I think we all conceded there would have to be some concessions this window. Ideally we would have brought in another striker, McAtee would have been great in this system, the link up play he could have had with DKD, Vickers, DmcG etc would have been a joy to watch However, if that back up is Farrell until Jan then I’m ok with that. We are skint after all. We’re going to need a bit of luck with injuries but you always need that to have a successful campaign. We’ve got DKD, DmcG, Cleary, Vickers, Farrugia, Farrell, Jalo - (as well as Russell and Phillips if we’re really stuck) to make a front 3 from. That’s a lot of decent attacking threat, even if a little unbalanced.
All the nonsense about a player won’t come in to play back up???? What tripe. Did Reyes Cleary not sign? Patrick Kelly? It’s football gents. You go out and prove yourself. Are we now saying we only need a squad of 15x for the season? Think I’ll let this one run and see where we are at Xmas. My moneys on that this will be brought up in another thread by another poster on here at some point during the season.
I know it’s been said, and I know he’s not that good, but… Marsh. He’s been 5th choice for a few years, barely got a sniff. We’ve finally cleared out the flops in front of him, and have a chance at some game time - but now he’s gone. He should still be here to play JPT games and come off the bench, surely! Unless Conor thinks Farrell is better?
We will be OK. There's goals in this team from various positions. I'm confident they'll do the business
LWF ST RWF DKD DmcG Vickers Cleary DKD Ferrugia Jalo Farrell Phillips We do have 3 striker options - it’s just that one is 37 and the other is a kid, but there are 3. DKD seems to pretty much expect to play virtually all our minutes in all our matches, so he’s the first change to step into ST. Bringing in another ST would drop Farrell out, but probably wouldn’t change the order very much.
I understand the frustration, we would have all loved a striker, but without knowing the actual details of why the deal fell through I think it's wrong to see Conor has been let down
For those saying Ballard chose Leyton Orient over us. The other week Conor spoke about him in a press conference, but last week spoke about no longer being interested in someone previously talked about, which we can assume would be Ballard as he spoke about nobody else.
Suspect Ballard wanted to stay in the south. Conor mentioned factors like location coming into play with signings.
Hardly surprising if he didn't want to come up here, he's from Guildford so a lot closer to home at Orient.
Cleary/Farrugia have both played up front in the past. Given how much our strikers move around the pitch, it's not as essential to have a standard number 9 up front as it would have been in previous seasons. If Conor really thinks we desperately need another striker I'm sure he'll look at some free agents.
Lewis Gould also. There are plenty of 19yr odds breaking through into their 1st team. The lads figures for goalscoring and assists are unbelievable, albeit at a much lower level.
As much as I would have liked a marquee signing up top, I'm more than happy with the squad we have. This is the healthiest we've been on the last 4 years and we have cover in so many positions. I know people would like another striker, but honestly having 2 strong players in each position is more than good enough for most league one clubs. Our style of play isn't with a traditional striker either. The front 3 are somewhat interchangeable and the central FW is more of a creative starter/finisher to attacks than a striker who would just sit up top. That's what you want in a front 3 really. Gk (3 options for 1 spot) Cooper, Smith, Flavell RB (3 options for 1 spot) Watson, Bland, MDG, LB (3 options for 1 spot) Ogbeta, Gent, Earl CB (6 options for 2 spots) Shepherd, Roberts, Rooney, Earl, Barratt, MDG, CDM (3 options for 1 spot) Connell, Kelly, Bland CM (8 options for 2 spots) Phillips, Kelly, Yoganathan, Russell, Bland, Graham, Atkinson, DKD LF/RW (6 options for 2 spots) DKD, Vickers, Cleary, Farrugia, Jalo, McG FW (3 options for 1 spot) DKD, McG, Farrell Realistically we can lose a player in every position and still have someone come in who won't necessarily weaken us over a short period of time. This is easily the best transfer window we've had in a long time and realistically, we've paid little in the way of transfer fees which makes it even better - likely why we've not had to sell any assets.
It's not actually just goals people are worried about, its someone who makes the centre backs have a tough game and a focal point. People aren't expecting McGoldrick to score loads, its the fact hes the only player we can hit a longer ball to. I appreciate theres less need for that now as he have more wingers instead of wing backs but its still something we'll need at some point of the season.
So surely your opinion would be that we need a new winger then not a new striker as we play one up front but play both our two strikers in the same line up with one stuck on the left hand side out of position? Maybe, Jalo is due back soon or sooner than expected and he can then go on the wing when back, with Didzy as the sub striker. We also have got more than 3 strikers as many have pointed out. DKD regardless of if you call him a striker or not, is the main man up top for us and our top scorer. Then there is Didzy, Cleary has played most of his career up top and we have young Farrell and Jalo who are strikers. Jalo is more of a winger for sure, but again played his youth career up top. That's 5 players that can go up top. How many more do we need? And what semi decent option is going to want to sign to be 3rd/4th choice for us? Cos if DKD is fit, he is going to play.
To which question? My post had several questions within it. I asked those questions as to me the answer was not in the post I quoted. Otherwise I would not have needed to quote it with more questions...
As I wrote in the quote you re-quoted We need 3x strikers. Cleary isn’t a striker Jalo isn’t a striker If DKD is injured then you’d imagine the strongest 3x would be Vickers, Didzy and Cleary going into a game. I want to see our strongest XI that’s available every week. I’m guessing you do too? I’m not interested in square pegs in round holes where certain players “could do a job”. How’s about round pegs in round holes by adding an extra striker? We had a chance to address it and we didn’t. I’ll live with it. I’ll still stick with my thoughts that at some point during this season, someone else on here will bring the topic about not addressing it this summer.