[Archived] The January 2018 transfer thread

[Bigdoggsteel]

Could Bennett fill the centre midfield role going forward?If he can,it will make this window a lot more straight forward. 1 more winger needed. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

It's quite interesting that the lads recruited from this level have been the ones to shine. Dack, Smallwood, Downing have all been signings that obviously value playing for a club with our resources, status and background after bumping around the lower leagues for a while. It's the guys that are used to the luxury of the Prem that seem to take things for granted.

Can I assume we played our normal 4-4-1-1 yesterday with Graham up front, Samuel on the right wing and Conway on the left ? One or two comments prior to kick off had me scratching my head regarding how we were set up. 

I was expecting more from Shrews yesterday, looks like the number of games they've had to play combined with a high work rate style of play is catching up with a small squad.

More of the same please in future. It's great to see the enthusiastic comments on here and to see that the fans got their moneys worth yesterday.  Come On Rovers.

[AJW]

11 hours ago, darrenrover said:

I'm curious AJW, why did you think Williams was poor today? I thought he had an 'ok' game but wonder why he consistently is singled out as being poor? I personally think he's our latest 'Jason Lowe', 'Jason Wilcox', etc. etc.

Did you realise from full back, he's got more goal assists than anyone else in the team? Give the lad a break and support him rather than blind pillory him, you never know how much that could do for his (or Nyambe's) confidence. 

His distribution , he consistently manages to play the ball out when trying to play it down the line , so much so I think he would make a decent fly-half ,  he overlaps the winger then cuts inside on his weaker foot and he does that game after game. At the moment he is probably the weakest player in the team which is why Mowbray is trying to replace him

[blueboy3333]

5 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Can I assume we played our normal 4-4-1-1 yesterday with Graham up front, Samuel on the right wing and Conway on the left ?

It was more a 4-3-3 at times, with Dack helping Bennett and Smallwood in the middle of the park,  with Conway and Samuel hugging the touchline (in line with Graham) occupying their full backs. Lots of width and lots of pressing high up the pitch. Simliar to Brentford away last game of last season when Gally played on the right wing.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

It was more a 4-3-3 at times, with Dack helping Bennett and Smallwood in the middle of the park,  with Conway and Samuel hugging the touchline (in line with Graham) occupying their full backs. Lots of width and lots of pressing high up the pitch. Simliar to Brentford away last game of last season when Gally played on the right wing.

Sounds good. You should always make the pitch as big as you can when you have the ball and as small as you can when your opponents are in possession.

[Hasta]

13 hours ago, darrenrover said:

I'm curious AJW, why did you think Williams was poor today? I thought he had an 'ok' game but wonder why he consistently is singled out as being poor? I personally think he's our latest 'Jason Lowe', 'Jason Wilcox', etc. etc.

Did you realise from full back, he's got more goal assists than anyone else in the team? Give the lad a break and support him rather than blind pillory him, you never know how much that could do for his (or Nyambe's) confidence. 

I don't get this view that people aren't allowed to post their opinion of a player and that youre meant to support him blind. Don't give players stick on the ground and don't hunt them down on Twitter but on here there is nothing wrong with saying a player is poor. 

The transfer window is all about improving, even if players are ok. Friedal in for Filan. Shearer for Speedie. Le saux for Alan Wright. There are plenty of instances where good players were were replaced by better ones. It's how you move forward.

On Williams, he's decent enough at this level but struggled in the Championship. Yesterday, I thought h in the first half he didn't get tight enough and Shrewsbury got a lot of success getting balls into the box and working positions down their right hand side during their purple patch..I'd be looking at a full back,  centre half and winger in this window.

[Tormund]

Don’t need a winger when Chapman is back

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Tormund said:

Don’t need a winger when Chapman is back

You mean if he's back ?

[roversfan99]

26 minutes ago, Tormund said:

Don’t need a winger when Chapman is back

Even if he is, for me hes our only good winger, so we need a replacement for him and another one.

[Tormund]

Amari’i Bell may play left wing with Williams behind.

[roversfan99]

26 minutes ago, Tormund said:

Amari’i Bell may play left wing with Williams behind.

But then I'd question the logic of signing a left back to fill the left wing void, when he could just sign a left winger.

Square pegs in square holes.

[Tormund]

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But then I'd question the logic of signing a left back to fill the left wing void, when he could just sign a left winger.

Square pegs in square holes.

Well he plays strikers on the wings now.

[Bigdoggsteel]

22 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But then I'd question the logic of signing a left back to fill the left wing void, when he could just sign a left winger.

Square pegs in square holes.

Bell has played left wing before. Have you ever seen him play?

3 minutes ago, Tormund said:

Well he plays strikers on the wings now.

Ya,with great results 

I was sceptical about Samuel ,but he put a shift in yesterday. 

[JacknOry]

Was involved in two of the goals too. better performance from him - perhaps the Armstrong arrival is why. 

Just seen the highlights - Dack really is some player at this level.

[Hasta]

12 minutes ago, Tormund said:

Well he plays strikers on the wings now.

Hence why we need wingers.

[Mike E]

30 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But then I'd question the logic of signing a left back to fill the left wing void, when he could just sign a left winger.

Square pegs in square holes.

Could be as simple as Tony thinks his attributes are that of a winger and not a left back? Hendry was a striker until he was told otherwise by his manager.

[Tormund]

Just now, Hasta said:

Hence why we need wingers.

Yeah but it’s working as it is.

[Hasta]

10 minutes ago, Tormund said:

Yeah but it’s working as it is.

See my previous comment about Speedie, Filan and Wright.

[chaddyrovers]

45 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But then I'd question the logic of signing a left back to fill the left wing void, when he could just sign a left winger.

Square pegs in square holes.

Depends who available. Alot of clubs wont sell their best players at this time of the year or are overpriced. I would rather not buy players that arent worth the fee. 

Plus wingers like Chapman arent easy to find  

26 minutes ago, Tormund said:

Well he plays strikers on the wings now.

Yes he does. Antonsson has scored his goals from wings. Samuel did very good and kept the width very well

10 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Could be as simple as Tony thinks his attributes are that of a winger and not a left back? Hendry was a striker until he was told otherwise by his manager.

Excellent point

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Depends who available. Alot of clubs wont sell their best players at this time of the year or are overpriced. I would rather not buy players that arent worth the fee. 

Plus wingers like Chapman arent easy to find  

Yes he does. Antonsson has scored his goals from wings. Samuel did very good and kept the width very well

Excellent point

To clarify, this is a massively hypothetical scenario that involves:

- Rovers signing Bell

- Rovers using Bell as an auxiliary winger.

- Rovers signing him due to a lack of wingers being available.

Therefore its a bit of a silly discussion to have, that said I am totally against the idea of signing players with the intention of playing them in positions that they aren't used to playing in, barring extreme exceptions. 

Bell may have pace etc but he has played at left back for Fleetwood all season. If we want to sign at least 1 (preferably 2) wingers, we should try and sign actual wingers, we have more than enough players that can do a job as wingers but arent wingers. 

To ask the question, how many players for Rovers have we seen being played in the wrong positions in the last few years, and how often does it work? Square pegs in square holes.

I understand the concept of versatility being useful, for example there might be times when say we are winning by 1 goal and Bell (if he signs) could come in front of Williams and see the game out, but if we sign a left back, it should be with the intention of mainly using him at left back. If we need a winger, which we do, we should sign a winger.

[tomphil]

Maybe someone has a deal lined up to move Williams on in summer and they are looking to get someone in now.

I'm in agreement with the square pegs rounds holes scenario in the starting line up, too many will cause problems it did early season.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

Bell is coming for competition for the left back spot, Mowbray has repeated that in several interviews. The only way that Bell playing further forward would be if we went playing with wing backs. 

[Pedro]

Sign Bell, Williams could go left centre back, Mulgrew could be pushed into centre mid.

I'd personally rather keep Mulgrew at the back but it's an option.

[TBTF]

On ‎13‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 14:42, Tom said:

Bell starts for Fleetwood, not sure those 'fee agreed' rumours are true 

well I doubt it happens in the next 7 days in time for him to play for us against them

[roversfan99]

https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/fleetwood-town-fc/fleetwood-boss-rosler-blackburn-rovers-have-a-bid-in-for-amari-i-bell-but-leeds-united-loan-star-lewie-coyle-is-staying-put-1-8957313