Strenghts of our current squad?

[Ailsa Road Shrimper]

At the moment we seem to have many players who are pretty similar in ability. Although I don't think anyone in our current squad is a bad player, I can't help thinking that many of them are just average. To illustrate this point, can people think of the obvious qualities possessed by the players listed below? Qualities that will worry the opposition and cause danger? The players who I believe fall into this category are:

Harrold
Paynter
Hooper
Foran
Bradbury
Hunt
Francis
Hammell
Wilson

I haven't seen any of the new players so I can't comment on their abilities.

From the list of players above, I acknowledge that Bradbury holds the ball up well and Hammell has a good left foot, but will that worry our opponents and make them change their tactics? In Cricket terms, those above would be labelled as 'bits and pieces' players, they are competent but don't pose any specific threat.

In our promotion seasons, we had a squad of players with a wide range of obvious qualities: Eastwood scored goals, Gray had excellent pace, Bentley was strong box to box player who scored a few goals, Prior was tall with excellent experience and organised the defence, Sodje was fantastic in the air, Goater scored goals and was a great role model etc...

Perhaps next season we will rely heavily on Maher, Flahavan, Gower, Macca, JCR plus hope the new signings come good. At the moment, I just feel we have too many similar players and we lack height, pace, experience, a prolific goalscorer and cover in defence.

 

[Pubey]

best qualities -

Harrold - hard work for defenders! good as a sub

Paynter - obviously has the skill (wakering, bristol city), just needs the confidence (http://bcafc.livewwware.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=18140&highlight=&sid=5dbd9de1d6df977f76ac147a185655f4)

Hooper - young and good allround footballer... needs minutes

Foran - excellent in the air

Bradbury - hold up play, vision and defensive work

Hunt - probably the best utility player outside the CCC, can play CB and FB with ease and is a useful player in midfield

Francis - IMO the best young player we have, great engine, awesome cross, can finish and concentration will improve with age

Hammell - sweet left foot, works well up the flank

Wilson - played every game when we won L1, mr reliable

 

[Mr. Benedict]

In other words, you're saying all our full-backs and strikers are average....

 

[TrueBlue]

I don't rate harrold at all

 

[Southend_Lady]

Harrold - If we happen to play a team with orange kit, he may well be able to camouflage himself quickly between two of the players and then sneak off for a goal....

Paynter - Determined to prove all the doubters wrong and seems to be full of confidence now.

Hooper - Used to think good things about Hoops, was even dubbed "the next Freddy", but havent seen him produce too much when I have seen him play

Foran - legs are so skinny that no one will dare tackle him

Bradbury - Is chunky enough to barge the opposition

Hunt - Not too sure about Hunt, is very quick, makes far too many mistakes, has a blinder every now and then unfortunately isnt consistent enough

Francis - best of the lot here, think is going to be one that stands out for us this season, best game I remember him in was Ipswich away, great runs from the back, good pace and attempts to set up goals.

Hammell - Not a bad defender, is far too left footed, he often wastes time bringing the ball on the his left foot and consequently looses it.

Wilson - Sorry Che, not a good thing to say about your footballing abilities for us now, great bloke though and wont be forgotten from our promotion winning seasons.

 

[SUFC_Al]

Hammell - Not a bad defender, is far too left footed, he often wastes time bringing the ball on the his left foot and consequently looses it.

Nigel Winterburn was the most left-footed player ever and he was in one of the best defences of the modern era...people need to give him the ball on his left foot!

 

[Southend_Lady]

Nigel Winterburn was the most left-footed player ever and he was in one of the best defences of the modern era...people need to give him the ball on his left foot!

Well lets hope the rest of the team catch on to this coz they dont seem to have just yet. I must admit though, like jontosh said, it is a sweet left foot for free kicks esp.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I'd rather rounded players than one-trick ponies like Gray (pace) or Broughton (elbows).

Also, most of those players you listed do have well above average attributes. Simon Francis is very quick, he's very tall for a full-back, an exceptional tackler and will probably be one of the most skilful full-backs in the division. Lewis Hunt reads the game and has very good composure; Billy Paynter is big and strong; Hammell's set pieces stand out etc etc

 

[SUFC_Al]

I'm hoping with Dean Austin on the coaching staff he can give Francis some tips. Going forward Francis is quality but his concentration and positioning needs improvement, Deano was a class full-back so hopefully he can pass that down to Francis.

 

[Ailsa Road Shrimper]

Of those I listed I do think Francis has the most potential and I think he'll come good. He has to prove himself though as he was inconsistent last year

 

[MrB]

Hunt - probably the best utility player outside the CCC

:D

What, you were being serious? :thump:

 

[Pubey]

:D

What, you were being serious? :thump:

that was a bit tongue in cheek i must admit but he is reliable and definitely a useful squad player and a decent L1 RB

 

[Desert Shrimper]

Simon Francis is very quick, he's very tall for a full-back, an exceptional tackler and will probably be one of the most skilful full-backs in the division. Lewis Hunt reads the game and has very good composure; Hammell's set pieces stand out etc etc

So assuming you also rate Adam Barrett and the above are so good...how comes we were so attrocious at the back last season????? Was it really all Sodje's fault??!

Hammell and Francis are appallingly over-rated in my opinion.

 

[JoshC]

i think francis wil be a strong player this season
i see no wrong with hammel
the others struggled in the CCC but this is a HUGE step down and i think the rest can all do a decent job at this level

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

So assuming you also rate Adam Barrett and the above are so good...how comes we were so attrocious at the back last season????? Was it really all Sodje's fault??!

Hammell and Francis are appallingly over-rated in my opinion.

I didn't say I rated them, all I said that they all had some good attributes. I didn't discuss their weaknesses. As I said at the start of that post, I prefer rounded players. For all Francis' attributes, I thought he was pretty shocking last season. It doesn't matter how much pace you have, how good a tackler you are, how skilful on the ball you are if you keep switching off mentally. Personally I'd pick Hunt over Francis, despite Francis being more talented.

It is also a case of picking the right blend of players. Part of the reason we fared so badly last season was that our team wasn't balanced. Its not the case of picking the best eleven players, its a case of picking eleven players who complement each other and whose sum is greater than the parts. I think we could have stayed up with a squad of that size and that quality, if the players better complemented each other. Last season our defence was unbalanced lacking height; our midfield was unbalanced lacking ball winners; and our front pairing never worked as Freddy needed someone to create him space by at least threatening to get in behind a defence. We can get in better quality players but IMHO we'd be better off addressing these fundamental flaws by signing lesser players who could fit into our team better.

 

[Richard_Cadette]

We can get in better quality players but IMHO we'd be better off addressing these fundamental flaws by signing lesser players who could fit into our team better.

Blimey YB, I thought for the first time ever I was going to agree with an entire post of yours, but alas, you saved it until the very last paragraph! :)

To say we would be better off adressing our problems by signing lesser players which fit into our team structure better is nonsense IMO.

We have to strive to sign quality players which address our problems, not just inferior ones because they tick all the boxes of where we are lacking in strength!!

For example, if we already have 3 decent right wingers, then no, you wouldnt go out of your way to sign another excellent right winger, but by the same token, I wouldnt then want the club to sign a weak left winger because that is where are short of strength.

I think I know what you are trying to say, but I dont hold with that exact theory I am afraid.

I do agree with you regarding Francis though - he does have just about every attribute you would want for a full back, but unfortunately last season he was possibly one of our most dissapointing players, and one of the main reasons we got off to such a terrible start. I would play Lewis Hunt above Francis every day of the week, and twice on Sunday, purely and simply because he is a better player, not because he is an inferior one who makes less mistakes!

 

[loz]

i think what YB is saying makes perfect sense. Obviously he's not proposing we sign crap players, but that a 'good' player isn't neccesarily going to be good for us, if he doesn't work within our system or give us something we don't already have.

For example- we've signed some more attacking midfielders in Black and Bailey, and so i'm expecting (hoping) to see more runs into the box from midfield this season. So, if we were going to sign another striker, i'd be looking for someone fast + useful with the ball at his feet, to maybe make runs wide and create room for the midfielders to break forward. This in my eyes would be more useful than signing another striker who isn't as mobile, even if he was better than Harrold/Paynter/Bradders.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Blimey YB, I thought for the first time ever I was going to agree with an entire post of yours, but alas, you saved it until the very last paragraph! :)

To say we would be better off adressing our problems by signing lesser players which fit into our team structure better is nonsense IMO.

We have to strive to sign quality players which address our problems, not just inferior ones because they tick all the boxes of where we are lacking in strength!!

For example, if we already have 3 decent right wingers, then no, you wouldnt go out of your way to sign another excellent right winger, but by the same token, I wouldnt then want the club to sign a weak left winger because that is where are short of strength.

I think I know what you are trying to say, but I dont hold with that exact theory I am afraid.

I'm not advocating signing weak players, I'm saying that the better player for the team isn't necessarily the better individual player. In your example I wouldn't want the club to sign a weak left winger, but the better signing would be a decent left winger rather than the excellent right winger.

 

[duncan bulgaria]

So assuming you also rate Adam Barrett and the above are so good...how comes we were so attrocious at the back last season????? Was it really all Sodje's fault??!

Hammell and Francis are appallingly over-rated in my opinion.

Unfortunatly the are both kids playing in a very physical league last season and it showed.

Spend to much time divering on the ball in the CCC and you will get flattened, hopefully league one will suit them a little bit more

 

[Beefy]

Francis and Hammell both had good spells last season. Francis' form was one of the few positives we could take out of the final few weeks of the season and if we can get more performances out of him like the one he turned in at Ipswich then we'll have the best fullback at this level.

Hammell is the best left-back we've had since Chris Powell. Does that make him necessarily any good? No, but I'd suspect that he dealt with Championship wingers far more competantly than the likes of Che Wilson, Damon Searle or Nathan Jones would have done.