Squad Development 2021

[wswnick]

As promised, none of our players called up for first set of Olyroos friendlies. Jets and Victory allowed 4 players to go, rest are overseas based.

[WanderingToqui]

Bloody hell!

Macarthur have signed Davila for next season.  3 year deal.

What the funk are we doing to strengthen our weak spots?

 

 

[iamwesternsydney]

18 hours ago, WanderingToqui said:

Towering import defender for next season?

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kyle-bartley/profil/spieler/67421

 

I am also a Leeds supporter and Bartley was great when he was with us

[Upthehill]

2 hours ago, WanderingToqui said:

Bloody hell!

Macarthur have signed Davila for next season.  3 year deal.

What the funk are we doing to strengthen our weak spots?

 

 

What weak spots? The 3ATB is working exactly as expected

[Upthehill]

Seeing lots of discussion in here about attackers. From memory we're still 3rd on the goal tally.

We are leaking an ABSURD amount of goals. We need 2 top center backs. Gillespe would be a good start there. We also need a GK. @Midfielder (I think it was) called it out. Margush may have a future but he's certainly not on the level of guys who've been involved in winning trophies. A really strong LB would be very useful as well. I very much like Natta, Wilmering and Tommy A, but we aren't winning games consistently with them. We can easily use them from the bench or supported by 3 senior defenders to help them grow.

In recent weeks we've bled 10 goals against MV and Perth... Any players involved in those complete blastings cannot be considered as players who will take us even into the top 4. Supported by senior defenders, maybe, but certainly not as an unchanged defensive unit 

[Robvad10]

1 hour ago, Upthehill said:

Seeing lots of discussion in here about attackers. From memory we're still 3rd on the goal tally.

We are leaking an ABSURD amount of goals. We need 2 top center backs. Gillespe would be a good start there. We also need a GK. @Midfielder (I think it was) called it out. Margush may have a future but he's certainly not on the level of guys who've been involved in winning trophies. A really strong LB would be very useful as well. I very much like Natta, Wilmering and Tommy A, but we aren't winning games consistently with them. We can easily use them from the bench or supported by 3 senior defenders to help them grow.

In recent weeks we've bled 10 goals against MV and Perth... Any players involved in those complete blastings cannot be considered as players who will take us even into the top 4. Supported by senior defenders, maybe, but certainly not as an unchanged defensive unit 

you hit the nail on the head....margaush has done well but he isnt going to win us games. Look at federici at the cows, they havent been setting the world on fire but he keeps them in the games with worldie saves.

we just dont get that unfortunately. 

[Hughesy]

We need to build a spine of half a dozen players who are going to be around for the next 3-4 years. Sydney have disproven the theory that the aleague automatically means you can’t hold onto players long term.  

Preferably secure a striker, scoring wingers and a 10 using our foreign and/or marquee spots. I’m talking guys who can actually score goals still, not just once upon a time wonders. I’d bring in Berisha who now is basically considered a squaddie and a bloody good one at that, he’s a bargain buy these days IMO who with good service can still do a better job than most attackers in the league. 

A senior centre back would be ideal to command the defence and foster the development of Natta and Tass without playing them out of game time. Russell, Wilmering and Acquilina are more than sufficient as fullbacks. 

I’d be using the rest of our cap space to get some experienced squaddies or bring more youth players through from the academy.

[StringerBellend]

35 minutes ago, hughsey said:

We need to build a spine of half a dozen players who are going to be around for the next 3-4 years. Sydney have disproven the theory that the aleague automatically means you can’t hold onto players long term.  

Preferably secure a striker, scoring wingers and a 10 using our foreign and/or marquee spots. I’m talking guys who can actually score goals still, not just once upon a time wonders. I’d bring in Berisha who now is basically considered a squaddie and a bloody good one at that, he’s a bargain buy these days IMO who with good service can still do a better job than most attackers in the league. 

A senior centre back would be ideal to command the defence and foster the development of Natta and Tass without playing them out of game time. Russell, Wilmering and Acquilina are more than sufficient as fullbacks. 

I’d be using the rest of our cap space to get some experienced squaddies or bring more youth players through from the academy.

Russel, Wilmering and acqualina aren’t sufficient if we keep playing this stupid 5 3 2 formation 

[MathyouWSW]

Apparently Cameron Devlin wants to leave Wellington Phoenix. He has been approached by Popovic who is trying to influence him to sign to Melbourne Victory.

Personally, Robinson should be approaching him to and try and sign him to the Wanderers. It seems Robinson's plan is to have Baccus play as an attacking midfielder for next season so we'll see a rotation between him and Troisi.

If Robinson somehow signed Devlin, then you have great range of DM's since there's Ugarkovic, Dorrans, Mutch (if he stays), Devlin and Baccus has a backup. 

Plus, if all hell breaks loose. You could always have Devlin playing as an attacking midfielder (despite he is a more dominant as a defensive midfielder).

[Upthehill]

48 minutes ago, MathyouWSW said:

Apparently Cameron Devlin wants to leave Wellington Phoenix. He has been approached by Popovic who is trying to influence him to sign to Melbourne Victory.

Personally, Robinson should be approaching him to and try and sign him to the Wanderers. It seems Robinson's plan is to have Baccus play as an attacking midfielder for next season so we'll see a rotation between him and Troisi.

If Robinson somehow signed Devlin, then you have great range of DM's since there's Ugarkovic, Dorrans, Mutch (if he stays), Devlin and Baccus has a backup. 

Plus, if all hell breaks loose. You could always have Devlin playing as an attacking midfielder (despite he is a more dominant as a defensive midfielder).

A few points on this, and why I think we have no chance of getting him.

1) In our favour, Devlin was at the academy while popa was here. Devlin spoke about being completely ignored by the coach at the time. I cant quite work out if thats Popa or Gumby. Timelines may help here
2) We have Ugarkovic, Baccus and Dorrans all going into next season. Devlin would be signing on knowing he is probably behind at least 2 of these players
3) If Mutch stays, he knows he's not getting a game
4) If popa is offering him a starting gig in contrast to at least 2 points above.... yeah probably not.

Our midfield just aint the problem (on paper). We have one of the most stacked midfields ever yet it's completely ineffective. Watch this weekends game, even Zeigler had no option but to hit 40m balls to Duke rscing back. Thats because none of the three midefielders were in a place to receive the ball and advance it. Thats not a player problem, thats a fu/cking deadsh/it coach problem.

Add to that we've relied on one grown ginger and 6 kids to keep the ball out of the net... 

[MathyouWSW]

22 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

A few points on this, and why I think we have no chance of getting him.

1) In our favour, Devlin was at the academy while popa was here. Devlin spoke about being completely ignored by the coach at the time. I cant quite work out if thats Popa or Gumby. Timelines may help here
2) We have Ugarkovic, Baccus and Dorrans all going into next season. Devlin would be signing on knowing he is probably behind at least 2 of these players
3) If Mutch stays, he knows he's not getting a game
4) If popa is offering him a starting gig in contrast to at least 2 points above.... yeah probably not.

Our midfield just aint the problem (on paper). We have one of the most stacked midfields ever yet it's completely ineffective. Watch this weekends game, even Zeigler had no option but to hit 40m balls to Duke rscing back. Thats because none of the three midefielders were in a place to receive the ball and advance it. Thats not a player problem, thats a fu/cking deadsh/it coach problem.

Add to that we've relied on one grown ginger and 6 kids to keep the ball out of the net... 

Devlin was at the Wanderers Academy from 2016-2017.

[Upthehill]

2 minutes ago, MathyouWSW said:

Devlin was at the Wanderers Academy from 2016-2017.

So Popovic era. The way he talked about Popa without actually saying his name, implies they might not have had the best relationship. Or pop was just giving him the treatment and Devlin has accepted it for what it was

[MathyouWSW]

On 17/05/2021 at 3:57 PM, WanderingToqui said:

https://www.transfermarkt.com/danny-welbeck/profil/spieler/67063

https://www.transfermarkt.com/andre-ayew/profil/spieler/45403

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kyle-bartley/profil/spieler/67421

As @sonar said before, three great players. But...Lederer wouldn't even look at even opening his wallet for them. 

Welbeck will probably get renewed at Brighton.
If Swansea get promoted, they would be looking to resign Ayew since he has helped them alot this season.
A friend of mine is a West Brom fan and highly rates Bartley. Great player but probably wanting too much if he wanted to join the Wanderers.

 

[Upthehill]

17 minutes ago, MathyouWSW said:

As @sonar said before, three great players. But...Lederer wouldn't even look at even opening his wallet for them. 

Welbeck will probably get renewed at Brighton.
If Swansea get promoted, they would be looking to resign Ayew since he has helped them alot this season.
A friend of mine is a West Brom fan and highly rates Bartley. Great player but probably wanting too much if he wanted to join the Wanderers.

 

Is that how everyone views Lederer?

We seem to spend enormous amounts on players. We dont get return because of the captain at the helm

[mack]

For a man who repeatedly told us to "mark his words" about "being the best club in Australia", spending $750k on a striker isn't particularly impressive, especially when they turn out to be total failures.

[theguyyouwishyouwere]

23 minutes ago, mack said:

For a man who repeatedly told us to "mark his words" about "being the best club in Australia", spending $750k on a striker isn't particularly impressive, especially when they turn out to be total failures.

Pio looked good enough on paper. 

[SNS100]

Give or take, these are the most recent 20 VISA players that Mr Lederer and JT have signed off on (dating back to when Popa left us and the **** really hit the fan):

Mutch
Cox
Műller
Lopar
Zeigler
Gordon
Dorrans
Schweglar
Majewski
Riera
Baumjohann
Llorente
Bonevacia
Cujudo
Carrusca
Jumpei
Piñatares
Borda
Martinez
Dimas

Other than one or two on that list, none of these players gave us any real hope of a Premiers Plate or that all elusive Championship A-League toilet seat. 

I've spent countless weeks during the off seasons checking out this Squad Development Thread, eagerly anticipating another Shinji Ono type of signing. Struth, I'd been over the moon if we got anywhere close to a Polenz, Hersi, La Rocca, Poljak or Dino type of player who gave us a full season of everything they had. 

Furthermore, anytime a decent player from a rival became available (Maclaren, Fornarolli, Bratten...) they were 'too expensive' for our club to even consider. 

Even in our short history, I truly believe that we had some club legends. The way they were treated and shown the door, with little or no fanfare, left a really bad taste in my mouth. I'm talking about Ante Čović and Brendan Santalab in particular, should have been shown greater respect by the club. 

Moving forward, if we don't nail our next 5 visa spots, we'll dig ourselves into a deeper whole, whilst ruining the careers of the youth players coming through. 

[TwoLeftFoots]

Sturridge is without a club, and probs at the top end end of what we would/could pay.

Jozo simunovic is a free agent aswell.

 

There's quality players there, and the way we've handled covid would be enticing aswell. 

If all clubs can splash some cash there's realistic potential for multiple higher profile players in the competition next season.

 

[mack]

Carrusca was an Australian by the time he joined us, but yeah, that list is extremely lacking in players who could be considered top quality in the A-League. I'd say out of all of them the only one who was is Riera, with Majewski perhaps if he hadn't got wiped out by idiot McGowan, and Muller if he'd come here to play as a left winger instead of an emergency attacking midfielder because of what happened to Majewski & having to play in a formation without proper wingers.

[MathyouWSW]

I would throw Schwegler into that mix as well, Mack.

[SNS100]

10 minutes ago, mack said:

I'd say out of all of them the only one who was is Riera, with Majewski perhaps if he hadn't got wiped out by idiot McGowan

For all we know, Majewski for all his quality, would've found himself on the bench like the majority of players on that list. 

Blows my mind how none of our visa players can stay fit for an extended period. 

Why is that? 

[MathyouWSW]

30 minutes ago, TwoLeftFoots said:

Jozo Simunovic is a free agent as well.

Now you're talking. 

He is still young (only 26) and already has achieved alot:

5x Scottish Premiership Champion
4x Prva HNL Champion
3x Scottish Cup Winner
3x Scottish League Cup Winner
1x Croatian Cup Winner
1x Croatian Super Cup Winner

The guy is willing to throw his body to defend goals (just like Ziggy Gordon).

Edited May 18, 2021 by MathyouWSW

[matty]

So now Lederers wallet is to blame.

As far as we can tell the coach has a good sized budget to sign players, certainly plenty to expect a top 4 finish. And the wallet stays open all season long,  as we've seen, with players constantly arriving. 

It's easy to blame the rich guy. It's harder to accept that there's a cultural problem at our club. 

[sonar]

24 minutes ago, matty said:

As far as we can tell the coach has a good sized budget to sign players, certainly plenty to expect a top 4 finish. And the wallet stays open all season long,  as we've seen, with players constantly arriving. 

There is something wrong in the visa players we are signing that is amiss when it comes to putting in on the pitch. Out of the visa players we currently have I would rate only Ziggy Gordon as being value for money. I'd give Simon Cox a pass mark as well but the others.....hmmmmm.

For whatever reason the manager(s) haven't been able to extract the best out of the others week in week out. There is a list of 20 visa players in a previous post and out of those I would say only Gordon,Schwegler,Riera,Lopar and Martinez were value. Which is a very poor return on investment.

Edited May 18, 2021 by sonar

[Zelinsky]

There is a direct correlation between success (or lack of it), and the quality of imports

 

S4 we got four imports right, we were up there, that Pio turned out to be a total dud cost us the title

S5: one out of five (Martinez) was good

S6: Riera good, four duds

S7: Riera good, Roly coming good, three underwhelming

S8: Schwegler and Lopar performed, the other three to varying degrees

S9: Gordon big tick, the other four soso

[StringerBellend]

S9 gordan good

35 minutes ago, FCB said:

There is a direct correlation between success (or lack of it), and the quality of imports

 

S4 we got four imports right, we were up there, that Pio turned out to be a total dud cost us the title

S5: one out of five (Martinez) was good

S6: Riera good, four duds

S7: Riera good, Roly coming good, three underwhelming

S8: Schwegler and Lopar performed, the other three to varying degrees

S9: Gordon big tick, the other four soso

Exactly get 4/5 right and you finish top 4

This year the other 4 arent even so so

dorrans so so

Much  good when he plays but that’s hardly ever so a waste of a spot 

Mueller - invisible so another waste 

Cox - nice guy wish him all the luck with his family but at best he was so so and he’s now not here so again a waste 

We have 2 imports who play, that lines up with the disaster zone seasons of Saba and Adeleke sitting in the stands watching the games

Edited May 18, 2021 by StringerBellend

[Zelinsky]

21 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

We have 2 imports who play, that lines up with the disaster zone seasons of Saba and Adeleke sitting in the stands watching the games

S3 has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Recruitment was fine, the problem was that bodies broke down due to ACL commitments, the crazy HAL schedule, and the Club WC experience. Saba's contributions were vital winning the ACL, it is a pity that he was trying to tell Popa where he should play. Adeleke being stuck in Italy with Ebola concerns, and missing pre season was a problem as well. But yes, he was a dud.

I'd go so far to say that Tagahagi, Tanaka, Castelen (when he was fit) were amongst our best imports.

 

[Smoggy]

2 hours ago, FCB said:

S3 has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Recruitment was fine, the problem was that bodies broke down due to ACL commitments, the crazy HAL schedule, and the Club WC experience. Saba's contributions were vital winning the ACL, it is a pity that he was trying to tell Popa where he should play. Adeleke being stuck in Italy with Ebola concerns, and missing pre season was a problem as well. But yes, he was a dud.

I'd go so far to say that Tagahagi, Tanaka, Castelen (when he was fit) were amongst our best imports.

 

Castelen on his day was awesome, he didn't have enough of those days though.

[THEWANDERERSPOST]

35 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Castelen on his day was awesome

Luckily he had one of those days when we were 3-0 down in 20 minutes...

[Hughesy]

42 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Castelen on his day was awesome, he didn't have enough of those days though.

That’s the perfect summary of him. Was going to say similar.