappy Joao may not be what we need.

[Hound]

On the other hand - Long for all his qualities has scored 1 pen in about 3 full games

Joao scored within 8 mins

Just don’t get players with his scoring ability around very often. Very few players in the div would have scored the goal he did, and from the second he got possession we thought it’d end in the back of the net

Would say keep hold. And not out the question he’ll stay next year

[3points]

I think it depends who you could replace Joao with. My two downsides with Joao is his injury record and lack of work rate and the latter is important if Ince wants to play the high press / high energy style as demonstrated against .Blackburn. Downside of course is we lose his goals but are we harder to beat without Joao due to majing it harder for the opposition. It may be enough to have Joao in the team with a Loum/Fornah/Hendricks/Ince combination working hard to win the ball. It also assumes Long stays fit for a large part of the season, which must be questionable as well so we have to have a decent alternative option (which Joao obviously is).

Still feel Joao is a (quality) luxury player but we can potentially live without him. Also, the club will benefit longer term if we can get a half decent fee too. even if we cannot spend the money this year a profit on disposal and the loss of his wages would free up headroom in the £13m per year P&S loss requirements

[Nameless]

Personally think we'd be daft to refuse £10m. But we all know Dai refuses to sell his trophy players.

At least this time we can't give him a 5 year contract on a PL wage after refusing to sell.

Think, for example, Long and Puscas could be an effective partnership.

That’s never going to be an option though. Puscas isn’t interested in staying and if we get the Puscas deal sorted there should be no reason to sell Joao unless it isn’t for a really significant sum. However without Joao our goal scoring potential drops by about 50%, which will be very hard to replace,

Weren't you telling us all just last week that Puscas is the one holding up his move away.

And where in the comment have I contradicted that ?

[Coppells Lost Coat]

I think it depends who you could replace Joao with. My two downsides with Joao is his injury record and lack of work rate and the latter is important if Ince wants to play the high press / high energy style as demonstrated against .Blackburn. Downside of course is we lose his goals but are we harder to beat without Joao due to majing it harder for the opposition. It may be enough to have Joao in the team with a Loum/Fornah/Hendricks/Ince combination working hard to win the ball. It also assumes Long stays fit for a large part of the season, which must be questionable as well so we have to have a decent alternative option (which Joao obviously is).

Still feel Joao is a (quality) luxury player but we can potentially live without him. Also, the club will benefit longer term if we can get a half decent fee too. even if we cannot spend the money this year a profit on disposal and the loss of his wages would free up headroom in the £13m per year P&S loss requirements

This is exactly where I am at.
Yes Long record is not great - however he ran those defenders ragged all evening - Joao comes on and takes advantage of those knackered players - In my eyes Long had done all the hard work and we were already 2-0 up.
I would go as far to say, if Joao started on Weds the result would have been different. He doesn't press and only useful whilst we are in possession.

If we sell Joao it has to be a price that is worth the risk of relegation. Anything above £8m. Then we can use his wages to fund Sarr and a real quality loan CF from PL. Use the £8m to secure Loum on a permeant deal.

Would Long / Meite / PL loan and our youth be enough to keep us up?

[3points]

Would Long / Meite / PL loan and our youth be enough to keep us up?

Was thinking the same about Meite too. I have to say I'd be tempted on getting Grabban in

[Stranded]

Sarr finally confirmed, and very nicely at that by the Twitter Admin.

Imagine he'll be on the bench tomorrow.

[Snowflake Royal]

First XI is looking increasingly hard to pick with everyone fit.

Joao, Meite, Ince all amongst the first names on the team sheet, but our current shape really only has room for two of them, unless you push Ince deeper into midfield or wingback which doesn’t seem ideal.

.....................Lumley
..........Holmes, Sarr, McIntyre
Yiadom.........Loum........Guiness-Walker
...............Ince.........Fornah
....................Meite
..............................Joao



No room for Hoilett, Long, Ejaria, Hendrick, Hutchinson...

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Probably an unpopular opinion but, I don't think Meite is as much "the first name on the teamsheet" as what both Ince and Joao are. Joao obviously because we know about his goals and Ince has arguably been our best player so far this season. It just seems tough to fit Meite in unless we change our shape, it's also difficult to drop Hoilett as well at the moment.

I'm not 100% sold that Sarr comes in as an automatic fixture into our defence, with everybody fit, either,

One thing for sure is we are definitely getting flexibility in our squad with options now in most positions, it's probably another LWB and more depth in midfield with a permanent addition for me. Agree in the main though, it is tough to pick our first XI.

[Snowflake Royal]

Probably an unpopular opinion but, I don't think Meite is as much "the first name on the teamsheet" as what both Ince and Joao are. Joao obviously because we know about his goals and Ince has arguably been our best player so far this season. It just seems tough to fit Meite in unless we change our shape, it's also difficult to drop Hoilett as well at the moment.

I'm not 100% sold that Sarr comes in as an automatic fixture into our defence, with everybody fit, either,

One thing for sure is we are definitely getting flexibility in our squad with options now in most positions, it's probably another LWB and more depth in midfield with a permanent addition for me. Agree in the main though, it is tough to pick our first XI.

I really liked the way the defence played against Blackburn, so I'd like to see if that 5 could sustain something close to that over multiple games. Keeps Yiadom and Hoilett both in there.

Ince is certainly more suited to the shape we currently play than Meite. But leaving Meite out is potentially a lot of goals.

Never a huge fan of the current shape, so I'd absolutely change it to keep him in.


......................Lumley
Yiadom, Holmes, McIntyre, NGW
....Meite, Loum, Fornah, Hoilett
....................Ince
...........................Joao

Is probably my preferred choice, though I'd like a quicker CB to pair one of those two.

[Whore Jackie]

Just don't see Ince changing the shape or tactics that much. Assuming no-one else comes in immediately, reckon it will be a very subtle tweak to:

......................Lumley
..........Holmes, Hutchinson, Sarr
Yiadom.........Loum........Guiness-Walker
........... Hendrick.........Fornah
........................Ince
........................Long

Hoilett, Joao, Meite*, Ejaria*, Tetek*, McIntyre, Bouzanis

*replaced with academy lads for the next few weeks.

[Hound]

Tetek playing for the u23s today

[Stranded]

Tetek playing for the u23s today

Be interesting* to see how long he plays. May get the 1st half and if ok, bench tomorrow.

[Hound]

Yeah prob same with Abrefa and Ehibatiomhan

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Probably an unpopular opinion but, I don't think Meite is as much "the first name on the teamsheet" as what both Ince and Joao are. Joao obviously because we know about his goals and Ince has arguably been our best player so far this season. It just seems tough to fit Meite in unless we change our shape, it's also difficult to drop Hoilett as well at the moment.

I'm not 100% sold that Sarr comes in as an automatic fixture into our defence, with everybody fit, either,

One thing for sure is we are definitely getting flexibility in our squad with options now in most positions, it's probably another LWB and more depth in midfield with a permanent addition for me. Agree in the main though, it is tough to pick our first XI.

I really liked the way the defence played against Blackburn, so I'd like to see if that 5 could sustain something close to that over multiple games. Keeps Yiadom and Hoilett both in there.

Ince is certainly more suited to the shape we currently play than Meite. But leaving Meite out is potentially a lot of goals.

Never a huge fan of the current shape, so I'd absolutely change it to keep him in.


......................Lumley
Yiadom, Holmes, McIntyre, NGW
....Meite, Loum, Fornah, Hoilett
....................Ince
...........................Joao

Is probably my preferred choice, though I'd like a quicker CB to pair one of those two.

Yeah that's the only thing with Meite, leaving him out means leaving a lot of goals out of the side, admittedly that's not exactly a bad thing to bring off the bench. I think our shape has worked fine so far, so I can't really see it changing but I'll find it difficult to put Meite back into the team in that case as he just isn't all that good as a lone striker. A pair of strikers with Joao would work I'd say personally.

Agree though, I would change the shape to fit Meite in, however if it's not broke don't fix it.

[Hound]

Meite will take a while to be fully fit and someone else will prob be injured by then

Find it hard to leave out such a reliable source of goals tbh

[Hound]

Like to see

Lumley
Yiadom Holmes Dann Sarr McIntyre
Loum Fornah
Joao Ehibatiomhan Meite

And just see any other team try to cope with that lot in the air