Rage Online

18yr old pacy, creative midfielder Greg Coombs signed on loan from Cardiff...

...now ffs, get his international clearance sorted Mr Brown!

Club website says he likes to play centre midfield.

Just what we didn't need.

&quotYF Dan&quot wrote:Club website says he likes to play centre midfield.

Just what we didn't need.

Probably a direct replacement for Pettefer.

But we still need a left winger.

&quotGodalmingYellow&quot wrote:

&quotYF Dan&quot wrote:Club website says he likes to play centre midfield.

Just what we didn't need.

Probably a direct replacement for Pettefer.

But we still need a left winger.

Just what we didn't need - Correct.

A direct replacement for Pettefer? I rate Pettefer highly - but I would not call him pacy or creative.

I believe he also plays on the right side as a wingback. In for Anaclet I would suspect so Rose/Burgess/Hargreaves is the likely midfield on Monday IMO. The bigger question remains at the back. Quinn is a certainty as is Gilchrist if healthy. Does that only leave Gunn or a youth teamer for the 3rd spot (assuming no other loan comes in)? Can Brevett play center back?

&quotZeke&quot wrote:I believe he also plays on the right side as a wingback. In for Anaclet I would suspect so Rose/Burgess/Hargreaves is the likely midfield on Monday IMO. The bigger question remains at the back. Quinn is a certainty as is Gilchrist if healthy. Does that only leave Gunn or a youth teamer for the 3rd spot (assuming no other loan comes in)? Can Brevett play center back?

It wouldn't surprise me if one of these 'discussions' at the club was a lets try 4-4-2 hence the need for a extra midfielder.

If we were going to stick with 5 at the back it would make the decision to get rid of Dempster look a bit strange - and its not often you'll hear me say that!

&quotty cobb&quot wrote:

&quotZeke&quot wrote:If we were going to stick with 5 at the back it would make the decision to get rid of Dempster look a bit strange - and its not often you'll hear me say that!

Having seen Dempster in every game or almost every game he has played since he has been an Oxford player I don't see how the decision to get rid of him can ever be described as strange. A step in the right direction I would say.

But it is only a loan exit, so who is to say he won't return and come on as a sub in the play off final to score a diving header last minute winner. Funny old game.

You all appear to be assuming there is some sort of rational strategy to the exits and entrances. Is there any evidence whatsoever of this, even from the very start? Think back: here's a struggling club who happen to have two good goalkeepers ... so let's bring in a crap goalkeeper on loan. We'll play 5-3-2 so we'll get rid of our exisitng wingbacks and ... um, right. There's no plan, no strategy, it's just whomever there's been a conversation with, whomever the favoured agent is ...

&quotAncient Colin&quot wrote:You all appear to be assuming there is some sort of rational strategy to the exits and entrances. Is there any evidence whatsoever of this, even from the very start? Think back: here's a struggling club who happen to have two good goalkeepers ... so let's bring in a crap goalkeeper on loan. We'll play 5-3-2 so we'll get rid of our exisitng wingbacks and ... um, right. There's no plan, no strategy, it's just whomever there's been a conversation with, whomever the favoured agent is ...

No assumption of a rational strategy on my part. Every time someone else comes in it is blind optimism that tells me that this might just be the one we have been looking for. I had put that goal keeping fiasco out of my mind. The tiny alarm bells at that stage should have been ringing much louder.

If he is a wing-back that makes a little more sense. Otherwise, I fear Brevitt could indeed be used as a third centre-back and it also occured to me that Smith has used Johnson as a midfielder before as well, so may even be tempted to use him in front of Brevvitt on the left if we ever do go 442 - God forbid!

For me, that odd bunch of signings that turned up with Smith last season was the first sign that not everything he touched was going to turn to gold as some seemed to suggest. I'm sure he was just getting in who he could to bolster a squad he knew little about, but they werent very good, it took him too long to dispense with 'his' keeper and it only disrupted the side for three or four games while they settled in just as they'd got a little run going...

Still, I'm sure there is a master stroke signing ready to happen on Monday for us all to marvel at....

&quotMooro&quot wrote: Still, I'm sure there is a master stroke signing ready to happen on Monday for us all to marvel at....

Then again, maybe not!