Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Smithy]

I think we messed up signing Ings. Not that he’s not a top striker and that we needed to beef up the squad given we were fortunate Watkins got through the whole of last season, but he’s 29, at the peak of his career and is not going to want to rotate and sit on the bench.

It wasn’t a smart signing in the context of the shape Smith has always played.

I couldn't disagree more.  These pages were full of people complaining about our lack of depth up front last season, with really only Watkins as a tried and tested option for a central striker.  The fact that we're struggling to find a formation that lets us play both of our England forwards isn't an indication that signing him was a mistake, it's an indication we now have a squad with more good players than we've previously had, and we're still trying to find a way to use them all at the same time.

Centre-forward was a key squad weakness last season, and we strengthened that position about as well as we possibly could, given we don't offer European football.  Will Ings have a significant sell-on value? Almost certainly not, but that doesn't automatically make his signing a mistake.  At his current scoring rate he'll end up with 12-15 goals for the season - which is pretty good, and I think we'd all agree he's not played that well yet, either.

I think when Bailey is fit, and takes a wide-forward position, it'll likely be either Watkins OR Ings playing centrally, maybe Ollie wide left of the three.

It's also entirely possible that Ollie and Ings will just 'click' at some point.  But whatever happens, I don't view Ings as a bad signing at all.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I didn't see the Ings signing as a mistake, we needed top cover for Ollie and only had Davis as cover. What we need is for Dean to accept he has a full squad and can't play everybody. Stick to the plan, rotate and get the service into Ollie. Forget 3 at the back, stop with the wing backs, yes Cash did very well linking up with Buendia down the right on Saturday but Targett was playing too deep, neither a left back or a wing back. He never gave Mings any options other than to hoof it down the line to nobody. We saw exactly the same against Spurs which makes me wonder why Dean (and his coaches) hadn't tried to fix it during the international break.

[ChicagoLion]

I think we messed up if we have decided to play the system because of him.

[SoccerHQ]

I actually wonder if Luiz in back 3 might be worth a look playing someone like Burnley at home (I expect it to be scrapped now though).

If you want someone to bring it out from the back well he's one of our best technical players in the squad and would allow us to go McGinn-Sanson as energetic two in CM with a few attackers ahead.

Christ no, why on earth would Smith try that?!  For a start, he's only what, 5'8"? Sticking him in defence would be a disaster, Dyche would have every single long ball aimed in his direction.

I'm pretty sure he played in back 3 fairly often for Girona the season before he signed him.

And someone above or elsewhere made the point that other teams like to put a non CB in a back 3 sometimes to help with possesion e.g. Cesar Azpilicueta, that giant at 5ft 10. (Luiz is 5ft 9 btw).

Fernandinho also played plenty of times as CB for Man. City and think he's similar height and we'd obviously still have likes of Mings and Hause alongside him to do the stopping Chris Wood get headers at goal job.

Just an idea, that's all.

[Risso]

I'm pretty sure he played in back 3 fairly often for Girona the season before he signed him.

And someone above or elsewhere made the point that other teams like to put a non CB in a back 3 sometimes to help with possesion e.g. Cesar Azpilicueta, that giant at 5ft 10. (Luiz is 5ft 9 btw).

Fernandinho also played plenty of times as CB for Man. City and think he's similar height and we'd obviously still have likes of Mings and Hause alongside him to do the stopping Chris Wood get headers at goal job.

Just an idea, that's all.

The site I just checked doesn't have him playing for Girona in defence at all, where have you seen otherwise? On the wider point, teams like Man City can maybe get away with a ball playing midfielder in defence if they know they're going to have over ⅔ possession in game. That's something we don't do though.

[Drummond]

Do we need a poll?

[Risso]

A report in the local paper I won't name says that we've got the second worst stats in the division for the amount of running in games. On Saturday, we saw Buendia asking to go off after 70 minutes because he was tired. I know we had a disrupted pre-season and there have been internationals etc, but this still struck me as strange.

[ChicagoLion]

Do we need a poll?

Lewandowski would be useful.

[Smithy]

A report in the local paper I won't name says that we've got the second worst stats in the division for the amount of running in games. On Saturday, we saw Buendia asking to go off after 70 minutes because he was tired. I know we had a disrupted pre-season and there have been internationals etc, but this still struck me as strange.

Is that this season? I remember seeing something in our first season up that showed we'd done the least of amount of running in the entire league, when generally the relegation-threatened clubs (which included us at the time) were all at the top of the running table. I think Norwich might have run the most, from memory.

Disappointing if it's not changed.  I'm all for working smarter rather than harder, but I don't like the idea of being 'out worked' by the opposition week in week out.

[Risso]

Yes it was this morning.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

I think we messed up signing Ings. Not that he’s not a top striker and that we needed to beef up the squad given we were fortunate Watkins got through the whole of last season, but he’s 29, at the peak of his career and is not going to want to rotate and sit on the bench.

It wasn’t a smart signing in the context of the shape Smith has always played.

If we could have seen the emergence of Cam Archer as a cf option before the purchase of Ings we could have saved some money, carried on with Oli Watkins as the main man and brought Cam on for a few cameos.
Best of both worlds I think.

[Ian.]

I think we messed up signing Ings. Not that he’s not a top striker and that we needed to beef up the squad given we were fortunate Watkins got through the whole of last season, but he’s 29, at the peak of his career and is not going to want to rotate and sit on the bench.

It wasn’t a smart signing in the context of the shape Smith has always played.

If we could have seen the emergence of Cam Archer as a cf option before the purchase of Ings we could have saved some money, carried on with Oli Watkins as the main man and brought Cam on for a few cameos.
Best of both worlds I think.

The whole of last season we bemoaned the fact we only had Ollie Watkins and the Keinan Davis so we've bought an absolute quality striker and I've seen this weekend the words panic buy and messing up buying Ings.

He's a real talent and we could have some excellent years out of him. For some reason we are trying to shoehorn a system to fit him and Ollie together. The silly thing is due too injuries with our wide players we could easily have played both of these in a three up front with Buendia. Liverpool play this well very effectively.

This would still give us the three across the middle which we really need.

[Drummond]

Can you imagine the outcry if we'd not bought a striker in?

[brian green]

Regarding a poll, an African Gray would sort out our scoring problems.

[nick harper]

Can you imagine the outcry if we'd not bought a striker in?

We absolutely had to bring a striker in but we’ve bought the finished article with little resale value. Not the model I thought we were applying to signings. I think he’s a top player but he quite rightly expects to be the number 1 striker at his stage in his career.

It would have made more sense to buy an up and coming striker to put pressure on Watkins, not someone play to with him or force him out wide.