How many players do we need?

[Guest AdenFlintIsHavingAParty]

With Cox, Moore, Bennett and maybe Robinson going back from loans and the squad we have now, how many players so we actually need?

I think a cover keeper, good enough to push FF when out of form, Bennett/RWB, centre midfielder, attacking midfielder and a striker. At least 5 IMO. Need a good Jan...

[TammyAB]

In order of Priority:

Bennet extension

Striker

Centre Midfielder

Moore Extension/Another CB

GK

[Guest AdenFlintIsHavingAParty]

Also who though realistically?

[KevP]

Anyone who can defend, hold the midfield, take chances in front of goal.....I'll get me coat....

[bs3]

At least three quality championship players which we should have brought in the summer. 

From mid April it was certain that we was going to a championship club and our failure to recruit in the close season is up with any mismanagerment we have seen in this club history.

[Phileas Fogg]

5 minutes ago, Kodjia said:

In order of Priority:

Bennet extension

Striker

Centre Midfielder

Moore Extension/Another CB

GK

I don't think Bennett extension is priority at all; midfielder and striker far more essential

[GrahamC]

Robinson is on a season's loan, unless he wants to go back why would you think he'd leave?

No chance of a game at Villa..

[Super]

Striker and a  replacement for Pack and Freeman

[Offside]

I'd like us to keep hold of Bennett, but a striker, midfielder(s), and GK competition are the main priorities.

[stephenkibby.]

44 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Robinson is on a season's loan, unless he wants to go back why would you think he'd leave?

No chance of a game at Villa..

so no chance of a game this season!!

The fact that he's here for a season long loan and the likelihood of never starting a game is just the type we surly don't want?

What I mean is any player that is happy to be a footballer and never play is stealing a living.

[Carey 6]

Bennett extension should be about 5th on the list, we have Wagstaff, Burns & Little who can all play that position, it's not like he's got loads of assists or scored so one of them will slot in there easily. 

First priority HAS to be a centre midfielder, ridiculous that we only have two, Smith and Pack.  I'd love someone in the mound of Diagouraga from Brentford. 

Second then needs to be a striker, preferably someone who's experienced & could play the Wilbs role, only a little more mobile come the 60th minute! (I've just had a worrying thought that we'll end up with Grant Holt) 

Third id say should be a left back, would allow us to change the formation and play with 4 at the back, Moxey has been linked, I wouldn't mind him or even Jonathan Parr from Ipswich, he's not played much this season (possibly because of injury) but he's out of contract in the summer. 

[Shtanley]

A 3rd, defensively able, centre mid. Dack and/or Kasim would be 2 I'd like.  A striker that can play with Kodjia and is able to do the hard stuff to help him. Like the idea of Lafferty. Maybe another centre back because Moore is presumably going back  

Then in the summer id be looking for another keeper (maybe Bentley) and another striker. 

[Lew-T]

Four players IMO.

GK

CM

LM

CF

[Shtanley]

19 minutes ago, Lew-T said:

Four players IMO.

GK

CM

LM

CF

Greg Kunningham, Clinton Morrison, Liam Moore but who is CF? Colin Firth hasn't got the legs to play upfront nowadays

[GrahamC]

9 hours ago, stephenkibby. said:

so no chance of a game this season!!

The fact that he's here for a season long loan and the likelihood of never starting a game is just the type we surly don't want?

What I mean is any player that is happy to be a footballer and never play is stealing a living.

Who says that he's happy?

He may be trying his best, playing for the U21s but we simply don't think that he is good enough.

Villa didn't make us borrow him, so why would they want him back?

[Merrick's Marvels]

12 hours ago, bs3 said:

At least three quality championship players which we should have brought in the summer. From mid April it was certain that we was going to a championship club and our failure to recruit in the close season is up with any mismanagement we have seen in this club's history.

 

[cityloyal473]

4 minimum. A GK, an attacking Central Midfielder, a defensive Midfielder and a striker.

[djb6162]

6 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Who says that he's happy?

He may be trying his best, playing for the U21s but we simply don't think that he is good enough.

Villa didn't make us borrow him, so why would they want him back?

Pretty certain he is going back Graham.

he would have gone back sooner had he been eligible to play for villa U21s

for some reason, due to his loans in this calendar year, he cant play for Villa u21s until Jan 1st

watched him last week for our u21, have to say that mentally i think he is already back there mate.

 

[GrahamC]

5 minutes ago, djb6162 said:

Pretty certain he is going back Graham.

he would have gone back sooner had he been eligible to play for villa U21s

for some reason, due to his loans in this calendar year, he cant play for Villa u21s until Jan 1st

watched him last week for our u21, have to say that mentally i think he is already back there mate.

 

Fair enough.

Sad it didn't work out, both for him and for us..

[Phileas Fogg]

5 minutes ago, djb6162 said:

Pretty certain he is going back Graham.

he would have gone back sooner had he been eligible to play for villa U21s

for some reason, due to his loans in this calendar year, he cant play for Villa u21s until Jan 1st

watched him last week for our u21, have to say that mentally i think he is already back there mate.

 

@djb6162 What's the deal with Robinson if you can elaborate? Unfit? Wrong attitude? Not good enough?

[djb6162]

17 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

@djb6162 What's the deal with Robinson if you can elaborate? Unfit? Wrong attitude? Not good enough?

He's definately fit, and i have no evidence to suggest he has the wrong attitude.

Calum's problem is that in the "playing in the hole role"  his favoured position,we have two players ahead of him in SC opinion LF and BR.

out wide and left, his second favoured position we have two players ahead of him DW and JB, although i have to say that watching him play, no way is Calum a LWB. Thats not what he was hoping for when he came on loan

as for playing wide right, well arguably we now have 3 players whom SC sees as ahead of him

ML EB and WB.

i genuinely think that SC thought he would be a stronger option than WB when he took him, but subsequntky he signed EB and Wes has done better both in the early season game time and in the u21s than Callum

he simply couldnt put Callum ahead of wes in the squad on performances and merit.

so Callum has been left high and dry.

if we adopted a 4-4-2 i think Callum would have seem more action,as would wes of course, but we have had one dabble with that system and we know what happened.

it was ironic for me that the day we chose to play that way we left 3 genuine wide players out of the squad completely

CR, WB and SW.

we played it with 5 central defenders on the pitch, and now i guess having failed we will abandon it and Callum

 

 

 

[Phileas Fogg]

6 minutes ago, djb6162 said:

He's definately fit, and i have no evidence to suggest he has the wrong attitude.

Calum's problem is that in the "playing in the hole role"  his favoured position,we have two players ahead of him in SC opinion LF and BR.

out wide and left, his second favoured position we have two players ahead of him DW and JB, although i have to say that watching him play, no way is Calum a LWB. Thats not what he was hoping for when he came on loan

as for playing wide right, well arguably we now have 3 players whom SC sees as ahead of him

ML EB and WB.

i genuinely think that SC thought he would be a stronger option than WB when he took him, but subsequntky he signed EB and Wes has done better both in the early season game time and in the u21s than Callum

he simply couldnt put Callum ahead of wes in the squad on performances and merit.

so Callum has been left high and dry.

if we adopted a 4-4-2 i think Callum would have seem more action,as would wes of course, but we have had one dabble with that system and we know what happened.

it was ironic for me that the day we chose to play that way we left 3 genuine wide players out of the squad completely

CR, WB and SW.

we played it with 5 central defenders on the pitch, and now i guess having failed we will abandon it and Callum

 

 

 

Thanks for that insight, interesting. Feel a bit sorry for Robinson, maybe a loan to league 1 (Walsall?) would do him some good.

[djb6162]

7 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Thanks for that insight, interesting. Feel a bit sorry for Robinson, maybe a loan to league 1 (Walsall?) would do him some good.

I think like fredericks his fortunes will change, but if i were his agent, i would do my homework on the next move and ensure that the team he goes to play the right way for him as a priority.

4.4.2 or 4.3.3 

good shout on walsall but remember who is in charge now.

SOD does for wide players what king Herod did for babysitting.!!

apologies thats my xmas joke out of the way now 

 

 

[City Rocker]

Interesting. Have heard also that Wagstaff will be away in January, presumably to L1 club (and who could blame him?).

[GrahamC]

9 minutes ago, City Rocker said:

Interesting. Have heard also that Wagstaff will be away in January, presumably to L1 club (and who could blame him?).

If so, with the strong possibility that El-Abd will remain at Swindon too and three (or 4) of our loan players moving on we'll need to bring five in at this rate.

[Phileas Fogg]

17 minutes ago, djb6162 said:

I think like fredericks his fortunes will change, but if i were his agent, i would do my homework on the next move and ensure that the team he goes to play the right way for him as a priority.

4.4.2 or 4.3.3 

good shout on walsall but remember who is in charge now.

SOD does for wide players what king Herod did for babysitting.!!

apologies thats my xmas joke out of the way now 

That is true, it was more based on location and the fact Walsall are doing well! What about Wes, reckon he will get more minutes or is a loan a possibility? Appreciate you may not be able to say much about this though.

[dereks no1]

These players would bulk the squad nicely and add some Championship experience:

• Eldin Jakupovic on loan. Not getting any game time at Hull and would add some competition for Fielding
• Extend Liam Moore's loan. He hasn't been great but has Premier League experience and is versatile.
• Bradley Dack permanently. Has scored a lot of goals for a midfielder and would give other otpions other than Pack.
• Louis Thompson on loan. Energy and pace in midfield
• Kyle Lafferty on loan with the option of signing on a permanent. An alternative to Wilbraham and has showed his class in the Euro qualification for Northern Ireland.

Also terminate Robinsons and Cox's loan. A waste of money and their time.

 

[TammyAB]

8 minutes ago, dereks no1 said:

These players would bulk the squad nicely and add some Championship experience:

• Eldin Jakupovic on loan. Not getting any game time at Hull and would add some competition for Fielding
• Extend Liam Moore's loan. He hasn't been great but has Premier League experience and is versatile.
• Bradley Dack permanently. Has scored a lot of goals for a midfielder and would give other otpions other than Pack.
• Louis Thompson on loan. Energy and pace in midfield
• Kyle Lafferty on loan with the option of signing on a permanent. An alternative to Wilbraham and has showed his class in the Euro qualification for Northern Ireland.

Also terminate Robinsons and Cox's loan. A waste of money and their time.

 

I might be wrong but I think we can only make 8 loan signings per season so therefore we only have 2 of them left to make?

[Guest ashtonphil]

18 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Robinson is on a season's loan, unless he wants to go back why would you think he'd leave?

No chance of a game at Villa..

No chance of a game here either if we're being honest !!

[GrahamC]

1 hour ago, Kodjia said:

I might be wrong but I think we can only make 8 loan signings per season so therefore we only have 2 of them left to make?

Pretty sure (someone will know) it is now a higher figure than 8.

Read something on here that we have already had our maximum aged over 24 players on loan, can anyone confirm if that is the case?

[Lanterne Rouge]

26 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Pretty sure (someone will know) it is now a higher figure than 8.

Read something on here that we have already had our maximum aged over 24 players on loan, can anyone confirm if that is the case?

There`s a lot of stuff on another thread about what we`ve had/can have, most of it conflicting as far as I can see (the rules, not the posters!)

[YorkshireSection]

5 hours ago, djb6162 said:

He's definately fit, and i have no evidence to suggest he has the wrong attitude.

Calum's problem is that in the "playing in the hole role"  his favoured position,we have two players ahead of him in SC opinion LF and BR.

out wide and left, his second favoured position we have two players ahead of him DW and JB, although i have to say that watching him play, no way is Calum a LWB. Thats not what he was hoping for when he came on loan

as for playing wide right, well arguably we now have 3 players whom SC sees as ahead of him

ML EB and WB.

i genuinely think that SC thought he would be a stronger option than WB when he took him, but subsequntky he signed EB and Wes has done better both in the early season game time and in the u21s than Callum

he simply couldnt put Callum ahead of wes in the squad on performances and merit.

so Callum has been left high and dry.

if we adopted a 4-4-2 i think Callum would have seem more action,as would wes of course, but we have had one dabble with that system and we know what happened.

it was ironic for me that the day we chose to play that way we left 3 genuine wide players out of the squad completely

CR, WB and SW.

we played it with 5 central defenders on the pitch, and now i guess having failed we will abandon it and Callum

 

 

 

He plays his best football wide left of a front 3 but can cross with either foot.

Complete lack of dudilligence especially when you consider the formation we play, pre season bollox.

[djb6162]

4 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

That is true, it was more based on location and the fact Walsall are doing well! What about Wes, reckon he will get more minutes or is a loan a possibility? Appreciate you may not be able to say much about this though.

As you have indicated its not fair on wes or the club for me to speculate in detail over his future.

He is a strong positive lad who has a good degree of patience albeit it's been tested to its limits lately 

I can tell you that he desperately wants to stay in Bristol

Wes has multiple and significant options to play football elsewhere but to be fair to SC he has been very firm in resisting those approaches to date.

However it's obvious to everyone that wes has to play more either at BC or if not then elsewhere, even the gaffa has said that some weeks ago.

I guess the type of business SC does over the next few weeks will determine where wes' future may be . 

he desperately wants to go to the Euros and the Welsh management have indicated that if he is playing reasonably regularly, that this is a real possibility.

 

 

 

[Lrrr]

10

[Shtanley]

2 hours ago, djb6162 said:

As you have indicated its not fair on wes or the club for me to speculate in detail over his future.

He is a strong positive lad who has a good degree of patience albeit it's been tested to its limits lately 

I can tell you that he desperately wants to stay in Bristol

Wes has multiple and significant options to play football elsewhere but to be fair to SC he has been very firm in resisting those approaches to date.

However it's obvious to everyone that wes has to play more either at BC or if not then elsewhere, even the gaffa has said that some weeks ago.

I guess the type of business SC does over the next few weeks will determine where wes' future may be . 

he desperately wants to go to the Euros and the Welsh management have indicated that if he is playing reasonably regularly, that this is a real possibility.

 

 

 

I hope your son gets a chance to play for us soon. He's clearly got potential, fingers crossed Mr.Burns

[Phileas Fogg]

3 hours ago, djb6162 said:

As you have indicated its not fair on wes or the club for me to speculate in detail over his future.

He is a strong positive lad who has a good degree of patience albeit it's been tested to its limits lately 

I can tell you that he desperately wants to stay in Bristol

Wes has multiple and significant options to play football elsewhere but to be fair to SC he has been very firm in resisting those approaches to date.

However it's obvious to everyone that wes has to play more either at BC or if not then elsewhere, even the gaffa has said that some weeks ago.

I guess the type of business SC does over the next few weeks will determine where wes' future may be . 

he desperately wants to go to the Euros and the Welsh management have indicated that if he is playing reasonably regularly, that this is a real possibility.

 

 

 

Thanks again for that insight, was more than I was expecting! Would be great to see Wes at the euros and for an academy product to be playing in the first team. Hope he gets a run until the end of the season but if not, he gets a good loan and games so he can get in that Wales squad.

[Dr Balls]

I feel sorry for a number of players in our squad who seem to have been sacrificed by Cotterill on the altar of "keep a settled side & formation & the results will come". The results haven't come & it hasn't worked. I include Wes & Callum Robinson in that.

The squad may be small but Cotterill changed personnel around more in a winning team last season than he has in a losing team this season which goes against all sporting logic. In the meantime some players have shown that they cannot perform at this level week in & week out, whilst others have languished on the bench never likely to get on before the 90th minute & watching their careers go into reverse. I find it hard to believe that all of the players in the squad are happy with their situation. They must be able to see what we can see while Cotterill does the footballing equivalent of King Canute!!

[KeepUpLino]

On 29 December 2015 at 22:45, bs3 said:

At least three quality championship players which we should have brought in the summer. 

From mid April it was certain that we was going to a championship club and our failure to recruit in the close season is up with any mismanagerment we have seen in this club history.

The summer was nothing short of a disgrace!!

[Davefevs]

58 minutes ago, 'keepuplino' said:

The summer was nothing short of a disgrace!!

It wasn't great but it wasn't a disgrace.

Forget player performances, and look at the signings we made, whether permie or loan.  I don't think we were ever going to go mad with lots of permie signings, as Cotts thought the promotion squad had enough about them with a couple of additions.

Kodjia

Fredericks

then loans:

Robinson

Hamer

Moore

Baker

the last two coming in a couple of weeks into the season.

On paper, most of us thought that was decent, with the exception of a central midfielder (or 2).

i don't call that a disgrace.

So things haven't worked out for all of them.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  We corrected the Fredericks issue by bringing in Bennett.

God knows what has happened to Cox, but again most of us thought it was a good loan on paper.

The only area the club didn't get right was midfield.

Now, it will be disgrace if we don't address the midfield in this winter.  That is there for all to see.

 

[KeepUpLino]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

It wasn't great but it wasn't a disgrace.

Forget player performances, and look at the signings we made, whether permie or loan.  I don't think we were ever going to go mad with lots of permie signings, as Cotts thought the promotion squad had enough about them with a couple of additions.

Kodjia

Fredericks

then loans:

Robinson

Hamer

Moore

Baker

the last two coming in a couple of weeks into the season.

On paper, most of us thought that was decent, with the exception of a central midfielder (or 2).

i don't call that a disgrace.

So things haven't worked out for all of them.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  We corrected the Fredericks issue by bringing in Bennett.

God knows what has happened to Cox, but again most of us thought it was a good loan on paper.

The only area the club didn't get right was midfield.

Now, it will be disgrace if we don't address the midfield in this winter.  That is there for all to see.

 

I think the disgraceful part I'm implying was due to how late we did our business, we had only signed Kodja by our first game and then went 5-6 games with a squad that was already smaller than last season.. Business clearly should have been done so much earlier to give our squad time to bed in, instead we made panick loan signings 5-6 games in... To me that was poor given the momentum we had built up..