Gowling, Jackson, Summerfield & Berrett

All injured or now deemed surplus to requirements?

Like gowling but he's out of his depth at this level. Summerfield and berrett have shown why they came from a relegated side. Jackson has no end product so would send him back to barnsley. York are struggling and need players so loan the other 3 to them till end of season

I think there's been a row with Gowling, it's suspicious that Gunning suddenly signs and then he's completely dropped.

Berrett and Summerfield can do a job for me but Jackson isn't good enough for me, too lightweight and shot of confidence at the moment to boot.

Marcus has said he was interested in Gunning but did not expect him to be available until the summer. Having got him he is going to play him so we now have 5 recognised centre halves and only 3 max can play. It is the way it is.

Quoted from Mariner_09

I think there's been a row with Gowling, it's suspicious that Gunning suddenly signs and then he's completely dropped.

Berrett and Summerfield can do a job for me but Jackson isn't good enough for me, too lightweight and shot of confidence at the moment to boot.

According to radio humbs Gowling in injured, Summerfield can be a reasonable squad player & regrettably the only job I would give Berrett would be one which meant he never played for the first team again, harsh maybe but has proved a very poor signing and this will probably be demonstrated by the fact that no other team will want to take him off us when he is made available either this month or in the summer.

Summerfield when he wants to can play well he just doesn't do it often enough and makes too many errors with losing the ball. Would probably be a really good player in non league. Berrett has a couple of okay performances but don't see anything in him really not even sure what his role is and he's probably not either.

Jackson should be sent back looks like he needs to spend the rest of the season in reserves football to get his confidence back. Has raw attributes but that's not enough, plenty of young players have that and very few make it at league level. Barnsley will probably figure out that he's not good enough for them and he'll end up a couple of leagues down again.

I think the harsh reality is that there are probably more than half a dozen (and maybe as many as 10) members of the squad who are not good enough to take us to the next level, or, at least, good enough for a L2 side with genuine promotion/play off credentials. Don't think it's fair  to name them, and it's obviously just an opinion anyway. Most of our squad are good enough for a L2 squad with survival as it's objective, just about. We are patently lacking in players of good technical ability, especially attacking players.

Quoted from chaos33

I think the harsh reality is that there are probably more than half a dozen (and maybe as many as 10) members of the squad who are not good enough to take us to the next level, or, at least, good enough for a L2 side with genuine promotion/play off credentials. Don't think it's fair  to name them, and it's obviously just an opinion anyway. Most of our squad are good enough for a L2 squad with survival as it's objective, just about. We are patently lacking in players of good technical ability, especially attacking players.

Agree entirely and we are about where i expected us to be. Think Hurst and the board's priority was survival and build from there. Bignot has come in and has already started the building bit off the pitch with the backroom staff. He now wants to change the playing staff and go in a different direction to the way Hurst wanted to play but he has also said that the first priority is to be in this league next season. I hope Bignot spends as long here as PH did, because that will mean he has done a good job.

I  sat in the Main Stand for Portsmouth and Bignot kept shouting at Danny Andrew to sort out Gowings positioning and he was right. Has hardly played since so tells you what you need to know.

None of the above mentioned are good enough for league 2....as a last resort Summerfield would be a squad player. The rest together with Boyce, should be loaned out, unfortunately the same probably applies to Venney, although from what i've seen of him he should of at least been given a chance, couldn't of done any worse than our current creative midfielders!. When match fit, from the glimpses i saw yesterday, Gunning also looks a natural partner for Collins, as he looks very assured on the ball. Marcus suggested that the any money used from a Bogle transfer, would be used to improve the infrastrature of the club, which would be a move in the right direction, as this has been severly lacking in recent years. This squad whilst huge in quantity, is lacking in any really quality....apart from Vose, what other midfielders can open up defences?

Problem with Gunny being a natural partner for Collins is that they are both left footed, which might make us unbalanced defensively, having said that we had Toto and Gowling and previously Toto and Pearson at the back as both right footers a bit back.

Gunny?

Your mate is he?  

At risk of repeating myself (I made the same comment on the 'Our Midfield' thread) Gunning claimed in his interview to be able to play centre midfield.
Just a thought, but he might add some much needed quality where we need it?

New manager,new ideas, new faces happens everywhere. He as had time to asses the players and the situation and to improve needs to try something different.

Josh is a good player but his lack of pace and ill timed challenges have cost us.

Says a lot when Gunning was our most creative player on Saturday from CB. He looks very good on the ball, could maybe benefit from losing a bit of timber though! Thought he looked a bit on the heavy side.

Quoted from AussieMariner

At risk of repeating myself (I made the same comment on the 'Our Midfield' thread) Gunning claimed in his interview to be able to play centre midfield.
Just a thought, but he might add some much needed quality where we need it?

I thought he said holding midfielder and that's not going to help us much in the creative department, unless he is another Nathan Pond type, which would be ace.

Pretty sure he said centre midfield but in any case, if he is comfortable on the ball and from what I've read can distribute it competently surely this is what we've been missing???

Quoted from AussieMariner

Pretty sure he said centre midfield but in any case, if he is comfortable on the ball and from what I've read can distribute it competently surely this is what we've been missing???

I think he's a defender first and foremost and will bring the ball out from the back. I can't see him being used regularly as a midfielder but he will help with the system if we want to play out from the back. There will be one or two new recruitments for centre mid before the window shuts, i'm sure.

Quoted from ginnywings

I think he's a defender first and foremost and will bring the ball out from the back. I can't see him being used regularly as a midfielder but he will help with the system if we want to play out from the back. There will be one or two new recruitments for centre mid before the window shuts, i'm sure.

Certainly hope so - I'm just suggesting a plan B
Oh sorry, forgot, we don't have those do we?

Gunning played a couple of good passes but looked a yard off the pace at times. Might get away with that in defence but not so much in midfield.

In any case, the world is full of defenders who think they could play in midfield, but most of them aren't up to the job! Pond was unusual in that he wanted to play in defence but was often given a midfield role!

Assuming we do bring in a midfielder during the transfer window, I certainly hope he has a bit of pace as this is what we're still badly lacking in the middle.

Quoted from AussieMariner

Certainly hope so - I'm just suggesting a plan B
Oh sorry, forgot, we don't have those do we?

MB seems to have a plan A B C and D if the last few weeks is anything to go by. The system and personnel had changed almost weekly until the last few games when we looked to have found something that was working. Unfortunately, a very good counter attacking side, full of confidence, picked apart that system ruthlessly. I'm sure all will become clear in the fullness of time, with the addition of players more suited to what MB wants.

Fair enough Maringer but my gut feel is that Gunning is a class above
If you listen to his interview it's also pretty clear that we're just a stepping stone for him back into the English game
Yes we need pace, but the pace we really need in the middle is between the ears rather than in the legs and Gunning may just provide that
My point is that he's going to use us, and it's probably a short term relationship, so why not apply his attributes (confidence, class, intelligence) in the area we need it most?