Will McLean still be first name on the team sheet?

[The Great Mass Debater 1,090]

He cant have naked pictures of Wagner as well surely?!

 

In all seriousness though we are about to experience the most excitng point of any new appointment. A new broom. Favouritism out of the window, previous dogma out of the window. Player relationships and evaluations reset.

Wagner has the January transfer window, so it is possible we will see some of his players come in from his and his team's knowledge pool. Though Brexit a likely hinderance here.

We may have had targets in mind for January who may no longer fit the bill.

Wagner's tactics at Huddersfield, if he is to follow the same approach suggests high pressing and a front 4 - 2 wide players and a foward plus a number 10.

Despite a number of wide players at the club we seemed to have abandoned wingers with a 433 system. Might wide players now be reinvigorated? Rashica and Tzolis are away from the club - might they return? We wondered about Hernandez this time last year, but Smith chose to stick with Placheta. For some reason - the warning signs were already there. Especially when they kept trotting out the line 'We're happy with the squad'.

 

Who may now come back into the fold?

Hernandez is a possibility, obviously being German helps a little. Placheta though injured may come into his thinking. Alternatively both may be binned off as soon as possible - Wagner may have already identified some dead wood.

Dowell, who the system didnt fit at all may get a chance at number 10, but Id imagine he'd want to try a Pukki - Sargent partnership here. Nunez may get a chance at either number 10 or wide, ditto Todd. Isnt Todd's contract up in 6 months though?

Sara/Jacobsen to compete for the CDM role, with Wagner favouring a disciplined CDM to drop back into a back 3 when the wing-backs push on.

Hopefully a bit of a shake-up will see the players respond. Will be interesting to see who gets the goalkeeping slot. It's even conceivable that Krul might leave if Wagner decides Gunn is his number 1

Edited January 5, 2023 by The Great Mass Debater

[hogesar 9,676]

Considering how much worse our midfield looks without Mclean, I imagine he'll be yet another manager who "can't see what us pinkun / twitter folk can see" and play more than he doesn't. Until we actually buy someone better.

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

If McLean's got naked pics of Wagner as well then we'd better call the cops to see what the **** else he's got on that laptop.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,090]

Championship is Kenny's level, certainly no reason for him not to play a role. Though Rangers were reported to be interested.

I wonder if Hugill may get more of a look in

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

I hope so, seeing as he's been probably our most consistently OK midfielder this season.

The McLean bashing is massively out of date. We don't have Rupp, Lees Melou, and Normann in the squad anymore. Or indeed Vrancic, Skipp, Tettey and Stiepermann.

He'd feel hard done by to not get in the team with this current bunch.

Edited January 5, 2023 by TeemuVanBasten

[Nexus_Canary 1,020]

To be fair, Kenny had a storming game against Reading.

 

[Robert N. LiM 4,386]

Given Wagner's enthusiasm for pressing and Kenny's energy and commitment, yes, I'm sure he'll be close to the first name on the team sheet. 

[Commonsense 624]

47 minutes ago, Nexus_Canary said:

To be fair, Kenny had a storming game against Reading.

 

And was badly missed against Watford. I really don’t get the abuse he gets compared to the ‘love in’ for the consistently ineffective and often injured Sorensen

[shefcanary 2,410]

I'd be interested what Wagner said in answer to the question at his interview "We do not have a large transfer budget this window. Given that constraint, what is your view of the current squad, who do you hope to build the team around, who do you think needs a bit more help if they are to stay and who would you like to move on?"

The media team may already be anonymising and editing down his answer for his press briefing as I type this. I hope its going to be a busier January than the past few years with as many goings as comings.