Only 1 other CB in the Championship (Tom Lockyer of Charlton) made more inaccurate long balls than Jake Cooper last season and only 8 others made more accurate long balls (one of which was fellow Millwall CB Shaun Hutchinson) so it's definitely to do with Millwalls style. The 10% increase is probably due to Rowett trying to get them to play a bit more after years of long-ball under Neil Harris, but that squad is made for long-balls so will take a couple of seasons to get that out of them (via recruitment and stylistic changes). Wouldn't be surprised to see another slight increase in his passing % this season either.
Not particularly, most had pretty bad ratios in terms of success rate. Adarabioyo (Blackburn on loan from Man City) was the youngest amongst them.
Several have mentioned in the thread, I think. Blackburn fans rave about him. Only 1 year left on his contract at City too. Not left-footed though.
I think Ben Pearson’s contract expires next summer and I reckon he would be a good option for us if we could get him cheaply. I saw him playing in the youth cup aged 16 and he was excellent. Good passer and tackler with good work rate, held back by his small physique. Loves a card, but reckon he would be great to bring on to close games out/ against opponents who try to bully us.
Joaquin Fernandez at Hereenveen. Jumps, runs and passes. Tackles like the devil. Eats footballs. Need a replacement for Britos. He is his distant cousin. Just played a handful of games and was loved at River Plate before being snatched away. Definitely one for the future or being loaned out at several clubs and then sold on.
Literally only need to look here for suggestions. Nowhere else. Just here https://www.transfermarkt.us/udinese-calcio/startseite/verein/410
How many signings do we actually need? If the ones we expect to go do end up leaving, I believe we need: ------------------------------ 1 or 2 left backs 1 or 2 centre backs 1 or 2 centre mids (One first team quality in each position and possibly a backup) -------------------------------- 1 winger / forward (backup) -------------------------------- Looking at 5 or 6 more coming in I think. So possibly 10 signings total. Certainly freshens the side up a bit.
Agree with that Expect to see most (but probably not all) of this lot go: Dawson, Deulofeu, Deeney, Suarez, Capoue, Estupinan, Pussetto, Sinclair, Pereyra and Welbeck. Capoue, Estupinan, Suarez and a fit Deulofeu would be a miss, but my God, what an unremarkable bunch, somebody with more money than sense, please take them off our hands! Currently we have 29 over 21s in the squad, so if all of those go, we can bring in 6 new players. A new LB/LWB (or two) is an absolute must (please Giannoulis!), otherwise it'd be Femenia (a RWB) or King Ken there (squad is creaking at the minute so we'll likely need him to play further up the pitch). Probably need another centre back if Dawson goes, 4 out and out centre backs for a team that might often play with a back 3 is a bit thin, and none of the CBs at the club at the moment are left-footed. We're probably not in quite such a dire need for a central midfielder, but if the Grimes deal is still on, we should go for it (would love Busquets too, but I'm seeing that we're not as interested anymore). Who do we have at the moment who can play out wide? JP, Sarr (?), Sema, Penaranda and (at a push) Gray? Might be OK with that, but God knows what's happening with Sarr at the moment
Gone to Villa for £20mil. I doubt we would have spent that much money for a GK, but hypothetically we could have had a chance of being a more attractive option than Villa were we still in the league.
I think someone mentioned him as a suggestion in the suggestions thread last year. Might have been you. This is the sort of player we need to take a punt on. Except we are not in that division now. Salford Reds are hot on his trail now. Highly promising player. Norway have the nucleus of a decent team emerging with several youngsters over Europe.
Indeed. Might have tried for Musso. Martinez wants to play because Scaloni will not pick players who sit on the bench. Arteta rather did the dirty in saying he will pick players on form then decides to oust the in form Martinez and bring back Leno with Raya on his way as his deputy. Relegation has really thrown a spanner in the works with multiple ramifications. Pozzo model is to find young keeper with ability and test the price. We could be building a new younger team in that division, picking up some decent players on the cheap in this deflated market. Instead we are splintering apart and struggling to shift the detritus we have accumulated. Sad times. I feel for Ivic and his staff although they will be getting on as best they can.
I've been going on about him for a good few months now. Without doubt, imo the best young attacking Norwegian playing in the top league here.
Quite honestly, if we were that desperate for a decent left-footed center back we would have signed Van Der Hoorn on a free. Can't have been that pricey either seeing as he went to a German 2nd Division side.
Ryan Manning just makes so much sense. Hes a good player, fairly young, knows the league, in a position we desperately need reinforcements and his contract expires soon and QPR look to have accepted he will leave. With his contractual situation I can't imagine he would cost too much either, although suppose we may have to fight off one or two PL clubs.
Agreed. Think he'd be 3-5m. Excluded from the squad as they brace for interest. Think West Ham and West Brom are the bottom half teams still looking for a left back, although I think that Manning is probably too forward-thinking for the latter, given how they'll be scrapping at the bottom of the table. West Ham likely to look at more 'exotic' targets too.
Another player that potentially can fill in at lwb going then. Great. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thought we could have done a deal with Burnley on this. We swap Gray for Vydra. They clearly like Gray, and we all know how good Vydra is at Championship level.
I don’t think Dyche does like Gray, didn’t they fall out? He’s known to like Deeney mind you... I also suspect Gray is happy down south with his pop star fiancé.
Doubt he’d drop down to the Championship but with Reguilon joining Spurs looks like Ryan Sessegnon will be loaned out. Would be perfect at LWB. I reckon Giannoulis is probably beyond us now as he’s being linked with Atalanta which is a shame as he looked great. Another suggestion would be Laxalt at Milan. Ryan Manning - given his price and his proven value at this level - would probably be the way to go. Another interesting one (and the subject of same vague links to us) is Fluminese’s Marcos Paolo. A flexible forward a la Richarlison (or JP). He has a Portuguese passport so wouldn’t need a work permit and 1 year left on his contract. Fluminese need to sell to balance their books and we have a good relationship with them from previous deals. Probably available for £8-10m. Has a lot of pedigree and has linked up well with JP before. Would be an interesting way to go if we sell Suarez for big money.
What's Sessengnon on? £50/60k? No chance he comes to us. He'll go to someone like Sheffield United or Leeds on loan.
Sheffield Utd just signed Max Lowe on a permanent from Derby as a back-up LWB. Leeds don't use wing-backs and Dallas is nailed as their starting left-back. The only PL team I reckon that might have a starting spot for him are Brighton. It was rumoured that they were also in for Estupinan.
I doubt he is on that much. Daniel Levy runs a tight ship. But certainly much, much likelier to head out to a fellow prem side or a top club abroad. Brighton as @lowerrous points out would be a good fit.
They gave Bryan a new contract and signed Robinson, can't imagine they want him unless it is to play further forward.