Jump to content

Squad & tactics (2024/25)


LoveItIfWeBeatU

Recommended Posts

I think the club (based on the reported budged being less than we spent in January) will target players either out of contract or with only 12 months to run.

 

With that in mind, I think they'll target the following:

 

CB - Tarkowski. He's proven in the PL and a clear upgrade on Lascelles. I think we're guaranteed to go in for Tarkowski personally. He provides genuine competition at the back and won't impact FFP.

 

LB - Targett. Been great for us and plenty of reports a fee of 15m is already agreed in principle.

 

DM - Bissouma. Good age, strong, quick, good on the ball, proven in the PL and only has 12 months left on his deal so will be relatively cheap. Alternatively, Kamara on a free.

 

RW: This needs to be a big upgrade. Personally I doubt Raphina is achievable for us but he'd be a stellar signing. 

 

ST: As with RW, for us to really kick on this needs to be a top player i.e. Nunez, Tammy, Schick, Toney. Again, how realistic these are I'm unsure.

Link to post
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, PlymouthGeordie said:

I think the club (based on the reported budged being less than we spent in January) will target players either out of contract or with only 12 months to run.

 

With that in mind, I think they'll target the following:

 

CB - Tarkowski. He's proven in the PL and a clear upgrade on Lascelles. I think we're guaranteed to go in for Tarkowski personally. He provides genuine competition at the back and won't impact FFP.

 

LB - Targett. Been great for us and plenty of reports a fee of 15m is already agreed in principle.

 

DM - Bissouma. Good age, strong, quick, good on the ball, proven in the PL and only has 12 months left on his deal so will be relatively cheap. Alternatively, Kamara on a free.

 

RW: This needs to be a big upgrade. Personally I doubt Raphina is achievable for us but he'd be a stellar signing. 

 

ST: As with RW, for us to really kick on this needs to be a top player i.e. Nunez, Tammy, Schick, Toney. Again, how realistic these are I'm unsure.


I would sign Tarkowski aswell and 1 more CB in the mould of Bremer/Botman to be 1st choice 

 

i’d also go for Hickey to provide competition on both full back positions (mainly LB)

 

That’s the defence sorted 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'd pass on Tarkowski, he's no better than Schar or Burn and too old to improve. We should be looking to improve the squad, not bog it down more bodies that we'll want to shift in a couple of years. The same goes for Lingard.

Link to post
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

I'd pass on Tarkowski, he's no better than Schar or Burn and too old to improve. We should be looking to improve the squad, not bog it down more bodies that we'll want to shift in a couple of years. The same goes for Lingard.


Could be a good FFP move though as cover? Lascelles out for £8-10m for example and him in for Free?

 

Get our main CB like Botman or whoever as our first choice, Schar, Burn & Tarkowski are all decent level Premier League defenders. He seems a similar level and signing as Dawson at West Ham and he’s been a good signing. Season after that you sell Schar or Burn and sign another first-choice CB.

 

 

Edited by Optimistic Nut

Link to post
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

I'd pass on Tarkowski, he's no better than Schar or Burn and too old to improve. We should be looking to improve the squad, not bog it down more bodies that we'll want to shift in a couple of years. The same goes for Lingard.

 

I agree he's no better than Schar or Burn but he's a big step up on Fede, Clarke, Lascelles.

 

I agree on Lingard because we have Joelinton, ASM, Fraser, Bruno, Willock and Miggy who all offer something in advanced positions.

 

Age has caught up with Fede and Clark and as for Lascelles, he isn't comfortable with the ball, and lacks both pace & positional sense.

 

As we're in for a gradual build by all accounts, I think some improvements will be incremental and made with an eye on saving the budget for key positions (RW and CF). Signing Tarkowski allows the budget to go further whilst also providing depth which won't weaken the first 11.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not particularly a Lingard fan but it’s the sort of signing we might need to make for FFP. I’d say him & Tarkowski are better than Almiron & Lascelles so if you can replace existing squad players with Bosmans, you could be freeing up £20-25m towards fees for first team players.

 

 

Edited by Optimistic Nut

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tarkowski seemed like a January "safe" pick to try and keep us in the division - similar to Wood. I don't think we'll be back in for him, even if he's on a "free" transfer. I'm fairly sure any signing on fee (plus wages) will be part of the FFP calculation.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tarkowski is a bog standard centre half, similar to Lascelles. He also lacks versatility and looks absolutely hopeless covering at LCB. He'd be very meh.

 

I'm all for incremental improvement, but if the players we're looking at aren't i) replacing a player in the first team or ii) youngsters with a decent potential ceiling, then we shouldn't bother. Otherwise the squad is just perpetually stepping sideways.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It'll be interesting in the summer who we bring in. Howe seems to have gone 4-3-3 after trying others, as the way to get the best from this group. Does he see that as the way forward ? Does he have a set plan and wants players to fit that plan or is he more flexible and will alter things according to the players we get ?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Howe keeps banging the flexibility drum. He's on the recording saying he wants the ability to switch to a back three and it wouldn't be surprising if he's looking at his favoured 4-4-1-1 as an option as well.

 

On top of that he's praised the likes of Joelinton for being able to cover multiple positions.

 

I think flexibility and character will be high up on our list of qualities.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm just happy going into a window where we are going to see well considered targets that will take the team forward.  There won't be any silence until mid August and then a lot of false rumors followed by some cheap additions that don't fit.

 

I can live with the endless drone of players we'll be connected to because I know most of it will be BS and the players we do bring in with be quality players and people.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Next season I would like (and think probably fall a little short of) new centre back, new striker, new right winger and new midfielder who can control the game

 

So we would look like

 

                                 Dubs

 

Trippier       Schar                New CB          Target

 

                               New Mid

 

                 Bruno                   Joelinton

 

  New Winger                                         ASM

 

                               New Striker

 

This could shift to a 3 4 3 actually depending on new winger's defensive capabilities/awareness

 

                                          Dubs

 

                   Trippier           Schar         New CB

 

New Winger         Bruno        New Mid              Target

 

              ASM                 New Striker       Joelinton

 

Which obviously pulls ASM other side, Trippier is defensively sound enough to go to wide Centre back but think with training ground work could be good

 

 

I would also look at what Man City are doing with inverted wingbacks because both Trippier and Target are more defensively minded than most top modern full backs, this would mean in possession Target and Trippier coming in narrow and screening thew defense. This allows the centre backs to push higher with more security and the midfield to push further up so you would sort of end up with a formation (in possession) that looks like this

 

                                      Dubs

              

                        Schar                 New CB

 

                        Trippier             Target

 

Winger             Bruno               New Mid           Joelinton

 

                         New Striker      ASM

 

This means we have a big overload on a defense. 

 

I have given this way more thought than worth, will not happen and I am sure would not work lol

 

                           

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest HTT II
2 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

HMS Tarkowski has sailed, tbh. Similar with Wood, had we not signed him in January that would have been that and we'd have never seen him at Newcastle.

Aye I hope we don’t sign him and I imagine Wood will become just a squad player at best next season. We can do far better than Tarkowski even if he’s on a free.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest HTT II
3 hours ago, JumpersForGoalposts said:

Lingard is toxic too. The last thing we need is our squad dynamic upsetting with bad apples. He's also no better than what we already have.

How is he toxic? By all accounts he’s a good lad and is very good pals with Trippier. He could have kicked up a storm not getting a move in January, but hasn’t.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest HTT II

Looking at those players we can maybe get some decent money for I’d say Lascelles, Shelvey and Almiron could bring in 25-30m between them. I’d not be sad to see any of them go, but if we are talking quality over quantity I’d keep Lascelles and Shelvey for next season. If I’m a Championship club like say Boro (if they don’t go up) they would do well to look at a few of our players to get on the cheap and or on loan, proven at that level and you’d imagine could still do a job down there.

 

By the way, how fucking good is it to be able to look forward to debating about future squads, team selections, new signings, the outgoing of the old guard etc. and any bearing it all has on how we kick on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest HTT II
4 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Joe Gomez is wasting away at Liverpool. Wouldn't mind us launching a rescue operation for him

Aye I rate him, but he seems to suffer with injuries? I think he’d be far more exposed at NUFC and would show up any deficiencies in his game massively as well. Again, I think we can do much better come the summer. Bruno has to be the benchmark now!

Link to post
Share on other sites

If there’s a centre back between Butn and Schar that I would be getting rid of its Schar, not that he hasn’t done well but I’d like someone with a bit more pace there which would allow us to push higher up the pitch.

Link to post
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, HTT II said:

Looking at those players we can maybe get some decent money for I’d say Lascelles, Shelvey and Almiron could bring in 25-30m between them. I’d not be sad to see any of them go, but if we are talking quality over quantity I’d keep Lascelles and Shelvey for next season. If I’m a Championship club like say Boro (if they don’t go up) they would do well to look at a few of our players to get on the cheap and or on loan, proven at that level and you’d imagine could still do a job down there.

 

By the way, how fucking good is it to be able to look forward to debating about future squads, team selections, new signings, the outgoing of the old guard etc. and any bearing it all has on how we kick on.

I'm still getting used to it - might take another couple of transfer windows until it feels real. I still expect us to discuss all of these exciting names and then sign Jordan Rhodes on a free.

 

On your point about getting rid of players, I think Murphy has put himself well in the shop window for newly promoted teams. There's probably another £8-10m?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...