The Squad for 2018/19

[Rockford's Love Child]

I don’t think we should be concentrating on age too much. Apparently he’s a really fit guy and works really hard. He’s no doubt lost pace over the years but Im sure he is still good enough at this level.

Rochdale surely would not have offered him a two year deal if they thought he was past it ? Six months ago he was part of the Wigan squad that won League One.

It seems he had a bust-up with Keith Hill, which is why he is coming here.

 

[Ian]

Sounds good to me!

 

[Boz]

According to Matt Jones there will be 3 more signings in the coming days

Will be interesting to see who. With that number, you think there may be one or two going out too. Wouldn’t be impressed with Ishmael Miller, who is past his best and hope that the players brought in can put us firmly back in the top seven.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

We are four points adrift of the play off position now, so I think it will be tough to make them even with the new additions. I am more concerned about building the squad in the longer term. If we do some good business now and in the summer, hopefully we can push for the top three next season.

 

[drwhoman]

Perkins, McCullough and Banks will be a decent midfield. Another striker would be good but quality is the issue. I see Cook scored again. Obvious but no point in filling our boots with ho hum players.

 

[Boz]

We are four points adrift of the play off position now, so I think it will be tough to make them even with the new additions. I am more concerned about building the squad in the longer term. If we do some good business now and in the summer, hopefully we can push for the top three next season.

Four points isn't that big a margin though. It's very volatile at the top, Carlisle who we beat fairly comfortably and are currently without a manager, beating Mansfield, apparently one of the best L2 sides to visit PP this season, that pair 4th and 5th in the League. Whether we will claw our way back into play-off contention is hard to call.

The other issue is long-term squad development. Even the long term is a relatively short timespan, if Perkins, a capable player but coming to the end of his career joining Rovers is perceived as for long term. One question which will need to be addressed is how long McNulty can go on playing for and getting a defensive organiser in when he moves on or retires. Good business suggests players with a resale value, so will need to be recruiting at the younger end of the age spectrum.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Four points isn't that big a margin though. It's very volatile at the top, Carlisle who we beat fairly comfortably and are currently without a manager, beating Mansfield, apparently one of the best L2 sides to visit PP this season, that pair 4th and 5th in the League. Whether we will claw our way back into play-off contention is hard to call.

The other issue is long-term squad development. Even the long term is a relatively short timespan, if Perkins, a capable player but coming to the end of his career joining Rovers is perceived as for long term. One question which will need to be addressed is how long McNulty can go on playing for and getting a defensive organiser in when he moves on or retires. Good business suggests players with a resale value, so will need to be recruiting at the younger end of the age spectrum.

It is not so much the points gap that concerns me, it is more the quality of the sides that are above us. I think Lincoln, MK, Mansfield and Bury are better than us and are nailed on to finish in the top seven. That only leaves three places, and you could argue that Exeter (although we don't know how they will react to losing Stockley) and FGR are better placed than us to challenge as they are more established at this level. Carlisle are also in great form, although they could be derailed by Sheridan leaving. Which in my mind leaves only a couple of play off places we can realistically challenge for, and there are a lot of teams of similar quality who will be competing for those places. So I think it will be difficult, but not impossible, for us to make the play offs.

When I talk about the long term, I am not just thinking of the eighteen months Perkins is contracted for. He is a better player than a number of other players we have currently, so gradually, incrementally, we are improving the squad. If we finish in a reasonable position this season, with a better squad than we started with last August, we will be more attractive to good, established League players next summer. And so on.

In regard to McNulty and the centre backs, it sounds like we might struggle to hold on to Monthe at the end of the season. He is apparently interesting other clubs, as you would expect, and he does not seem to have settled up here and might want a move down south.

 

[Cowshed Kid]

Have to say I raised an eyebrow at the Perkins signing.
But usual social media suggests he comes with nothing but compliments from the fans of his clubs.
He's Max Power's son's godfather?
Good enough reference for me!!

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Re our promotion chances, we are still in there but will have to be more clinical in front of goal at home and tighter at the back on our travels. Midfield is now looking stronger but we need someone else to score goals.

Re building a team, this is really difficult when you can only afford to give two-year contracts. Anyone who is any good will move on when it expires. Replacing like with like given our financial resources is virtually impossible, which is why I think mid-table this season would be creditable. Progress, if any, will be slow until we improve our financial position. Yes, the Spurs money will help, but I expect only a fraction to go on new players.

 

[Ian]

It’ll be interesting over the next few days if we do make a few more signings. I think we only need to tweak it here and there to make us genuine playoff contenders.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

We need a better target man than Stockton, but goalscoring is not a major problem for us assuming Norwood stays. Jennings, Mullin and Smith have all got reasonable tallies now and Connor has been excellent since he was moved centrally.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Our goal tally at home needs improving and Norwood may get injured or suspended, so another striker would be useful. However, Perkins' arrival may lead to more chances being created, particularly at home where we seem to find it difficult to break down defences. If we are to sign two more players, I'd expect one to be a back-up keeper and the other a forward.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Our goal tally at home needs improving and Norwood may get injured or suspended, so another striker would be useful.

You are not going to bring in a striker with a better goalscoring average than Mullin or Jennings in the January transfer window. There are other areas of the squad that need be addressed more urgently in my opinion; including a target man up front, rather than a similar type to Norwood or Mullin.

 

[Boz]

The point RLC makes about continuity is interesting. I think we have Davies, Ellis, Jennings, Banks, Mullin and now Perkins signed into next season. From their forum, Rochdale fans didn't seem particularly impressed by Perkins or sorry to see him go. Until we've seen him in a Rovers shirt a few times, can't tell if it will be a good signing or not. He's not a prolific scorer and I don't know about his creativity. If Monthe isn't going to be staying, it's possible we'll need a new pair in central defence if playing 3 central defenders. However, despite the continuity benefit of recruiting a suitable central defender now, the significant numbers we have on the books currently means there won't be any additions in the window.

On strikers, we scored 4 at Morecambe when Norwood was suspended, so not too concerned. Not that enthused about Ishmael Miller coming in, though he would offer something different, there must be better options out there? Oldham fans seem fairly ambivalent about his departure.

Back-up keeper? Why bother recall Pilling in that case. The management were confident enough to have Bailey Passant on the bench rather than rush out and get someone in for the Spurs game, so unless Davies picks up a season ending injury this month, would be surprised.

Aside from Passant, it doesn't seem that we have any youngsters coming through. Players like Spellman, Long and Walker-Rice, who played in the pre-season win at Dunfermline and made the bench at the start of the season have seemingly gone backwards and are nowhere near contention now, which is a bit disappointing.

 

[Sparky]

I’ll be a bit disappointed if Monthe leaves. FGR binned him off and we’ve given him a new lease of life. His CV must be decent - 2 Wembley wins in the NL play offs. That’s football though I guess. But we have Gumbs as a back up to Sutton, Big Mac and Ellis so I don’t think a replacement for manny is the priority if he leaves.

Agree with RLC that a target man is a must. Miller is a real handful to be fair but we’ll never get another cookie who could play the target man role and also get 25 goals a season.

A winger is a must. Tollit has made 3 sub appearances for Wrexham so far and we need more options, especially if we want CJ to play centrally more often.

All of that said, we have another very winnable away game coming up at Cheltenham. I said recently that before and after they beat us, Notts County have been poor. Macc after drawing with us last week, lost at home yesterday. MK Dons have lost Healey to Cardiff so with Exeter losing Stockley too, our rivals are losing players.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree with Sparky that Cheltenham is the kind of game we have to win away from home if we are going to make the play offs. We don't want the gap to the top seven to stretch to six or seven points, even at this stage.

 

[keep the faith]

how many times have we said on here that certain games are winnable only to come a cropper Tranmere & winnable games don,t sit well at times

 

[Higgy]

Will be interesting to see who. With that number, you think there may be one or two going out too. Wouldn’t be impressed with Ishmael Miller, who is past his best and hope that the players brought in can put us firmly back in the top seven.

Excited that there could be more signings in the transfer window. You never know if they take-off we could finish the second half of the season with a good run and promotion challenge. I like the idea of Miller joining if still available as many would agree we could do with a genuine target man, and I have never been convinced Stockton fits the brief. Boz says Miller may be past his best, but he is only 31 and played 230 games - so must have a some juice left in the tank - if fit. Perkins is a good signing, but comparatively he has played 600 + games.

 

[aldoes mustache]

we still need some young blood in the team some one who is fast can cross a ball you do have to wonder if we need another CB to put some presure on the boys who are there already . we defo need another forward who will put the lads under presure . also need goals from the certral mid as we dont get mutch from them .

 

[Boz]

Excited that there could be more signings in the transfer window. You never know if they take-off we could finish the second half of the season with a good run and promotion challenge. I like the idea of Miller joining if still available as many would agree we could do with a genuine target man, and I have never been convinced Stockton fits the brief. Boz says Miller may be past his best, but he is only 31 and played 230 games - so must have a some juice left in the tank - if fit. Perkins is a good signing, but comparatively he has played 600 + games.

The fact that Perkins has played almost double the number of games than Miller for his extra 5 years suggests that either David is fitter or Ishmael more injury prone. Miller only made a handful of appearances for Bury the season before last and was without a club for the whole of last season, before joining Oldham in the summer. Think he's got about 50 career goals, so averaging a goal every four and a half games, which is a bit below par for a striker. I wasn't at the 1-1 with Oldham, maybe he did something that day to attract Micky's attention. Again, I will wait until he's had a few games for us, if he does sign, to form an opinion, but can't help having reservations with his history.