Transfer News Transfer window 2020/21

I said yesterday that it would be interesting to see if KR brings in a defender or looks at the longer term gain from regular football for Clare, Atkinson & Moore who you’d feel after a year of regular football would be improved. I think we’ve got our answer.

It’s a bold call which will draw a lot of criticism if we don’t stop shipping goals.
 
Sam Long is not a Div1 quality player. What is kr thinking, its the defence that needs an overhaul.
Yeah he’s not flashy, but he doesn’t look out of place in League 1 to me as a squad player. His versatility has certainly come in handy this season playing in every position across the back 4. I think if he’s regular first choice you’d perhaps question whether you need more quality rather than just endeavour.
 
I said yesterday that it would be interesting to see if KR brings in a defender or looks at the longer term gain from regular football for Clare, Atkinson & Moore who you’d feel after a year of regular football would be improved. I think we’ve got our answer.

It’s a bold call which will draw a lot of criticism if we don’t stop shipping goals.
I don't think I agree that bringing in a senior centre back will mean that Moore and Atkinson's development will be stunted. There are roughly 50 games in a season, so if you brought in a CB in their mid-to-late 20s to play pretty much all the games, Moore and Atkinson would play around 25 each, with Mous making a few cameos, so a decent number of first team chances.

Also, one reason why Moore was doing well last year was because he had Dickie alongside him. At the moment, Moore needs a commanding presence next to him, and Atkinson needs to play alongside an experienced player in what is his first taste of EFL football. Having a centre half in their prime at the club is a no-brainer, and could improve the development of our defenders instead of stunting their growth.
 
Agyei is not poor in the air if anything he wins a lot more 50-50 headers than the rest from midfield to the attack
I said Long was poor in the air not Agyei, specifically at centre back. Thought JCH dominated him at times on Saturday.

My criticism of Agyei was not supporting Ruffels defensively I.e. Gillingham’s 3rd goal last week where their full back ran off him.
 
Yeah he’s not flashy, but he doesn’t look out of place in League 1 to me as a squad player. His versatility has certainly come in handy this season playing in every position across the back 4. I think if he’s regular first choice you’d perhaps question whether you need more quality rather than just endeavour.
I really like Long, I think he's honest and hardworking. But I wouldn't necessarily say he's too versatile as although he's played across the back 4 already this season (and credit to him for doing so), I think he's only really looked decent in his usual right back position.
 
I said yesterday that it would be interesting to see if KR brings in a defender or looks at the longer term gain from regular football for Clare, Atkinson & Moore who you’d feel after a year of regular football would be improved. I think we’ve got our answer.

It’s a bold call which will draw a lot of criticism if we don’t stop shipping goals.
And it's a model that has served us well and is part of the established DNA of the club. Atkinson is the equivalent of Dickie in his first year with us, although I personally think he is better. Let's not also forget that he has only played 2 league games so far, one of which was the 4-1 beating of Accrington.
 
Yeah he’s not flashy, but he doesn’t look out of place in League 1 to me as a squad player. His versatility has certainly come in handy this season playing in every position across the back 4. I think if he’s regular first choice you’d perhaps question whether you need more quality rather than just endeavour.

I think we all know the pros to Sam Long – defensively sound, immensely hard-working, not a big wage and can fill in at any position across the backline when we need him to. The downside to him is posed by this question: ‘is he good enough to get a team out of this division?’.

I do not expect Championship quality in every position across our main XI for a side with aspirations of getting promoted (every side that gets promoted cuts a few players loose on going up), but I’m starting to wonder whether we do need a RB who would be ready for Championship level to give the squad that edge.

I can level the same charge against Ruffels who has many of the same characteristics as Long although I’d argue that Ruffels is possibly the better player (albeit not at present based on form). The question may not be whether they are good enough each but good enough together. I fear that we end up with such a flat, defensively minded back four with Long and Ruffels in it that our attacks take longer to make, the channels remain empty and we lack numbers up front. We looked at our best last season with Cadden hauling everyone forward and neither of Ruffs or Long will offer you that. Clare looks to be an option there but not in the same class as Cadden.
 
Also, one reason why Moore was doing well last year was because he had Dickie alongside him. At the moment, Moore needs a commanding presence next to him, and Atkinson needs to play alongside an experienced player in what is his first taste of EFL football.
Moore played less L1 games than Mousinho last season, also - a big chunk of his appearances were in the cups. Think Mousinho played 26 L1 games to Moore’s 23 or thereabouts. Think he benefited from being able to be brought in slowly and having an experienced player in Mousinho, and a commanding one playing below his level in Dickie, to play alongside. We are definitely extremely ‘green’ this season.
 
Moore played less L1 games than Mousinho last season, also - a big chunk of his appearances were in the cups. Think Mousinho played 26 L1 games to Moore’s 23 or thereabouts. Think he benefited from being able to be brought in slowly and having an experienced player in Mousinho, and a commanding one playing below his level in Dickie, to play alongside. We are definitely extremely ‘green’ this season.
Moore’s development doesn’t look dissimilar to Dickie’s for me. We’ve got him games without relying on him as number 1 centre back. This season he should be first choice, then hopefully by the end of next season he’ll have developed into a Championship centre half. Not sure why we’re not managing Atkinson as carefully.
 
I don't think I agree that bringing in a senior centre back will mean that Moore and Atkinson's development will be stunted. There are roughly 50 games in a season, so if you brought in a CB in their mid-to-late 20s to play pretty much all the games, Moore and Atkinson would play around 25 each, with Mous making a few cameos, so a decent number of first team chances.

Also, one reason why Moore was doing well last year was because he had Dickie alongside him. At the moment, Moore needs a commanding presence next to him, and Atkinson needs to play alongside an experienced player in what is his first taste of EFL football. Having a centre half in their prime at the club is a no-brainer, and could improve the development of our defenders instead of stunting their growth.

I do know what you mean about experience, I sense the same as you that Moore & Atkinson don’t give off a commanding presence that perhaps an older head would. For me though Moore needs a full season as a regular starter. In the hope that he starts looking like more of a commanding centre half as a result. He’s played 28 football league games in total & his easing in season was last year. So if you bring someone else in & ppl stay injury free I can see Atkinson not reaching double figures for appearances this season. Not sure what impact that has on his development.
 
All of this discussion about our defensive frailties is good though as it pretty much guarantees a clean sheet tonight to show we don’t know what we’re talking about!
It’s not just about have we got good enough players back there,we are basically 2 injuries away from struggling to name a back 4.
 
I do find it rather amusing that most of last year the forum spent complaining about the lack of forwards and the need to keep playing Mackie as we had no one else to rely on.....this year all those same people are complaining we have too many players for the forward positions. Make your minds up.....
 
I do find it rather amusing that most of last year the forum spent complaining about the lack of forwards and the need to keep playing Mackie as we had no one else to rely on.....this year all those same people are complaining we have too many players for the forward positions. Make your minds up.....
Could it be that we've signed Winnall, Cooper, Osei Yaw, Asonganyi and Shodipo? All whilst selling our best defender last season and not replacing him. Almost like different scenarios call for different responses.
 
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The big issue with Moore this season is switching to the right of the CBs. He's alongside Clare who is finding his feet, and initially, Atkinson to his left who's fresh to it all. Moore is absolutely good enough at this level, but he's dealing with holding together a backline that's pretty much brand new. Add to that the lack of Gorrin protecting, it's hardly ideal.
 
The big issue with Moore this season is switching to the right of the CBs. He's alongside Clare who is finding his feet, and initially, Atkinson to his left who's fresh to it all. Moore is absolutely good enough at this level, but he's dealing with holding together a backline that's pretty much brand new. Add to that the lack of Gorrin protecting, it's hardly ideal.

Exactly this!
 
All of this discussion about our defensive frailties is good though as it pretty much guarantees a clean sheet tonight to show we don’t know what we’re talking about!
May I formally state then that we are dreadful at converting our chances and need a new set of forwards.
 
What we need is a left back and a right back that offer more going forward, as Cadden did, but you don't have to be as talented as Cadden to do that. There are free agents available I'm sure that have a more attacking mindset than Ruffles and definitely Long. Sitting back so flat at the moment means we encourage teams to run at us, increasing the pressure on the back 4.
At the moment we have one way of playing that every club knows about. We either change personnel or the system kr plays.
 
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