What position is the priority for the January transfer window?

[Giraffe]

I'm torn between a proper championship quality midfielder, a centre half or a forward.

 

[Bozza]

Manager. Definitely a manager.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Central Midfielder and Hero Striker.

 

[jasetheace]

Christ Alive where to start? On-field (all areas), back-room, commercial, recruitment, steward management, catering management, argus journalism with any whiff of campaigning zeal...

 

[BrianWade4]

Manager. Definitely a manager.

Beat me to it

 

[Mike Small]

All the positions on the board.

 

[Norman Baker suck my lozenge]

Gordon Smith as CEO,get shot of Berk,Chris Hughton,creative midfielder,beast of centre forward.

 

[tommynockers]

Reverse cowgirl?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Creative midfielders, we just arn't making enough decent chances for our forwards

 

[Brian Fantana]

Two quality central midfielders and another striker (presuming we don't keep hold of Bent until the end of the season).

Not sure I have faith in the current recruitment brains trust to deliver what we need though.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Creative midfielders, we just arn't making enough decent chances for our forwards

Interesting. I think we have enough creative players* available, they just don't get any time on the ball because they are constantly being harrassed by the oppositions midfield. IMO often misguided opinion I think we need a proper central midfielder, one that can tackle AND pass the ball, break the opposition down AND set off our own attacks. Hopefully that'll be Alou Diarra. If that's the case then we definitely need a striker that score goals and not just run around.


* March, Teixeira, JFC.

 

[Mackenzie]

All of them?

 

[Dan Aitch]

Assuming Bent returns to Villa then a quality upfront threat... who isn't a centre-half coming up for corners.

 

[Mowgli37]

Hopefully a/two top class centre midfielders (easier said than done) and a striker to replace Bent. Yaya Sanogo is available for loan, I have a feeling he'd be good in the championship, and at 6ft 4" he'd solve our lack of height.

 

[durrington gull]

Need strengthen all over - im as interested on who we are going to unload too- our squad is far to bloated with very ordinary players

 

[Mowgli37]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30551655

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Interesting. I think we have enough creative players* available, they just don't get any time on the ball because they are constantly being harrassed by the oppositions midfield. IMO often misguided opinion I think we need a proper central midfielder, one that can tackle AND pass the ball, break the opposition down AND set off our own attacks. Hopefully that'll be Alou Diarra. If that's the case then we definitely need a striker that score goals and not just run around.


* March, Teixeira, JFC.

Regarding a stirker, we have had CMS who scored 30 odd goals in a season at Peterborough twice (admittedly at League 1 level), Baldock who scored 25 in a season last year and now Darren Bent who is a proven top flight goal scorer so all capable of finding the back of the net regularly.

The trouble is that they hardly get a chance to score from so if they score at a rate of say, 1 in 8 chances, it could take them several games to reach those 8 chances. It's not like they have been very wasteful in front of goal this season. I'd wonder if it would make that much difference if we were to sign another decent striker if the lack of a decent chances meant they too will have very few chances to work with and a poor-ish goal return too. We miss someone like Conway, Noone or even Buckley who were able to craft real goal scoring opportunities rather than the scraps and half chances they have left.

Are tactics also to blame for a lack of real chances for our striker, the way the opposition set up and mark our lone striker out of the game and the lack of supporting players getting into the box and helping to create space for our striker(s)

 

[Laughing Gravy]

Reverse cowgirl?

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Regarding a stirker, we have had CMS who scored 30 odd goals in a season at Peterborough twice (admittedly at League 1 level), Baldock who scored 25 in a season last year and now Darren Bent who is a proven top flight goal scorer so all capable of finding the back of the net regularly.

The trouble is that they hardly get a chance to score from so if they score at a rate of say, 1 in 8 chances, it could take them several games to reach those 8 chances. It's not like they have been very wasteful in front of goal this season. I'd wonder if it would make that much difference if we were to sign another decent striker if the lack of a decent chances meant they too will have very few chances to work with and a poor-ish goal return too. We miss someone like Conway, Noone or even Buckley who were able to craft real goal scoring opportunities rather than the scraps and half chances they have left.

Are tactics also to blame for a lack of real chances for our striker, the way the opposition set up and mark our lone striker out of the game and the lack of supporting players getting into the box and helping to create space for our striker(s)

I appreciate the forwards have been starved of opportunities this season, I have no doubt Bent could score a shit load for us if he was given any service, however I think where our play breaks down is in the middle of the pitch. We could have the 2 best wingers in the world ready to provide ammunition for a striker, but if they never receive the ball they can't do anything with it, likewise with the strikers. We have no ball winners in the team at the moment, we have no ball retention whatsoever, we occasionally make a foray down the flank but that's about it. Against Millwall it was clear that our players were trying to play around the middle of the pitch because we have no presence there whatsoever.

 

[portslade seagull]

Two quality central midfielders and another striker (presuming we don't keep hold of Bent until the end of the season).

Not sure I have faith in the current recruitment brains trust to deliver what we need though.

Like you I think that they will bring in another load of cheapskate dross that will just add to the dross we already have under long term contracts