Not Actually that Crucial a Summer as of August 2023...beginning to now think everything isnt fine!

Once Johnston is back at RB, I expect Iwata to be our DM.

 

The reality with our side is that only Johnston, Carter-Vickers, McGregor, Hatate and Kyogo are nailed on. In reality we could and probably should upgrade the other six starting positions. We won't this summer but that's what we should be looking to do.

 

Do you expect Iwata to sit next to McGregor and Hatate to play more as a 10? Or Iwata and Hatate together with McGregor moving further forward?

 

Some backups are nailed on to stay due to the HG quota, as well. I also think Maeda is a player which we realistically can't upgrade on, just get a different type of player that probably would be more similar to Jota, but that means we lose out on the pressing and defensive ability.

Either is fine. Maybe McGregor has a slight edge for the AM position because of more accurate shooting, but he'd be wasted as a sitter in any case.

 

I think Maeda will probably be the last player we'd upgrade at this point but I do think we could get better than him for a nailed on starting position.

 

He's an atypical player with an unusually crucial role. When we come up against big names on the wings, he'll be deployed as a "sealant" to block that side of the pitch. He stopped Mudryk from doing anything when he was brought on. I am certain he'd ruin Mbappe's day- and any other high profile wide player. There is no true upgrade to be had on him, only regret we can't clone him to paralyze both opposition flanks at once. Or one flank and the center.

 

We should be upgrading at least 3 of them though? Experts say you can’t change a whole team in one transfer window, but Ange wasn’t far from doing that in his first two

 

As our squad is just now it looks like we will revert to a double pivot.

Was reading a piece on Holm and he sounds very much like a McGregor style 6. I had thought watching him he looked more an 8 but scouting reports suggest otherwise.

We have Iwata who will be a destroyer type, e.g. play the Brown, Lennon, Lambert role in a double pivot there to win the the ball and move it on to the others, occasionally carry forward into space and Kwon sounds a similar type so likely the understudy.

We then have an abundance of attacking midfield types in Hatate, Turnbull, Hacksabanovic and O’Riley (who is a bit of a strange one as I actually think he would be better at the McGregor type role than he is as an attacking midfielder). Hatate is the pick of the bunch there, Turnbull will likely be sold, Hacksabanovic I am still not sure about.

In Rodgers first spell he sometimes used Armstrong or McGregor over a more creative Rogic in that attacking midfield role to put a lot of legs in our centre midfield.

Rodgers even sometimes used McGregor off the left wing to give another midfield body with Tierney bombing on and Lustig coming narrow to help cover forming a back 3. One time that sticks strong in the memory that this worked really well was against Zenit at home. He had Ntcham as an attacking centre midfielder with Kouassi (his standout game) and Brown all in there and Forrest on the right. I also recall him using this when playing them a few times the 4-0 Scottish cup semi win he done it but played Rogic too.

I am still not sure once Rodgers really gets going what formation we will play. Maeda seems to have been given the nod to lead the line in the last two games. Kyogo isn’t fully fit yet right enough.

The one thing I would expect is plenty midfield bodies as he likes to control the centre of the park. There is the idea of don’t change what’s not broken but at the same time I would be surprised if Rodgers didn’t alter somethings.

 

Not all.

Not in the slightest. I even predicted we would get beat.

I myself am "* the bed" because we've only been linked with two players NOT in the prospect bracket and our manager just claimed hes never heard of them... 2 * weeks before the league starts.

 

We will make signings but I'm not confident we do before the season starts, unless it's the 2 plays from the K-League which haven't been announced yet. We have major problems at the back, no RB, good chance CCV isn't back at the start. I'd be concerned no matter the result yesterday, there just happening to be a match yesterday which we lost is coincidental.

 

Yeah he's been playing more as a 6 it seems, but looking at his youtube highlights (I know they can be misleading) he did look much more forward thinking, the way he turned with the ball and positions he ran into looked much more like Hatate or McGregor under Rodgers the first time, not a natural sitter. But you never know I suppose, go back 2 summers and who would have thought McGregor would take over the deeper role so well, think we all assumed we'd sign a more defensive like for like replacement for Brown at the time.

 

Yeah I was very surprised when I read the report on him and an old interview with him where he said he prefers to play as a 6.

I thought the videos showed a ball carrying midfielder with decent passing ability, however the report suggests differently. It states he is very press resistant, scans the play well so knows what he wants to do before he gets the ball and reads the game out of possession well, also has good acceleration and pace over distance. In addition, he is very good on the ball technically both in terms of control and passing range. He is also a good shooter from distance but his role at Valerenga doesn’t allow him to get in that position often but with us he may get more opportunities.

It does say he probably needs to mature physically but is good in the air for his size. The first thing I thought was get him on the Armstrong programme, as Rodgers transformed him into a powerful player.

I am actually pretty excited to see what he can do.

 

Agree - at least 3. Would prefer 4 - GK, DL, MC, MR as my priority. Toin coss between DL/DC but as long as CCV & Starfelt stay fit then I'd go DL.

 

Genuinely concerned we're not bringing in 3 or 4 in maybe or I'm just being * paranoid!

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Think people are just, rightly, annoyed at how slow we’re doing our business.

League starts in two weeks time and our team is weaker than it was when we went into the window. Still not signed a single player who looks good enough to walk into the team, despite getting £20m+ for Jota and CL money for the second season in a row. The club is absolutely loaded and we’re dragging our * spending it on quality.

I think Holm and the Korean players will be good project signings - Tilio I’m less convinced on. But even with the Korean winger we’ve dragged the * out of signing him.

 

Keep the faith lad!

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Think it’s more people are frustrated at us not signing obvious 1st team starters. We’ve signed 4 players but no one really knows if they are an upgrade on what we have or just potential

 

It's pretty simple:

- We were papped out of one of the easiest CL groups we've had in recent times last season with ease (despite there being some promising signs).

- It's been obvious since December where we've needed to strengthen to have any hope of genuinely competing in Europe.

- We've lost a very good manager since then who did not stay to see out said project of getting us to the level of being able to compete in Europe.

- We've lost one of our best players in recent years with no sign of an adequate replacement on paper.

We're stacked with cash, brought Rodgers back with the intention of continuing Ange's progress with this team, do not need to navigate any awkward qualifiers and have a solid core of good players who need some support moving forward.

Our season starts in a couple of weeks and we're in a far worse position now than we were at the start of the Summer. There's money that needs to be spent on 3 or 4 quality additions. If we don't get our * in gear pronto, we won't have European football after Christmas for the second year running.

I'm sick of the sound bites about making progress. Prove it!