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Canary Jedi

Most important player signing for next season is...

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A goalkeeper. Now hear me out, im not Ruddy bashing, however a top drawer goalkeeper could be worth 10-15 extra points. That would have put us in the playoffs this year.

Is Rudd the answer? Really don''t know, but either way it''s a fundamental part of building a solid and confident team.

Hindsight is wonderful. We should have signed Jack Butland a few years back, what a shot stopper he is.

Not saying other positions are unimportant, just that if we bring in new players and yet keep Ruddy then it''s a big risk for the season.

So Mr Webber, find us a top drawer keeper and we''re half way there!

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Is our dodgy defending as a result of our keepers not filling the defence with confidence or is our dodgy goalkeeping as a result of the defence not filling the goalkeepers with any confidence?

A bit chicken and egg...

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It''s not chicken and egg. Ruddy is a dodgy keeper because he''s a dodgy keeper. Never been a fan, can''t save shots in corners. Anyway like I said this is not about Ruddy bashing.

With a quality goaly this season we would still have had a dodgy defence but perhaps less dodgy due to extra confidence and certainly less goals conceded thanks to brilliant shot stopping.

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Top priorities should be:

-Permanent left back

-Two central defenders to replace Bassong/Turner.

-Set piece specialist in any position

-One new goalkeeper. Two of Rudd, Ruddy and McGovern to leave

-Defensive Midfield competition

-backup for Howson, a PL loanee might be an option here

-Young, quick striker to compete with Jerome/Oliviera

-A young CB, two if we manage to move on quite a few of our current CB''s

-A more traditional, solid defensive rightback if we find ourselves without cover for Pinto

The goalkeepers will need sorting this summer, but I feel the left and centre of defence should be our main focus and to build from there. It''s so tiring and frustrating to know, even at 3-0 up, that we''re extremely likely to still throw the game away

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It was more the defence at fault. Too many times the opposition have had a free header, or not been challenged. Anyone playing even village football knows that on set pieces you have a man to mark and your job is to get to the ball before he does. It seemed only to have been a problem since AN was here, but has continued with Irvine. Deduct a handful of those silly goals and we would have been in the play offs. ''Dodgy keeper'' or not.

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Two new centre backs would be my priority , then a left back if Dijks is leaving, then a goalie if Ruddy is leaving

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Yes yes we need more players for sure, however i maintain that we must go all out for a top goaly as who ever we sign in defence there will still be shots on goal. And Ruddy I''m afraid will let in a lot of them.

Casper Schmiechal has a save rate of 72%, meaning when the defence is breached most of the time he stops the opposition scoring. I wonder what Ruddy''s save rate is?

I would love to think Rudd is the answer - not saying he isn''t, I am not qualified to judge apart from his appearances in the premier league which started well but ended badly.

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[quote user="Diane"]Two new centre backs would be my priority , then a left back if Dijks is leaving, then a goalie if Ruddy is leaving[/quote]

I''m not convinced about Dijks as a defender, we seem to concede an awful lot of goals from the attacker he should be marking, I agree he is a beast running down the line.

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Given the (I''m assuming) relatively limited sums available for players in this summer, I don''t agree that a Ruddy "upgrade" is the priority. Surely centre-back and left-back will be looked at first.

But for me I think we''ve been crying out for a sitting midfielder for two or three years. This is the summer for a Tettey "upgrade". Perhaps Louis Thompson might be the future here but a defensive midfielder needs to read the game intelligently, snuff out counter-attacks, slot into defensive zones when others roam, hold up play when necessary, push players out wide and do lots of the dirty work, often unseen by spectators who generally follow the ball. Tettey has always been fairly limited, Dorrans isn''t really defensive-minded, Howson is naturally ''forward-oriented'' and poor Thompson got crocked when his chance came.

Will McGrandles step up this year after his nasty injury? Will we see much of Ben Godfrey next year? My transfer wish list, disregarding contracts etc., for the summer is something like:

Outs:

Lafferty

Bassong

Turner

Whittaker

Mulumbu

2 or 3 goalkeepers

Jarvis

Tettey (unlikely)

Ins:

At least one quality centre-back

A left-back

A defensive midfielder

A pacy goal-poacher type to support Oliviera & Jerome

(i.e. pretty much the same as every other club!)

Tricky ones:

Klose - Does he want to stay? Is he as good as we think he can be? Can we attract someone of his calibre this summer? Keep!

Wes - Sentimentality dictates he should get his testimonial. He was one of our most important players over the season. The likes of Pritchard, Maddison & McGrandles can learn from him. But can we accommodate him? One more year!

Dijks - Surely he''s gone? Would be a great statement to sign him permanently.

Possible starting eleven ( + backup for each position) next September:

GK - Ruddy (Rudd / Jones)

RB - Pinto (Martin)

RCB - New Signing (Bennett / Martin)

LCB - Klose (Godfrey / New Signing)

LB - New Signing (Toffolo)

Winger - One of the Murphys! (Wildschut)

CM - Howson (Dorrans)

DM - New Signing (Thompson)

AM - Pritchard (Maddison / Wes)

FW - Naismith (New Signing)

FW - Oliviera (Jerome)

But I suspect this summer''s wheelings & dealings will come with a few surprises.

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I can''t see how will will be that much worse off. It is only an £8m drop, we still get £32m in parachute payments.Most of that will be covered by the ending of the contracts you state.  The main problem will be funding the wages after this money stops, if we don''t go up. You are right that with Maddison, Thompson, McGrandles, Toffolo, Godfrey and Morris (possibly) looking to step up we should have players in place should we still be in the Championship the season after the next. it is how much they will be ready for the rigors of the Championship next season.

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I''m sticking to my guns!

Ok, so we upgrade the midfield, get in some new defenders, maybe even another striker. But the opposition teams will inevitably have chances in the game. How many times have you seen us totally dominant this season only to concede a stupid goal that means we draw or lose a game?

A top drawer goalkeeper is worth 10-15 points EXTRA per season vs sticking with Ruddy. A new left back may get us a few extra points only. Hence why a goalkeeper should be the top target :-)

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The defence, including the goalkeeper, has been the problem.

Sometimes I wonder if what they lack is an on-field marshal to shout them into position and take action. They are so easily out of position, and they concede goals from crosses often because they are the wrong side of the opposing striker.

If I had to pick one position, it would be central defender. I had hoped that Klose would have done this but... I agree with the importance of the keeper, both in his consistently good saving and cutting out crosses. If defenders have little confidence in the man in the jumper, then it will affect their own games.

The most worrying thing of all is that to get an experienced and very good central defender, or cover any other position, is probably beyond our budget, because of the waste of money on poor signings in the past. We need to sign at least four new defenders and a keeper, and we can''t expect large signings on all these. The hope is that the new director of football will be able to repeat past miracles, producing a good squad from a large number of small purchases, but I wouldn''t bet on it.

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I can remember games when the opposition GK has single handedly kept a clean sheet-David Marshall a couple of times at least, David Stockdale for Fulham, I''m sure there have been others-but how many times has Ruddy-or any of our current keepers-done the same? Therefore I would say yes, we need an upgrade at GK.

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Parma,

Great point. IMO this has been our biggest undoing this season, along with the tracking back, or lack of at any pace, of our midfield in general. You only have to watch Chelsea to see the speed at which they break and then recover if possession is lost. Our players could replicate this, but for some reason they don''t.

Naismith has the experience (and age) and energy to fulfil the role, does he have the discipline? May be not at the moment but as you say "could he be coached into the role"?

I suspect the answer is yes but this would require him wanting to, so we come back to mindset, which would probably be just as important, if not more so, than coaching the ability, essentially he already has the ability. We would need decent cover though because I suspect there may be a few yellows brandished.

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There was a point made in the commentary of the Brighton game of how well our midfield was working when we didn''t have the ball, preventing players like Knockhart any time and space. We have players like Dorrans, Tettey, Howson and Thomson who can do this job, though I do agree they all lack a bit of pace.

Personally I''d rather see Naismith used further forward, assisting Pritchard, Murphy(s) and our strikers or scoring goals himself. I also agree that he''d be a good captain, but given he''s already a go-to scapegoat, I can''t see that going down well!

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A Captain who has the ability to get the respect of all his team mates because he is in the team on merit.

Preferably a centre back.

If whoever this guy is gets treated as bad as Johnny Howson did when wearing the armband last season we can forget about next season also.

I wonder if any stat man could come up with team performance wins draws etc under Howson Captaincy last season. When Martin took captaincy back could have coincided with our loss of form--Not sure.

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Well, looking at the released list, there''s a keeper and 4 defenders to find, so I hope we''ll start with those! We need depth in those positions and all other than Turner were needed as cover at some point this season.

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Parma, I''ve said the same on another thread. Naismith has all the attributes to play that role IMHO and if we do retain him, I''d certainly prefer to see him as a CM if not a CDM.

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Good point by Mr Angry, I also remember Buckland a couple of seasons ago in the 0-0 vs Stoke. I was right behind his goal and at one point I stood up in readiness for a certain goal - bullet from Howson I think into the corner. He somehow dived full stretch to tip it round the post. An astonishing save.

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Lol I only just saw the news! Clearly Mr Webber read this thread last night ;-)

The point still stands, I really hope they have a brilliant keeper to come in

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The major problem with many of our squad is that they are ar the peak of their career.

I cannot see any of our keepers raising their level or in actual fact are they at the level of a top championship keeper.

Rudd has never moved forward in his career, jones is very much back up and McGovern has proved that he is a low championship calibre keeper.

So if ruddy leaves we def need a keeper if we believe we ca go up next season.

Lot of holes in our first 11 and keeper is now an area to look at the right appointment for this and years to come. Only a prospect that has the room to move to prem keeper will do.

Just shows ow few players we have that are even quality championship players.

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Interesting idea about coaching Naismith into the DM role. The concept has merit but it would require a severe curbing of his attacking instincts, which was the reason why he was purchased in the first place. It would help to solve the riddle of giving Naismith, Pritchard, Wes and Maddison game time, i.e. having your ''best'' players on the pitch.

Also, with Ruddy gone and possibly a couple more keepers on the way out, the opportunity to seek out and sign a new No.1 is now here. I wonder will we collect a small fee for Rudd, keep McGovern & Jones while bringing in a keeper from the continent? interesting times! OP - you might get your wish!

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