The Squad - What can be done between Now and the End of the Season?

[Dutch McLovin]

It all depends on money. 

 

There is massive problems everywhere with the team and this cant be addressed in January, but to give us a fighting chance we are gonna have to gamble on players because we wont or cant get the quality we require that will guarantee us safety (even if chansiri spunked millions which he wont they wouldnt come).

 

So three midfielders 3 strikers and a full back, either on loan or signings. And then get as many out as possible. Need Westwood fit, spent force or not hes better than the others one of which we need to get out on loan.

 

Yes the players we will get may have questionable attitudes or fitness records or are unknown on these shores or something that should put us off. But we are not thinking long term we need to stay up and have very little time to do it. 

[adelphi1867]

6 hours ago, room0035 said:

Look Westwood is a spent force and a drain on the club the best thing we can do is try and get as much of his £25k a week salary of the wage bill.

 

We need a left back if Penney is going to not get any chances to play but Palmer is a more than adequate right back for a team in the lower part of the championship and money would be better spent elsewhere.

 

The midfield of Bannan, Reach, Harris has been the main problem none can defend and their attacking is woeful which has been seen Bannan cannot even beat the first man at corners most of the time. How he continues to be picked every game only Pulis can answer that. For me we need to push the boat out and try and get Conor Hourihane in on loan get next to no game time at Villa and would bring goals and creativity to the team.

 

We need 2 strikers at the very least 3 if we can find someone stupid enough to take Rhodes - that offer from Norwich 2 season ago to take him on a free but we save his £40k wages is looking like another missed opportunity by DC. For me its an odd one but I would try to get Andy Caroll I, big tall and imposing and if we can keep him fit would be just the target man needed, Newcastle may help us on the funding if we give him a lot of game time. James Collins at Luton he is a free agent in the summer and Luton are well safe from trouble but as yet have not offered him a new deal if we could put in a cheeky bid for him we may get him and his link up with Brown last season could create a goal scoring avenue for us. Of course this all depends if we have any money to spend on our thread bare squad in January and with DC in charge that is unlikely.

Agree with that, just that the midfield has been a problem area for the last 5 years, not just the last 5 weeks.

[adelphi1867]

1: A new Goalkeeper, Westwood is too injury prone.

1: A new left back.

3: Some one who can actually put a cross into the area, either from open play or a corner

4: at least 2 goal scorers

5: some one to hold up the ball up front

6: all with the pace to frighten the opposition

At least 6 new players to give us a chance, however small, of staying up.

If players don't want to stay shun them and promote the youngsters.

 

Of course it all depends on the state of the clubs finances, which, to say the least, look Dodgy

[pussface]

If they were horses, they’d all be glue already.

[Guest FoxOwl12]

I think the term is " we're bollaxed"

[Dick_Turpin]

5 minutes ago, adelphi1867 said:

1: A new Goalkeeper, Westwood is too injury prone.

1: A new left back.

3: Some one who can actually put a cross into the area, either from open play or a corner

4: at least 2 goal scorers

5: some one to hold up the ball up front

6: all with the pace to frighten the opposition

At least 6 new players to give us a chance, however small, of staying up.

If players don't want to stay shun them and promote the youngsters.

 

Of course it all depends on the state of the clubs finances, which, to say the least, look Dodgy

Doddle

[Guest Andy W]

Rename  club Sheffield Wednesday 0

[trev]

Accept relegation and play the kids.

 

Sell everyone else.

 

Let Pulis try and build a hoofball team capable of getting us out if league one.

 

When he fails. Sack him in feb and give the job to Bullen to take us down to league two.

 

Then go into admin/liquidation and cease to exist.

 

Wawaw

Edited December 17, 2020 by trev

[prowl]

12 hours ago, hasthagotanycheese said:

Nowt.

 

If the captain has holed the ship below the waterline by not paying the sailors in full then they aren't and wont man the pumps properly.

 

No other crew will want to join a ship that is sinking and where the rum ration is actually ribena and not a full tot anyway.

 

Get the lifeboats ready.

Not a good analogy. If a ships holed beneath the water line the crew will man the pumps and give it everything they've got even without pay. It's that or drown.

 

 

[Dizzys Dad]

We won’t be allowed to sign anyone in the transfer window.

The EFL will slap an embargo on us before it opens.

[fatzooma]

It does all depend on money and if the players aren’t getting paid then you might as well not ; 1. Try  to motivate and  
2.Try to attract better players.

[morganowl]

taken to the tip and chucked in the worthless box 

[morganowl]

12 hours ago, Andy W said:

Rename  club Sheffield Wednesday 0

instead of dtaxi maybe chansiri has a new bus company he is trying to promote called park the bus , dont think this new company will do too well and all wont end well ,an embargo is coming so no one can join the bus ,the tyres are well worn down to minimum the bus is crashing 

[N0rtherner]

We're suffering in offense, setting up far too defensively for my liking.

 

What if we tried a 3-4-3 where we push up two more wingers to the top three and use wing backs as flanks in midfield with 2 in control in middle? 3 Defenders at the back. With that line-up, can also go to a 5-4-1 in defense by dropping down wing backs and wingers. Requires a lot of our full backs and wingers because they'll be running a lot.

 

        Westwood/Wildsmith*

 

  Lees  Dunkley Börner/Flint/Iorfa*

 

Odubajo Bannan Luongo Penney

 

     Harris   Windass   Reach

 

* unsure who's available due to injuries etc

 

Possible alternatives to line-up above:

Adedoyin or Hagan to replace Harris for right-winger option.

Paterson or Rhodes to replace Windass for centre-forward.

Bit weak on options on the left side but perhaps Palmer for Penney and Penney up for Reach.

 

 

It's not like we're winning at the moment, so why not go far more offensive and put more men up top.

Edited December 18, 2020 by N0rtherner

[hasthagotanycheese]

11 hours ago, prowl said:

Not a good analogy. If a ships holed beneath the water line the crew will man the pumps and give it everything they've got even without pay. It's that or drown.

 

 

I sir stand by the efficacy of my previous analogous statement. You clearly overlook the reference made to lifeboats.

[Lord Snooty]

 If a ships holed beneath the water line the....pack the hole tight with supporters.

They should keep is tight enough for all the top crewe to escape...

[gurujuan]

We needed to be in touch when the window opened. That it’s unlikely that we will be, means it will be very difficult to attract anyone decent in January. The best we can hope for, is that we are able to add shape to the squad. That’s likely to be a veteran target man, with experience of leading the line, absolutely critical to the set up. We may be lucky enough to find a youngster that we can take on loan, someone with no experience, but with the raw pace that can add another dimension to the squad. 
Will it be enough, probably not, but I don’t see us being able to sign the sort of quality needed to give us even a reasonable chance of avoiding the drop. There are a myriad of reasons why we can’t expect to bring in anyone decent, our position, marooned at the foot of the table, no money, or certainly financial uncertainty. Plus the idea of loaning decent players to Pulis, a manager not known for developing players, is not going to be top of any parent clubs priorities.

[shezzas left peg]

On 17/12/2020 at 08:03, Jim said:

 

So why didn’t he push strongly for more natural effective wing-backs then?

Probably becouse quality wingbacks would have cost far more cash than we could pay and there were no good ones that would come out of contract. 

Monk got a few freebies and Windass and if the wage thing is true we coulddnt afford those. 

It's looking like pullis is somehow going to have to con some clubs into giving us some fees for some of the duds before he can bring some new blood in. 

[shezzas left peg]

1 hour ago, N0rtherner said:

We're suffering in offense, setting up far too defensively for my liking.

 

What if we tried a 3-4-3 where we push up two more wingers to the top three and use wing backs as flanks in midfield with 2 in control in middle? 3 Defenders at the back. With that line-up, can also go to a 5-4-1 in defense by dropping down wing backs and wingers. Requires a lot of our full backs and wingers because they'll be running a lot.

 

        Westwood/Wildsmith*

 

  Lees  Dunkley Börner/Flint/Iorfa*

 

Odubajo Bannan Luongo Penney

 

     Harris   Windass   Reach

 

* unsure who's available due to injuries etc

 

Possible alternatives to line-up above:

Adedoyin or Hagan to replace Harris for right-winger option.

Paterson or Rhodes to replace Windass for centre-forward.

Bit weak on options on the left side but perhaps Palmer for Penney and Penney up for Reach.

 

 

It's not like we're winning at the moment, so why not go far more offensive and put more men up top.

If Harry Redknap was in charge maybe, but this is pullis. In my thinking we would suit 4-3-3 especially if he decided to give penney & Palmer a go, but even that's too risky and offensive  for the English karanka. 

[Andrew6666]

On 17/12/2020 at 05:53, Jim said:

The Squad as everyone knows is unbalanced, one paced and short on Quality particularly in Attacking areas but what can TP do to give us a fighting chance of staying up?

 

Goalkeepers - Managing Westwood’s fitness is crucial for me. We have no chance of avoiding the drop if Wildsmith and Dawson play the vast majority of our remaining games.

 

Full-Backs - 2 new full-backs are imperative in January. Preferably 2 who are effective going forward. I’d like to see Penney get a chance down the left but this for whatever reason seems unlikely?

 

Centre-Backs - Iorfa’s season ending injury is a massive set-back. TP needs to find a pairing that works and stick with it. I think it’ll be Dunkley and Borner eventually?

 

Midfield - Some big calls to be made here not least letting Bannan and Reach go in January if we can’t tie them down to new deals. I think we may see more activity in January in this area than anywhere else.

 

That said like Westwood, managing Luongo’s fitness is crucial plus I see Liam Shaw emerging from the wreckage as a big player for us.

 

Strikers - The only striker TP seems to trust is Windass. I think if he could offload Rhodes, Paterson and Kachunga in January I think he would. I thimk

we’ll see him to try to sign two strikers in the mould of the ones he’s used constantly over the years, physically strong, tall and has pace.

 

I could see Charles Hagan emerging as a real option in the second half of the season.

 

Long term there needs to be a good sort out of the Squad but I do think we’ll see some shrewd loans and modest buys in January and hopefully we’ll stay up.

How do we manage 'Christmasitis'