You’ve made a lot of assumptions about ‘what I want’ there - and I’m unsurprised by the one person to like the post quite frankly. What I want - and what Ivic has repeatedly said he wants - is a balanced squad that all want to play for the club and achieve its goals. We’ve heard that Masina and Femenia want out - not sure how that plays into the fully committed mindset Ivic wants. And we don’t know when Masina will be back either. And personally I think we will struggle if either of them are considered first choice LB in this league as I think their delivery isn’t up to standard and this being a more physical league. I think they are rotation options at best. I think Femenía is a very poor FB on either side. A lot of stock is being put into Sema - hopefully his decent form continues but that’s by no means certain and whilst not a novice in his current position, he’s not a specialist at it. This squad is very lop-sided in terms of right sided ability and left sided ability. And not having a genuine standout LB option hamstrings any choices the manager has in shape. I don’t think any of that is unreasonable or stupid, however much you want to sarcastically suggest otherwise.
So the answer to this; "OK so you want to sign a prem level FB do you as they weren't prem level ? Whilst still having 3 players capable of playing on the left, when short of cash ? Smart stuff." ..was "yes" then ? No-one is saying Fem or Masina are great but as a back-up surely they are fine ?
If you think my answer was as black and white as that. It wasn’t but if it makes you feel like you’ve won the debate, you can have it.
It was a simple question. You don't think they're great. We haven't been able to move them on. Do you think we should be bringing in a 4th guy who can play on the left at the back ?
We have one left back (who is injured). Fact. Sema is a left sided attacking player who is passable as a wing back, and Femenia is a s**t right back. That is not good enough. People love to make excuses but the fact is we have one actual left sided defender in the entire squad, and we'll likely be stuck playing 3/5 at the back at times even if it's not what best suits the rest of the squad or isn't working because of it.
Who knows for certain? Sarr needs to be played in his natural position, I know that. It needs to be a set up that plays to his strengths as a winger. What I'm saying is that having one actual, proper left back potentially restricts us in what we can do/change if and when we need to.
Sema I don’t think can play LB. So I discount him in that position. I don’t think it’s ideal at all to have Femenía as backup for both sides and I have doubts about him at FB anyway. Masina is injured with no strong return date. We have 7 games in 3 weeks and a busy period after that too. For those reasons and the added reason that a fit LB would give the manager more options in terms of shape and rotation, yes I strongly think we should be bringing a LB in and I think the club will be royally f***ing up by not bringing one in. You don’t. Or feel it’s excusable if they don’t. Fair enough. I don’t agree and that’s allowed.
So that's a "Yes". Great, thanks, yes it's fine that we disagree. If we were bringing someone in i'd prefer a young hungry striker on loan from a prem club as I think Deeney & Murray are past it, Perica unproven leaving just Gray to score the goals (and we've seen how goalshy we are when he's not available). I'd prefer to focus there but I'm sure I too will be disappointed.
But its's not a 'yes' to all the questions you asked. You suggested I was demanding a PL level LB just because I don't deem Masina or Femenia to be PL quality. Thats not true and nothing I have said suggests as much. You suggested we have 3 players capable of playing LB. I don't agree. So my answer to your question wasn't a simple 'yes' because your question was loaded with things I already didn't agree with.
Well to me it's a simple formation change to 3-4-3 so Sarr and Pedro can play in a wider position which they both suit. Ngakia and Sema will have to work their socks off up and down.
That system also depends upon the opposite ‘winger’ getting close to the CF when the ball gets played in from the other flank, whilst staying wide at other times to allow the space for midfielders to play forward passes into runs. A lot of work for all 4 wider players, but tiring to combat if played well.
Gray was ok in a 3 esp away from home under Silva as long as the 2 wider players linked well. The issue was really TD who could only play if within 15 feet of a fellow striker but was played as a one. We don't need to so so defensive in the champ....though Ivic has certainly started that way.
That sounds like too many players in wide areas. The goal we conceded in Reading was down to our CBs not covering themselves in glory and our central midfield leaving them a bit exposed. So much of Champ football is long balls in to the middle of the pitch around the CBs, having only 2 central midfielders could leave us a bit light and overrun in picking up second balls and closing down opposition, even if those 2 CMs are Capoue and Hughes. I don't think JP's performances so far have warranted us dropping one of our CMs to keep him in. 3-5-2 with Gray and Sarr up top together to use their pace makes a bit more sense to me.
The best counter to this isn't dropping a bunch of players into the middle of the pitch to defend. It's pressing higher on the HMs, CBs and FBs who deliver the long balls. In the Championship especially, these tend to have limited ball skills and don't do well under pressure.
Haha. I'm afraid I have already posted the Baba Rahman version of that song in this thread somewhere.
Lol I probably read it last week but so much transfer action since then has driven it from my mind ...