Winter Improvement Thread (aka Winter Squad Weakening Thread and TWF Suicide Watch)

[Lord Knows]

As a glass half full kind of a person I think Wolves will have a good transfer window, so I have the patience to let it all unfold.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Well he would replicate it with a change of manager. Someone who actually set up the team to have the ball outside your own third and signed/picked players with good technical ability.

We're gonna miss him a lot. He turned a decent team into one of the best in the championship. Unfortunately the manager has changed us back from that.

I actually wonder how much Jackett had to do with our success in the second half of last season. Suddenly found himself with Dicko, Sako and Afobe and simply had to pick them and play to their strengths. Quite prepared to believe - based on what we've seen this season - that players ignored Jackett in second half of last season and played their own way.

 

[PuntsWolf]

I actually wonder how much Jackett had to do with our success in the second half of last season. Suddenly found himself with Dicko, Sako and Afobe and simply had to pick them and play to their strengths. Quite prepared to believe - based on what we've seen this season - that players ignored Jackett in second half of last season and played their own way.

Well that's what's Harry redknapp did at Spurs. Let them do what you want.

 

[Kenny]

I actually wonder how much Jackett had to do with our success in the second half of last season. Suddenly found himself with Dicko, Sako and Afobe and simply had to pick them and play to their strengths. Quite prepared to believe - based on what we've seen this season - that players ignored Jackett in second half of last season and played their own way.

Sorry but that is as big a load of bollocks as I have read on here.

All you are seeing this season is a manager that has reached his ceiling, as he struggles to cope with not having 2 of the best attacking players in the Division (soon to be 3) and some poor decisions on recruitment. Taking apart anything he has done before this season is massively disrespectful. Critique him on what he is doing now, not try and remove what he has done from the history books.

 

[Kenny]

Well that's what's Harry redknapp did at Spurs. Let them do what you want.

Harry did little to no coaching. All he is, is a man-manager, he knows how to get certain players ticking. Majority of what happened on the pitch was down to his coaching team

 

[ROVERT47]

Blimey, first time I've dipped into this for ages, desperate times!

 

[PuntsWolf]

Harry did little to no coaching. All he is, is a man-manager, he knows how can get certain players ticking. Majority of what happened on the pitch was down to his coaching team

Exactly. Give it to Gareth

 

[Lord Knows]

Exactly. Give it to Gareth

Isn't that what all clubs do, explore as many methods as possible of getting the ball to the better players as often as possible.

 

[Kenny]

Isn't that what all clubs do, explore as many methods as possible of getting the ball to the better players as often as possible.

Explains our give it to Dave method then

 

[Langers]

Sorry but that is as big a load of bollocks as I have read on here.

All you are seeing this season is a manager that has reached his ceiling, as he struggles to cope with not having 2 of the best attacking players in the Division (soon to be 3) and some poor decisions on recruitment. Taking apart anything he has done before this season is massively disrespectful. Critique him on what he is doing now, not try and remove what he has done from the history books.

100% agree. KJ deserves plenty of criticism for what's happened this season but let's not rewrite history.

 

[Lord Knows]

Explain our give it to Dave method then

Can I have the option of reciting War And Peace please.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

http://www.skysports.com/iframe/wid...oGCDhlH#ooid=5vazAyMDE6lhrI7gvVTppw7qCoGCDhlH

Sky's Best of Benik video

What's so special and irreplaceable in there then?

Not a single bit of hold up play, no link up with any team mates, doesn't even beat a single defender! All he does in any clip is run onto a pass and finish, losing him will make no difference to the rest of the team. You might get a slight dip in the conversion rate as he's probably a better finisher than ALF but the latter can certainly fulfill that role to a decent standard at this level.

Afobe is good at what he does but he's just not the sort of player that will ever be the heartbeat of a team, that video could easily have been a young Darren Bent.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Sorry but that is as big a load of bollocks as I have read on here.

All you are seeing this season is a manager that has reached his ceiling, as he struggles to cope with not having 2 of the best attacking players in the Division (soon to be 3) and some poor decisions on recruitment. Taking apart anything he has done before this season is massively disrespectful. Critique him on what he is doing now, not try and remove what he has done from the history books.

I'm not trying to do that at all, Kenny. I just wonder if the players simply decided they knew best. It certainly wouldn't be the first time it's happened in football, or many other professional sports. But i'm not trying to remove him from the history books at all

 

[Kenny]

I'm not trying to do that at all, Kenny. I just wonder if the players simply decided they knew best. It certainly wouldn't be the first time it's happened in football, or many other professional sports. But i'm not trying to remove him from the history books at all

He is just like most managers - He had a couple of superior players and got the team playing around them and their strengths. He lost those players and has struggled to get the best out of what is left.

The previous lot of players that thought they knew best, lasted 5 minutes under KJ.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Isn't that what all clubs do, explore as many methods as possible of getting the ball to the better players as often as possible.

Ideally yes but if you lack quality then it really doesnt matter what you do. KM is a bit slow for this league, Henry cant Cross, Dave Edwards is not a number 10 Afobe has been therefore pretty woefully supplied this season. The answer always was to effectively replace Sako ( Epic fail until Jordan Graham ) Have a striking partnership of Dicko and Afobe ( fail due to Dicko injury) being solid at the back or at least being as good as last season ( fail due to Ikeme form, Stearman sale, the inclusion of Matt Doherty, the under performance of Hause and EEL).
Now it does not need mensa intelligence to know you must mitigate against things happening. Agreed ALF is positive mitigation but not leaving him alone up top. That is in my view a criminal waste of his talent. So much so I would not be surprised if he did not stay. Holt- well!!!! Selling Stearman? Not a great move in hindsight to say the least and didnt look it at the time to be fair. The failure to add experience to that very young squad has been under mining to squad confidence. Look how different the defence looked with Williamson here. Not a coincidence I would say.

As the club are really unlikely to make managerial or staff changes while SM and Moxey search for an owner the only thing we can hope is that all of those involved learn from the clusterfuck that their collective decision making has created. There is blame to go around and it must be spread across lots of people. Again hindsight shows that Sako Dicko Afobe combination made up for a number of other shortcomings in the first half of 2015. FFS please do not make the same mistakes again . Spend the Afobe money wisely on expeience and quality that can be built upon for the rest of the season and help us to effectively challenge next.
As a football club we do an awful lot of things well. Our youth system, training facilities , ground plans and club management all give credit. There are times however when we do some really unbelievable things with the playing staff and recruitment that even the most ardent fan ( except Frank) would struggle to reason. See Clarke, Holt, Saville, Wallace on loan, Graham not here for the first 4 months, selling Stearman, Edwards as number 10 Doherty at left back. Lets hope that most of these abominations are now out of the system and we can look forward to a much improved second half of the season after of course our obligatory naff cup run!

 

[Penk Wolf]

Sorry but that is as big a load of bollocks as I have read on here.

All you are seeing this season is a manager that has reached his ceiling, as he struggles to cope with not having 2 of the best attacking players in the Division (soon to be 3) and some poor decisions on recruitment. Taking apart anything he has done before this season is massively disrespectful. Critique him on what he is doing now, not try and remove what he has done from the history books.

To be fair, we were very average until Afobe came in. The signing of Afobe along side Sako and Dicko was the difference. I think even Saunders would have been a success in this league with those three as ammunition.

 

[exton101]

Cheikh M'Bengué - Left back - out of contract in the summer

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actu...on-pour-cheikh-m-bengue/622819?dlvrit=1867260

You can see what we are doing this window-
Mike Williamson - Out of contract in the summer
Zyro - was out of contract in the summer

 

[Nando]

He's a good player. I'd be happy with him.

 

[Revenga]

Just checked one of those horrible utube videos, like a pro scout. M'bengué seems to fall over a lot. He does seem to be a big strong unit so could do a job as an alternative to Golbourne.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

[Nando]

He's been linked with plenty of Premier League clubs this season so I'd be surprised if we could pull that one off.