[danblue]

Reading what I've seen on BB, I've come to the conclusion that the main worries are the defence and strikers.
Defensively I think we will be OK. We have got mistakes in there but we have enough in tbe squad for covering injuries and a dip in form.
Striker-wise, the question is who covers for Grigg if he gets injured. With Dallas, folk were pinning their hopes on him, but he anit signed up - but here's the thing, we score goals through the team. The only player I don't expect to score this season is our keeper.
Curtis the trialist seems to be doing OK, Qiggs has been involved and can hold up and bring in Dobs, Coco and Mandy in if we have to adopt a different style/formation.
If Grigg was out for a length of time, I'd expect a loan in - unless Asante gets fit (we'd probably have to manage him in games/amount of time played if we went down that route due to injuries and possiblybreaking down again).
I think Danny Rowe will go out on loan again if he can get fit and well so probably not involved unless recalled.

[Lincs Spireite]

It's a big big risk not to bring in another striker. I want to see us do what Hollywood and County did last season and get 100 points. To do that a pair of proven striker should see that happen. Then promotion guaranteed job done.

[LondonBlue]

Right now as it stands, IMO we are weaker up front than we finished the season. We brought in Dallas and McCallum to correct our issues at the top of the pitch, we now have Grigg + what was already here. How will we do? I think we are in for a very good season and will no doubt challenge for top spot. We will finish somewhere 1st-3rd.

[stainlessstephen]

We definitely need another CF IMHO. It'll be interesting to see what happens against the Blunts tomorrow.

[Rodney's Moustache]

If we got Dallas then we'd be nailed on to be champions however now that boats sailed and if we don't get anyone else in then I think we are looking at a similar scenario to last season.

[Goku]

Hmm tricky one. We don't know what state the other teams' squads will be in come season start. I'm confident we'll win the league but if Grigg gets an early injury we are struggling unless we sign a striker. I won't be 100% confident of a title until we sign a striker.

[gb007]

danblue said:

1689343739[/url]' post='1754711']
Reading what I've seen on BB, I've come to the conclusion that the main worries are the defence and strikers.
Defensively I think we will be OK. We have got mistakes in there but we have enough in tbe squad for covering injuries and a dip in form.
Striker-wise, the question is who covers for Grigg if he gets injured. With Dallas, folk were pinning their hopes on him, but he anit signed up - but here's the thing, we score goals through the team. The only player I don't expect to score this season is our keeper.
Curtis the trialist seems to be doing OK, Qiggs has been involved and can hold up and bring in Dobs, Coco and Mandy in if we have to adopt a different style/formation.
If Grigg was out for a length of time, I'd expect a loan in - unless Asante gets fit (we'd probably have to manage him in games/amount of time played if we went down that route due to injuries and possiblybreaking down again).
I think Danny Rowe will go out on loan again if he can get fit and well so probably not involved unless recalled.

Arguably you could say last year defensive was our weakness.
As we all know we finished 3rd and the goals scored (81) was the 3rd best total in the league.
However when we look at goals conceded (52)we only just scraped into 7th position ( conceded 1 less than Bromley)
Last year 1 of my major gripes was that we didn’t have a spine in the team so far cookie has gone a long way in creating a new spine with Grigg,Naylor and Tyrer (hopefully)
But we still are missing the last piece of jigsaw ie a proper CH and whilst I see the clamour for more forwards I still think we need to address the CH position unless of course Naylor gets moved in there as we seem to be well covered body wise in his position with Jones,Oldaker,Banks etc but are they good enough to create the new spine?

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

We will concede goals.

You'd like to think Naylor's arrival will prevent some, but Cook's open plan style will remain vulnerable.

So we have to be ruthless at the other end. Griggs replaces Dallas as things stand, but he's an unknown. Then the others brought in are young hopefulls rather than in any way proven.

Both Wrexham and Notts conceded but had the firepower to compensate. Not sure we do yet...

[Lincs Spireite]

 The Earl of Chesterfield, on 14 July 2023 - 03:09 PM, said:

We will concede goals.

You'd like to think Naylor's arrival will prevent some, but Cook's open plan style will remain vulnerable.

So we have to be ruthless at the other end. Griggs replaces Dallas as things stand, but he's an unknown. Then the others brought in are young hopefulls rather than in any way proven.

Both Wrexham and Notts conceded but had the firepower to compensate. Not sure we do yet...

My point exactly Not bothered too much by goals conceded, the only thing that matters is 3 points that means being ruthless in front of goal.

[Bobby Darling]

 Goku, on 14 July 2023 - 02:51 PM, said:

Hmm tricky one. We don't know what state the other teams' squads will be in come season start. I'm confident we'll win the league but if Grigg gets an early injury we are struggling unless we sign a striker. I won't be 100% confident of a title until we sign a striker.

If Cook was after Dallas then he thinks we need a striker too. A 20 goals striker. He wasn’t going to put Dallas on the bench.

[gb007]

The Earl of Chesterfield said:

1689347348[/url]' post='1754727']
We will concede goals.

You'd like to think Naylor's arrival will prevent some, but Cook's open plan style will remain vulnerable.

So we have to be ruthless at the other end. Griggs replaces Dallas as things stand, but he's an unknown. Then the others brought in are young hopefulls rather than in any way proven.

Both Wrexham and Notts conceded but had the firepower to compensate. Not sure we do yet...

Both Notts and Wrexham conceded less than a goal a game (42 and 43)which by any standards is a great platform to build a team round
Arguably with this defensive record they could still have accumulated the same level of points with our 80+ goals scored last year

[gordon_brittas]

2 strikers short still for me.

Can see a lot of opposing sides sitting back next season, making the sharpness of the frontmen even more important.

[h again]

It seems everybody wants to concentrate on the strikers - probably because it worked dramatically for Wrexham and County last time. I'm more concerned about the defence. We were highly vulnerable to the through ball and over the top balls last season, purely because of the way we played, and the message can't have been lost on the other sides. Absorb a bit of pressure and clear the ball just behind the pressing defenders and not too close to the sweeper/keeper and they've got us in trouble.
Some excellent signings, but I'd like to see a central defender with a bit more pace. I know it's only polishing up an excellent squad, but it's the only weakness that could cost us.
Dallas looks irrelevant to me. No doubt he's good, but I can't see how he'd fit in as a substitute for Grigg, and Cookie doesn't play two strikers. I don't think he's that keen on out-and-out strikers at all, but his hand's been forced by the need for more goals to cover over the defensive weaknesses.

[hilly81]

 gordon_brittas, on 14 July 2023 - 03:19 PM, said:

2 strikers short still for me.

Can see a lot of opposing sides sitting back next season, making the sharpness of the frontmen even more important.

There isn't a chance we are signing 2 more strikers unless 1, possibly 2 of Quigley, Asante and Rowe leave.

[Spireite93]

We got 84 points last season with the squad we have now, we haven't lost any players that majorly contributed to that amount of points (Kabby aside in the opening couple of weeks)

We could perhaps have gotten more points in certain games, and maybe less in others, but comfortable or not thats the amount we finished on, which should be achievable again with the same squad.

We'll have to wait and see if Tyrer is an upgrade on Fitzsimons

Does Grigg score the goals Kabby did in August/September and many more to get us extra points to push for the title?

Does Naylor offer more assurance to a defence that can sometimes look shaky?

The prospect/rumours of Dallas and Raglan earlier in pre season got me giddy and thoughts of an unbeaten season, 10-0 wins all over the shop

Where we are at now, should be enough to at least challenge and hopefully win it

[Goku]

 Spireite93, on 14 July 2023 - 04:05 PM, said:

We got 84 points last season with the squad we have now, we haven't lost any players that majorly contributed to that amount of points (Kabby aside in the opening couple of weeks)

We could perhaps have gotten more points in certain games, and maybe less in others, but comfortable or not thats the amount we finished on, which should be achievable again with the same squad.

We'll have to wait and see if Tyrer is an upgrade on Fitzsimons

Does Grigg score the goals Kabby did in August/September and many more to get us extra points to push for the title?

Does Naylor offer more assurance to a defence that can sometimes look shaky?

The prospect/rumours of Dallas and Raglan earlier in pre season got me giddy and thoughts of an unbeaten season, 10-0 wins all over the shop

Where we are at now, should be enough to at least challenge and hopefully win it

No need to wait and see on Tyrer/Fitzsimons, the former is much better.

[dtp]

It's hard for some to accept that Quigley played a good number of minutes and a large part in our coming third last season. He scored a reasonable share of goals in the first half of the season but failed miserably in that department in the second half. Had he continued at the level he was at in before the New Year he would have been mid to high teens goals wise. So, yes, room for improvement. So, can he and Cook provide that improvement?

Dobra ended up as our leading scorer but missed around a third of the season because of injury. Again, had he remained fit and continued to score at the rate he acheived in the games he played then he would have shown a return in the high teens. So, can he remain fit and continue that type of scoring return?

The only player that scored at a higher rate of knots but played very few minutes was Tshimanga. Instead, we now have Grigg who Cook rates higher. If he can score at the expected rate then, again, he should have a return in the high teens if not in the twenties.

Yes, we bought in Dallas and McCallum just before the end of the season but the former hardly set the world on fire in his first few games whilst the latter started better than he finished. However, Dallas did begin to show the type of movement required to suit Cook's system but was never as deadly as Kabby was but, nevertheless, ended up with a decent goals return. The big question is p, and remains, that if he was signed or a player of a similar calibre how would Cook fit two frontmen into his one up top system?

We also added the goals of Coclough part way through last season and Mandeville suddenly learned where the back of the net is. These two should now be looking towards improving on their CFC return over a full season.

Now, I went to games expecting us to score but also very wary that we were likely to make it difficult for ourselves by gifting the opposition a chance or two. I certainly think that Naylor should strengthen defensive midfield and hope that throughout the full season we should see an improvement in the goalkeeping department. However, we still have four contracted centre backs all of whom are vulnerable to get caught out of position by a through ball or long ball and I do not see the goals conceded department has improved.

[Walton Spireite]

As it stands we are well short in the strikers department.