A week or two before the new season starts ......
Whats your views on the team / squad MF has assembled so far...Are we weaker / about the same or stronger than last seasons squad ????

I know MF has said he needs/wants three more players so where do you think he needs to strengthen . He says keeper , striker and ???

My guess as things stand are of similar strength to last season, Need 'keeper obviously, every team wants another striker don't they? my other concern would be cover for Butler if injured /suspended.

guest101 wrote:I’d say stronger less dead wood. Mike an extra year in management i see a top 10 finish this season.

Rob Sant

This may seem a strange thing to say, but I'd be happy with no improvement at all in Flynn's form. I'll explain: since he took over we've collected 86 points in 58 games, this equates to 1.482 pts per game, x 46 games for a full season = 68 points......... so that's how many I'll be happy with: 68 points....where that leaves us in the table I'm not concerned about.
So all I'm asking of Flynny is "carry on as you have so far, more of the same, just don't go backwards."

White / Franks - weaker but Franks will be a good signing - to replace White was always going to be hard!
Labadie / Cooper - weaker
Tozer / Crofts - stronger
Nouble / Matt - stronger
McCoulsky / Semenyo - Hopefully about the same
Tyler Forbes will be an upgrade
KMB and a fully fit Josh Sheehan (will be like a new signing) and both will be upgrades on last season so overall I would say slightly better as long as we remain relatively healthy as I'm not sure we have a great deal of depth at present. Hopefully a few more signings / loans will fix that.

Another GK, cover for LB, ST and CM for me.

More of the same, Consolidation and top half of table.
And a investor who has a few bob to build us a stadium.
Is the squad good enough to do the talking on the pitch, only time will tell, but sure as hell there will be other clubs looking at MF after 10 games with a eye to poaching him with bigger playing budgets.

rdh2210 wrote:White / Franks - weaker but Franks will be a good signing - to replace White was always going to be hard!
Labadie / Cooper - weaker
Tozer / Crofts - stronger
Nouble / Matt - stronger
McCoulsky / Semenyo - Hopefully about the same
Tyler Forbes will be an upgrade
KMB and a fully fit Josh Sheehan (will be like a new signing) and both will be upgrades on last season so overall I would say slightly better as long as we remain relatively healthy as I'm not sure we have a great deal of depth at present. Hopefully a few more signings / loans will fix that.

Another GK, cover for LB, ST and CM for me.

Thing with Labs is how many games would he play he would have been a luxury this season which we can't afford

A player keeper coach perhaps

Really hopeful for this season and can't wait to get down there Saturday.

MF and the team have done some really good business over the summer. Brought some decent players in and retained the core from last year. Better training facilities and the management team a year older/wiser can only mean we will be a strong opposition for every team in the league.

Thought of this a while ago but I believe Ian McLoughlin has been without a club for a season or so. Impressed me when he was on loan here a few years ago and would be an ideal backup to Day who could possibly challenge him. Although not playing football for a year might have taken its tole.

I must admit for the last few seasons I look at:

Are there at least 2 worse teams than us - I think yes again
Are there a few big hitters who might run away with it - again yes. I'd assume MK, Mansfield, Swindon made some good signings.
Could we sneak the play-offs - yes, with a bit of luck and the odd signing coming up trumps
Realistically - I would predict mid-table. We weren't consistent enough to go on a decent unbeaten run last year, I'm not sure we have any more goals in the team than last year and like most teams at our level there's a consistent turnover of players so you never really know how they'll gel. Hopefully Flynny has learned a few things from last year and I really think the cup run stopped us from an outside chance of the play-offs last year. Personally, I'd be happy to have a small squad with better quality than a larger one of mediocre talent so if that meant a bit more cash on a decent striker and having to dip into the youth team occasionally to cover injuries that's the sort of risk I think we'd have to take (and get away with) in order to be properly competitive.

Missing bite in midfield, Aryan Taj would fit the bill perfectly.

For me, I would want to see "a finish" to go with the desire, dedication and fitness.

Baladabadi wrote:Missing bite in midfield, Aryan Taj would fit the bill perfectly.

Crofts and Cooper certainly didn't give that impression on Saturday at Hereford (and Marsh-Brown also made one of the dirtiest two-footed tackles I've seen in years).

rdh2210 wrote:White / Franks - weaker but Franks will be a good signing - to replace White was always going to be hard!
Labadie / Cooper - weaker
Tozer / Crofts - stronger
Nouble / Matt - stronger
McCoulsky / Semenyo - Hopefully about the same
Tyler Forbes will be an upgrade
KMB and a fully fit Josh Sheehan (will be like a new signing) and both will be upgrades on last season so overall I would say slightly better as long as we remain relatively healthy as I'm not sure we have a great deal of depth at present. Hopefully a few more signings / loans will fix that.

Another GK, cover for LB, ST and CM for me.

For me:
White/Franks is weaker, but as you say Franks looks like a good signing and longer term we're better off than having a loanee there.
I'd compare Labadie & Tozer to Cooper and Crofts and say we may be slightly weaker, but only because I've only seen Crofts once and he didn't play well - his reputation suggests at worst a like for like there. Cooper, if he retains his workrate from Saturday, is an upgrade on Tozer purely for the influence he could have on the game and being less likely to be injured. So overall I think we've upgraded there - plus we might have Bakinson in too, and he looked at least on a par with Tozer.
Matt is at least on a par with Nouble and seems more involved and better in the air.
McCoulsky/Semenyo - difficult to tell at the moment, McCoulsky's impact was fairly minor in terms of goals but major in terms of the timing of those goals - a similar walk-on sub role seems likely
Forbes compared to every back up RB we had last season is already a significant improvement and he may well challenge Pipe to start
Sheehan's improvement is likely to offset the loss of Reynolds who barely got a run and Owen-Evans (ditto), entirely unconvinced by Marsh-Brown's half hour at Hereford even though we were comfortably on top and had a lot of possession, and we've lost a player who's in Scotland's second tier now, so overall we look slightly weaker based on a very limited sample of what Marsh-Brown can do.
We need a keeper, I'd really like us to sign Bakinson on loan (which will probably help Semenyo too) and someone who gives us the opportunity to play the usual back 7 formation even if we lose a CB and a DM would be nice.

On paper definitely weaker but we could be stronger in our coaching and tactics, players moral and wellbeing and we might have that bit of luck good successful teams get.

Our defence is too good to let us go down but still question marks on whether our attack is good enough to take us up. I think we will easily finish mid table.

Mid table looks realistic for us. I felt we struggled at Chippenham but it’s only pre season.

We need to find a midfielder to boss the game and I still feel we need cover for left back and keeper.