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Still room for improvement...


Danish Saint
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Even as it seems we've finally got a settled squad at the moment, which positions are the main areas to improve?

 

My bids:

RB: Neither Murty nor James presents a solution for no more than maybe a season.

LM: Still not convinced that neither Mills or Holmes is good enough, when we start climbing through the leauges.

CB: We need to sort out the Trotmann-loan, either sign him up or make sure we've got somebody to cover.

 

Also still need to get rid of a few players....

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Even as it seems we've finally got a settled squad at the moment, which positions are the main areas to improve?

 

... Still not convinced that neither Mills or Holmes is good enough, when we start climbing through the leagues...

 

Also still need to get rid of a few players....

 

If you're talking about climbing through the leagues, I'm sure only a handful will be good enough. There are always players who win a promotion with a club, only to find that they have been transferred back to the league they've just helped to fight their club out of. They are simply not good enough to make the step up, proper. It'll happen at Saints too.

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As it stands the team is just fine as it is. Why change it ? we've won 3 league games on the trot and scored 10 goals. No point in tinkering with the side just now, we have a decent bench and a few players looking to break into the side.

Any player we bring in now would just be to improve cover. I know many don't rate James but he seems to be doing what's asked of him, who needs more.What we don't need is overpaid prima donnas, we've learnt our lesson the hard way on that one.

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Isn't that Wotton's job at the moment and to some degree also Hammonds ?

 

Hammond basically carries the midfield but needs more support and steel, especially as part of his game is to get forward. Wotton's nowhere near a solution and largely in the team because of lack of alternatives.

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If you're talking about climbing through the leagues, I'm sure only a handful will be good enough. There are always players who win a promotion with a club, only to find that they have been transferred back to the league they've just helped to fight their club out of. They are simply not good enough to make the step up, proper. It'll happen at Saints too.

 

Agreed, and those players are Lambert, Harding, Lallana & Hammond in my opinion, with Connolly, Davis & Thomas as possibles. So there's room for improvement on both the short-term scale as well as the long-term.

Question remains the same; where and who?

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Most important thing is to sign up the loan players either permanently or look to extend the deals.

 

Then it's a case of getting rid of a few Forecast, Molyneux, Pulis, Holmes, Gillett, Saga, Perry and Poke. Then maybe loan a few out Gobern, White, Lancashire and thomson.

 

after all that i'd look to bring in a more coltured holding midfielder, rest of the teams fine.

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As it stands the team is just fine as it is. Why change it ? we've won 3 league games on the trot and scored 10 goals. No point in tinkering with the side just now, we have a decent bench and a few players looking to break into the side.

Any player we bring in now would just be to improve cover. I know many don't rate James but he seems to be doing what's asked of him, who needs more.What we don't need is overpaid prima donnas, we've learnt our lesson the hard way on that one.

 

Although there is merit in the 'don't change a winning side' philosophy, I think we should always be looking to add players to improve the squad. Whether it is bringing in a couple to add extra/better cover or those better than we have in the first team (or add more balance to it). We obviously still have to move some of the current squad on and the transfer window is a hindrance to doing so but if we want to get some ongoing momentum (all the way to the Premier League), we can not afford to rest on our laurels.

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I think the problem (if there is one) with the squad, is not so much what we haven't got, but what we have got. The squad is still too big, and full of players that will never, ever make the first team. Over the rest of this season and during the off season, I'd like to see us dispose of 10 of the deadwood and replace with 3 or 4 real first team contenders.

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I think the problem (if there is one) with the squad, is not so much what we haven't got, but what we have got. The squad is still too big, and full of players that will never, ever make the first team. Over the rest of this season and during the off season, I'd like to see us dispose of 10 of the deadwood and replace with 3 or 4 real first team contenders.

 

A good few of the players we want to "get rid off" can't fight themselves into contention for a place in a League 1 team, because that is what we are. So who is going to be terribly interested in taking them off our hands and pay their wages? It is very clear that AP wants to trim the large squad and get rid of those who will never get a game under him, but he is up against the same thing all the time: Nobody wants them!

 

However unpalatable ML will eventually have to face up to paying up their contracts since the only alternative is for them to turn up for training every day with an inevitably poor attitude just so that they will keep getting paid. That is no solution.

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Hammond basically carries the midfield but needs more support and steel, especially as part of his game is to get forward. Wotton's nowhere near a solution and largely in the team because of lack of alternatives.

 

Wotton has done a remarkably good job as a defensive CM with two offensive CMs infront of him in Hammond and Schneiderlin/Mellis. But Wotton is not the future and if AP intend to play this formation in the longer perspective then he need to get somebody in who can take over from him and stay with us for a while.

 

Scneiderlin seems finally to have found his niche as an attacking CM, but I'm far from certain about Mellis. If he isn't staying after January then we need another player in that position as well.

 

The same about Trotman. If he stays then OK, otherwise we need to strengthen there as well.

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