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Reply | Southgate’s replacement.
at 17:45 21 May 2024
Surely it’s Eze, Maddison, Grealish, Bowen, and Gordon vying for 3 spots? It sounds like you think Gordon and Grealish are in for sure, and it’s Bowen out, and Eze and Maddison vying for the La at spot?
I think Grealish will miss out due to form and fitness. I suspect he’ll then see Bowen and Gordon as very similar players where he’ll only want one of that type.
It’s possible he might only cut one of that group above, IF Toney is cut. Bowen could theoretically act as the 3rd choice centre forward if needed.
Finally, another way of looking at that group of 5 is which spot in the team is up for grabs? Is it the wide forward on the left or no. 10 at the peak of the midfield 3? A lot depends on Foden. If he plans to use Foden centrally, you’re selecting from that 5 based on who is the best left sided wide forward. If Foden plays left, you want someone who can back up there if needed and possibly start at 10.
Maddison suits the latter but not former. Gordon suits the former but absolutely not the latter. Bowen arguably doesn’t suit either perfectly. Grealish does suit both, as does Eze. But Eze is in form and with a lot more recent game time under his belt.
I think it should be 1 of Maddison/Grealish who is cut and 1 of Bowen/Gordon who is cut, for the most balanced squad. Keep both Bowen and Gordon is Toney is cut.
I’d play Foden at 10 and start Eze on the left though. They could interchange throughout a game very well. |
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Reply | Southgate’s replacement.
at 14:29 21 May 2024
I think Eze should get in because he doesn’t need to keep 10 defenders in the squad! Not if you play a back 4, and Trent is counting as a midfielder.
Otherwise, great minds… |
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Reply | Southgate’s replacement.
at 14:27 21 May 2024
Which 7 lose out from there?
1 keeper? Henderson or Trafford
2 defenders, given Trent and Trippier’s flexibility? Not sure who
Jones and Wharton? Can’t see much game time ahead of Rice, Mainoo, Trent, Gallagher, and Bellingham (who should be in the Midfielder section given he’ll surely play 8?!)
That means 2, at least, miss out from the forwards… it’ll be 2 from Grealish, Maddison, Gordon, Bowen, and Eze, you’d suspect. He’ll take 3 centre forwards in case of an injury, and I think Saka, Foden, Kane, and Palmer are all pretty locked in.
I’d not take Grealish and Gordon, personally. |
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Reply | Eze Rumours
at 12:20 21 May 2024
My front 6 for Eng would be:
Rice at 6
Bellingham at 8
Foden down the middle at 10
Saka on the right
Eze on the left
Kane at 9.
That is the best front 6 England can field currently based on form and availability. |
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Reply | Eze Rumours
at 12:02 21 May 2024
Massive calls from Southgate if he doesn’t select Maddison, Grealish and Rashford. I expected one to not make it - likely Grealish or Rashford - but all 3. Would indicate Eze will make the 26.
Not sure about Curtis Jones. Think he is overrated. I’m not entirely convinced he’d stand out in the Championship and thought Liverpool always looked worse when he played. Wharton and Mainoo would be ahead of him for me, not to mention all the more attacking players too. I also don’t see where he plays in Southgate’s likely preferred 433. |
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Reply | Eze Rumours
at 21:09 20 May 2024
If he doesn’t, Southgate is a fool. Use the friendlies to learn something about the players on the edge of the squad. |
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Reply | Departures in the development squad
at 19:01 16 May 2024
1) bad grammar, 2) grabbing the next a step is still a completely botched metaphor.
You take a next step. You can’t grab a next step. It’s a classic mixed metaphor. It’s nonsense and forgivable in spoken language but not a written press release! Just say “he has an opportunity to succeed”, or better still be specific, “he has an opportunity to break into the first team in X years”, giving us a sense of the timeframe the club have set on him reaching the standard required at QPR. |
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Reply | Departures in the development squad
at 18:22 16 May 2024
How do you grab the floor? That is a woeful metaphor for a written piece of comms. It’s like something an old relative might say. |
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Reply | Departures in the development squad
at 19:23 15 May 2024
Strong barnet game. Need to either be good or hard to get away with that in youth football, I reckon. Promising. |
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Reply | QPR New Deals
at 13:38 9 May 2024
Perhaps. I’m only going on rumours about Cannon, and my own view that I think Marti and the club want to shift him. If they do sell both, we’ll need that quantity of players in. If we don’t, granted, we’ll bring in two fewer players. |
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Reply | QPR New Deals
at 13:35 9 May 2024
This is interesting, and my main conclusion is Chair should be scoring, especially when you look at comparable players in the league.
However, you’re missing the main point on Dykes. Why does he have so few shots?!
It’s because he doesn’t anticipate very well and get into positions from which he can shoot! It is not that he just turns down shots repeatedly. He doesn’t get himself into a position with the ball at his foot/head to have an effort. That’s because he doesn’t anticipate and read the game well.
That is exactly why we need to replace.
It’s like the old saying, a forward getting into good positions and missing is fine. They’ll get some luck and come good. You should be worried when they aren’t getting into the positions to score. That is Lyndon Dykes.
If anyone offers £1m or more, I’d accept and reinvest. |
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Reply | QPR New Deals
at 10:42 9 May 2024
I think that’s a good point, Rob. Cifuentes does appear to be extremely pragmatic and someone who really values winning. He’s not a Russell Martin, Thomas Frank “we were the real winners” type. He is very competitive, and I suspect a bit of a perfectionist. He wants to win. If that means picking horses for a particular course, running a system that gets results over his personal vision or preference for how to play football, I think he will do that. I agree with you, I think he’ll adapt approach to whoever we are able to bring in and what our squad looks like come Aug.
No doubt he will want a forward or two who can get 10-15 goals. He needs someone he can trust up there.
In midfield, it’s clear he rates Sam Field. He was he first player the club renewed under him. He started the entire run in after being rested for a couple of games, and Field was the midfielder getting goals (4 in the last 11, I believe). Colback has one season left (doubt we’ll take the 3rd year) so EDB has a natural pathway into the team the season after next if he sticks with it. Hayden coming back would reduce his game time next season, but with injuries and the number of games, you need at least 4 CMs, just like you need 4 forwards.
I think the bigger issue for Cifuentes will be wide forwards. We likely lose Willock, who knows about Chair, Albert’s retired…that leaves Smyth. He needs reinforcements here. It’s clear he likes Anderson at 10 pulling the strings. In a 433 or 4231 system, that gives him 5 players (Field, Colback, Hayden, EDB, Anderson) to play centrally, although no way can Anderson play in a “2”. Alex Aoraha will also be back from injury next year, and is highly thought of. He could make it and become the 6th man available to play in the middle of the park. We don’t always need to sign players. Josh Laurent a good example of us not giving opportunities to someone who now plays centre mid and captains a side in the same league. Centre midfield looks very strong to me if we somehow signed Hayden or someone else.
Back to the wide forwards, this is our biggest area of need whether he plays 433 or 4231. He could be very light. When you combine it with the issue at centre forward, it’s that area of the pitch I think the whole pre-season and signings will be focused on. You can’t finish top half if you don’t score and it’s very hard to finish top half with a negative GD. Cardiff are the exception here!
The other area of the pitch we might need reinforcement is defence, especially if we sell JCS. If you look at the squad at the defence currently you can see Paal and Larkeche at Left back. Fox can play LB or CB. On the right he has Cannon and Dunne, and arguably Drewe. Dunne can play RB or CB. In the middle he has Cook and JCS. There’s not really anything else coming through. If you sell JCS you need a starting centre back (with Fox and Dunne as cover) and you probably need a right back too because Drewe is simply not up to this level, so you have 8 players available across the 4 spots. Dunne and Fox give us flexibility, so you have 4 players who can play at centre half and have lots of experience at doing so, but you’d also have 3 players capable at playing each fullback spot. That should give us the squad needed for the season. If you sell Cannon you might need two right backs signed.
I would suspect from the main squad:
Out:
Dykes
JCS
Willock
Cannon
Begovic
Adomah
In:
2 x centre forwards (1 a starter, 1 a back up although possible this could be Kolli)
1 x Centre half (starter)
1-2 x right backs (1 starter, 1 a young player looking towards the following year or two)
Hayden/A N Other central midfielder
1-2 x wide forwards (1 a big signing/starter)
1 x goalkeeper (starter)
No idea who those players could/would be. Sorba Thomas would seem an obvious one to go in for but expect him to have many suitors. [Post edited 9 May 11:12]
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Reply | Kakay Departs
at 18:02 7 May 2024
Not talk about “game model”. He doesn’t need to say that to explain why he hasn’t had game time and is being released; it’s blatantly obvious. Like every player who is released either the manager doesn’t fancy him or he’s too expensive to retain. In this case, we all know it’s not the latter. No need to talk about game models. It is just consultant speak that doesn’t mean anything. |
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Reply | Liam Rosenior
at 14:26 7 May 2024
Middlesbrough, Stoke, and obviously West Brom must be entering that scenario now. Cardiff should also be fcuked financially now, shouldn’t they. No idea where they keep finding spending money from. |
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Reply | Kakay Departs
at 11:51 7 May 2024
I’ve always been a fan of the principle that the smartest people are the ones able to understand the complex very well but make it sound simple when talking about it.” Nourry would also do well to recognise this.
Making things sound unnecessary complex is not a skill. It’s a BS trick consultants use to justify their fees. He’s not a consultant any more. He’s our CEO/DOF. |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 11:02 7 May 2024
It is a shame but we must retain some discipline. If we don’t sell him this summer we will end up having to sell for a knock down price in 12 months as he’ll only have one year left, or we watch him leave on a free in 2 seasons (unless we go up and offer a bigger deal). We can’t gamble the club’s future on going up. We did that under Warburton and it led to two seasons of huge financial pressure and sh*t on the pitch. This is exactly what clive is talking about in his recent match preview when he said this cannot happen again.
If you bring in £5-7m for a player, not only do you help FFP, but you give yourself a strong hand when looking to sign good out of contract players, like JCS was 2 years ago. Most of our budget that summer went on him. Imagine being able to bring in 3-4 players of that quality. One of like for like salary, and at least 2 with the transfer income.
This is how you build a better squad under FFP.
You don’t do it by holding on to your most sellable assets and just “hoping” you go up before they walk out the door on a free.
He’s also still not done 30 starts in a season, so JCS specifically could still get injured and then his value plummets AND he isn’t playing.
Very good player. Well done to him this season. Thank you very much. Perfect time to sell. |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 10:54 7 May 2024
Correct. We have ample evidence of this in recent years.
Sell, reinvest, team doesn’t get weakened (if anything overall squad depth improves), and you continue to improve your overall contractual picture with more players under contract with many years left (e.g. JCS has 2 years left, but whoever we buy/sign, if good, will likely have 3-4, which gives you more time to sell in future).
Edit: all that said, how can Stoke possibly afford £7m for a defender?! No parachute payments, and finished one place above us on GD. He’d be mad to go there too. A relegated side from the Prem, or perhaps a Palace or Bournemouth would be the right fit. Leicester maybe. [Post edited 7 May 10:56]
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