I think Ngakia is decent going forward. As others have said, his availability (or lack of) is what undermines him.
You do? Based on what?! He can't cross, he can't shoot, his dribbling isn't terrible but it's far from great either. He has just 2 assists and 0 goals across his entire 4,875 career first-team minutes. For comparison, even the wildly inconsistent 19 year-old Andrews managed 2 assists and 3 goals in his 2,575 minutes this season. Ngakia is a more defensive-minded full-back and an attacking void. Him at wing-back is horrendous.
Agree technically he could tighten up a lot but I think he makes good runs and is a good dribbler. His lumbering style makes him look a bit worse than he is.
His severe lack of attacking output supports that he's just as bad as his lumbering style makes him appear.
I can't take his statistical output too seriously when he can barely string two games together. His best run of form for us was when he first signed as a RWB (when he offered a fair bit of promise going forward).
Based off that, here’s what I would say is our “best” 11 for each formation. Bachmann Porteous Sierralta Hoedt Andrews Kone Kayembe Sema Asprilla Chakvetadze Bayo Bachmann Porteous Sierralta Hoedt Andrews Kone Kayembe Sema Asprilla Bayo Rajovic e We’re going to have to be extremely busy in the transfer window to make these formations work. We have zero pace across the pitch for starters. Just starting 11 signings I would say we need a GK, CB, RWB, LWB, and a ST. All 5 of those signings need to have pace. GK - You need a keeper quick off his line/out of his area for balls being played over the top/into the channels. Never will be Bachmann. CB - You need at least one CB who can cover ground quickly as the wing backs push forward and lose the ball. RWB/LWB - Got to have wing backs with a lot of speed and stamina. Will be up and down the pitch all game and will be our most attacking outlet in this formation. Andrews and Sema are clearly not the answer. ST - I think we all agree we need at least two strikers signed this window. But if Clevs is going one up top then a pacey target man is certainly needed. Someone who can hold the ball up as well as spin in behind and get into the box. Outside of that we definitely better options in the middle outside of Kone and Kayembe, so that’s another 2 more signings, 3 if one of them leaves. As mentioned above we need another striker on top of one that we must sign, so that’s another signing. If we’re playing with two attacking midfielders behind the striker, then we need a back up option there as well, so another signing. So all in all I would say we need GK: New signing, Bachmann, Roberts CB: New signing, Hoedt, Porteous, Sierralta Pollock RWB: New signing, Andrews LWB: New signing, Sema CM: Kone, Kayembe, new signing, new signing CAM: Asprilla, Chakvetadze, new signing ST: New signing, New signing, Bayo, Rajovic Again, 5 starting 11 players is a must just for us to be somewhat decent. 9 players needed in total if Gino is seriously thinking about us getting promoted. With our financial situation, we’re going to have to pull some rabbits out of a hat to make this happen.
I bloomin' well hope so. I've just seen Cleverley's comments today about the planned formation in the Wobby and he states: "We’re going to recruit towards a shape where we have three centre-backs, two No.6s, attacking wing-backs and then at the top of the pitch it’ll either be two No.10s and one No.9, or one No.10 and a pair of No.9s." That should surely rule out Ngakia playing a part.
Does he not attack then? Just seems to be permanently injured to do anything! Whereas people say Andrews don't defend.. I wonder how much say Cleverley will get when he says "we"
As I posted earlier, he has just 2 assists and 0 goals across his entire 4,875 career first-team minutes. For comparison, the wildly inconsistent 19 year-old Andrews managed 2 assists and 3 goals in his 2,575 minutes this season. Even Lewis - who is a pretty bog-standard full-back rather than a flying wing-back - managed 2 assists in 2,781 minutes this season. We've seen in our final games of the season when playing Clevs' 352 that it's more important our wing-backs can attack than defend, as our defence has been generally solid in that shape but we more often struggled to break opponents down.
I thought his performance against QPR first game of the season was excellent and I honestly thought he'd turned a corner. How wrong was I. But he did show good attacking intent.
What does he mean by #6s? Defensive midfielders or deep-lying playmakers? Of course traditionally, a #6 in this country was a defender before the woke took over!
I think a 6 has already referred to a deeper lying midfielder for longer than since the woke took over! A deeper lying midfielder can also be a deep-lying playmaker. Patrick Vieira was a '6', but so was Michael Carrick. I suspect though that he'd like the 6s to be combative ball-winners one way or another, to allow the front 3 more freedom to be creative. It doesn't necessarily mean he wants them to be glued to the defenders though as Ismael had Livermore do. We've already seen what Cleverley means by this with how we've already played under him with Kayembe and TDB. Though arguably in Clevs' 352 they have been a bit more box-to-box than the usual 6, but I suppose he's labeled them more a 6 than an 8 as he doesn't want both of them abandoning their defensive duties and they need to do a lot of ball-winning to help support the fact we'll be having a less combative player in front of them as a 10.
Last season Clev phased out Livermore in favour of TDB in that position just in front of the defence, but he was definitely more of a DLP, so it would make sense if we go down that route again with a new player in that role. I know it's not his preferred role, but I'd be interested to see Chak in that position (especially if Asprilla does end up staying and playing in that advanced role), he can take the ball out of tight spaces and get us up the field
He's a Lloyd donkey on the ball but without his defensive ability and lack of durability. Please someone make giving him a long term contract make sense...it's baffling
Wonder if this makes it more likely Sema stays now, he would be ideal for the left flank considering he can play at LWB in a 3-5-2 or as a LWB or a winger in a 3-4-3
https://x.com/VoicesOfTheVic/status/1794412309869375799 Played well for us but not sure is he PL quality?
Doesn't even say the clubs are in talks but the agent and Ipswich. Surely we will have to agree a fee first? I mean he is hardly a player worth tapping up..
Did he? All I see is him saying the story was doing the rounds, presumably referring to 'Voices of the Vic' tweeting about the sterling institution's report.
Pretty much every deal done is "tapped up" now, there's so many loopholes in that rule and its a bit defunct imo. Negotiations with clubs is often the hardest part of the deal, why should that be the first step when there's no guarantee that the player is interested in the move? So clubs use agents to sound out about a move to x, the agent will ask the player and the whole tapping up thing is completely sidestepped.
Which is exactly why I laugh when fans talk about clubs creating a ‘bidding war’ for a coveted player. As if United will bid £33m but Arsenal really want him so bid £35m. But United decide they can’t lost out so bid £39m…. And to hell with where the players wants (ie.has already agreed) to go! For 99% of players, the price is the same for whoever is buying.
I hope we keep hold of him personally. Like you say, one of our better players and formed a good partnership with Kone. Would be hard to replace on our budget and we already have enough holes in the squad to fill without further weakening one of our stronger areas
Agreed. I thought he was our most consistent player last season behind Hoedt, and he suits Clevs' formation well. Our season fell apart under Ismael when he and Sema were out, He would be a notable loss.
Well he was a long way behind Hoedt in terms of consistency, he had his fair share of anonymous and even outright stinking performances. Our season fell apart after his injury, but it didn't come together again when he came back, and I'm not sure Clev's system helped him as he was pretty up and down since he came in
Improved last season - but if the price is right, money for squad building has to come from somewhere - especially if stories about us keeping Asprilla are accurate.
