Summer 26 Transfer Rumours

I thought he was a solid, no prisoners type defender. His passing needs work. I wish him well for his future.

 

I don’t get it. Playing 2 sitting midfielders works better with a back 3, leaving 2 wing-backs to support a front 3. If you play 4-4-2, you’ve effectively got 4 defenders and 2 holding midfielders. You get more attackers with the first set-up (5 versus 2)

 

It didn’t we all know that but it was 25 years ago. We’ve got better controls, am not saying break the bank or go bust am saying if and when we see something push the boat out. It could pay dividends on the pitch or in the bank in the form of sale. Or we just work like we did in January.

 

Again, i

Again, I’d argue the front 3 of Jackson, Swann & Humphrys contributed more to that than Metcalfe & Power

 

PL is easy. Obviously gonna be Leeds as they are the biggest club in the country and champions of Europe only a matter of time.
Their fans are more deluded than the dog botherers

 

Didn't really happen with our setup? Worth remembering we played a 343 with the ball and a 541 without it. Our wing backs always dropped to a flat back 5 without the ball, especially for the later half of the season and the attacking mids were dropping into midfield too.

If we got the ball back in transition, it was more often than not just the sole striker on his own with a thankless task of chasing down pinged balls into the channel in the hopes that if we won the ball there would be 2 or 3 bodies up with him by the time we switched. Or, Power and the CBs would pass to each other 3 or 4 times until Neufville got forward for the hoof. In theory, if you play 3 CBs and 2 DMs, your wing backs should stay high, but Touray looked to get a nosebleed in the oppos half and Neufville was trying to carry a lot of the WB load.

 

I’ve not been down the M621 in a while have they got their new 60k state of the art, make Spurs’ look like shit stadium yet? Or are they still playing in something that looks like it was left behind after the Chernobyl disaster?

 

It’s like we never finished 4th, right???

 

Being pedantic we play 3-4-2-1 but i do agree with your sentiment. With Beesley as the number 9 we have a genuine goal threat although there were many times last year even with Sarce and Bobby in, where we lacked genuine creativity and heavily relied on the high press forcing errors from the opposition. As the second half of the season showed that press simply couldn't be kept up, when teams pushed our wing back back into our own half, the weakness of not being able to pass through midfield due to it being static became evident. Its why you end up utilising the long ball because your defence don't have the option of passing through the middle. I'm hoping we bring in that dynamic midfielder who gets the best from Metcalfe who looked lost in the latter part of the season. I think he will benefit from having a mobile midfielder beside him.

 

They were chasing long balls as it had become our default method of play the second half of the season. Its not that i don't think Power and Metcalfe are good player, they clearly are though Metcalfes drastic drop in form was worrying. I just don't think its the best dynamic, central midfields usually have a sitting anchor such as a Josh Cullen then a more mobile 'box to box' if you like such as a Lewis O'Brien who can break quickly when needed. I used the example of Casey Palmer before, would love to see him but probably just a bit out of our wage bracket.

 

...... And thats got what to do with anything? Just talking about how wing backs can be used better in a tactic.

I know the "finished 4th!" is the immediate go-to for folk who cant take genuine points on this side, but pull it out when there's actual criticism or negativity saying our wing backs weren't playing high or the midfield lacked legs is in no way a dig on the team finishing 4th.

 

Not as deluded as some on here. We aren’t on Leeds’ radar despite us tragically singing about them. Barnsley and Donny are far more relevant “rivals” to us than Leeds ever will be.

 

Probably Stockport over Donny if you want to talk about traditional rivals.