Starting 11 vs West Brom

C

Connor_loft

Active member
Darlow

Dijksteel
Lenihan
Fry

Jones
Crooks
Howson
McGree
Giles

Armstrong
Gyökeres

Personally I believe this is an automatic promotion winning team, focus now should be on bringing them strikers in, alongside Gayle on the bench. I think Tav will and should be sold, good player but poor in numbers (5 goals, 5 assists I believe last season, 18 goals in his career at the club) for 15 million we could bring in an excellent replacement, take O’Hare or Twine behind the front 2?👍
 
Connor_loft said:
Darlow

Dijksteel
Lenihan
Fry

Jones
Crooks
Howson
McGree
Giles

Armstrong
Gyökeres

Personally I believe this is an automatic promotion winning team, focus now should be on bringing them strikers in, alongside Gayle on the bench. I think Tav will and should be sold, good player but poor in numbers (5 goals, 5 assists I believe last season, 18 goals in his career at the club) for 15 million we could bring in an excellent replacement, take O’Hare or Twine behind the front 2?👍
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Paddy hard done by there. Seeing that team as a genuine possibility for us has got me quite excited
 
Magic Man said:
Tav is an integral part of the team, more so under Wilder than any other manager previous.

McNair & Tav arguably first two names on the team sheet next season I reckon.
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I think McNair is the most at risk of the 3 starting centre halves last season. He was playing out of position and Wilder has already said he will be bringing in a natural left footer to play in that position. I also see Dijksteel as our best defender, who also has the added advantage of being a natural full back so is more comfortable carrying the ball forwards. In other words I think he is the ideal Wilder wide centre half. If you could get between £5m and £10m for McNair I'd drive him there myself
 
Magic Man said:
McNair & Tav arguably first two names on the team sheet next season I reckon.
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Good players I agree but I think for good money we can do better. Dijksteel doesn’t get dropped for me, the way he played with crooks and Jones last season is something I predict that Wilder will want to do on the left hand side, so I reckon a new left footed centre back could come in. Lenihan will not come here to sit on the bench and I think he’d be more effective than Fry. We could do better than tavernier, good player in the way he plays and presses off the ball, but on the ball he is very average, can’t take a decent set piece delivery imo…
 
I still think Wilder will want to sign a left-footed centre back so not sure what that's going to mean for Fry going forward.

You'd have to assume Lenihan has been brought in for the first-team.
 
Unless we are forced to sell Tav certainly is the first name on the team sheet.
Harsh as it is on Dijksteel I think our first choice back 3 may well be McNair - Fry - Lenihan. But lets's face it there are 50+ games, so all 4 will get game time and it will allow us to rest McNair + Fry has never played 40 league games in a season.
 
First XI

-------------------------Darlow------------------------

-------------Dijksteel-----Lenihan-----LCB------------

---------Crooks-----Choudhury-----Tavernier--------

---Jones ----------------------------------------Giles---

-----------Gyokeres/Archer----Armstong-----------------



Second XI

---------------------------Roberts--------------------------

-----------------McNair----Fry----Bola--------------------

------------Payero------Howson------McGree----------

----Fisher-----------------------------------------Coulson---

----------------------Gayle-----Watmore-------------------

Need some better cover across the back 5 (especially wingback). I strongly doubt we’d get all three (four?) of those forwards too, to be honest the more I see of the rumoured price for Gyokeres the more I think steer clear, we rarely do well spending big on strikers. Maybe Riis or Twine instead? Wonder if there's anything in the Aji Alese links too? Possible starter or just cover/experience?
 
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I think that rather than 1st choice and back-up that Wilder is looking for competing 1st choices; especially given the number of midweek matches. Then there would be players who can come in to a position if both 1st choices are out.
This means, I think, that his first choices for each position are

GK: (Darlow/Iversen), Roberts,
RCB: Dijksteel, Lenihan
CB: Fry, Lenihan
LCB: ?, McNair

RWB: Jones, ?
LWB: Giles, (Bola/Coulson?)

RCM: Crooks, (Payero?)
CM: Howson, (McNair?)
LCM: Tav, McGree

ST1: ?, Watmore
ST2: ?, ?

That is a lot of holes to fill. I don't think he's sure about Bola, Coulson and Payero but seeing them in training indicates that he is giving them a chance as he has bigger priorities elsewhere.

Of all the linked players I've seen, my slightly realistic dream team for WBA (given McNair is suspended) is:
Iversen
Dijksteel - Fry - Davies
Jones - Crooks - Choudhury - Tav - Giles
Joao - Gyokeres
Subs: Roberts, Lenihan, Bola, Howson, McGree, Watmore, Tyreece Simpson

Strikers wise: if we can get 2 from Joao, Gyokeres, Armstrong and Archer plus 1 from Simpson, Rhodes or Parrott then I think we're well set.
 
At least one striker must be good at getting on the end of crosses, both in the air (Giles) and on the deck (Jones). The favoured choices here seem to be 'no 10' type players, looking to assist. This could result in redundancy within the side.
 
Anton_Berg said:
At least one striker must be good at getting on the end of crosses, both in the air (Giles) and on the deck (Jones). The favoured choices here seem to be 'no 10' type players, looking to assist. This could result in redundancy within the side.
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Still think there will be room for Payero eventually with a full pre-season. All the midfield we have struggle to unlock defences, he offers something different.
 
Bruce said:
I think that rather than 1st choice and back-up that Wilder is looking for competing 1st choices; especially given the number of midweek matches. Then there would be players who can come in to a position if both 1st choices are out.
This means, I think, that his first choices for each position are

GK: (Darlow/Iversen), Roberts,
RCB: Dijksteel, Lenihan
CB: Fry, Lenihan
LCB: ?, McNair

RWB: Jones, ?
LWB: Giles, (Bola/Coulson?)

RCM: Crooks, (Payero?)
CM: Howson, (McNair?)
LCM: Tav, McGree

ST1: ?, Watmore
ST2: ?, ?

That is a lot of holes to fill. I don't think he's sure about Bola, Coulson and Payero but seeing them in training indicates that he is giving them a chance as he has bigger priorities elsewhere.

Of all the linked players I've seen, my slightly realistic dream team for WBA (given McNair is suspended) is:
Iversen
Dijksteel - Fry - Davies
Jones - Crooks - Choudhury - Tav - Giles
Joao - Gyokeres
Subs: Roberts, Lenihan, Bola, Howson, McGree, Watmore, Tyreece Simpson

Strikers wise: if we can get 2 from Joao, Gyokeres, Armstrong and Archer plus 1 from Simpson, Rhodes or Parrott then I think we're well set.
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I think McNair and Djiksteel will be competing for the RCB position. I fully expect a natural LCB to be brought in, and then maybe Bola can cover for that position.

Think we need another DM. McNair can play there at a push but I'd rather we bring in a natural DM to add competition. It will also mean we can hopefully manage Howson better and rest him at times.
 
Connor_loft said:
Darlow

Dijksteel
Lenihan
Fry

Jones
Crooks
Howson
McGree
Giles

Armstrong
Gyökeres

Personally I believe this is an automatic promotion winning team, focus now should be on bringing them strikers in, alongside Gayle on the bench. I think Tav will and should be sold, good player but poor in numbers (5 goals, 5 assists I believe last season, 18 goals in his career at the club) for 15 million we could bring in an excellent replacement, take O’Hare or Twine behind the front 2?👍
Click to expand...

————————-Roberts————————-
—————-Lenihan—Fry—McNair————-
Jones—Tavernier—Crooks—McGree—Giles
———————Coburn—Watmore—————
 
With possibly as many as seven new arrivals still to come in and a couple of outgoings, people might be close to the first game of the season line up but the first game after transfer deadline day could look very different.
I don’t think Wilder sees Fry or Tav in his desired first eleven - Djiksteel was our best defender last year and to think Fry starts before him is hard to understand. I think the new signings won’t be bench warmers so virtually all of last years squad that remain will quite rightly be under pressure - some more than others.
 
Connor_loft said:
I think Tav will and should be sold, good player but poor in numbers (5 goals, 5 assists I believe last season, 18 goals in his career at the club
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If you look at it per minute played, he's got a goal or assist every 3 games. Those numbers are not bad for a players that has been shifted around the team and had lots of sub appearances when younger.

Still only 22, and only Watmore has only got more league goals than him.
 
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