Summer 26/27 Transfer Rumours

I honestly think he looked better than he was because he's the only one of our forwards who can jump for a ball. He looked like he has some game sense and positional sense at times too which none of our lads have on the books.

If we play like we did for the first 15/20 games of the season, we need some pace and work rate, if we play like we did for the last 6 months of the season, we need physicality up top and someone who can win a ball for the attacking mids to try get onto.

 

I’m not too sure about the Powell signing either. We’re stacked with attacking midfielders already and if we are looking to recruit in that position surely it’s got to be someone with a bit of pace?

Including Powell we have 8 attacking midfielders on our books and only 2 CM’s. The squad is looking desperately lopsided and I can’t imagine releasing the likes of Odour and Kelly has given us much room for manoeuvre either.

Like you said, a waste of a wage.

 

I think we need to recruit in the attacking midfield area. Beneath Pointon and Sarcevic we have no quality and that is evident from the results and performances when they're out. The likes of Lapslie and Powell just aren't going to cut it at the level we need to be at to compete again next year.

 

That’s more likely the reason . No different , as pointed out , neither was Smallwood CC class any longer.

 

How do we change the first eleven to improve on what we did this season? Frequently at times in the second half of the season we looked very ordinary.

 

We need quality over quantity. At least one striker, two players who can play in the 10 role. 1 DM. A right wing back, centre backs, and possibly a new keeper with Walker dropping to be a backup. 8 signings, a couple of which might need to be quality loans. Do-able.

 

Bristol Paper haven't named the other clubs, but they have confirmed Bristol Rovers are in talks with Ciaran Kelly as well as 2 other L2 squads.

Steve Evans met with Kelly for over 2 hours for a face to face meeting about the team next season and their plans.

 

Got to fancy Bristol Rovers for the autos next season. Evans has done a very good job there so far.

 

It will likely be Smallwood tipping the wink? Good luck to Kieran.

 

I think for starters we need a proper striker. We can't be going into next season with wingers as makeshift strikers again. Then upgrades on Walker and Tilt. They're the obvious three upgrades to what would be our strongest lineup.

But aside from that we need a tactical shift. Once teams worked out our high press and long ball to Neufville, you're right we became very ordinary. We stopped creating, stopped scoring and whilst results were consistent enough, performances weren't great and the entertainment value certainly decreased. There needs to be greater emphasis on creativity from the middle of the park as well as from out wide which would make us less predictable. Sign better technical players who can handle the ball under pressure and shift away from the hoofball we saw from Jan onwards.

But to be honest we need to shift the tactical approach

 

Id like to see us go for someone like Kasey Palmer who was at Luton, a player who seemed comfortable with ball to feet but as you allude to that would mean a switch in thought process.

 

Evans will like him given Kelly's no-nonsense approach

 

Agree with you. We can't be going through a season praying Pointon and Sarce don't get a knock every week and we will need to swap them out and bring others in.

Personally, if we sack off the whole "Jackson and Humphyrs are centre forwards" stuff and let them play wider left/right roles and then sign a centre forward - that would be the better approach to not over-push the budget.

 

Agreed. But I also think we need another, deeper, CM who can link play and create chances through the middle of the park. Power and Metcalfe don’t do that and it makes us so predictable. Every attack goes out wide, despite us not having a proper striker to get on the end of them.

According to Jamie Raynor in the Take Me Home podcast, we put more crosses into the box than any other team in L1, yet our existing strikers are more suited to playing off the shoulder and latching onto balls played through the channels. It’s a mismatch, which is why we don’t score enough goals.

We need a big centre forward to get onto all the crosses and a central playmaker who can create chances through the middle. That way we’d have more than Plan A and the ability to change games with different tactics.

 

I agree. We've been threadbare in central midfield for about three seasons. It's bizarre. There's a difference between "George Lapslie can do a job in there for 20 mins" and "Lapslie needs to play half a season as a central midfielder as someone is injured".

 

The middle paragraph for me sums up where we need to improve. Crosses into a box need the striker ala Cook (not saying he was the answer before anyone starts), the 3-4-2-1 needs to see a more mobile approach, starting with the two central midfielders. Both ours are very static and do not back up the front three we dont need two sitting central midfielders.

 

I think most people are assuming that we will continue to play 3-4-3 but I hope that isn't set in stone. I'd like to think that we'd consider changing to 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 if the right players became available, with a creative midfielder to complement Power and Metcalf. That role might also be taken by Bobby or Sarc. We desperately need to improve our scoring threat and if we continue to play as we did in the second half of the season we'll struggle to challenge at the top of the table.

 

He is Evans sort of defender,rugged,nothing fancy.