Joao Replacement

[Binfield Royal]

Would rather Jerome Sinclair, or bring Hal back for a last hurrah for 6 months

No thanks to the second one. Hal only really gave 100% in a Wales shirt when he was our player last time.

[Crowbar6753]

Swift was dire when out wide in the past

Cabral
Yiadom Morrison McIntyre AN other
Rinhomota
Hoilett Laurent
Swift
Puscas Azeez

Something like that?

Look, you don't need my approval or permission to pick a team. I'm just giving my view.

I'd just say if your complaint is play Puscas in a way he is playing to his strengths and can be effective, I'd say the same should be true for everyone else.


I'd say a 4-4-2 diamond would work, playing to Swift, Laurent and Rino's strengths, but it doesn't give us much width to cross with and we've no anchor. Maybe Tetek. Maybe Rino as anchor, but I don't think that's his forte.

I'd say traditional 4-4-2 with wingers, but we've got maybe two and one of them would be Puscas's partner upfront.

I'd say 5-3-2 with wingback to provide the width, but we don't have an attacking left back at the club who is up to it.

I just don’t think we have the players to play two up front at the moment.

Sorry Snowflake Royal i live in Canada and the time difference is tough. Hey i hear ya, its so tough to put a team together at present and i don't think anyone is either right or wrong.
Personally i'm struggling to see where the goals will come from, so by supposedly playing to Puscas's strenghts i'm hoping he'll come good. That being said, playing 4-4-2 to accomodate one player messes up other areas within the team as you so rightly stated.

Hopefully we can bring in a few more players and at least give the Manager a fighting chance to pick a team which can be competitive.

[Lower West]

4-4-1-1 works with Swift given a floating no 10 role.

With two wide players , plus Swift , Puscas would at least receive a service in front ofrather than behind him.

Azeez then is back up. Asking a lot for him to be up to 40 full games in the season.

[Snowflake Royal]

4-4-1-1 works with Swift given a floating no 10 role.

With two wide players , plus Swift , Puscas would at least receive a service in front ofrather than behind him.

Azeez then is back up. Asking a lot for him to be up to 40 full games in the season.

Er... what wide players... Hoillet and ?

[Royal_jimmy]

We'd need another winger to make it work. Don't think anyone could play on the right (perhaps Meite when he's fit) but he's not a proper winger

[URZZZZ]

Imperative we sign someone in the mould of Joao before the window closes. You either adapt your game to suit the current personnel or you make sure you have sufficient backups to supplement your plan A

Puscas, like a couple of others takes unnecessary flak. Like every other player, he has his strengths and weaknesses. His strengths lie with standing on the last man, getting in behind - unfortunately counter intuitive to how the rest of the team want to play. Swift, Azeez, Ejaria and co work better off a target man, someone who can hold the ball up and link play (for reference, see Swift’s goal against Preston). Puscas doesn’t take up the right positions within the context of how we want to play - becomes ineffective and means the attacking trio have no one to play off (hence the two limp displays in the last two)

7 goals in 4 games is a decent offensive record and it’s fairly obvious the defence is the major issue at the moment but I still don’t feel our attack has sparkled yet. Whilst LB is undoubtedly our priority, we really need someone to fill the “Joao” role - Puscas won’t cut it for 4 months. Which is a shame because I really think he could be a prolific Championship scorer elsewhere with a little improvement on decision making. How much of a coincidence is it that Baldock scored within 70 minutes of his debut after not scoring for a whole season for us last time?

[Lower West]

4-4-1-1 works with Swift given a floating no 10 role.

With two wide players , plus Swift , Puscas would at least receive a service in front ofrather than behind him.

Azeez then is back up. Asking a lot for him to be up to 40 full games in the season.

Er... what wide players... Hoillet and ?

Who ever we can get on one season terms. Manager needs to decide how to get the best out of what we've already got. Not do a Stam and a fixation with a style and formation which simply doesn't work.

[Snowflake Royal]

4-4-1-1 works with Swift given a floating no 10 role.

With two wide players , plus Swift , Puscas would at least receive a service in front ofrather than behind him.

Azeez then is back up. Asking a lot for him to be up to 40 full games in the season.

Er... what wide players... Hoillet and ?

Who ever we can get on one season terms. Manager needs to decide how to get the best out of what we've already got. Not do a Stam and a fixation with a style and formation which simply doesn't work.

So we should play a style we don't yet have the players for?

[Notts Royal]

We’re either going to have to sign a couple of wingers and go 4-4-2 to suit Puscas…plus Azeez seems more of a striker than wide player.
Might not suit our central midfield though & that’s our strongest position.

Or get a striker who can play up top on his own.

What’s the cheapest option right now?

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Hang on, what are Puscas strengths, off the shoulder runs or getting into the box and creating space for himself.
So why do we need wingers for that? Why cant Ejaria or Swift attempt play nice through balls for Puscas to run onto? Or why cant Yids actually pass it once he has beaten the LB? They are all very capable.
Or we try and get a CF who can play like Joao on a free for less than 8.5k wages? so we can continue to throw long hopeless balls in to them and by pass the midfield.
I know which of those scenarios i would prefer to see or even attempt.

[retro royal]

Just seen Conor Wickham is out of contract and training with Preston, probably last thing we want is another injury prone striker, but if he did keep fit, exactly what we need to hold the ball up

[Hound]

lets be honest, there aren't many Champ quality, under 8.5p/w, 1 year contract only, Joao replacements knocking about is there?

whatever we get in will be a big compromise on the skills required, or just some massive gamble we can't really afford. So yes, just adapt the system to play with Puscas or a Puscas/Azeez forward line

[Snowflake Royal]

We’re either going to have to sign a couple of wingers and go 4-4-2 to suit Puscas…plus Azeez seems more of a striker than wide player.
Might not suit our central midfield though & that’s our strongest position.

Or get a striker who can play up top on his own.

What’s the cheapest option right now?

Do nothing.

[Snowflake Royal]

lets be honest, there aren't many Champ quality, under 8.5p/w, 1 year contract only, Joao replacements knocking about is there?

whatever we get in will be a big compromise on the skills required, or just some massive gamble we can't really afford. So yes, just adapt the system to play with Puscas or a Puscas/Azeez forward line

Aye

Jahmari Clarke seems worth some time. Big guy, so potential on the hold up / target stuff. Decent touch. Obvs based on a couple of touches and minutes.... but.

A LB is essential, then another winger and we've got options. Even with no new winger a decent LB might give us the chance to get away with TBD / Laurent / Bristow / Ejaria / Hoilett wide left. And Azeez does a pretty good job of supporting the striker from wide right because he's nice and mobile.

[morganb]

Ehibhatiomhan seems to be scoring well for the U23s, how close do we think he is to warming the bench for the first team?

[Hound]

Think Clarke has jumped ahead of him in the queue but one to keep an eye on

[Esteban]

lets be honest, there aren't many Champ quality, under 8.5p/w, 1 year contract only, Joao replacements knocking about is there?

whatever we get in will be a big compromise on the skills required, or just some massive gamble we can't really afford. So yes, just adapt the system to play with Puscas or a Puscas/Azeez forward line

Agreed. Would rather see our academy players given a go than bring in a less-than-adequate player that may not be here next season. Same goes for the left back spot.

[CountryRoyal]

lets be honest, there aren't many Champ quality, under 8.5p/w, 1 year contract only, Joao replacements knocking about is there?

whatever we get in will be a big compromise on the skills required, or just some massive gamble we can't really afford. So yes, just adapt the system to play with Puscas or a Puscas/Azeez forward line

Agreed. Would rather see our academy players given a go than bring in a less-than-adequate player that may not be here next season. Same goes for the left back spot.

Not writing him off but Clarke categorically does not look remotely ready for this level of football.

[Brogue]

Depends what we want from the season. If we want to go down then yeah sure let’s persist with the pre pubescents

[Notts Royal]

Yup I disagree that we should rely on the academy lads, as promising as they look. We have to get someone in