We didn't pay 800k for Madine.

I agree with Chup, Madine is fine & isn't the problem although he is the new scapegoat. Anybody who's ever played the role that Madine is asked to play will tell you how difficult it is. He has to deal with long ball after long ball with little to no support. He wins header after header for absolutely no reward. He has to run the channels, he has to drop back into midfield to mark the spare man when teams come to Hillsborough & play 5 in midfield, he's expected to score his share of our goals & he's pretty much our best defender from oppo's corners. That is an awful lot to ask of a young lad learning his trade but he does it with minimum fuss.

Our strikers are capable of goals, our midfield lacks creativity, forward runners & movement in the final 3rd, although that has improved with Lines.

A winger was top of the requirement list, IMO.

i_monster

You've no idea what the details of the Madine deal were either, unless you have access to the legal documentation, which I doubt.

I agree it's a bit silly slagging Madine as he's only young and the rest of the team aren't exactly pulling up trees. Ideally we wouldn't be starting a season with him as our main man up front but that's the way it is.

Pleased with the Marshall signing; not really seen much of him but seems to have a decent pedigree and reports.

As for not passing: it's not as though Megson forbids his teams from playing it short, just that he favours the direct route and playing in the opposition half. Given the ability, of lack thereof, in teh squad, this is understandable. It's not as though if we string together 20 passes and score he's gonna be tearing strips of the players for not getting it forward..

I find it kind of ironic when fans criticise a team or manager's style of play when most of them will be the same fans baying at the team to get it forward during games..

"You've no idea what the details of the Madine deal were either, unless you have access to the legal documentation, which I doubt."

I wasn't aware I said I did!

The club said we spent £1.3m on the January signings. M Morrison, R Johnson & Reynolds cost more than 500k between them.

Ah right, you just know we didn't pay £800k, not actually how much we did pay for him. Obviously my mistake..

I think the midfield just lacks (lacked) width and the balance that brings.

When CoG comes back (!) & if the winger Marshall clicks then we won't be a million miles off in terms of squad. The worry now is the players attitude (already!).

"Ah right, you just know we didn't pay £800k, not actually how much we did pay for him. Obviously my mistake.."

Apology accepted.

has mr megson signed a winger when its blatently obvious we need a striker?
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If we had the likes of Torres, Villa, Rooney, Aguero, or Tevez up front for us, they still wouldnt score goals with the lack of creativeness in our Midfield, my point is Madine, Morrison or COG will start scoreing once we have creativeness both out wide and "in the hole", for me a winger was an absolute must for us ahead of a new striker.

This Marshall kid sounds very promising from what ive heard and also Lines is looking promising too, perhaps if we played Lines behind Madine or whoever and that way the striker would have the service both out wide and just behind him, providing that Madine moves into position well enough for Lines to pick out the pass or create the chances that Madine craves to score.

On another note regarding Meggy, why is he always publiclly slating the players if we lose, he should keep his words in the dressing roon after the game and for the training sessions but also he should maybe encourage players and not pull them down, there are good players here and if Meggy continues with his public ramblings on how badly we played, who was at fault for this and that, Morale will soon dwindle and the plaers will not want to play for both Meggy and us and therefore their form and perfances will affect everyone else at the club

Mega Milan

Agree re Megson slating the players in the press - especially with 3 games gone. That's our job on here, after all..

i_monster

I wasn't apologising. Since you don't know the details of transfer fees, I wouldn't be coming on here implying that you do by stating we didn't pay x for this or that player.

I am just off to boil my own head.

i_monster

I wasn't apologising.

On another note regarding Meggy, why is he always publiclly slating the players if we lose
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I'm guessing he thinks that naming will shame them into pulling there socks up. Lord knows, the softly softly approach of Irvine didn't work.

ah, the laughter smiley; I am defenceless in the face of such wit and will cede defeat.

I didn't know how else to get across that I was laughing at you!

I'm gonna let the thread continue on it's course now cos it's a decent discussion.

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I agree that Megson slating the players in public might not be the best way to go but I also think it's just a case of telling the fans what they want to hear, pretty much wht he's done since he's been here.

Almost as if, he saw that Irvine alienated himself from the majority with a few comments & he's decided to go the other way.

I'm sure it's very different behind closed doors on a day to day basis although I certainly think the hairdryer treatment will appear on matchdays when they're not performing.

Is it the fault of the midfield that our strikers cannot hold the ball up or win enough headers? How can we build play to give them chances to score, when the ball literally never sticks?
We've got the best central midfield pairing we've had in ages and it's still their fault?

They do hold it up when we get into their feet but how many times do we have midfield runners getting beyond them, not very often. How long do we expect them to hold it up for when they've got 2-3 defenders round them.

Madine won countless headers the other night, but there was nobody with 40yds of him for most of them.

Yes, we have a stronger CM but they're not exactly forward thinking players who'll look to run in behind or get beyond the strikers. That's the one area we're desperately lacking in & I think with the acquisitions of Lines & Marshall, Megson knows this aswell.

Not sure I've seen much evidence of Madine holding it up when it's into his feet either to be honest.
I dont watch to start having the old scapegoat moan thrown at me for not seeing much ability in him, but i think to pin blind hope of "he'll score shed loads if we get a winger in" is pretty short sighted and blinkered.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but every time i've seen him, i've been left scratching my head as to where this faith comes from.

*want

Like Monsty says Semedo and Jesus dont base their game on creating chances or getting forward, they're more for protecting the back four, for me we need to employ a 4,2,3,1 formation where we will have two CM'S protecting the back four (Semedo & Jesus) and passing out wide or to Lines and NOT hoofing it up, then JJ (When fit) or Sege or Ooochi Kooochie on one side and Marshall on the other wing then Lines operating behind Madine/Morrison/COG in a free role where he will be able to create chances and set up goals...who else agrees?

Seems the the best ay for me, it may be a mre defensive formation but Arsenal play that formation and they mange to play decent stuff, yes I know the gulf in class is light years apart but my point is we can still play decent stuff with this formation

Well, he'll have more chance of scoring with support from midfield & having more than the odd chance created for him here & there.

He's still raw & still learning but in general his touch is good, his link up play is good, his workrate is good & surely last season showed he's capable of scoring goals.

Don't get me wrong he's capable of the other side of all of them but then so are many a finished article.

Mega,

It's certainly an option but I think he'll stick to 442, particularly when O'Grady's back & hope he can strike up the partnership with Madine the same as Mellor did at the back end of last season.

Morrison/Madine, for all their graft, just doesn;t work as a partnership. They're both back to goal players outside of the box & whilst Madine does have good movement & will work the channels he doesn't have the pace to really trouble anyone!

Megson has always publicy shot his team down after bad performances them banjo bashing bar stools in Bolton told us of that which for some players it will work but for others it won't. I personally don't agree with it but i'm not a football manager (well i am on my iphone but that's about it)!

Don't think Madine will ever score boat loads as he plays back to goal. But given time and with the right players around him he can develop into a decent Zamora style player.

One thing he could/should do is hit the weights.

i_monster

Sounds about right - nothing else to say so use the laughter smiley.

Quite happy to be pithily cutting others down but then not so happy to engage when someones pointed out that you don't know what you're on about.

4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-5-1: they're all essentially the same formation, you're just swapping a striker for a deeper lying front player or attacking midfielder and/or changing how high up the field the wide midfielders play.