Ben Whiteman bid accepted

It's by no means an official statement though

 

Isn’t the ‘Freezer Man’ a forward laiker?

 

Think he's played there in pre season. And he played in a front three at last club. So I'd say so.

 

Yep, forward that can also play on the right apparently. Sounds like direct competition / replacement for Brown to me.

As for Whiteman, I wont believe anything from any anonymous twitter accounts. Will take it seriously if anyone from local media starts to talk about it. If he does sign, wouldn't be surprised if that's a sign of how contract talks with Mowatt are going.

 

I thought he was an attacking (central) midfielder, or a winger.

But. My mate reckons he is an actual striker. And there is a cup of Oakwell tea riding on the answer, so one of us is going to be out of pocket.

(There is another cup of tea wagered on whether Toby Sibbick ever plays a single minute in the top division. I said he would, and my friend has ridiculed me about it for months. And now the goalposts have been deftly shifted. Belgian top division doesn't count. Look, I was the one who said Flitcroft would manage in the Premier League, so I have form for this sort of thing.)

 

Maybe not a striker but definitely a half decent finisher is needed to compensate Woodrows loss of form or stand in or pair up with him or. Chaplin etc .

 

Reckon you’re gonna be out of pocket mate.

The ‘winger’ that we play with is the brown position, I’m assuming that’s what it was referring to. He seems to be a striker/right winger, judging by what I’ve seen.

 

That is true

Iv no idea, I thought he was more of a wide man. We have a few players who can play up there but actual strikers I'd say we have Woodrow, Chaplin, Schmidt, adeboyejo and miller. Not enough quality there for a full season in the championship.

 

I did wonder why he keeps taking my bets. And, being serious, I assume his signing makes it more likely that Brown will go.

 

Yes in agree, we should be looking for the perfect strike partner for Woodrow. As much as I rate Chaplin I don't think it works. It's imperative Woodrow hits the ground running this season.

 

In the friendlies, we've started with Woodrow, Chaplin and Brown as the front three, replaced by Simoes, Schmidt and Frieser. Miller and Adeboyejo have been playing wing back.

How many forwards do we want?

 

And when Sheffield united bidded 500k we rolled over and had our bellys tickled. To be fair Howard was another who didnt have long left on his contract if my memory is right.

 

Why have we been playing Miller and Adeboyejo as wing backs?

 

Out of desperation.

 

Trying things out in pre- season as is often the case I suppose

 

Just feel were still weak and have been for a while at full back position. Its a very important area of the pitch and were often targeted by other teams in this area due to the weakness of our players. If we had 2 really good championship ready players there every game, we would see dividends, that takes into account injuries and suspension.

 

Because that's what Struber does. He makes tactical decisions which look weird and speculative, but there are always good reasons for them, and they often work.

 

Struber said after lockdown when back in training. He was impressed with Millers attitude and focus. Not reading too much into that. But It would not be the first time that players have been able to adapt to a different position and thrive.

 

There've been plenty of players converted to play secondary positions that have probably gone on to have better careers as a result. I can think of Mark Robinson, Julian Broddle and John Beresford as players that were turned into full backs and did a decent to great job for us. I do think football is even more fluid now and particular at the very young age we've been signing players at, they shouldn't be pigeonholed into a single position.

I could be wrong, but it looks like the chances of Miller or Adeboyejo getting a regular position in a striking role under Struber is highly unlikely. Why not try them in an area they've not played and see if they can take to it. It saves the cost of transfer and agents fees if it works, and if it doesn't, you then look to the transfer market as you were probably going to anyway.

 

To add a couple more, Owen Archdeacon was signed from Celtic as a left winger, but played the majority of his Barnsley career at wing back and the most obvious of the lot was Steve Agnew. He started off as a striker, but was successfully converted to an excellent midfielder who also went on to be club captain.