That is concerning. Whatmough can be useful when high balls are being launched into our penalty area but otherwise as we saw on Saturday he is it seems becoming unreliable to say the least and it is difficult to envisage him being of any use at all a season hence. The only thing I can suggest is that we look to save some cash and to move him on by subsidising his wages elsewhere for the remaining duration of his contract. If we can do that and release Bauer and Hughes completely at the end of the season that could free up some resource for the next campaign. By then also maybe Best will be ready for regular service. How we cope in the meantime is another matter - we have to be confident that PH can find ways of doing so.
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We have no defenders
- Thread starter twickerspne
- Start date
That is concerning. Whatmough can be useful when high balls are being launched into our penalty area but otherwise as we saw on Saturday he is it seems becoming unreliable to say the least and it is difficult to envisage him being of any use at all a season hence. The only thing I can suggest is that we look to save some cash and to move him on by subsidising his wages elsewhere for the remaining duration of his contract. If we can do that and release Bauer and Hughes completely at the end of the season that could free up some resource for the next campaign. By then also maybe Best will be ready for regular service. How we cope in the meantime is another matter - we have to be confident that PH can find ways of doing so.
I don't think Hughes would either to be honest .I think age and injuries has caught up to all of them now and unfortunately it has happened all at the same time.Defo need to get 2 replacements in January to replace 2 of them but who would be willing to take them off our hands if it is the one in one out scenario .
No Danger
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Only lower league teams who wouldn’t offer as much in wages making a move unattractive.
Unless as I suggested re Whatmough that we subsidise their wages elsewhere for the remaining duration of their contract with us. In the case of Bauer and Hughes if we did that in January it would only be for six months and might free up the equivalent of one wage for us to use on a younger player. The lure for the players would be no loss of immediate income and the possibility of a contract elsewhere beyond the end of this season.
Are you on about 'Ridders' ?😲
Our back 3 are slow as fucking sin.
Agree with the OP apart from Lindsay. Lindsay is a decent defender. He's a threat on corners, he wins alot in the air. Not the quickest of course but I feel he'd benefit from a quick partner. He's had many man of the matches in a pne shirt and scored some vital goals. He's much better than some let on.
simo
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He has obvious strengths and obvious weaknesses. He's probably our best defender which isn't to say hes of the required standard.
In the last two seasons we have a set of mediocre defenders coached poorly which makes them look even worse.
"The basics" can be improved upon in terms of organisation, shape etc. but really they all need replacing. If any of them is offered another contract at the club I'd be very disappointed.
Thracia
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Yeah, we need a striker who can get on the end of mindless hoofs from our centre backs, hold off a couple of Championship-quality defenders, hold up the ball while our midfield gets up in support, and maybe chip in with 15-20 goals themselves while they're at it.
Unfortunately, a striker who can do all that would cost a lot more than just recruiting a couple of defenders who aren't hopeless.
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P5 W1 D1 L3
GD -9 (second worst in league)
3 goals scored in five matches (3rd worst in league)
The sooner people realise we're already in a relegation scrap, the better. 🙁
#RidsdaleOut
simo
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No one is in a relegation scrap after 5 games. But if some momentum isn't gained in the next 5 then things become worrying. It always looked a tough start and the off-field decisions haven't helped with that.
At the moment we are but it is still early enough in the season for a couple of wins to make everything seem very different. The signs from Saturday are that compared with how the season started we are starting to show some cohesion and determination even just the odd flash of inspiration courtesy of either Greenwood who is now starting to look good or Frokjaer. Obviously a lot more needs to be added most obviously pace not just in terms of players who can run faster but in the speed we move the ball around and more specifically from back to front - we have to get out of this habit of tip-tapping the ball around on the edge of our own penalty area. PH knows what is required to get a team out of this division in an upward direction and though it is at the limits of credibility to think that he could do that with us this season then providing we can survive and get through to next summer with the chance that will bring for extensive reconstruction of the squad then anything is possible. But we have a cup match tonight let's focus on that for the moment.
Maybe what I'm seeing is just the best of a bad bunch.
Thing is , at this level, fast strikers have demanded big fees for a long time now and we're now at a point where fast CBs now command big fees. PNE are at the back if the queue for any type of player with potential unless they unearth a young talent before others spot them or we pick the foreign market with a tooth comb. That's our best bet imo. We've used the Euro market well last two seasons imo
Lindsay and Storey can both make a worthwhile contribution providing they have faster more mobile players around them - player like them do have their use when the opposition is slinging high balls into the box in search of a big centre forward. Of the two the one I would be most keen to keep is Storey who I have always thought could become the bedrock of our defence. But Bauer, Whatmough and Hughes all need to be moved on and replaced with younger more agile players - that is obvious. Two or three new players to replace them, plus Storey at least, plus Best, plus maybe an appropriate loanee such as Kesler-Hayden and thigs would look rather different. One question for right now, though, does occur to me - would Bauer be any worse than Whatmough?
You have to remember but when he had Ben Davies and latterly Diaby playing along side of him for a spell their pace more than covered for Lindsays lack of it and that was when Lindsay looked a lot more commanding than he does at the moment.
Davies never played with Lindsay
Thracia
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Ben Davies never played with Liam Lindsay.
Lindsay was Ridsdale's "as good or better" replacement for Davies.
We need to scrap this obsession with "surrounding" poor players with better ones, and instead just replace the poor players with better ones.
Oh Ernest!!
Saying I'd rather have Whatmough start after THAT showing the weekend just gone tells you all you need to know if it's a choice between the two.
RibbletonWhite2.0
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Personally the first two results of the season I take in isolation.
Under Heckingbottom it's P3 W1 D1 L1
You can't say we are in a relegation scrap after five games when two of them we didn't even have a tactically astute manager.
Think there is a lot of over reacting going on.