January Transfer Window - The Verdict.

[wince]

I was wrong about the Rugby thing the other day, although I wear that particular badge of ignorance with immense pride.

I’m usually wrong about everything but sprout sandwiches and stuffing is a hill I chose to die on in the O/T.

[Mister E]

Watkins didn't need to be injured in (for example) the game against Wolves to look ineffective, and having an alternative striker was the reason we ended up with an equaliser and a point.

That particular point is why we got Duran and Traore in - to provide in-game alternatives when things aren't going so well; which makes sense to me.
Guendouzi would have brought a load more dynamism into the team and made a big difference in transition, which is why we should have brought him in last month.

[brontebilly]

Watkins didn't need to be injured in (for example) the game against Wolves to look ineffective, and having an alternative striker was the reason we ended up with an equaliser and a point.

That particular point is why we got Duran and Traore in - to provide in-game alternatives when things aren't going so well; which makes sense to me.
Guendouzi would have brought a load more dynamism into the team and made a big difference in transition, which is why we should have brought him in last month.

What if Marseille just didn't want to sell in January? Are we meant to offer 20m extra like Chelsea would just to get the deal done?

I'm far from convinced on either Guendouzi or Delefou based on their last performances at PL level. No doubt Guendouzi might be a better more mature player now but we have more than enough quality in CM right now to keep us going until the end of season.

[Skerra]

Traore is usually injured so don’t think he’s going to contribute a lot.

[PaulWinch again]

Watkins didn't need to be injured in (for example) the game against Wolves to look ineffective, and having an alternative striker was the reason we ended up with an equaliser and a point.

That particular point is why we got Duran and Traore in - to provide in-game alternatives when things aren't going so well; which makes sense to me.
Guendouzi would have brought a load more dynamism into the team and made a big difference in transition, which is why we should have brought him in last month.

I think that’s slightly revisionist. Duran was referred as one for the future, and hasn’t played much for months, but is going to have to be involved now. Traore is injured and is not really a striker.

[Sexual Ealing]

Traore played (and scored) as a striker at Ajax.

The Marseille president reckons he didn't get any bids from an English club for Guendouzi: https://twitter.com/AVFCLatam/status/1621181999967866882

[Footy-Vill]

Watkins didn't need to be injured in (for example) the game against Wolves to look ineffective, and having an alternative striker was the reason we ended up with an equaliser and a point.

That particular point is why we got Duran and Traore in - to provide in-game alternatives when things aren't going so well; which makes sense to me.
Guendouzi would have brought a load more dynamism into the team and made a big difference in transition, which is why we should have brought him in last month.

Yes and also the possibility of a false 9 of Ramsey or Buendia.
I think on Duran that Emery is playing it down to how involved he would be as he doesn't want to put too much pressure on him. That's good management. Emery didn't want any unfair comparison made with Ings yet Duran will be playing now instead of Ings.
How well he'll do? Only time will tell . One for now and one for the future due to circumstances.

[PaulWinch again]

Watkins didn't need to be injured in (for example) the game against Wolves to look ineffective, and having an alternative striker was the reason we ended up with an equaliser and a point.

That particular point is why we got Duran and Traore in - to provide in-game alternatives when things aren't going so well; which makes sense to me.
Guendouzi would have brought a load more dynamism into the team and made a big difference in transition, which is why we should have brought him in last month.

Yes and also the possibility of a false 9 of Ramsey or Buendia.
I think on Duran that Emery is playing it down as he doesn't want to put too much pressure on him. That's good management.

Doesn’t really work though does it? If you say someone is for the future you don’t leave him as your only genuine alternative striking option in the now.

[paul_e]

Percy, that post was about the entire season. About 25-30 as a team for the rest of this season would be a good return for me (around 1.5 per game).

4 players get 4-5 each covers that which why I said somewhere (Berts thread maybe) that would be my challenge to Watkins, Bailey, Bert, Coutinho and Buendia).

All of them are capable of it and that takes pressure away from people like JJ and Duran.

It was me, not Percy. Just to be clear, you specifically said that 50-60 goals is what we should be aiming for with 30-40 of those coming from the forwards, which is the point of my post above. 25 more goals would have us on 48, which most years would see you finishing about 12th to 14th.

My mistake, I was using my phone and must've misread it.

25 is the bottom end of the range and 25 in 18 games would mean 52-53 over a full 38 game season so is right in the range I'd aim for. This season it's clearly lower than that but I'm not expecting the team to over-achieve to make up for Gerrard being shit, that's not fair, to make up the difference  would be an extra 7-8 goals on top over 25 games, which would be top 4 standard (and is actually where we are under Emery so far). Nothing here is a contradiction, in a full season I think 5 players all aiming for 8-10 goals is an achievable goal for a side like us and gets you well on the way to a good season.

[paul_e]

Watkins didn't need to be injured in (for example) the game against Wolves to look ineffective, and having an alternative striker was the reason we ended up with an equaliser and a point.

That particular point is why we got Duran and Traore in - to provide in-game alternatives when things aren't going so well; which makes sense to me.
Guendouzi would have brought a load more dynamism into the team and made a big difference in transition, which is why we should have brought him in last month.

Yes and also the possibility of a false 9 of Ramsey or Buendia.
I think on Duran that Emery is playing it down as he doesn't want to put too much pressure on him. That's good management.

Doesn’t really work though does it? If you say someone is for the future you don’t leave him as your only genuine alternative striking option in the now.

Who knows on this, Emery said he was one for the future I think before Duran had even trained with us. More recently there's lots of noise from the 'tame' local journalists suggesting he's been really impressive in training and is pushing to be a lot more involved than we expected.

Both of those could be true and both could be bullshit but taking the first as gospel and then ignoring the second is making a choice to only believe stuff that supports your view that we've fucked up in the window. I'm not singling you out, you're entitled to your opinion and I don't think it's an unfair one, just pointing out that the more recent stories make it sound a more likely that we'll see Duran regularly for the rest of the season.

[pauliewalnuts]

Percy, that post was about the entire season. About 25-30 as a team for the rest of this season would be a good return for me (around 1.5 per game).

4 players get 4-5 each covers that which why I said somewhere (Berts thread maybe) that would be my challenge to Watkins, Bailey, Bert, Coutinho and Buendia).

All of them are capable of it and that takes pressure away from people like JJ and Duran.

It was me, not Percy. Just to be clear, you specifically said that 50-60 goals is what we should be aiming for with 30-40 of those coming from the forwards, which is the point of my post above. 25 more goals would have us on 48, which most years would see you finishing about 12th to 14th.

My mistake, I was using my phone and must've misread it.

25 is the bottom end of the range and 25 in 18 games would mean 52-53 over a full 38 game season so is right in the range I'd aim for. This season it's clearly lower than that but I'm not expecting the team to over-achieve to make up for Gerrard being shit, that's not fair, to make up the difference  would be an extra 7-8 goals on top over 25 games, which would be top 4 standard (and is actually where we are under Emery so far). Nothing here is a contradiction, in a full season I think 5 players all aiming for 8-10 goals is an achievable goal for a side like us and gets you well on the way to a good season.

Alternatively just buy a striker.

I wonder how many of our non strikers have had anywhere near 8-10 a season recently.

[eamonn]

Jordan Ayew's brother is out of contract. Maybe we could swoop-in and steal him away from Forest... Gawd, Everton were even rejected by him...

[Dave]

Percy, that post was about the entire season. About 25-30 as a team for the rest of this season would be a good return for me (around 1.5 per game).

4 players get 4-5 each covers that which why I said somewhere (Berts thread maybe) that would be my challenge to Watkins, Bailey, Bert, Coutinho and Buendia).

All of them are capable of it and that takes pressure away from people like JJ and Duran.

It was me, not Percy. Just to be clear, you specifically said that 50-60 goals is what we should be aiming for with 30-40 of those coming from the forwards, which is the point of my post above. 25 more goals would have us on 48, which most years would see you finishing about 12th to 14th.

My mistake, I was using my phone and must've misread it.

25 is the bottom end of the range and 25 in 18 games would mean 52-53 over a full 38 game season so is right in the range I'd aim for. This season it's clearly lower than that but I'm not expecting the team to over-achieve to make up for Gerrard being shit, that's not fair, to make up the difference  would be an extra 7-8 goals on top over 25 games, which would be top 4 standard (and is actually where we are under Emery so far). Nothing here is a contradiction, in a full season I think 5 players all aiming for 8-10 goals is an achievable goal for a side like us and gets you well on the way to a good season.

Alternatively just buy a striker.

I wonder how many of our non strikers have had anywhere near 8-10 a season recently.

The one we brought back from Turkey got eight in his first season.

[paul_e]

Percy, that post was about the entire season. About 25-30 as a team for the rest of this season would be a good return for me (around 1.5 per game).

4 players get 4-5 each covers that which why I said somewhere (Berts thread maybe) that would be my challenge to Watkins, Bailey, Bert, Coutinho and Buendia).

All of them are capable of it and that takes pressure away from people like JJ and Duran.

It was me, not Percy. Just to be clear, you specifically said that 50-60 goals is what we should be aiming for with 30-40 of those coming from the forwards, which is the point of my post above. 25 more goals would have us on 48, which most years would see you finishing about 12th to 14th.

My mistake, I was using my phone and must've misread it.

25 is the bottom end of the range and 25 in 18 games would mean 52-53 over a full 38 game season so is right in the range I'd aim for. This season it's clearly lower than that but I'm not expecting the team to over-achieve to make up for Gerrard being shit, that's not fair, to make up the difference  would be an extra 7-8 goals on top over 25 games, which would be top 4 standard (and is actually where we are under Emery so far). Nothing here is a contradiction, in a full season I think 5 players all aiming for 8-10 goals is an achievable goal for a side like us and gets you well on the way to a good season.

Alternatively just buy a striker.

I wonder how many of our non strikers have had anywhere near 8-10 a season recently.

Why would we use ourselves as an example of what we need to do to get into the top 6? It's almost like the idea is to be better than we have been so we finish higher in the table. Also, in case you haven't noticed buying a striker isn't an option now until the summer so we can either carry on bitching and moaning about what we didn't do last month or we can get over it and talk about how the squad we have neds to perform to get us where we want to be.

However, now I've got the snark out of the way, our best season in 12 years was 19/20 when 4 players got 37 between them, which is pretty decent but the goals were a bit overloaded in the first half of the season which meant we fell away.

[dave.woodhall]

Who was the last midfielder/defender we could rely on to score a few? Adomah did well as a winger but apart from that you have to go back years.