The Squad 2023-24

[Rockford's Love Child]

I think the first 2 will be sold this summer along with O'Connor and possibly a couple of others

I am hoping we will keep hold of Hawkes due to his goalscoring, but fear he will be sold.

I suppose it depends whether we actually invest the proceeds in a goalscoring striker, but I am not holding my breath.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Thanks BBTC.

What sticks out is the important players whose contract is up next season including Bristow, hawkes, turnbull and Morris.
The first two in particular will have interest so are we offering them new contracts now? Or extensions? Or are we not financially in a position to do this.
We could next year lose hawkes for free and the same for Bristow as although we may get a few due to his age it won’t be anything special

I believe we have options on Bristow, Turnbull and Morris, so if the club chooses, they are tied for two more years. But yes, we would lose Hawkes for nothing next summer if he stays and doesn't extend.

When you look at the quality of the players still under contract and their ages, you have to be cautiously optimistic about next season. There is no need for a fire sale, so we should get a fair bit of money for those we sell. The key is to how well we use that money and the main budget to replace them and enhance the squad. Obviously, we need at least one decent goalscorer and one target man - not easy but possible. Any other gaps in the squad should not be difficult to fill at our level with our budget.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

The bulk of the squad is reasonable.

However, our problem for many years has been attracting a goalscorer with a restricted budget. The only time we managed it in the recent past was when James Vaughan agreed a substantial cut in salary to come here for personal reasons, at a time when other clubs were retrenching due to the impact of Covid.

We will receive fees for certain players this summer, but how much of that money will be able for investment in the squad is debatable given the size of the losses the club is incurring.

We can be absolutely certain that if we again leave our striker shopping until 31st August, we will end up with another Mani / Mumbongo.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

Ha ha, ONIGP. With all the injuries we’ve had in recent years requiring lengthy treatment and numerous operations, I’m surprised we have not been officially sponsored by the NHS.

We have been sponsored by Spire (I think) who took over at Murrayfield.

 

[Boz]

I still think Hendry offers more creativity than Merrie and we need a better creative option in midfield. We also need more goals from the centre of midfield, which is something that Merrie certainly does not offer.

I don’t disagree about their relative strengths,but the one area where Merrie appears to be ahead of Hendry is an ability to pick a longer defence splitting pass for an attacking player to run onto. It could be that Regan has similar in his locker, we just didn’t see it during his loan spell. Stats suggest neither had a particularly good season with Rovers; Hendry 1 goal no assists and Merrie 0 goals 2 assists. Think may be more a reflection of the overall disappointing season than down to the individuals named.

 

[ONIGP]

I don’t disagree about their relative strengths,but the one area where Merrie appears to be ahead of Hendry is an ability to pick a longer defence splitting pass for an attacking player to run onto. It could be that Regan has similar in his locker, we just didn’t see it during his loan spell. Stats suggest neither had a particularly good season with Rovers; Hendry 1 goal no assists and Merrie 0 goals 2 assists. Think may be more a reflection of the overall disappointing season than down to the individuals named.

I think number of passes, forward, backwards, success rate would also be good stats but they are not available. I suspect that Hendry's pass success rate would be very high due to his ability to make a yard and create the simple ball.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I don’t disagree about their relative strengths,but the one area where Merrie appears to be ahead of Hendry is an ability to pick a longer defence splitting pass for an attacking player to run onto. It could be that Regan has similar in his locker, we just didn’t see it during his loan spell. Stats suggest neither had a particularly good season with Rovers; Hendry 1 goal no assists and Merrie 0 goals 2 assists. Think may be more a reflection of the overall disappointing season than down to the individuals named.

Merrie played about three times as many games as Hendry, so I am not sure your assists comparison is entirely fair.

In any case, I think there is too much of an obsession with assists. Yes, Merrie is capable of an occasional good through ball, but the evidence of our own eyes tells us that Hendry is the technically superior player.

Merrie rarely gets past the halfway line and contributes very little in the attacking areas. Hendry has a better all round game, and contributes in all areas.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I think number of passes, forward, backwards, success rate would also be good stats but they are not available. I suspect that Hendry's pass success rate would be very high due to his ability to make a yard and create the simple ball.

Interestingly, I saw a stat a few days ago which showed that Hendry had the best pass completion rate of any of our players last season, and roughly double that of Merrie.

 

[Higgy 2]

It would be nice to keep O'Connor either has a utility player or in his defensive midfield role. He can do a decent job, but I think it would defo be a step down if he was the permanent replacement for JDC.

 

[Boz]

Interestingly, I saw a stat a few days ago which showed that Hendry had the best pass completion rate of any of our players last season, and roughly double that of Merrie.

Do you have a link to share?

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Strong suggestions that Connor Jennings is going to arrive.

He would be a good signing in my opinion, if you consider that the 'squad' strikers we had last season were dross like Burton and Mumbongo.

We would still need another superior striker, who we probably won't get, but taken on his merits he would be a good addition.

 

[Ian]

He's quite versatile too so could be a really useful addition.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

How many other clubs attract so many of their former players to return? At the moment we have Joe Murphy and Paul Lewis. Recently we’ve had Andy Cook, Andy Robinson, Andy Mangan and others. Micky Mellon, Steve Jennings, Ronnie Moore, Mark Palios and loads of others. Before the war, there was Pongo Waring.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Do you have a link to share?

Tranmere

Tranmere (England) statistics – Check out detailed statistics, fixtures, player & team ratings, squad, top players, formation summary, goals, assists, charts, tables and news.

www.whoscored.com

I had slightly misremembered the stats, but the point still stands.

Hendry has double the number of key passes as any other member of the squad aside from Cogley, and better figures for pass completion than Merrie as well.

 

[Boz]

I’m a bit

Tranmere

Tranmere (England) statistics – Check out detailed statistics, fixtures, player & team ratings, squad, top players, formation summary, goals, assists, charts, tables and news.

www.whoscored.com

I had slightly misremembered the stats, but the point still stands.

Hendry has double the number of key passes as any other member of the squad aside from Cogley, and better figures for pass completion than Merrie as well.

Thanks for this, enjoy poring over stats of this nature and they can throw up some surprises.

 

[Boz]

I’d like Connor back, but not without some reservations. To me, he’s always been an attacking midfielder or no 10, not out and out striker. He averaged around a goal every 5 games for us. What would be useful is his battling qualities, there seems to be a lack of team spirit in some of the current squad, Connor doesn't lack in that regard.

 

[bigmart]

Jamie Sterty signs for Doncaster, decent right back was st Hartlepool, they are getting dome decent signings in early on.

 

[Sparky]

Jamie Sterty signs for Doncaster, decent right back was st Hartlepool, they are getting dome decent signings in early on.

Yes and with McCann back in charge they’ll likely be at the top end of the table next season. Going to be much tougher in 23/24 I think

 

[drwhoman]

MacDonald has gone to Mansfield

 

[Boz]

There doesn’t seem to be much happening for Rovers at present. Lethargy in the transfer market has been a Rovers trade-mark in recent years and it would be good if that were to change.