Wycombe offering 1.2 million for Connell

Not sure I remember Shep being that pacy.
Also think we could do with an energetic central midfielder to complement Connell if he stays. I see Bland as a good prospect but doubt he’ll be expected to play every week.

 

I think Bland will be expected to make the step up this season and is ear-marked to feature regularly.

 

If we don’t sign a RB I can see Bland having to fill in there. Can’t see MDG making full back his position.

 

Although we're well short of quality in a lot of areas, we're not short of numbers in most areas.

Before bringing even more bodies in, we could really do with getting rid of some of the deadwood. I think our expectations should be we're going through a lengthy rebuild. Well, if the powers that be show a modicum of intelligence and competence. Neither of which is guaranteed.

 

Spot on we need to slim down and rebalance the squad. The job's got harder with the change of system for me it's a three season rebuild. The key is patience if we and more importantly the board trust Hourihane he's got to be given time. They can't keep appointing head coaches and ten months later deciding they aren't the right man. We all want success but we want it now,we can't spend our way out of this mess. So a structured rebuild is the only way let's just hope Hourihane up to the job.

 

Really really hope we are looking at moving on some of the CB's, you can coach improvement no doubt and Richard Keogh looks a good addition to the coaching staff but you can't suddenly find or coach additional pace, without it we will be dead in the water trying to implement said playing style.

 

Whilst I totally and utterly agree, perhaps the board need to shut up and let conor get on with the difficult task in hand and stop coming with stuff like "the aim at Barnsley will always be getting out of the division" and "competative budget" it can become misleading in the way its interpretated vs the reality of the situation.

But fully agree with the points you make.

 

Pace adds cost. While it would be good to have someone with a bit of speed, frankly, I think we'd struggle to afford pace and a bit of quality.

If we can get a press working properly and our defence is better drilled and organised and we rid the crazy amount of individual errors, we could probably cut the goals conceded by a quarter or more.

We've had some slow cumbersome defenders in prior versions of press, so I don't think it's essential in league 1. Dropping DeGevigney would instantly improve that regard too. Even if we only upgraded from sloth to snail.

 

This is where it becomes one of those things that we give it all the talk and then don't align the recruitment and ultimately the head coach becomes the fall guy.
Teams often go long to break the press it's a common tactic within the game, balls over the top and down the sides, playing a high line with our current CB's, we'll get mullered, teams will play a low block and hit us in behind with a ball over the top.
We're saying one thing and doing the opposite and will end up with some half hearted attempt at 433 high press.

 

It depends what sort of press we play and how high a line we deploy. It also depends on the pressure on the ball. We've had players like Lindsay, Helik and Solbauer play in effective pressing teams. All were on the slow side. Yes, we had a bit of recovery pace in Pinnock and to a lesser degree Sibbick when selected, but we've not been blessed with pace in defence generally.

Generally though, I don't think we'll see something like a concerted press of any of the likes of Ismael, Struber or Stendel. Higher intensity, yes, but I don't envisage something grooved and highly trained. I can see the wheels coming off a fair few times too.

 

Better protection from midfield and the full backs would help too. Reading reviews of Ogbeta by Plymouth and Bolton fans doesn’t fill me with confidence about his defensive abilities and he was all over the place in Saturday’s brief footage. Time will tell.
As for the possibility of MDG playing right back I’ll not comment. Made known my feelings on him many times.

 

The line that was reeled out was high press, high energy, out of the seats stuff, under val we had the security 3 CB's and covering pace such as Williams at WB, under stendel we had pinnock but Williams, Cavare and Pinilos as full backs and Jacob brown putting a shift in up front with Chaplin our press from front to back was incredible.
So far I'm inclined to agree with many of the season previews, we are in for a long slog unless there's a sharp upturn in recruitment in the next 5 weeks or so.

 

Oh dear.

 

Pinillos was super slow and we usually had to put an APB to find Cavare. Pinnock was very much the glue in that blitzkrieg style under Stendel.. Bloody loved it!

 

Pie in the sky situation. How on earth do you go from Peterborough Sports to commanding a place in a League One team. If they thought so highly of him why wasn't he loaned to a league club last season? Short termism at its finest.

 

Conor must rate him, he did play him in his natural/preferred position and played well at Reading.

 

I noticed that too ,but didn't want to come across being negative.
He needs to up his game a notch.

 

They've just announced yet another midfielder signing. Maybe that is the end of them going for Luca

 

Yep along with our patience they need to be honest. Blowing smoke up our arse is not what's needed it's a mess some of which is their doing but pretending alls going to be well sharpish is plain daft.

 

Couldn't agree more