Agreed, from what I've seen so far he seems to be just a decent Championship CB (just like the rest of our CBs).
I'm not sure he was that bad. He was trying to drive the ball out of defence without much support at all. Plus he can't long pass for ****. But then again, can any of them?
Thought he spent most of the night trying to rile up Toney. Noticed a fair few where he left one on him, or was quite forceful in a tussle. Toney looked good but to be fair, we kept him from scoring from open play so maybe it worked?
On another day he could have been walking away with the match ball. Unlucky his shot came back off the post and he missed a routine header. We did nothing to stop him or put him off in those situations. I don’t think we can take too much credit in the way we handled him last night.
Indeed. Appears to offer no upgrade in any area on Cathcart or Kabasele. We collect players around the 5/6 out of 10 level and never anyone better.
He owned the Centre backs. He has everything that we desperately needed in a centre forward. The space he found just before he hit the post was class. Frustrating that we couldn't shift some of our dross so we could of gone for him. God knows how much hes worth now.
Toney seemed a pretty good bloke with good temperament as well as being a good player. He will go far.
Good defender, but seems unable to pass the ball, which is disappointing seeing as that was supposedly one of his main attributes when we signed him
My god his passing was abysmal today but defended well. Would bring Wilmot back in for Barnsley though.
Nice goal William .. https://mobile.twitter.com/WTroostEkong/status/1357414296574124033 Now sort the passing out!
Got caught out a bit for their disallowed goal, but luckily Kiko bailed him out by stepping up. Otherwise, didn't have much defending to do, but didn't give me as many nerves with the ball at his feet
Just read the first page of this thread. Because he spoke well in an interview everyone thought he was a great signing. Whoops! The guy is total shyte.
Did not think the some time Udinese and Nigeria captain would be overshadowed by a bloke who hardly got a game in Serie B, but here we are
His passing has definitely been a lot better in the last two games. And I thought he won a couple of important headers in our box too.
Yes, I was nervy any time they shaped to cross, but they didn't really threaten, credit to him, Sierralta, Kiko and Masina
Masina is very good aerially. I think he won 7 headers yesterday. It’s helpful to have a full back who is so dominant in the air.
Fine if we stay down, nowhere near good enough if we go up. We have one centre back who'll be capable in the Premier League and, amazingly, that's Sierralta.
His passing was fine against Wycombe and for the first half yesterday because both teams sat off him so much he was able to stroll over the halfway line with the ball. As soon as Forest decided to apply some pressure in the second half we saw the mistakes creep in.
I think he’d be perfectly fine as a third or fourth choice CB if we go up, which I’d imagine is what he would be.
You have a short memory, when we were in the PL we were screaming for new defenders. They're more likely to build a team around WTE
I recall that. But I also recall that when we were promoted in 2015, we signed Prodl, Britos and Ake. We didn’t keep Angella or Ekstrand or Connolly around for long. I think we actually have reasonable strength in depth at CB this time around, but one starting CB would be a helpful and likely addition should we go up.
How much money would we have to spend in the Prem if we go up? We've been in a bit of a pickle for a while now, and with Covid being an extra kicker, would we just bank the money and consolidate, almost like Norwich? Defenders aren't expensive, but the Pozzos famously scrimp on them, I could see them doing the same again if we go up, banking on our good defensive record this season translating to a higher level
As has been said by others, I think he has looked better in the last two games, but IMO from what we have seen of him so far he is only a reasonable back up squad player and should not be a regular starter.
I think he is a Championship top half/top six level CB. But wouldn’t want him as a regular starter in the Premier League just as I wouldn’t want Grant Hanley, Pontus Jansson, Liam Moore, Michael Morrison and plenty of other CBS starting for our promotion rivals starting for us should we get promoted. There are a number I would be pretty happy to rely on in the Premier League - Guehi and Pinnock and maybe Ben Gibson come to mind - but there really aren’t that many. It’s a tough one. I think there will be plenty of value in the market this summer with EFL clubs and also clubs in France and other countries where leagues have had some sort of issue with broadcasting revenue feeling the pinch and desperate for cash. I think Norwich’s consolidation approach worked well for them given the youth of their squad. But we have a number of premier league players still on premier league wages - not sure it would be equally appropriate. I’d like to see us do something more akin to what Leeds have done - sign a small number of quality players to upgrade specific issues with the squad: a CB, a LB, a CM and a CF are the priorities. Fulham also appear to have done some good business - exploiting the situation in France, and signing players with points to prove.
Leeds signed 6 new players for their first team, including 2 who were on loan last season. Rodrigo was £26m, the rest were undisclosed I think, so I'm not sure how much they spent overall, but it was probably more than we'll have. Fulham had one hell of a challenge on their hands to even assemble a competitive team in the Premier League, at the start of the season they were woeful, but they made smart use of the loan system which has kept them in with a chance, I guess that would be more realistic for us. In a way it's kicking the can down the line though because if they go down, most of those players probably leave, and if they stay up, they'll either have to sign them permanently, or get someone else in
We probably have, what, 3 or 4 genuine Premier League quality players, sure, if we go up, we'll sign some more, but I don't think we'll go and sign 7 or 8 new players, I suspect we'll have bigger priorities than CB (which isn't to say WTE is Prem quality)
We won't be going up, so it's more a case of whether we can hold onto Sierra rather than which champ standard dross we'll need to replace.