Summer Transfer Window - The Verdict

[paul_e]

Can people stop repeating the false assumption that Bailey is a right winger, it's just not true, he plays on both wings but has started on the left more than the right.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leon-bailey/profil/spieler/387626



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He has been signed to play mainly from the left but with the option to swap sides.

[Mister E]

That’s a work of art that post Mister E
I struggle just to not double post

Thank you, John. I admire your poetry-in-motion posts!

[Toronto Villa]

It would have been nice to get another midfielder in but this is such a statement of faith in our current squad, players who have yet to contribute fully like Sanson, and more specifically players like both Ramsey’s, JPB and Chuckie. Maybe both him and his bro. We have to give those players a chance. The money is there, so nothing to be concerned about financially.

But Dean Smith firstly has to hope we get past all of these injuries and players missing through COVID. We have lots of depth of those young players step up, but we won’t feel that immediately. It will take time to come together. And with Ollie, Bert, Bailey also set to come back it’s really not as bad we think it is.

That's all lovely, but none of them are defensive midfielders. The main reason why West Ham look so much better than us for the last season and a bit is that Noble and Soucek are both great players. They play in a position that suits them, and they make the rest of the team tick. Compare that to McGinn and Luiz, both played out of position, and both who regularly don't look as good as they undoubtedly can be.

I don’t disagree with you which then suggests the manager doesn’t want to play that system. Which I don’t agree with but it’s what he wants and ultimately if it fails what he will need to accept as the consequence of that decision. I think he wants a more robust overall team where all players contribute to attack and defence so it remains to be seen if that works.

[Clark W Griswold]

The opportunity we missed, IMO, was to continue the buying spree in the early transfer period in July - if we'd paid out for a decent DMF (perhaps over the odds on pricing) early, we'd not be scraping around for one on the last day of the transfer window.

Who says we are? All the suggestion is we're done. I hope the suggestions are wrong of course.

[Flin5tone]

It will be absolutely outrageous if we don't get a CDM in.

[supertom]

I don't think we were just short of quality going into this window, but numbers too. We're basically on a par between outs and ins. Okay, we might say that Bailey/Ings/Beundia is potentially adequate to 'replace' Jack. Ash is an upgrade on Elmo/Taylor.

Wesley going makes no difference because if we're all being honest, he was shit before the injury and he'll be worse after. A sad reality of such a horrible injury. So even Keinan offers more to the team, and perhaps Archer may surprise.

I think we were short of what we needed by 1-2 players. I appreciate Hourihane and Guilbert need game time but they're our players, both could do a job. Hourihane given games tends to deliver goals/assists (he could have offered something in these opening three games when we could barely put a decent ball in the box). He may be out of his depth in bigger games, but a few injuries and we've got to rely on Sansom who may not adapt immediately and Ramsey who is a kid. Likewise our cover for both fullbacks is a 37 year old and two CH's. Guilbert should have stayed, and been given game time. Cash hasn't started too well this season and in terms of the energy and attacking ability you get down the right from an in form Cash, Freddy is the closest.

Given we've not added I think we may well regret letting those two go. We've also got a lot riding on Beundia and Bailey coming off. Beundia is the only player who can do the cute things Jack could too. To see a pass in the attacking third, a bit of vision. To be that 10. Ashley at a push could fill that gap, as long as you have a solid base behind doing the leg work (he wasn't great as an '8' against Brentford).

I'm happy to see the kids get games, but getting to a point we may need to rely on them is dangerous. I don't think we're close to competing top 6. We're a 10th topout, but we're a couple of bad injuries from battling dangerously close to the bottom.

[Monty]

I'm in this odd position that I actually hope Smith's plan is to do something I don't like - namely this Southampton high-press 4-4-2 business - as that would at least explain the apparent lack of interest in playing pass-and-move through the middle third of the pitch. Still constitutes a risky amount of faith in our midfielders (in fact arguably an even riskier amount) but there we are

[paul_e]

One thing as well it's our seriously rough upcoming run of fixtures, holy shit. Two rough months. Chelsea, Everton, Man United, Spurs, Wolves, Arsenal, West Ham. Plus Chelsea in the League Cup. One team we finished above last year, and probably the best one of those at that, which also happens to be a derby. It's not an exaggeration to say that double figures in points might be a tall order before October with this midfield. But we shall see!

I understand that you're upset about the team but this is far too pessimistic, there's 1 game in that list that I wouldn't expect anything from and that's purely because us being screwed by a shitty referee against Man U is a national tradition at this point.

And not Chelsea? I'd say we're firm second-favourites in four of those league games, mild second-favourites in one and about even in a couple. Double figures means either two wins or a win and three draws, from a run of games in which we're not favourites once. I'd call that a very tough run and a tall order.

We took points from all but Man U and West Ham last season and the latter involved a ridiculous decision to rule out an equaliser and a missed penalty. We have lost a good player, we all know that, but we've added some good players in return and haven't really had chance to see what the team can be with this squad yet because of injuries and covid which will hopefully be better once we're back underway.

That said I do think Chelsea will be too soon because of Emi 1 and 2 both missing it and I would be more confident with a proper DM but I think it's a bit early to be waving a white flag and hoping there are 3 teams worse than us which i think you're getting very close to.

[ozzjim]

Can people stop repeating the false assumption that Bailey is a right winger, it's just not true, he plays on both wings but has started on the left more than the right.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leon-bailey/profil/spieler/387626



image hosting



He has been signed to play mainly from the left but with the option to swap sides.

If you look at the detail, he started the majority of the games from right wing last season.

[Monty]

Sigh, well, I should cheerlead better I guess? I'm not saying there are three worse teams than us, I'm just saying I think there are perhaps 13 who are better. Which I would find disappointing. But we'll judge them start the next few games.

[paul_e]

Can people stop repeating the false assumption that Bailey is a right winger, it's just not true, he plays on both wings but has started on the left more than the right.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leon-bailey/profil/spieler/387626



image hosting



He has been signed to play mainly from the left but with the option to swap sides.

If you look at the detail, he started the majority of the games from right wing last season.

Yes, for the first time in his career. I don't know why you're still arguing this (other than as an excuse to moan about signings) it's in black and white that he plays on both sides and always has.

[ozzjim]

I'm not arguing it. He has stated he prefers to play on the right. I said in a previous post that he will probably play left but it is not his preference.

[Flin5tone]

I don't think we were just short of quality going into this window, but numbers too. We're basically on a par between outs and ins. Okay, we might say that Bailey/Ings/Beundia is potentially adequate to 'replace' Jack. Ash is an upgrade on Elmo/Taylor.

Wesley going makes no difference because if we're all being honest, he was shit before the injury and he'll be worse after. A sad reality of such a horrible injury. So even Keinan offers more to the team, and perhaps Archer may surprise.

I think we were short of what we needed by 1-2 players. I appreciate Hourihane and Guilbert need game time but they're our players, both could do a job. Hourihane given games tends to deliver goals/assists (he could have offered something in these opening three games when we could barely put a decent ball in the box). He may be out of his depth in bigger games, but a few injuries and we've got to rely on Sansom who may not adapt immediately and Ramsey who is a kid. Likewise our cover for both fullbacks is a 37 year old and two CH's. Guilbert should have stayed, and been given game time. Cash hasn't started too well this season and in terms of the energy and attacking ability you get down the right from an in form Cash, Freddy is the closest.

Given we've not added I think we may well regret letting those two go. We've also got a lot riding on Beundia and Bailey coming off. Beundia is the only player who can do the cute things Jack could too. To see a pass in the attacking third, a bit of vision. To be that 10. Ashley at a push could fill that gap, as long as you have a solid base behind doing the leg work (he wasn't great as an '8' against Brentford).

I'm happy to see the kids get games, but getting to a point we may need to rely on them is dangerous. I don't think we're close to competing top 6. We're a 10th topout, but we're a couple of bad injuries from battling dangerously close to the bottom.

Absolutely spot on

[paul_e]

I'm not arguing it. He has stated he prefers to play on the right. I said in a previous post that he will probably play left but it is not his preference.

it wasn't joes preference either but you, and others, weren't claiming we didn't have a left winger in the squad when he was here.

[Toronto Villa]

I still think Dean wants Ollie to play inside left vs AEG as a defined left winger. I think Bailey will play on the right mostly alternating with Traore, and Buendia will play in the number 10 role.