Transfer Speculation Thread 2014/15

[Jolemai]

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport...014/11/27/wolves-eyeing-up-another-loan-move/

Jackett is looking to vary his forward line in personnel and formation.

“I think you need an option,” he said. “I’m not suddenly going to go in a different direction but I do think that to win games consistently in the Championship you need to be variable in your approach.”

Ideally, Jackett wants a strike partner for Danny Graham.

“I think he can score but maybe at times - and right the way through - he might need a partner,” he added.

So yeah, we're going 442 Jackett-era Millwall style.

 

[Del Woppio]

How progressive.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I do love how pretty much everyone now has this pre-conceived opinion that 442 has to mean shit football.

 

[croxdenabbey]

We could play 5-3-2 or 2-3-5, but as long as we win every game, I couldn't care less. Seems that we have to do something different as we ain't ripping the Second Division apart, currently.

 

[Jolemai]

I'm this case, I think it's more to do with how Millwall played a few years back.

 

[YoungWolf]

If Graham can drop in and hold the ball up and bring those around him in to the game then it could work well. We've been playing 442 basically for a while now so you may as well do it with two real forwards rather than Clarke and Edwards (shudder). We like to deliver lots of crosses into the box through Sako and Henry/van la Parra so it probably plays to our strengths more too. Dicko stretches the space between defenders well we just need someone to take advantage of that and Graham could be that person. We just need the centre midfielders to get a grip and get hold of games like we know they can.

 

[Lord Knows]

I do love how pretty much everyone now has this pre-conceived opinion that 442 has to mean shit football.

With Edwards in the team we tend to be more 4-2-4 so maybe thats a step in another direction. With ball players last season Wolves played through the midfield, the mystery is why was that style abandoned.

 

[YoungWolf]

I think it's harsh to say the style was abandoned. I don't think it has been at all. At the start of this season we played some excellent football, remarkably so out from the back which showed how confident the players were. A mixture of players losing form and teams pressing us a bit higher up the pitch has posed us some problems which we are yet to truly address and so we have been caught between being patient and being a little bit more direct and it doesn't look pretty.

 

[Lord Knows]

I think it's harsh to say the style was abandoned. I don't think it has been at all. At the start of this season we played some excellent football, remarkably so out from the back which showed how confident the players were. A mixture of players losing form and teams pressing us a bit higher up the pitch has posed us some problems which we are yet to truly address and so we have been caught between being patient and being a little bit more direct and it doesn't look pretty.

Really, Kenny Jacket abandoned two of the three players that made playing through the midfield possible in Price and Jacobs and replaced them with inferior players which has made Kevin McDonalds job nigh on impossible.

 

[Langers]

Wolves play badly

"We need a plan B!"

Various quotes lead to conclusion that we might attempt some form of 4-4-2 whilst the players are clearly struggling to play the current system

"Nooo - not that one! We need another plan B!"

I wonder what the Twittersphere will be like if we don't sign anyone today? Or even if we do and it's no-one anyone has ever heard of? Or if we don't and we also fail to sign someone no-one had ever heard of before they moaned that we were due to sign someone they'd never heard of?

 

[Lycan]

How is Lee Evans an inferior player?

 

[Lord Knows]

How is Lee Evans an inferior player?

In confined space Price and McDonald can pass quickly, use each other, when confronted with problems. Evans is different and not as well suited to that type of game.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

But a far superior player to Price.

 

[Lord Knows]

But a far superior player to Price.

In which skills when you have little space and limited time on the ball when your trying to play a possession based passing game?

 

[YoungWolf]

Really, Kenny Jacket abandoned two of the three players that made playing through the midfield possible in Price and Jacobs and replaced them with inferior players which has made Kevin McDonalds job nigh on impossible.

There are may better qualified to say as I have seen probably around half the games through tv, stream or going but we played some tremendous football in the early stages of this season.

I really like Price and think he deserved a chance this season BUT to say Evans is an inferior player is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Evans has more to his game both defensive and offensively, and has been probably our best player this season. At just 20. Price is able to move the ball quickly in tight spaces and is an intelligent user of the ball but he doesn't break forward with the ball nor does he win the bal back as much as Evans does. Like I said I'd like to see him get a chance but Evans has deserved his place in the team.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Really, Kenny Jacket abandoned two of the three players that made playing through the midfield possible in Price and Jacobs and replaced them with inferior players which has made Kevin McDonalds job nigh on impossible.

I'd assume it's down to the suitability of the players for his league as anything else.

I think last season there was a hell of a lot more time and space afforded to players on the ball than there is this time around, Price and more so Jacobs were available to get on the ball and do what they did because there was so much space available rather than them being so adept at finding or creating the space themselves. Someone posted a video a while back of the highlights from Brentford away last season and it was staggering how much space there was available, even against one of the better teams from the league, if that space isn't there for Jacobs to take advantage of then what else does he offer? He doesn't attack the box in the same way that Edwards does nor does he offer the same graft without the ball, he was perhaps a bit of a luxury that could be more easily afforded in League 1.

 

[Lord Knows]

There are may better qualified to say as I have seen probably around half the games through tv, stream or going but we played some tremendous football in the early stages of this season.

I really like Price and think he deserved a chance this season BUT to say Evans is an inferior player is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Evans has more to his game both defensive and offensively, and has been probably our best player this season. At just 20. Price is able to move the ball quickly in tight spaces and is an intelligent user of the ball but he doesn't break forward with the ball nor does he win the bal back as much as Evans does. Like I said I'd like to see him get a chance but Evans has deserved his place in the team.

I think thats the point though, in that first phase of play Price has the better attributes which enables Wolves more time and space to build the play. McDonald then has a partner who creates that extra time which suits both of them.
The second part is link play going up the field, thats where Jacobs should be involved.

 

[YoungWolf]

You actually probably saw more of us last season than I did Mark, but what impressed me about Jacobs was for someone with his ability how hard he worked off the ball. I remember Tranmere away (god knows why I went to that game) and we moved Edwards to right back and Jacobs in the middle with McDonald and he was everywhere. Not that I would play him there regularly just that he worked his socks off and was far better as an orthodox centre midfielder than Edwards was.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

In which skills when you have little space and limited time on the ball when your trying to play a possession based passing game?

At all facets of the game as far as I can see. This is Denes Rosa syndrome all over again. Just because a player isn't featuring they seem to get excessively elevated in reference to their playing ability.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I can't really remember in that great detail to be honest, speculating as much as anything on the back of Edwards' well known work rate. Can't even remember how many games i saw last season, 5 or 6 maybe, but i always found myself struggling to remain all that interested when i did go, everything just had a bit of a pre-season feel whenever i went up, slow tempo, not all that competitive and with an obvious mismatch in the abilities of the two sides.

It's all well and good what happened last year but this season is a whole lot more competitive, even in a relatively weak Championship, and i think it's only now, as a fair few said 12 months or so ago, that we can really start to assess just how good this manager and group of players are because they never really should've been in that league last year.