One thing regarding the Santos Dunkley comparison. Both are big bastard stoppers. But Dunkley was a goalscorer at the other end. Santos hasn’t scored a single goal for Horwich despite towering above anyone on the same pitch. That suggests to me that whilst he is clearly a good natural defender, his aerial ability and general awareness is poorer than it should be. 50p head comes to mind.
Anyway, as Latics said we’re going to need a left footed centre back rather than a right footed one.
How the hell has football got so complicated? We have wing backs that play like wingers. Centre Half's who now need to be left and right centre Half's.Adding to that if we see our future as wing backs the higher up the league's you go the more you need our left and right centre back to be comfortable on the ball and get involved in build up play. Santos would probably be ok as the centre of a back 3 but for left or right side in the Championship I think he's probably not a good fit.
To be fair I think we may find Tilt, Kerr and Watts may all struggle in that aspect if we go up. Those left and right centre back positions are evolving into being a bit more like a full back.
How the hell has football got so complicated? We have wing backs that play like wingers. Centre Half's who now need to be left and right centre Half's.
Midfield players who are strikers.
Remember it being a team game where if a left back went on a run like Billy Sutherland or Leighton Baines then a midfield player would drop back or a central defender would slide over to cover. Now every position seems to have to be a specialist position. Look at this invented position nowadays IE the number 10 position. WTF is that all about.
I suppose the game moves on and gets more tactical and to a massive extent our squad this season do play all over the park and cover every manner of positions with our workmanlike style.
I would look to bring Nathan Byrne back. A specialist at wing-back if Leam continues to play the 3-5-2, was probably our best player in our post-lockdown surge in 2020 and has by all accounts been one of the few bright spots in Derby's team this season.
Byrne’s brilliant piece of skill to set-up Derby’s winner against Fulham yesterday has further convinced me that he should be one of our top targets if they go down.
Noticed too that Kal Naismith also scored the winning penalty for a Luton team right in the promotion race. He has played virtually every game for them this season so it’s nice to be vindicated on his abilities after so many people insisted he was terrible and one of the worst players to pull on a Wigan shirt. The way he was treated here still makes me shake my head, the Reading game at home in particular. I hope now with the perspective of administration some of our fans are a little more patient and forgiving with new signings when they inevitably find it tough going at first in the Championship next season.
Not to condone how Naismith was treated but I do think that horrendous Reading game was the making off him.
Prior to that he was nowhere near as bad as some said but he was a bit up and down to say the least. But that game was rock bottom for him and he bounced back so much stronger. It seemed to really motivate him to push on and prove his worth and he was superb for both us and Luton after that. Showed huge character when most would've crumbled and never been seen again. I wouldn't wish it on any of our players but i do think that was arguably a painful blessing in disguise for him.
I'd love Naismith back and be more than happy with Byrne.
Presumably, Bray is one of the two triallists on the team sheet ...
The lad hasn't made any senior appearances or been out on loan so it looks like we are scouting academies looking for unearthed gems with this lad and the Blackburn link recently.
Our academy has a very good reputation and these young lads who are being dropped by the larger clubs academies are well coached but have just not made the grade for the PL and Championship clubs first team squads.
They are ideal for us as they will have been used to working within a decent club structure and there is no doubt that one or two will be late developers who will make the grade for the mid to lower leagues and will bring in a bob or two when we sell them on without us having to invest as much in them if they had joined us as youth players.
Didn't Steve Bruce say a club like ours doesn't really need an academy. Their best bet is to do what we're trying to do now. Pick up 18/19 year olds released by clubs with better grade academy's.
Even though I agree with him i think our academy is important as it gives younger kids the chance to get to know the club and feel part of it.
Eventually becoming fans and bringing in revenue that way.
I agree with him to a point as well and Brentford are the blueprint in terms of how to operate successfully without an academy and instead just operating with a B-Team.Didn't Steve Bruce say a club like ours doesn't really need an academy. Their best bet is to do what we're trying to do now. Pick up 18/19 year olds released by clubs with better grade academy's.
Even though I agree with him i think our academy is important as it gives younger kids the chance to get to know the club and feel part of it.
Eventually becoming fans and bringing in revenue that way.
Yeah agree with this, it's about spotting those points when young prospects are often moving around. The churn tends to happen at 6-7 when mini-Messi's get everyone excited, and then things tend to stabilise U9s in the foundation stage until you get to around 12 when hormones/puberty etc kick in and you move into the youth development phase, and then there's clearly an opportunity for us to be looking at those youngsters who drop out of Everton, Liverpool, United etc. The reality is that running the earlier stages of the academies isn't hugely expensive relative to a Gelhardt transfer fee every few years, so while it might not necessarily be the foundation of the club's squad for years to come, it makes sense to be in the process.I agree with him to a point as well and Brentford are the blueprint in terms of how to operate successfully without an academy and instead just operating with a B-Team.
But something worth thinking about, without an academy, we'd have never ended up getting the likes of Gelhardt, who joined us when he was about 11 did he not? More recently is Thelo, who joined us at 13/14. Without an academy, these kids don't wind up at Latics.