Wing Wizard Windy Miller

From the most recent LT article it appears we are now looking for a CB. Worryingly, sounds like midfield is 'done' with the lad from liverpool and no talk of a LB winger or striker. If we sign a CB and thats our business done, then it's not a great window.

Yes, that was kind of the gist of the post. Can be seen lots of ways 👍

The thing is... If you'd said 5 weeks ago that our only signings a week into the season were a kid from Liverpool's reserves and 2 lads from league one, would we have been happy? Now throw in a potential reserve from Brighton and another league one player... Does the old cliche 'sign league one footballers, get league one football' no longer apply? Yet so far the signings and potential links, seem reasonably well thought out and decent on paper. Feel we are going to struggle for goals this year though. None of Dolan, Hedges, Markanday, Vale, Gallagher look like hitting the net regularly. Still think we need a CB, LB, a wily old bugger to cover the cm places and a quality winger or striker. Preferably one that is rapid.

Staying the obvious but an out and out goalscorer is what we need. I'm not massive fan of attacking central midfielders all over the park. Give me proper line hugging wingers and a striker who knows where the back of the net is! Anyway - welcome on board Sammie👍

Clarkson was crap. Shame being a local lad.

He's going to have to knuckle down because nobody will buy him.

This is why Styles is the perfect signing for us in paper. Better than Pickering at LWB. Can also play cm so cover for Travis/Buckley.

As good as he may be, he should be nowhere near the bench unless he commits to the club. Develop and encourage the kids that see there medium term future here.

Feel we still need at least 5 even with szmodic: CB Lb/Lwb Cm Right winger (can't cope with Gallagher out there again). Centre forward. Improve on what we have in those positions and we would have a good shout of top 6

Our short corners were far more inventive and purposeful than anything under Mowbray.

Watched on the telly but thought Hedges was poor tbh - as was Gallagher. Thought Dolan offered more when he came on. BBD looked dangerous in flashes but wasn't involved enough. Pickering wasn't great and Kaminski was shaky. The 2 CBS and Brittain did very well. Midfield - tidy and great goal from Trav. Buckley got better but was lucky to still be on the pitch after 15 mins. Overall then decent defensively but didn't think the forward players linked up well at all. Team lacks creativity and pace. Given the lack of signings, I'd have snapped your hand off for a win - so hats off to JDT. As an aside, I struggled to see what JDT's philosophy is based in that game. Looked disjointed to me. Still, it's early days.

Way too much fannying around our own box. Need some subs on here. Few players look shot

Kaminski has been pretty crap today

So everybody we've been linked with starts. Interestingly the Posh right winger Poku isn't playing or on the bench. The locals are a little discontent.

Looks like we've actually worked on set pieces. Corners been inventive so far.

Wharton?

Good lad Trav

Get Buckley off now

Rothwell cost circa 400k and we got zero for him. Szmodics is potentially 7 times more expensive as a direct replacement. In that light - he's overpriced. The guy was also clearly second fiddle in terms of ability to Dembele - who left for a million less. However, as you say, if he fits with what the new management want - you sometimes have to overpay to get what you want. This is where things blur with the new dof/coach structure. Has JDT said 'Szmodics is the guy I want' Or is he simply the best that Broughton feels he can recruit... Either way, £2.5 million is overpriced at this point of time. But if he fits the style JDT wants and has a good season, then in hindsight it won't be. Such is how managers and signings are judged.

Burnley look like a side that have brought players in early and integrated them quickly. Huddersfield look like a side hoping to be stronger come the end of August 🤔

Pains me to say it but Burnley have come out flying. Look streets ahead of Huddersfield.

Worryingly, he actually looks better at RB than JRC, which is who we are left with as cover.

The club have constantly said they want to add experience and first team ready players. So we sign another kid to play second fiddle, in the middle. If it's a cheap loan squad filler then fair enough. If it's one of the '4' players, then its piss poor.

Mowbray/Waggot did.

I'm not too sure I follow the 'waiting on Prem team argument.' The players we appear to be targeting (or at least have been linked with) aren't premiership players. They are league one or championship. I can't imagine Barnsley or Blackpool - even Peterborough doing any sort of business (except a very far down the rung kid on loan). You can throw Malmö in there as well. I just don't see how the prem teams settling on squads, impacts signings from those clubs. We can't be targeting experienced prem players as we can't afford wages. Unless we are primarily looking at loaning premier League kids again. Which, unless they are top draw like Elliott, seems counter productive to developing our own promising kids and isn't adding the much vaunted experience. I'd add that I'd be thrilled and doff my cap to the board - if we were to get any 3 out of Bowler, Styles, Birmancivic (sp) and Van Hecke. We would have got at least one over the line by now if we were realistically chasing them though. To me, it is much more likely that we have been unable to recruit our A/B/C list and our now hoping for some scraps from the big boys again. Whilst I do feel we can put out a competitive first 11 on Saturday. It is one that lacks pace and creativity. There's also an untested back 4 who won't have played together pre season. I'd snap your hands off for 2-3 wins out of those first 7 fixtures.