What do we really need for promotion next season?

[darlowolf64]

Oh and an upgrade on Edwards...Thanks for your service Dave but we should look to sign better than an energizer bunny

 

[The Bear]

THE most important thing is to get a good replacement for Sako.

Everything else is ok for a promotion push as shown by this season. If we'd have had Afobe all season we'd have been easily pushing for auto.

 

[ROVERT47]

Ensuring Afobe doesn't get his head turned by Premier League also rans has to be priority, although i accept every player is for sale if the price is right (at least £10 million).

 

[Paul]

which is laughable really given he is up there with the most one footed players I've seen.

Never hurt Robert Pires

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

First of all we need to work out what we want to do. Having Dicko and Afobe both playing greatly increases our attacking threat, which is all well and good, but we don't have a single central midfielder at the club particularly suited to playing 4-4-2, that includes McDonald who cannot run, defend or score goals. So if we're sticking with two up top we need at least two, probably three new options in there, if that means moving players on then so be it. If however we want to go back to 4-2-3-1 - which probably leaves Dicko on the fringes, which would be harsh - then McDonald, Price and Evans are fine and we probably only need one new player in there as neither Rowe nor Saville look up to the mark. If we do go back that way then we definitely need a number 10 as Edwards is pap and Jacobs not in the picture.

We need a new back up striker, maybe two as Doyle is off and cack anyway, Cassidy and Clarke should be being released and Ken doesn't appear to fancy McAlinden at this level - I feel we have handled his development poorly but we can't wait forever.

Sako will almost certainly go and replacing his goals is going to be difficult because that kind of return from a wide player is exceptional.

 

[machin05]

THE most important thing is to get a good replacement for Sako.

Everything else is ok for a promotion push as shown by this season. If we'd have had Afobe all season we'd have been easily pushing for auto.

I would suggest that this season has shown us that everything is not quite good enough for a promotion push, and that's with Sako hitting 14/15 goals. We won't be able to replace him with a good a player so we'll be starting at a deficit from a team that's likely to miss out on the play offs.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Assuming Sako goes and his replacement is the number one priority I would like to see some back up with experience at this level or higher. James Mclean is a fair shout But a sniff aorund the clubs who come down this year would be a decent start particularly if the players are under 30. Stearman and Batth have done well this season but I dont see them as a premiership pairing. Too slow and too many errors. A good number 10 and a back up striker would also be good.

In short

1. New Left Winger
2. 2x Midfiield nouse
3. Back up striker
4. Centre Half

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Not a fan of McClean, no skill at all. Tim Steele II. Bit of a dickhead as well.

 

[Sniffer]

Ensuring Afobe doesn't get his head turned by Premier League also rans has to be priority, although i accept every player is for sale if the price is right (at least £10 million).

Didn't he turn down some Premier League also rans to join us? I think at the time he stated he wanted his career to carry on developing and I would doubt that he would have changed that stance in 3 months.

 

[Lord Knows]

Do Wolves have a staff of people looking at every game filmed each weekend, just watching every game within the football league checking every possible new signing would take hours. Then you turn to Europe and study every game in each league. It would start out as fun but after a few hundred thousand hours looking at thousands of players it must become a ball ache.

 

[ROVERT47]

Didn't he turn down some Premier League also rans to join us? I think at the time he stated he wanted his career to carry on developing and I would doubt that he would have changed that stance in 3 months.

Hopefully, i haven't read any of the interviews posted that he has given but he seems to be a decent lad by all accounts, having said that nothing would surprise me where footballers are concerned.

 

[Johnny75]

Do Wolves have a staff of people looking at every game filmed each weekend, just watching every game within the football league checking every possible new signing would take hours. Then you turn to Europe and study every game in each league. It would start out as fun but after a few hundred thousand hours looking at thousands of players it must become a ball ache.

Wolves, to my knowledge, have a small team of scouts, 3 for match reporting and 6 for player reporting across the English and Scottish leagues. I'm not sure they have any European scouts anymore (no idea what happened to the French scouting system once Morgan had fallen foul of the agent led scouting system).

Again as far as I know they have analysts in house that use pro-zone but mainly on previous matches of Wolves and the opposition so they can be matched up for trends.

Having games analysed by others is rarely done in football, the work tends to be in-house and if you only have 9 staff looking at players then the coverage isn't going to be outstanding. Having said that, players that are playing well in any division get flagged up through agents and also through the 'football grapevine' which is a pretty good source of information.

Data is short in supply and tends to be subjective rather than objective. So scouting tends to be just that, subjective.

 

[Lycan]

Not a fan of McClean, no skill at all. Tim Steele II. Bit of a dickhead as well.

Because of the poppy thing? Dont see how that makes him a dick.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

No, just generally. He's a petulant tosser.

 

[Lord Knows]

Wolves, to my knowledge, have a small team of scouts, 3 for match reporting and 6 for player reporting across the English and Scottish leagues. I'm not sure they have any European scouts anymore (no idea what happened to the French scouting system once Morgan had fallen foul of the agent led scouting system).

Again as far as I know they have analysts in house that use pro-zone but mainly on previous matches of Wolves and the opposition so they can be matched up for trends.

Having games analysed by others is rarely done in football, the work tends to be in-house and if you only have 9 staff looking at players then the coverage isn't going to be outstanding. Having said that, players that are playing well in any division get flagged up through agents and also through the 'football grapevine' which is a pretty good source of information.

Data is short in supply and tends to be subjective rather than objective. So scouting tends to be just that, subjective.

Interesting, thanks for that.
The other league where a shed load of talent could be available this summer is the under 21 development league.
With Premier league clubs having many millions to spend there will be some top class talent not getting the faintest of opportunities and will need to go the same route as Afobe and Bamford.

 

[Johnny75]

Interesting, thanks for that.
The other league where a shed load of talent could be available this summer is the under 21 development league.
With Premier league clubs having many millions to spend there will be some top class talent not getting the faintest of opportunities and will need to go the same route as Afobe and Bamford.

That was last season so it may have changed this season. The reserve league (U21) tend to be very well scouted across all the areas as they are on nights that there are rarely other games and you see a lot of assistants and managers at those games. McCarthy and Conner in particular were very visible at U21 fixtures.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

How would we be financially if we miss out on the playoffs?
Is next season the last of the parachute payments and do we get more quids the higher we finish?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

We get £8m or so this summer and that is that as far as the parachute payments go. You don't get money for league position in this league, not to any meaningful degree anyway, everything from TV payments to commercial revenue is chickenfeed really.

It's less of an issue going forward with so much dross disappearing from the wage bill. Johnson and Doyle on their own were costing us over £3m a year between them. The parachute money in itself hasn't really helped us since promotion, it's just funded players we don't want and struggled to get rid of, and over a third of the league is in receipt of the same or more money anyway.

 

[lemonjelly]

First of all we need to work out what we want to do. Having Dicko and Afobe both playing greatly increases our attacking threat, which is all well and good, but we don't have a single central midfielder at the club particularly suited to playing 4-4-2, that includes McDonald who cannot run, defend or score goals. So if we're sticking with two up top we need at least two, probably three new options in there, if that means moving players on then so be it. If however we want to go back to 4-2-3-1 - which probably leaves Dicko on the fringes, which would be harsh - then McDonald, Price and Evans are fine and we probably only need one new player in there as neither Rowe nor Saville look up to the mark. If we do go back that way then we definitely need a number 10 as Edwards is pap and Jacobs not in the picture.

We need a new back up striker, maybe two as Doyle is off and cack anyway, Cassidy and Clarke should be being released and Ken doesn't appear to fancy McAlinden at this level - I feel we have handled his development poorly but we can't wait forever.

Sako will almost certainly go and replacing his goals is going to be difficult because that kind of return from a wide player is exceptional.

Regarding the first para, surely we should be considering both. As you've mentioned regarding Klopp, a single style of play is never enough. A club needs flexibility. So we need to be planning for more than 1 style of play I'd suggest.

Controversially, I think we need an upgrade on McDonald. I think he's a good player, however I cannot help but feel his lack of pace, and also his limited style may be a luxury we cannot afford to continue with.

I'd agree with the fact that Edwards needs to be upgraded on. Great servant etc, & I've been a fan of his, however we need a better, possibly younger, and more technically gifted version.

Defensively I think we're fine, and I'd keep Kuszczak as a back up keeper, with an extended loan for Flatt & McCarey. Season long for one of them. The only possibility would be a right back, if (& only if) Iorfa is not seen as being there long term.

A wide player to challenge with Graham for the wide left berth, plus a younger back up striker to develop if McAlinden is not seen as viable.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

You're right, flexibility is essential - which is exactly why we need different options in central midfield as 4-4-2 is not really a viable long term solution for us at the moment. None of the players we have who play there have anything like the goal threat you require if you're playing that system, other than Edwards who has conclusively proven over the last seven and a bit years that he cannot play in a two. And McDonald in a two gives his partner far too much to do defensively.

Having players who could seamlessly switch between the two systems to suit our tactics on a given day would be great. The only one who's even close to being able to do both is Evans really.

Every team will have a preferred style even allowing for flexibility - we need to decide what our primary tactic is going to be. You don't see Mourinho madly switching between systems all season.