What do we need in January

Platt is more accident prone than Baldwin. I must have watched 10 or so of their games in one way or another and being unbiased platt was no better in the air than Baldwin , but Platts weak link was decision making overall. You know how they passed it between themselves at the back….put it this way , short, long , wide, cost them goals for sure .

 

Plenty on here were posting the same. If Baldwin keeps his form lots of humble pie will need to be consumed. Funny how things change. I seem to recall some saying he wasn't good enough for L2.

 

I don't think Platt is first choice this year? Doesn't have that many appearances? 4

 

He was first choice at the start of the season but he picked up a knee injury in mid August. He only just came back to training at the start of November, played in an EFL trophy game only so far and is waiting to come back in from the bench. They've done well without him so makes sense the manager wont want to split a working back line.

 

And a few wanted him out of the club after the Doncaster debacle last season.

 

Completely agree i think we'd be crazy to let go of either (Cook and Halliday), and that is totally based on football reasons not sentimentality.

I could see maybe Leigh and Lapslie moving on - obviously assuming we can bring people in they think will offer us more, neither are showing much at this level. I guess same true for Kelly and Byrne but just not sure who's gonna want to come in as bench warmer as I am hoping Baldwin, Touray and Wright can really nail down that back 3. Obviously injuries can happen and after all the criticism around us bringing in loads of central defenders they have all needed to play.

I would put all those I mentioned in the category of decent l2, but at l1 not much more than a squad filler but the challenge is improving on that in the transfer window / loan market - sometimes it's better the devil you know. Leigh aside (who i think has shown a petulant side at times) I don't think you can question the attitude, effort and commitment of any of those players.

 

No matter what we think , and I agree with your sentiment, but we can’t just “ move on “ contracted players at our whim

Tyler Smith, Jake Young , Vadaine Oliver etc !

 

Less Sarcevic and more that they are gambling that the left side isnt as dangerous.

As someone else said, more pacey options will be key because then opposition can't just sit back and block one side where the threat is.

 

A few players as well, at the time Bronco. He was not flavour of the month at all and needed to rebuild relationships in the squad.

 

Once again another defensive blow.
Bad news for Matt Pennington who’s facing 6-8 weeks out with a muscle tear apparently Alexander say's it won't effect our transfer activity in January but he will be a big loss in my opinion.

 

That’s fair , whilst Bobby has positional nous , he’s not exactly blessed with pace to sprint past fullbacks . I think that’s what you are saying ?

 

It was stupid by him at the time but we've all done stupid things, we need him back playing regularly in a strong back three who unless their injured start together.

 

Bit like Smallwoods stupid sending off !

 

As mentioned earlier in this thread all our 'ageing' defenders keep getting injured so we have to stockpile cover - just hope recruitment are looking for a slightly younger, fitter CB to take us forward

 

I think I'm correct that the only one of our CB options this season who hasn't been injured is Touray. And I'm not sure his place at LCB would necessarily have been in the thinking when we recruited him.

I saw a stat earlier this week that, proportionately, we've spent the least amount of time actually losing in the EFL this season which does actually reflect well on the CBs who have been playing. However, I would like us to be bringing in another strong L1 CB if MacIntyre isn't fancied. Neither Byrne nor Kelly have let us down, but their distribution isn't good enough for the way we want to play.

 

One in particular

 

Come on Park lad, name names you little monkey you

 

Well, we did miss Bobby when he was out but he is a different threat that combined well with Touray or Richards. When we miss Bobby, we are less mobile/able to be a danger higher up the pitch. I feel some alternative pace would ask a different question to opposition.

More centrally, we have options with Kav, Swan, Humphreys, Lapslie (we can argue about the quality of those, but we have them). Outside of Neufville and Wright we don't have a lot of pace and Wright's output still isnt strong enough even though GA is giving him lots of support and opportunity

 

Huge blow! He’s been one of my favourite signings of the season so far. I guess that removes any question of Byrne potentially moving on in Jan which, TBH, I never would have expected Byrne to be in question. GA clearly trusts him.

 

Thought Tyreik was our mom at Bolton. As some have pointed out, he appeared to have a quiet 1st half but in that time, he was half of the pair that kept the most dangerous wide midfielder relatively quiet. In the 2nd half, the guy disappeared completely. Tyreik deserves his share of the credit for that tho' I do acknowledge that a couple of his crosses were lackadaisical.