Any EFL club bringing five new players during the January transfer window is very unusual.
Usually you might see something like this if you are threatened with relegation but not when you've built a virtually new squad less than six montghs ago and, more importantly, you still occupy poll position in the League One table. I appreciate that there are factors to be taken into account. Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that the reshaped squad wasn't all it was cracked to be or, as is more likely once again, we've been decimated by long-term injuries to key players. Of course, you can add to that the fact that our form over the last six weeks has been a bit 'up and down' to put it mildly.
The squad, prior to Macey returning, (with or without Morrell) was starting to struggle and a lot of fans as well as our friends the bookies were beginning to have doubts about automatic promotion. Based on past experience you wouldn't expect Michael Eisner to bank roll an attempt to address the problems and engineer a turnaround that would avoid the dreaded play-offs or the nightmare of missing out altogether. Three of the arrivals have involved a fee, significant fees for a League One club I expect, and then there is wages to take into account particularly as the only departure is the much maligned Hume.
Will it work? Well my guess is as goods anyones although a lot of fans wanted someone to replace Poole and another striker. Certainly I think Mouinho is going to have to a look at his tactical ideas and perhaps, at times, take a more direct approach, a bit less 'tippy tappy' and to understand the the first thirty minutes is actually part of the match! In short, Macey hasn't played for months, Raggett is not Poole even though he's done a good job, McIntyre isn't ready, Whyte should have been sent out on loan if only to make sure that Mousinho doesn'r put him in the side as he does from time to time and Yengi could be back middle of next week providing South Korea beat the Aussies this weekend.
The next sixteen games are going to be bloody tense!!
(01-02-2024, 03:52 PM)blueandwight Wrote: [ -> ]Any EFL club bringing five new players during the January transfer window is very unusual.
Usually you might see something like this if you are threatened with relegation but not when you've built a virtually new squad less than six montghs ago and, more importantly, you still occupy poll position in the League One table. I appreciate that there are factors to be taken into account. Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that the reshaped squad wasn't all it was cracked to be or, as is more likely once again, we've been decimated by long-term injuries to key players. Of course, you can add to that the fact that our form over the last six weeks has been a bit 'up and down' to put it mildly.
The squad, prior to Macey returning, (with or without Morrell) was starting to struggle and a lot of fans as well as our friends the bookies were beginning to have doubts about automatic promotion. Based on past experience you wouldn't expect Michael Eisner to bank roll an attempt to address the problems and engineer a turnaround that would avoid the dreaded play-offs or the nightmare of missing out altogether. Three of the arrivals have involved a fee, significant fees for a League One club I expect, and then there is wages to take into account particularly as the only departure is the much maligned Hume.
Will it work? Well my guess is as goods anyones although a lot of fans wanted someone to replace Poole and another striker. Certainly I think Mouinho is going to have to a look at his tactical ideas and perhaps, at times, take a more direct approach, a bit less 'tippy tappy' and to understand the the first thirty minutes is actually part of the match! In short, Macey hasn't played for months, Raggett is not Poole even though he's done a good job, McIntyre isn't ready, Whyte should have been sent out on loan if only to make sure that Mousinho doesn'r put him in the side as he does from time to time and Yengi could be back middle of next week providing South Korea beat the Aussies this weekend.
The next sixteen games are going to be bloody tense!!
Difficult for the doubters to say the Eisners haven’t made an effort to go up.
I think the immediate difficulty is knowing how many of the new boys to put in at once. They haven’t played together, or with the current team, and it could all go very wrong.
I’d be quite happy to see the team that left the field, against Oxford, start.
Small changes.
Agreed Cunni, the Eisner’s have made an attempt to strengthen and our huge festive season dip suggests rightly so. We lost the bloke who for most of the season was looking like winning player of the season in the shape of Robertson and Kamara’s form has tapered off so yeah we needed reinforcements. Losing Poole was a big blow and with only Towler to fill the void should Raggett or Shaughnessy get injured with the only option other than those two at centre back being using Ogilvie out of position the right call was made in signing McIntyre. Why this is even being discussed is beyond me, it’s been obvious we needed reinforcements since our Christmas/New Year wobble. Basically this is just Michael Eisner and Richard Hughes doing the sensible thing to ensure we get promoted to the Championship
The reason we’ve had to sign so many players in this TW is we’ve had injuries ruling out 2 key players and 2 of our so called marque signings have failed. All that plus a back up goalkeeper who appears not to be very good. So 5 players who are no longer needed or injured and replaced/ up graded with 5 new ones. Makes sense to me.
(01-02-2024, 04:45 PM)West Australian Portsmouth Fan Wrote: [ -> ]Agreed Cunni, the Eisner’s have made an attempt to strengthen and our huge festive season dip suggests rightly so. We lost the bloke who for most of the season was looking like winning player of the season in the shape of Robertson and Kamara’s form has tapered off so yeah we needed reinforcements. Losing Poole was a big blow and with only Towler to fill the void should Raggett or Shaughnessy get injured with the only option other than those two at centre back being using Ogilvie out of position the right call was made in signing McIntyre. Why this is even being discussed is beyond me, it’s been obvious we needed reinforcements since our Christmas/New Year wobble. Basically this is just Michael Eisner and Richard Hughes doing the sensible thing to ensure we get promoted to the Championship
Well you could argue that apart from lang, one was a free and the other two were from teams that have been poor in this league. Hope the strategy works.
It's certainly different from the old old days when it was 13 players anfld and kids in the reserves.
Plenty of scope for team changes on Saturday, including giving a few players a break. Could be difficult to guess Saturday's team. Let's hope the changes include an attacking game plan.
I reckon they’ll be on the bench. The only change IMO will be Rafferty back at RB.
(01-02-2024, 04:56 PM)Lawrence Wrote: [ -> ] (01-02-2024, 04:45 PM)West Australian Portsmouth Fan Wrote: [ -> ]Agreed Cunni, the Eisner’s have made an attempt to strengthen and our huge festive season dip suggests rightly so. We lost the bloke who for most of the season was looking like winning player of the season in the shape of Robertson and Kamara’s form has tapered off so yeah we needed reinforcements. Losing Poole was a big blow and with only Towler to fill the void should Raggett or Shaughnessy get injured with the only option other than those two at centre back being using Ogilvie out of position the right call was made in signing McIntyre. Why this is even being discussed is beyond me, it’s been obvious we needed reinforcements since our Christmas/New Year wobble. Basically this is just Michael Eisner and Richard Hughes doing the sensible thing to ensure we get promoted to the Championship
Well you could argue that apart from lang, one was a free and the other two were from teams that have been poor in this league. Hope the strategy works.
It's certainly different from the old old days when it was 13 players anfld and kids in the reserves.
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I'd go with the team & formation, 3-5-2 that finished on Tuesday night.
(01-02-2024, 05:00 PM)TBP Wrote: [ -> ]Plenty of scope for team changes on Saturday, including giving a few players a break. Could be difficult to guess Saturday's team. Let's hope the changes include an attacking game plan.
Moxon & Lang will both start imo.
We all thought we had a pretty good squad at the start of the season. I think we have been pretty unlucky not only with the number of injuries but also the season ending injuries to important players, especially Poole and Swansom who was looking increasingly good. Robertson and the Chelsea one, obviously especially Robertson.
I like the bringing in of players ready to go apart from a bit of ring rust perhaps, but that means that once playing they will be pretty fresh for the season. Also the bravery in admitting that some signings have not worked so we needed another winger/10 and another 'keeper.
Letting the Spurs keeper go and unloading Hume has helped too.
Very impressed.
Now Mousinho really has to keep the team picking up points but also add a bit ore urgency please. Which might be down to some tired minds and legs which we can now clearly give a rest.