January 2022 | Vital Football

January 2022

wee_od_88

wee_od_88

Vital Football Hero
So Ange has said he will look to the Japanese market again in January to try and find another Kyogo. The difficulty is that anyone we sign will need to be a current international otherwise it is very difficult to get them a work permit to play here, it's something that is a real pain and a real disadvantage compared with other European countries.
Even still I've found a few players we could look at signing.

Miki Yamane - 27 year old (will be 28 in December) RB. Currently playing for Kawasaki Frontale and with a market value of £990k. His contract expires at the end of January so we should be able to get him for basically nothing if we want him earlier in January which Ange has suggested we do want players in quickly. With a contract about to expire and the J league season over by January, this should be a quick and easy deal to conclude.

Some fans have raved about Ralston this season and at times I have been one of them but we are running him ragged after him not playing at all in the 20/21 season. His tiredness is starting to show in games. While nobody can fault his effort and desire, he lacks the attacking quality we really need and has been at fault defensively a few times this season. He should only ever be, at most, a backup player in domestic games for us. Juranovic we havent seen that much of yet due to injuries and being used at LB so it's difficult to tell but it also feels like he might not be quite the quality we want either. He should have a good delivery at crosses and his passing looks good but big question marks over whether or not he can actually defend. I think a lot of fans would like an upgrade in this area.

 
Daizen Maeda is one that has been linked to us but a work permit could be an issue in as he's an u23 international. Ko Itakura as well
 
Maeda was an Ange player and was at the Olympics, I don't think it would be quite so difficult to get a work permit for him but still not as simple as a proper full Japan international. Maeda can play on the wing or in an attacking midfield/supporting striker role which are both areas we could still do with more cover in.

Ko Itakura was linked in the summer but chose to go to the Bundesliga 2 and join Schalke instead of us. He's still only on loan but it is with an option to buy. He's started 6 of his 7 appearances, the only one he didn't start was his first match for the team where he was brought on as a second half sub. They lost 4-1. Since then he's helped them to 5 wins out of 6 starts and 4 clean sheets. I think we missed out on a really good player there!

Trying to think which areas of the team we might reasonably expect to strengthen further in January.
Maybe another striker, maybe someone young to come in and learn and be backup? We're typically only playing with 1 striker, Kyogo is clearly first choice and Giakoumakis is second choice. 3rd choice is Ajeti but he really doesn't seem to suit the style, which is a little bit strange as I thought Ange's way of playing might really suit him better with him being able to link-up around the box and be a bit of a poacher, getting himself on the end of balls into the box but it just doesn't seem to be coming together for him when he got his opportunities.

Attacking midfield is definitely one I think we need to strengthen. Turnbull and Rogic have both been used a lot this season but if either gets injured, what do we do? They also could both benefit from a bit of rotation to help keep them fresher. There is the option of moving CalMac further forward but we would then need to be confident in whoever we bring in to the engine room at DM. Bitton has shown he's FAR more comfortable in DM than at CB and reports suggest he's made that clear to Ange too. James McCarthy is our other midfield option but he's struggling with fitness still after missing pre-season and generally I'm not sure if he's the man to fill in at DM on his own, I think he might be better paired with someone.
Soro looks like he could be on his way out.....another Kouassi type player. Showed initial promise but unable to force his way into the team with good performances. I get why some of the support like him but I don't think he's big, enough, strong enough, fast enough and doesn't have the game intelligence to play in an Ange team. I also generally think he is just simply not of the quality we need in that area of the pitch. He'd be best going away on loan and seeing if he can improve and develop his game away from us.

A lot of fans want to see a better defence than we've got.
Taylor is great on his day but ultimately he should only be a backup LB for us. Montgomery is hampered by a lack of pace and generally looking very afraid. Against Ferencvaros he won a penalty by getting to the byline. A few weeks ago he got to the byline and got a cross in for us to score a goal. But all too often he gets the ball, takes a touch and passes off to someone else, he's too afraid of making a mistake that I don't think we see the best of him. Bolingoli looked good against Motherwell but still big question marks over whether he can be a part of this club again. Scales is in but still getting up to speed; I'm hopeful for him but for the here and now, I'm not sure he's the quality we should really have in.
At CB, we've signed 2 new CBs and Jullien is close to a return. I don't see us signing another CB in January.
At RB, as mentioned above there is a question mark over Juranovic and Ralston should only be backup for us because again he just doesn't have the quality to be a first choice RB, so I think a RB could be on the cards in January.
 
I honestly don't think a RB will be bought. Ange brought Juranovic in specifically to be his number one RB but I do agree a LB should be one of his priorities. You really think Ajeti fits Anges style mate. I can't see it tbh. He's not agile enough and certainly doesn't seem to have the work rate. I've said this before but I think we made a massive mistake in letting Klimala leave. There's a player perfect for Ange's system. Will run, harry and close down all day long and he seems to have found his shooting boots as well
 
In theory Ajeti should be good for Ange's style but I agree he's not showing it. If you look back at his goals for Basel, we should be creating similar opportunities for him under Ange but he's just not getting into those areas to score.

I think you could argue we won't buy a single defender in January.....which on the face of it is quite worrying as there are zero star players or players of the quality we'd like in any of the back 4 positions.

Klimala did seem a strange one. He seemed like he should have fitted the Ange system too but then we didn't know we'd be bringing Ange in when we sold Klimala and we got a good offer for a player who looked like a flop.
 
wee_od_88 said:
In theory Ajeti should be good for Ange's style but I agree he's not showing it. If you look back at his goals for Basel, we should be creating similar opportunities for him under Ange but he's just not getting into those areas to score.

I think you could argue we won't buy a single defender in January.....which on the face of it is quite worrying as there are zero star players or players of the quality we'd like in any of the back 4 positions.

Klimala did seem a strange one. He seemed like he should have fitted the Ange system too but then we didn't know we'd be bringing Ange in when we sold Klimala and we got a good offer for a player who looked like a flop.
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I agree mate. Can't see any defenders being brought in now that we have Julien returning, Taylor will be back soon and we will have almost two players for each position
 
DM and attacking midfield are probably the 2 positions where we need more cover. Any further additions should be looking to add quality over who we already have.
 
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