Not so much because they are 'projects' rather that is the market our recruitment team know.
At least there is a rationale to our signings now and we know where the buck stops if they are humpty. I'm starting to trust the club again when it comes to spending fan money correctly. Bloated squads are gone and calibre of player has increased. Bit of hunger about the players too it seems.
Based on no more signings tonight, and our likely starting XI, which I'd say is now:
Gordon
Smith Moore Souttar Kingsley Cochrane
Beningime Devlin
Ginnelly Boyce Woodburn
I just think we're set up too defensively. Typical Levein and now typical Robbie.
We talk about wing backs but neither Smith or Cochrane can attack and so we end up with two traditional full backs completing a back 5. Then we're going to have two defensive midfielders in front meaning 7 players of our outfield 10 are to nullify the other team. Even at home.
Boyce is then playing more MF than CF and keeps dropping deep, like Naismith used to. So while we say 3 4 3. It can actually feel like 5 5 0. Even more so if we manage to score first. As Robbie likes to then defend a lead at all costs.
We have no Colin Cameron or Paul Hartley type from MF to get us goals. McEneff was meant to be that player. And isn't.
We needed a true RWB tonight and a LCH to let Kingsley move out to LWB.
I still think Robbie needs to go and a more adventurous manager appointed. Let's be honest we're joint top but haven't looked good in most games.
(08-31-2021, 09:34 PM)Shteve Wrote: Did we sign that Moore? Halkett is going to be part of the back shree let's not play silly buggers here.
Yup. Moore signed on loan with Bristol saying chance of it being permanent. He's a right footed CH. We didn't sign a LCH so Kingsley will stay there. Souttar obviously starts. I think Halkett will be odd man out. Call me a silly bugger if you like. Moore isn't up here to be a sub.
Halkett has been decent this season think it suits him playing in a back shree. Moore will play when someone isn't fit or instead of Kingsley, whether he's good or not will decide if he stays in the team or he ends up just being back up.
Celtic at home.
St Mirren away.
Celtic in Cup.
Aberdeen at home for most of it.
All pretty stuffy. Limited possession. Devoid of ideas. Pens and luck.
Hey. We knew what we were getting in Neilson. A poor manager. No tactics. Overly defensive. I haven't changed my opinion of him. Hearts are too big for him. 90 per cent of why he's here is he used to play for us.
08-31-2021, 10:16 PM (Edited 08-31-2021, 10:17 PM by Shteve.)
Nah surely not, think he's game for this kind of solid midfield thing like hard workers and thinking the front shree can do the damage. You could probably play Woodburn as an attacking mid against the shiter teams at home or to change it a bit.
IN
Beni Baningime
Alex Cochrane (Loan)
Cammy Devlin
Josh Ginnelly
Ross Stewart
Ben Woodburn (Loan)
Taylor Moore (Loan)
Think that's it from what I can remember. Stewart isn't good enough imo, hopefully won't need to use him this season considering we're already out of the betfred. Hopefully we can strike a deal to bring in Moore and Woodburn on permanent contracts but I won't hold my breath. Still need a CB, a decent back up GK and an attacking midfielder imo.
OUT
Berra
Popescu
White
Irving
Cochrane
Wighton
Doyle
Moore
Frear
Roberts
Lee
Damour
Zlamal
Naismith
Couple of youth away on loan
Cleared out pretty much all the dead weight but I'm a bit worried about the depth of the squad if we get a couple of injuries. Lee and Robert's nowhere near herts level but surely could have kept them hanging about on the bench for when/if they were needed.
(08-31-2021, 11:46 PM)CM Kash Wrote: So much for the busy deadline day then
IN
Beni Baningime
Alex Cochrane (Loan)
Cammy Devlin
Josh Ginnelly
Ross Stewart
Ben Woodburn (Loan)
Taylor Moore (Loan)
Think that's it from what I can remember. Stewart isn't good enough imo, hopefully won't need to use him this season considering we're already out of the betfred. Hopefully we can strike a deal to bring in Moore and Woodburn on permanent contracts but I won't hold my breath. Still need a CB, a decent back up GK and an attacking midfielder imo.
OUT
Berra
Popescu
White
Irving
Cochrane
Wighton
Doyle
Moore
Frear
Roberts
Lee
Damour
Zlamal
Naismith
Couple of youth away on loan
Cleared out pretty much all the dead weight but I'm a bit worried about the depth of the squad if we get a couple of injuries. Lee and Robert's nowhere near herts level but surely could have kept them hanging about on the bench for when/if they were needed.
Good summary and you can see from the lists, quality in, for the most part, dross out.
But our eventual inaction at the end of the window is poor. Especially top of the league and a chance to build on that.
Forget full backs playing centre half. We now play 3 at the back and our first team squad has only 3. Souttar, Halkett and Moore. None left sided. And really Halkett can only play sweeper. That's criminal how light we are there. Yeah Haring blah blah but again we're moving players to cover different positions. Haring hasn't played enough first team 90 mins and what he has done has been mostly in MF.
We've only 2 keepers. And Stewart should be a 3rd, as he was at Livingston.
We have next to no cover for Smith. Who isn't a RWB in the first place.
We have only two centre forwards in Boyce and Gnanduillet. If you ignore Henderson who is deemed Alloa quality given loan agreement.
The squad then has a number of players the manager obviously doesn't rate. Walker. McEneff.
We needed to sign more players than we did. I think Savage is doing well. And maybe we were let down by some clubs or players at the 11th hour. But it's now a very small squad and I can see that getting exposed now til January.
Squad Rebuild - Episode 8
Aberdeen are going to be annoying as fuck aren't they.
