1 minute ago, jjvale_03 said:

grow up you pair, it's embarrassing.

Just block Brian like I just have and the forums becomes a better place

21 minutes ago, bobbymanc said:

Let's hope our wingbacks can avoid injuries more so than last season. It's a demanding position, so having 2 starters in both positions should help with managing minutes. Mitch, Headley and John were all out for months on end last season. Keeping them fitter for longer is one of the keys to a successful campaign for us. Having 2 top wingbacks on the bench for the final 30 will be massive for us. With 5 subs you should rarely be expecting a player in such a demanding position to play the full 90.

Having both Mitch and John who can both play left and right gives another level of cover too.

Im really pleased with where we have landed with the wingbacks.

16 hours ago, philpvfc said:

 

Style of play

edit

Lawrence-Gabriel plays primarily at right-back, though he can also play at left-back if needed.^[42] He can also fill in at centre-back on the right side of a back three.^[40] An attacking full-back, he likes to take on opponents with his pace, get forward and provide crosses.^[40]
 

 

^{Apology accepted.} 

a quote from an unamed source isnt going to convince me that he is a replacement for debrah as far as I am concerned an attacking full back is a wing back and I have repeatedly asked if he has ever actually played at centre back because so far I can find no evidence for it beyond someone mentioning that his agent said he can play there which means nothing. I ask you again has he ever actually played there?

 

I will throw it open to the room does anyone else think he was signed as an upgrade on debrah apart from you?

 

A player who can fill in at centre back in an emergency is NOT an upgrade on a player who is a specialist in that position. Phil sproson used to go in goal in an emergency that didnt make him an upgrade on grew. I can find numerous references to him being a wing back from his last manager to the fans of the last club he played for so I don't think he has been signed to play centre back and I don't think we need to go 4 at the back to accommodate him as a full back I think its blatantly obvious that he has been signed as a wing back and unless you can point me to some evidence that he is a better centre back than debrah then he is not an upgrade on debrah.

17 hours ago, philpvfc said:

A) he is described as a RB on the net

B)I’ve never said he has been signed as a RCB, I merely said he could possibly play in either positon as he has been described as a RB on the net

Im sensing someone who clearly doesn’t understand what I questioned and coming up with some right bull sh1te

 

 

Nope you clearly stated that you thought he had been signed as an upgrade on debrah thats the bit I have been questioning right from the start and I have asked and asked if he has ever actually played as a centre back but you have provided no evidence that he ever has and as for "the net" well "the net" is mahoosive I could easily point you to someone on the net who says that all our leaders are lizard people but I don't believe that either.

 

Gabriel is tall enough to be utilised at rcb we played sang and john there last season when we were struggling to find a solid back three or when we had injuries but when we did hit on the winning formula it was debrah smith and hall all of whom were proper centre backs so yes he could be used there but no he is not an upgrade on debrah. I think mitch has competition and if they both stay fit I think one of them may end up on the bench but I will give you one thing it has been mentioned a few times that he can also fill in at lwb so maybe he is an upgrade on shorrock.

6 hours ago, Brian Johnson said:

Remember, they can not play the same position at the same time🙂

KillJoy! Just sayin

3 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

I don’t agree. Debrah was played at RCB almost exclusively last season. No change Moore goes into league 1 with Debrah as the starting Cb. 

To me, we’re recruiting to the 352 formation. Our wing backs are very attacking and all better offensively than defensively. I imagine Gabriel will be the starting RWB and Headley LWB. With John and Clark competing. Then possibly John and Gabriel competing with Debrah at RCB. I just don’t see us releasing Smith (a better out and out cb than Debrah) and then starting Debrah in the middle.

I still think we will sign a RCB and Cb personally. 

Our Achilles heal last season was the squad depth. I think Moore will be looking to add some real depth this year 

We'll see, won't we. I agree that there will be more competition in the squad by the start of the season, in any case, so Debrah will have to play very well to retain his place. I personally think Debrah's future is in the central role given his combined height and pace, and at 25 he hopefully has his peak years ahead of him. I don't think switching him to middle of 3 is the remote possibility you do (obviously). I also don't really agree that at this stage Smith is obviously better than Debrah at CB: Smith did a great job in his last hurrah and I don't want to downgrade that, but Debrah was at least equally good during the run-in.

All that said, I agree with you that I'd definitely like two more CBs better than Smith for the squad, please. 🙂

In terms of squad depth, rather than our Achilles' Heel, I think we were actually in a much better place than most other L2 teams, which was a big reason we clung on during our bad run and were able to get over the line - despite injuries and a few squad members frankly being passengers. I don't think we'll get away with this year, so it's good DM has been ruthless to make space for new recruits.

18 hours ago, philpvfc said:

 

Style of play

edit

Lawrence-Gabriel plays primarily at right-back, though he can also play at left-back if needed.^[42] He can also fill in at centre-back on the right side of a back three.^[40] An attacking full-back, he likes to take on opponents with his pace, get forward and provide crosses.^[40]
 

 

^{Apology accepted.} 

Always good to take a good look at those Wiki footnotes IMO...

15 minutes ago, valeitup said:

We'll see, won't we. I agree that there will be more competition in the squad by the start of the season, in any case, so Debrah will have to play very well to retain his place. I personally think Debrah's future is in the central role given his combined height and pace, and at 25 he hopefully has his peak years ahead of him. I don't think switching him to middle of 3 is the remote possibility you do (obviously). I also don't really agree that at this stage Smith is obviously better than Debrah at CB: Smith did a great job in his last hurrah and I don't want to downgrade that, but Debrah was at least equally good during the run-in.

All that said, I agree with you that I'd definitely like two more CBs better than Smith for the squad, please. 🙂

In terms of squad depth, rather than our Achilles' Heel, I think we were actually in a much better place than most other L2 teams, which was a big reason we clung on during our bad run and were able to get over the line - despite injuries and a few squad members frankly being passengers. I don't think we'll get away with this year, so it's good DM has been ruthless to make space for new recruits.

It's squad depth that got us up IMO

Just now, DazFred said:

It's squad depth that got us up IMO

When we had injuries we really struggled. When we had a full side we were excellent 

To be fair we were incredibly unlucky with injuries, not necessarily that we had loads but all occurred in the same place! The bad spell Nov-Dec we lost virtually all our midfield bar 1 and that was the position we felt pre season we had incredible depth in, signing Rhys helped with that a bit at least, the we had bad luck with wing backs losing  John, Headley, Clark and Sang for periods of time often overlapping.

 

7 minutes ago, DazFred said:

It's squad depth that got us up IMO

I agree we had our fair share of injuries all season, Clark, Garrity, John, Headley,  Stockley, Debrah, Richards and Sang all missed a fair chunk of games. We only lost back to back league games once all season.  Ironically we were probably closest to full strength for the last 4 games - when we won one, lost 2 and drew one! We still picked up points when players were out.

5 hours ago, valeitup said:

I'm getting more sure Moore sees Debrah's future as the centre of a three. Also it seems like he's recruiting to allow us to play 4 at the back more easily.

I think he s recruiting to continue with the successful 5 at the back… I don’t see any chance of him moving away from that next season.

6 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

Looks like Gabriel will be the RCB competition for Debrah and RWB competition for Clark.

That’s how I see it.

1 minute ago, JRC said:

I agree we had our fair share of injuries all season, Clark, Garrity, John, Headley,  Stockley, Debrah, Richards and Sang all missed a fair chunk of games. We only lost back to back league games once all season.  Ironically we were probably closest to full strength for the last 4 games - when we won one, lost 2 and drew one! We still picked up points when players were out.

Curtis scored important goals

Rico came on and helped get a point v Grimsby

Chizzy at Morecambe 

There's others too

PVTV interview with DM doesn’t give too much away regarding player recruitment, but reading between the lines it sounds as though a couple are close. Looks like there’ll need to be a staffing rebuild too, regarding Bradbury’s leaving and Jacobs’ continued illness.