Time to start rebuilding now!

[Yellowbelly]

2 hours ago, Bouncing Owl said:

 

Bannan is better in a midfield 3 and we play 4-4-2. The 3 top sides in the league all play with 3 in central midfield. I’ll let Bruce work out his best formation for us next season. There are a lot of players need releasing or selling but Bannan is not one of them.

I reckon we currently line up 442 because Fletcher is our only decent target man but he’s not a prolific enough goal scorer to be left to lead the line - hence the change of formation & addition of another striker. Hopefully we’ll have a good clear out up front & get in a target man who carries more of a goal threat. I’d still keep Fletcher & Hooper mind as against some opposition we may need their unique set of skills.

[dorian gray]

25 minutes ago, handworth52 said:

anyone signing winnall for a million would be laughing if he can recreate his form prior to us signing him , he was the 3rd highest scorer in league football in the previous 2 and a half years . id like us to give a run till the end of the season to see if he is of any use to us for next season. it might also add some value to him if he scores and plays well , its almost pointless now playing players who you wont be giving new contracts to , I think matias ,hooper and maybe nuhiu wont be here next season , id like joao,winnall and forestieri to be pushed to the front as they all need to find form and prove to bruce that they should be in his plans for next season. just cant see hooper staying on his huge wages and shocking injury record. 

agree on winnall, but ff and joao to go for me.

ff has either lost it, or worked out he's not needed, and joao at times just looks 'bone idle'.

[bobowl]

The thing that scares me is this is very similar to last season. Jos had a great end to the season and then, oh dear. Managers come in and ease in gradually. Once the players got to know Jos and his way of doing things it all went to crap. If theres no money for new players and lots of players are leaving i fear the worst.

[SallyCinnamon]

All well and good this thread, but wait until we hit an embargo.

[dorian gray]

4 minutes ago, bobowl said:

The thing that scares me is this is very similar to last season. Jos had a great end to the season and then, oh dear. Managers come in and ease in gradually. Once the players got to know Jos and his way of doing things it all went to crap. If theres no money for new players and lots of players are leaving i fear the worst.

the players 'sussed' jos was a 'plonker', then he dropped half the side because of it.

[dorian gray]

3 minutes ago, SallyCinnamon said:

All well and good this thread, but wait until we hit an embargo.

Psttt...

wanna buy a ground?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by dorian gray

[ozzieowl]

1 hour ago, fpowl said:

I think a massive overhaul is required

Like have been said we need to bring in athletic quick players to complement our existing bunch particularly wide and up top

 

retain

hooper

palmer

westwood

lee? 50-50 I think he will go but I suspect if Bruce see hi can be fit he’s cheap enough 

 

transfer list

Rhodes

winnal

forestieri

joao

fox 

Van aken

Pelupessy

 

Release 

abdi

jones

pudil

matias

boyd 

 

try and re- sign

lazaar

aarons

hector

 

sign

1x cb

2x wingers

2x Cm

2x cf

 

give us a first team squad of

 

GK

westwood

dawson

wildsmith

 

LB

lazzar

Penny

 

CB

hector

thorniley

lees

NEW 

 

RB

iorfa

palmer

 

Wingers

aarons

Reach

NEW pace

NEW pace

 

CM

hutchinson

bannan

Lee/ NEW

NEW box to box 

NEW enforcer 

 

CF

fletcher

hooper 

big dave 

NEW pace required 

NEW pace required

 

Its all iffs and butts and I would pretty much guarantee it won’t end up like this mainly because we won’t be able to offload some I’ve put on the transfer list but we should be moving in this direction it might take a few transfer windows too

 

that’s the magic number of 25 in the main squad 

This is not far off fpowl

[Animis]

1 minute ago, SallyCinnamon said:

All well and good this thread, but wait until we hit an embargo.

 

Possibility - but I suspect it will all be about showing the EFL that we have a plan. The cost reduction of the outgoing players against the costs of the incoming players. We have to 'trade' and if we can demonstrate we are reducing annual costs, I'm assuming this we be sufficient.

 

Maybe this is hope on my part, and the pending accounts may change this if we are technically in breach by the Summer. I also imagine Birmingham will be watching other clubs' treatment closely to ensure the rules are applied fairly.

[SallyCinnamon]

Just now, Animis said:

 

Possibility - but I suspect it will all be about showing the EFL that we have a plan. The cost reduction of the outgoing players against the costs of the incoming players. We have to 'trade' and if we can demonstrate we are reducing annual costs, I'm assuming this we be sufficient.

 

Maybe this is hope on my part, and the pending accounts may change this if we are technically in breach by the Summer. I also imagine Birmingham will be watching other clubs' treatment closely to ensure the rules are applied fairly.

 

I’d love to share your optimism. “Big trouble if we don’t go up”. The words of our chairman. We’ve suspended our accounts and we’ve had the ridiculous 1867 scheme desperately pleaded to us.

 

Next season will be a struggle.

[james o connor]

1 hour ago, Belfast Owl 2 said:

 

He bossed it v Villa who are hardly small fry and only a brillant tackle denied him yestersday.

 

His intelligence awareness and movement are his areas. He was never quick

 

 

He had one sniff and did nowt else . He was alright against villa , but as usual we came up short , despite a decent performance. Decent player but one oldie in fletcher is enough and as fletcher takes to the field more and is our best target man , as well as being in contract , he stays. Lee is a no brainier to be released . I’ll be honest , I wasn’t 100% for releasing hooper, but our inability to get up the field against decent teams just underlined why the ageing crocks need to go 

[poite]

12 hours ago, acquiescefc said:

Thread has no idea about our current budgets so is therefore irrelevant. 

Yeah...cos we should only comment on things when we know all the minute details. 

 

Might aswell shut the forum down 

[poite]

We should definately re-sign Hooper. 

 

We need to keep the treatment table nice and warm 

[oldishowl]

1 minute ago, james o connor said:

He had one sniff and did nowt else . He was alright against villa , but as usual we came up short , despite a decent performance. Decent player but one oldie in fletcher is enough and as fletcher takes to the field more and is our best target man , as well as being in contract , he stays. Lee is a no brainier to be released . I’ll be honest , I wasn’t 100% for releasing hooper, but our inability to get up the field against decent teams just underlined why the ageing crocks need to go 

 

If you play Hooper you have to play basically a 442 . We don’t have any midfielders who suit 442 so you end up stuck in your own half because you never have decent possession. 

 

Hooper has great footballing brain and good skill on the ball but to be honest the position he plays is a throwback to days gone by. Add in his potential fitness issues and I wouldn’t keep him.

[Animis]

15 minutes ago, oldishowl said:

 

If you play Hooper you have to play basically a 442 . We don’t have any midfielders who suit 442 so you end up stuck in your own half because you never have decent possession. 

 

Hooper has great footballing brain and good skill on the ball but to be honest the position he plays is a throwback to days gone by. Add in his potential fitness issues and I wouldn’t keep him.

 

This is true - the problem with our midfield is the obsession in playing 'wide' men; 'tucking in'. It use to be Wallace with CC, and recently Reach and Boyd. They offer very little to the team in how we set up, and leave the centre very exposed and we end up getting over run with Reach and Boyd merely spectators from a distance. They get caught in no-mans land neither supporting the front two or providing bite and cover in midfield, because they're not combative. We've got a back four so we don't (shouldn't) need defencive cover - we need forward support.

 

We seem to pick a team to account for our collective weaknesses and approach in a cautious way, rather than going on the offensive and having expansive players. It started with Stuart Gray and CC took this to a new level. It's been partly successful but ultimately failed, and for many games over the last three years, painful to watch.

[S36 OWL]

14 hours ago, ozzieowl said:

Westwood 

Hector

Lazaar

Aarons

New striker

New centre Mid

2 new wingers

 

Agree with this totally. We need a box to box midfield beast .

[Guest LondonOwl313]

2 hours ago, fpowl said:

I think a massive overhaul is required

Like have been said we need to bring in athletic quick players to complement our existing bunch particularly wide and up top

 

retain

hooper

palmer

westwood

lee? 50-50 I think he will go but I suspect if Bruce see hi can be fit he’s cheap enough 

 

transfer list

Rhodes

winnal

forestieri

joao

fox 

Van aken

Pelupessy

 

Release 

abdi

jones

pudil

matias

boyd 

 

try and re- sign

lazaar

aarons

hector

 

sign

1x cb

2x wingers

2x Cm

2x cf

 

give us a first team squad of

 

GK

westwood

dawson

wildsmith

 

LB

lazzar

Penny

 

CB

hector

thorniley

lees

NEW 

 

RB

iorfa

palmer

 

Wingers

aarons

Reach

NEW pace

NEW pace

 

CM

hutchinson

bannan

Lee/ NEW

NEW box to box 

NEW enforcer 

 

CF

fletcher

hooper 

big dave 

NEW pace required 

NEW pace required

 

Its all iffs and butts and I would pretty much guarantee it won’t end up like this mainly because we won’t be able to offload some I’ve put on the transfer list but we should be moving in this direction it might take a few transfer windows too

 

that’s the magic number of 25 in the main squad 

Agree with most of this but tbh we simply aren’t going to be able to sign as many players as you’re wanting because of FFP. In addition, we don’t need to make wholesale changes, the squad has two top 6 finishes in the last 4 seasons, plus 35 points from 20 games this season under a proper manager. So if everyone was fit under Bruce, we’d probably be a play off side next season without making changes. We just need that extra bit of quality which could see us challenging for top 2.

 

I’d go with:

 

Keepers:

Westwood

Dawson

Wildsmith

 

Right back:

Iorfa

Palmer

 

Left back:

Lazaar

Penney

 

Centre back:

Hector

Lees

Thorniley

NEW

 

Wide players:

Aarons

Reach

Forestieri

NEW

 

Centre mid:

Bannan

Hutchinson

Lee

NEW DM

NEW box to box

 

Strikers:

Fletcher

Hooper

NEW target man with pace

Joao

Rhodes

 

Sell:

Winnall - harsh but too many similar players and he’s the only one we could get a fee for 

Fox - garbage

Van Aken - garbage

Pelupessy - garbage

Nuhui - doesn’t score enough

 

Release:

Abdi

Jones

Boyd - steady but not enough for top 2

Matias - has good spells but doesn’t fit 

Pudil

Onomah - don’t renew loan

 

That would be 11 outs and 5 ins, plus signing the 3 loan players.

 

Of the 20 I’ve kept, there are a few that could go...

Joao for the right money

Rhodes for the right money but think it’s unrealistic given he’s not done much at Norwich.. nobody will take on his wages so I’d keep and see if Bruce can get much out of him with improved service 

Forestieri for the right money... can’t see us being offered enough to make him worth selling 

Lee if he can’t regain fitness

 

Some of the renews would be on reduced terms (Hooper and Lee). All in all, I’d be focusing on improving central midfield as I think that’s the main weakness as we have no cover 

[A E Neuman NYowl]

1 hour ago, oldishowl said:

 

If you play Hooper you have to play basically a 442 . We don’t have any midfielders who suit 442 so you end up stuck in your own half because you never have decent possession. 

 

Hooper has great footballing brain and good skill on the ball but to be honest the position he plays is a throwback to days gone by. Add in his potential fitness issues and I wouldn’t keep him.

Very good points.

[darra]

If we are to make big changes it needs to be done as soon as the window opens. Getting a lot of new players playing as a team can be hard enough without signing them with a couple of weeks left in the window or as we have done in the past a couple of days left.

[handworth52]

2 hours ago, dorian gray said:

agree on winnall, but ff and joao to go for me.

ff has either lost it, or worked out he's not needed, and joao at times just looks 'bone idle'.

im more leaning towards forestieri going but lets get him playing till end of season either way we need to see if he is still upto it or not . id sooner we leave fletcher and hooper out or on bench now that the playoffs are over.lets  hope past mistakes this summer are sorted and we get in the type of players what we know we need . 

[dorian gray]

3 minutes ago, handworth52 said:

im more leaning towards forestieri going but lets get him playing till end of season either way we need to see if he is still upto it or not . id sooner we leave fletcher and hooper out or on bench now that the playoffs are over.lets  hope past mistakes this summer are sorted and we get in the type of players what we know we need . 

I think we need bigger more physical players (still with skills), we bought lightly built for a certain style of play, and thus we only had that style.

there's an old adage in boxing, a good big un' will always beat a good lil' un.