Filip Benkovic is one I imagine will come to us Championship experience on loan to 2 Bunddesliga side Braunschweig from Udinese
Loris Karius seems like a good fit 29 years old plenty of experience home and abroad a few bloopers. Bit like Gomes.
English league season now finished, I wonder if we'll see the transfer news heat up now (especially as Barnsley didn't go up)
Collins the goalkeeper is an excellent sweeper but lost his place to Isted. Could be available on the cheap. Andersen was a mainstay under Ismael and has one year left. A top player. Callum Styles was on loan at Millwall last season but is still contracted to Barnsley so you’d imagine they’ll sell if Millwall don’t activate their option (around £2m). Not sure too many others were around/featured consistently under Ismael.
I think I heard on comms during their semi that he lost his place through injury and that Isted never looked back, so Collins might be a viable, yet cheap option, if I were him I certainly wouldn't like to be warming a League 1 bench next season
Isted is only on loan from Luton. Mads Anderson impressed me though. 25 good age for a CB and their captain so leadership qualities.
Fits what Ismael wants very well, and he was seemingly good enough when they got to the play-offs, but I don't know that much about him
I think he’s not the best shot stopper but don’t think there is anyone in the EFL who has played the sweeping role as often and as well. How easily a goalkeeper who has more potential in other departments could take that role on, I don’t know.
I suspect whatever the system, a goalkeeper would in general need to partake in more instances of stopping a shot than of sweeping up per match - plus not stopping a shot would generally be more costly than not coming off one's line to sweep up - so it should still be considered of greater importance in a keeper.
I don’t think you’re right about that, at least with regard to Ismael’s use of keepers. First of all: I think the gap between mediocre shot stopping and excellent shot stopping is much smaller than the gap between average sweeping and exceptional sweeping in terms of both quality and quantity. Collins is a fairly average shot stopper whichever way you slice it (save percentage, goals conceded-expected goals conceded etc) and the performance curve re shot stopping is pretty tightly bunched. In contrast, in 20/21, he had 3 or 4x as many sweeping actions per match than every other keeper in the league. Second of all: we can look at Collins’ data from his season with Ismael which shows significantly more sweeping actions than saves per match. He made 2 and bit saves per match and 6.27 sweeping actions. It seems than for Ismael the sweeping is more important than shot stopping (and Sam Johnston I think was the number one sweeper in his season at West Brom too)
But considering shot-stopping is the bread and butter, most keepers are going to be at least OK at it, so if you've got a keeper who is rooted to their line like Bachmann (who is slightly above average in terms of Championship keepers at shot-stopping) it might be worth considering a keeper who is more aggressive at sweeping or from crosses as long as their shot-stopping isn't too bad
Sory Kaba scored eight goals in 15 games for a considerably poor Cardiff side last season. He is 6 feet 3 and a big combative and physical striker which seems to fit the Valreien Ismaels tactics. Just a year left of his contract at Midtjylland, and seemingly out of favour, a deal could be done.
As LouOrns noted a while ago on Twitter his teammate Kion Etete could be a good pick up too. Very young and had a tricky first season but is seriously good in the air and with his pressing. Would be happy with him and/or Kaba.
Where are you able to view data for sweeping actions for goalkeepers? How much of that is down to which system a team plays? Are Barnsley just playing a super high line with a poor defence, that leaves their GK even more exposed than most to such things?
Fbref. And Barnsley were playing a high line and part of the goalkeeper’s role was/is in an Ismael side to be an active sweeper to enable that.
Depending on wages / length of contract / expectations in terms of game time I wouldn't be against it. Appreciate he is no spring chicken, but he played 2000 minutes for Villa in the PL this season. Quite a lot of our crop could do with some lessons from him on mentality and professionalism and he can do a job in a good number of positions.
Would be a great signing, fantastic professional, set piece taker, and still has a lot in his legs. Surprised that he’s leaving Villa given that he’s had a decent season, but you never know with football... Could be good for helping to develop Andrews too.
Yeah, I’d not be against this. We’re obviously desperate for some leadership in the dressing room, and AY has pretty much done it all in the game. As an older head to set standards, bring a winning mentality and whose accomplishments instantly demand respect, we could do a lot worse. Certainly when compared to the loser mentality that’s infected most of our squad, he’d be an improvement.
Sam Curtis is one I really like for January. 17 year old right-back (who can also play CB), despite his age, he's already started nearly 40 games in Ireland for St Patricks. Wouldn't surprise me if someone got a deal arranged in the summer ready for when he turns 18 in December (meaning he'll join in January).
Good signing for Norwich ... thats him and Ashley Barnes in early at Norwich ..... we still don't know who we are keeping let alone signing
Our club doesn't comment on staffing matters. If you want to know who we've signed you've got to turn up at games and work it out for yourself. I doubt they'll even read out the line ups.
