Holm, Kwon or Lawal?

If we assume Mcgregor, Hatate, Iwata Bernardo are 4 of our midfielders for next season. I dont see Oriley staying and think we will likey sign a replacement for him.
And if we assume we run with 6 options for midfield there's likely only room for 1 of these 3 in the squad with other 2 going out on loan.

Who would you keep?

 

We desperately need a new CDM, or at the very least a combative midfielder.

That'd give us:

New Midfielder
McGregor
Hatate
Bernardo

Loan: Holm, Lawal

Sell: Kwon, Iwata

Holm is more my type of midfielder with good potential. Haven't seen enough of Lawal to make a proper judgement but from what I have seen he could probably benefit from another loan.

We've got way too many midfielders at the moment, none of whom are good enough defensively for the CL. So while it may be harsh on Iwata and Kwon, we need to be ruthless.

 

in the boards eyes Bernardo will be oreillys replacement

 

Get rid of Kwon.

Send Holm out on loan.

Maybe give Lawal a chance or loan him.

 

Definitely thought so already at the end of last season. They do have some similarities as players.

 

Close thread.

 

Yeah that's my view too

Kwon has looked tidy enough last couple of games but looks like a decent spfl player. St mirren/hibs level player that we wouldn't be happy signing of we were linked with him if he was at one of those clubs.

Holm looks like he has real potential but desperately needs minutes to develop properly and unlikely to get them with others ahead of him at the moment. Should have went out in January and may have been in far better position to stay this season.

Lawal looks raw but has attributes we really lack in middle of the park and could be very useful member of the squad.


Was just interested in people's opinions as they seem to be the 3 players getting the lost praise after 1st 2 pre season games.

 

Loan Kwon & Holm.

Give Lawal a shot..

 

Aye and they are all very similar types too.

Agree we need a proper, physical defensive midfielder but also think we need a proper number 10 too. So many games last year we struggled to open teams up, especially at home when they came and parked the bus.

 

I agree with this despite them all being very different styles I think they are all looking to occupy a similar position on the park. They aren’t a defensive midfielder certainly in the sense that they will sniff out danger and be a ball winner but all play almost as the sort of all round centre midfielder or an 8 it you had a 6, 8 and a 10 or a defensive destroyer, box to box and a playmaker.

Lawal’s big strength is his ball carrying ability, his strength and mobility as well as some neat foot work make him a good fit for a box to box 8, rather than a defensive midfielder for me. Where he needs to improve is his defensive side of the game in terms of not being so sloppy with his simple passing. Strangely he has a cracking range of passing on him but the simple ones let him down. This may be more mental side of the game, positioning needs to develop too but that can be learned. I think playing with CalMac as a 6 could really help Lawal. His physicality is a big plus but the question for me is whether he is capable of using it for us. I actually think a midfield 3 of McGregor, Lawal and O’Riley would work quite well. I am not so sure about the combination of Lawal and Hatate given both have that tendency to give the ball away cheaply.

Holm is a very talented boy and has a good footballing IQ, he knows where to be and has a decent passing range and carrying ability to break a press. He has good mobility but needs to work on his physical side and I believe there might be mentality issues there too, as he has all the tools to become a very good centre midfielder. He has a lot of talent and the only reason i can think he wasn’t getting more game time is down to application. He is still young as he only turned 21 back in January. Out of the three I would say he is the closest to being ready for first team football it’s just nailing down which role he should play.

Kwon is a pretty well rounded player in terms of his skill set, tidy on the ball, fairly mobile etc. He lacks physicality despite his build and size, he should be a tank in there but really isn’t that type. The one thing he does seem to struggle with is getting turned when receiving the ball and facing his own goal. Again to me he isn’t an out and out defensive midfielder but he does lack when in the final third to play further forward. In reality he will be on a modest salary compared to most of our players at only 23 if we could get him back out on loan at a likely top 6 club it could work well or maybe even down to the bottom half of the English Championship. Back in June there was a suggestion Stoke may be interested in him. Scalability to our level is what I see being the biggest challenge for him.

 

Lawal is the most able to provide cover at CM/DM so I think that puts him in pole position if the oriley replacement is a like for like replacement.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

 

We wasted a year of Holm’s development - as we tend to do. Not sending him out on loan last year was a * farce, considering he was barely given a kick with the first team.

This season he either needs to be loaned out or used regularly.

Kwon needs a loan. If Lawal impresses in pre-season then he needs to be given a chance.

 

I get not sending Holm out straight away as we would have wanted to see him in training and games to get idea of what kind of level he was at in comparison to rest of the squad but not sending him out in January was a ridiculous decision