Most liked posts in thread: Post Transfer Window

I get the point you're making but how can you say we need to give Clayton time to judge him but you've already decided Bola and Derbyshire are weaker?

Even Costello needs lots more games before you can really make a fair assessment, especially considering he's been out and is trying to get back up to speed.

 

How was Rochdale "ruined by the referee"?

We went into half time with a lead and in the 45 minutes after that couldn't produce a shot on target against the second worst side in the entire football league.

We should be talking that responsibility on ourselves and admitting we were poor, not heaping it on a referee that made a 50/50 call.

 

Stats can be very misleading an don't always paint a true picture. Anyone who has seen us play this season, and I've seen every game, will point out our strength lies in an excellent keeper and generally sound back four. Doesn't matter stats you use, that front side of ours has never really clicked in any formation. A good pointer to this is Andy Cooks conversion rate is the best in the division, even after his misses at Carlisle. And with the players brought in, as fans I think we expect a side that creates more than we do.

 

Now the window is (almost) closed we can look ahead to the rest of the season.

I managed to sneak into the ground earlier today and got a picture of the squad training. Plenty of options now...

 

I think the problem is Monkey, as has been said already today, we can't afford to bring loans in in January and give them 5-6 games to get up to speed. They have to hit the ground running. From what little I've seen I would say only Nevers looks ready, and Clayton did OK

 

Now watching Hudders get beat

 

Depends on how we line up. I think he'll go with the same line up as at Stockport but i'd like to see us with Nevers, Walker and possibly Chapman back in the side.I'd also like Andy Cook to start but don't think thats happening.

 

Its quite simple, your xG is poor if you create poor chances. The xG was fantastic to October under Adams then dropped right off. It wasn’t top five then.

if we are shooting on site and taking pot shots from 30 yards, that is a sign of a poor team, it isn’t creating plentiful decent-scoring chances on a plate.

we have seen good play at times - we were superb vs Salford and wright was instrumental. But we don’t consistently produce it.

In the main the observations we’ve had this year are that Cook is starved of service. Now its Oliver going hungry. Often our sole striker is isolated. Its a miracle Cook has scored 13.

The wide men aren’t scoring, and we create ‘good’ chances - ie ones that historically lead to goals - at a rate that is only bang average in the division. We dont put enough crosses into the box or attack enough in dangerous areas to put our opponents under pressure.

we need to play better, sharpish, otherwise midtable beckons.

How many away games have we blanked in now??

this football is as bad as Adams’. The only difference is Adams was a toxic, antagonistic w****r and needed sacking for goading the board (“find someone better” etc).

Hughes is a good bloke. I hope he succeeds. But we are a shite side.

Think it was Rogered Tart (apologies if not) that said the other day our best players are a GK and CB…..and he’s right. Our flair players aren’t helped by the defensive set up and mindset, and we need a good shake-up.

 

Walker is going to take time to get up to speed, we may not see the best of him until next season. Worry is we've brought players to the club in January who either, like Walker, need time to get up to full fitness like Bola, or haven't played as much as others like Nevers. We haven't gelled as an attacking unit all season and now we have to try and integrate these new players into systems and with players they are unfamiliar with. Yet we need these new players to hit the ground running straight away

 

Kelly in/ Kelleher out - NO DATA
Nevers in/ Wright out - WEAKER (not our choice though)
Costello in/ Angol Out - STRONGER (I think we're missing how highly rated Costelloe is at Burnley)
Clayton in/ Songo'o out - STRONGER (Not much doubt about this IMO)
E-Bola in/ Foulds out - STRONGER (Foulds wasn't very good, and can't see Bola being worse)
Young out/ Derbyshire in - NOT SURE (I think most will lean stronger, but meh. Not sure yet)

In almost every instance (except Nevers for Wright), we've got someone that looks a better player with a higher ceiling. We're bringing in players with experience higher up the pyramid, while the players leaving are League Two through and through.

 

It’s a strange league, you feel 3 or 4 wins on the trot could be season defining. Maybe that’s where part of the frustration with the fan base comes from, it feels so near yet so far. If I were Hughes I’d be having a meeting with the players and asking how much they wanted to be a league 1 player, it needs a team to grab it by the scruff of the neck.

 

I feel it's unfair to put so much on him initially. He's going to need 3 or 4 games like Eisa did before he starts contributing throughout the game.

Hughes is playing a risky game. Bola, Walker, Costelloe haven't played much this season. Eisa has only just started to get a run of games together. We could say the same about Oliver. This is probably why form has been stuttering. We've suddenly got a number of players who haven't played much and have never played together in the same team. It's weird how we've sort of thrown away all the "gelling" that the team did at the start of the season and hoped that this group would suddenly click together.

 

Clayton and Stubbs are certainly not poor signings, however I can't help but feel it has been yet another underwhelming transfer window, and certainly not one that has given me any reason to think we will now mount a serious promotion push. Lets just hope the club announce another decent signing imminently, but the cynic in me is preparing for another season in the khazi league which would definitely be a failure given the budget, fan base, and sparks now-infamous "will not accept mediocrity" spiel....

 

We'd better come out with a positive attitude on Saturday, there's gonna be close to 18,000 in the ground. Saturdays performance will tell me a lot about this team, especially the January recruits. I expect, near demand, a dominating performance that lays down a marker to the rest of the division. In reality more likely 1-1 draw where we look disjointed waiting for recently injured players to get up to speed.

 

Breaking news : Chelsea revel their new team coach.

 

Il be honest, I think we have somewhat strengthened this January window and Im well aware that I will be in the minority regarding this but here is my thinking on the singings we’ve made :

Young / Costelloe : As we know, Young wasn’t getting any game time. Whether he should have is debatable, but at the end of the day, Hughes primarily plays with one up top, an Young isn’t the type of player to lead a line. He’s also pretty poor on the wing as he can’t cross. Id say in the time to come, Costelloe will prove that he is more suited to our system so id say this transfer is an upgrade

Sutton / Clayton - A box-to-box player was ideally needed but we also lacked a deep lying playmaker ever since Watt left in the summer. Sutton does give his all but his contribution on the pitch is the equivalent to what Gilliead provides whereas Clayton provides something different. Also has leadership skills which are vital for us right now so id say this was also an upgrade

Angol / Derbyshire - Too early to comment on this one, but similar to the previous one. Derbyshire is a different type of attacker to what we currently have. Angol was poor this season. Derbyshire can’t really be any worse than the performances Angol was putting out

Bola / Foulds - Foulds was steady. But not the best. Could be upgraded on. Bola’s lack of matches under his belt is worrying. But some Rotherham fans did say there is a player there somewhere. Perhaps with a run of games, we may see a similar result to that of Halliday

Kelleher / Kelly - Kelleher was conference league standard. Then again, Kelly isn’t exactly getting rave reviews either. Neither are in the first team picture so this switch doesn’t make much of a difference to us as neither will play for us this season

Wright / Nevers - Nevers may come good, But I don’t personally see him putting in the same kind of performances that Wright put in for us. Very likely chance of this being a downgrade. We will really need the returning Walker an Banks to compensate for the loss of Wright

Songo / Stubbs - Songo had one role in this team, to help us hold onto a lead. His departure means we haven’t got someone else to play that role. Stubbs is heavily injury prone an cannot be relied upon. That being said, Exeter fans said he was quality for them an belongs in the Championship when fit. If Stubbs can stay fit for the second half of the season, as he did last year (which is a big ask) then He could very well turn out to be an astute signing

To summarise, I think the signings made will suit Hughes’ style of football which could very well make us stronger. The signings of Derbyshire, Bola & Costelloe could very well give us a different dimension to our play. Stubbs & Clayton bring big personalities, something we need in this team, hopefully that takes the burden off Smallwood’s shoulders an the team can start playing to a higher standard

A lot of hypotheticals in this I know, but there is always the chance that it could work out

 

I’d rather have one quality signing than all those. None of them are inspiring so far, but as said, the Jury is out. It kinda confuses me a bit about the signings of Nevers and Tom Bola, as we really don’t use the flanks in whatever game plan we have. Costello looks very very rusty, but is that because he’s a winger too? I think Clayton will turn out to be the best signing of the bunch because it’s actually a player in a position that we need. I don’t think we’re done yet tho. More outs and a few ins.

 

I was championing Stockport after their good run but saw nothing in them when we played them last week. I backed Wimbledon today on the back of it. Damn, even Rochdale in parts looked better than us and they're doomed. And as Orient have shown today anyone can beat anyone. And some seem to forget, in Parkys promotion season in a lot of those games we were bang average. Parky.just had a knack of winning when it mattered. Now next Saturday is massive. A draw is no real use to us or Mansfield when there is such a bottleneck around us and I expect both managers to go for it. So lump on a nil nil lol.

 

Sadly I expect our manager not to go for it and employ the usual formation and tactics