LinoJo3

I agree that wingbacks with what we have at our disposal IS our best hope, however all that will get us is midtable/survival at best. I see where CT is coming from in that it’s a pretty lame excuse not to try and better the team, it CANT be that hard to get a better LB than bola and a failed winger. I still feel we could do well but we are heavily reliant on Tav, Browne and Howson to provide assists and goals from midfield. Akpom I think will improve things as he will be better at linking midfield to attack than fletcher and also allow Britt to sit higher up. That said I think there will be a lot of games where we struggle to create anything. Essentially we have less width in the team than even pulis had.

Have to agree about Johnson, he’s just become a symbol of our sheer ineptitude to sign any kind of capable wide player. Friend, adomah, Nsue, Traore and Roberts are our only hits since Johnson left in 2010. We couldn’t even do it with premiership money, not only offering Johnson a new contract as the saviour of our left side but also celebrating him signing it was just the icing on the cake. Id rather just put Coulson there, at least he has potential not only to be better than Johnson but to get us a big transfer fee if he has a good season or 2.

Sorry, I edited

So who is this ‘big technically limited striker’ we’ve signed? Or are you wrong assuming that’s what kind of player Akpom is? Look if you’re gonna try and be all cocky and ‘know it all’ at least read my post in full. Honestly I can’t stand *** posts like yours sometimes, arrogantly talking to people as if you have some kind of superior football knowledge. Get over yourself.

Surely 343 is the perfect compromise? I didn’t get the ‘but we would concede 5 goals every game’ argument last time I brought it up, I’m not particularly sure why we would. We could achieve this simply by bringing in 1 wide player, Murphy or Roberts being the obvious examples for the right, fletcher has played left forward plenty of times for us and akpom has also played that position. If we did go that route I’d be tempted to put Dijksteel RWB to allow for ‘Roberts’ (example) to have more license to sit higher up. And Coulson at lwb to provide more width as if we played fletcher or akpom there we’d want them drifting more central to support Britt. ........................Betinelli ........McNair.......Hall.......Fry Disjksteel...........................Coulson ................Saville.......Morsy Roberts..............................Akpom ..........................Britt I know we probably won’t go this way, it’s just an example that we could play with ‘wingers’ quite easily with just one signing rather than the total overhaul some are suggesting.

Have to admit the Maddison debate is a bit boring now lol we have it every window. Some people think he’s talented and worth a go, specially for a free. Other people think he’s a doyle and wonder why nobody touches him even on a free. Cue 5 pages of people making those 2 arguments in different ways.

Eh why?

Personally I’m hoping we drop the 352 and go 343, bringing Roberts back if possible would allow us to do this. With the players we have at wing back 352 just doesn’t get us stretching teams enough imo.

I imagine he will be the target of the long balls so maybe more head injuries than neck.

I’m looking forward to seeing akpom, sounds like he will add something we haven’t had in the team for years. He will sit deeper and allow Britt to move further up and play his more natural game. When I first seen we had bid for akpom I admit I was surprised but now I’ve looked closer it makes sense.

Don’t you mean the standard stay at rockliffe over night Tomorrow then never hear his name mentioned for 2 weeks lol.

We have relied on single players to stand out for too long, totally agree with that guy who said we play with no intensity. Watching our rolled predictable passing while the other team just gets back into position is so dire. We then inevitably run out of ideas and smash a diagonal. It Genuinely annoys me listening to the stadium applaud a cross field pass when we have just missed the chance to play in a runner or 2 through the middle. We simply can’t play football anymore. All we needed to do when Karanka left was keep the basis of what he had and tweak it a bit to open up more but we go an tear it all up and start again.

Positives are he will be better than gestede by default. He ‘looks’ better than fletcher on the ball, more purposeful and more strength. Fletcher seems good at popping up with important goals though. My worry is our wide options are STILL shocking, I have hope with spence but if he doesn’t do it there’s literally nobody else, in no way is Dijksteel a rwb. Don’t get me started on Johnson, never has and never will have a good season here.

Nobody is or ever has expected us to ‘splash the cash’ this summer