Starting 11 for next season

[Barrow fanz]

^ what they said. The squad needs an overhaul and contracted players who aren’t in the plans need to be told to try and find other clubs. More of the same with these players, regardless of who’s the Manager.

The current problem, on this point, is that we are rudderless. Iain Wood, and the owners, might agree about some movement in or out, but that may not suit the plans/ideas of the incumbent manager. If by chance any player acquisitions or departures suit whoever we end up with, all well and good, though to be honest I can’t see anything meaningful happening until we have a first team manager signed up, essentially to call the final shots on recruitment/retention. Pretty quickly as well, to have a functioning outfit come the end of July.

The players won't be back in training for a good while yet, no need to panic

[EWH53]

Play Banks as a striker. Can't do any worse than the so called strikers we have on the books .

[HenneysKnee]

Play Banks as a striker. Can't do any worse than the so called strikers we have on the books .

No. Yes he could

[Moribund]

Or play Banks in his best position and coach him properly - he was our best player for 4 months last season.

[Gazza]

Play Banks as a striker. Can't do any worse than the so called strikers we have on the books .

Don’t think this is a sound long term option but I’d probably have given him a go up there at the end of last season, just to give us a height option up front, particularly when we lost Holloway for a few games.

[Hadrian]

Or play Banks in his best position and coach him properly - he was our best player for 4 months last season.

Exactly.

[McMark]

Or play Banks in his best position and coach him properly - he was our best player for 4 months last season.

Exactly.

Aye there’s a few with the memory span of goldfish on here!

[Corey_BAFC]

Play Banks as a striker. Can't do any worse than the so called strikers we have on the books .

Some awful shouts on this forum and this could top the lot

[JammyBluebird]

even by this forum's standards this is a totally pointless thread at this stage.

lost interest after "ollie Banks at fullback "!

He's got him down as a Right Centre Back in a 3 here.

He played this at the start of the season (September-ish) when we were low on fit Centre Backs and was actually fairly good.

[blue nige]

lost interest after "ollie Banks at fullback "!

He's got him down as a Right Centre Back in a 3 here.

He played this at the start of the season (September-ish) when we were low on fit Centre Backs and was actually fairly good.

Ok - a bit of off season downtime so a question for you all - let’s suppose you’re the Manager and you’ve got to pick a starting eleven from the players currently on the books for next season. Who would you go for ? To get the ball rolling I’d have Ollie Banks at right fullback and my side would be

If you`re trying to score points at least read the post I was commenting on !

[Mark Johnson]

For me OB best position is a more defensive midfield role.. he can carry the ball in that pocket of space between defence and attack, to try to open up play for others.
He can tackle, pass, win headers but he's not as effective as a playmaking midfieilder, the role he was doing under Cooper and the role in which Brown dropped him under. He would be good sat in front of our defence especially in a tough away game.

[blue nige]

For me OB best position is a more defensive midfield role.. he can carry the ball in that pocket of space between defence and attack, to try to open up play for others.
He can tackle, pass, win headers but he's not as effective as a playmaking midfieilder, the role he was doing under Cooper and the role in which Brown dropped him under. He would be good sat in front of our defence especially in a tough away game.

The reason he gets booked is that his tackling is poor and he often misjudges challenges , as for carrying the ball forward he takes far too long to distribute the ball hence Brown dropping him in this league the policy is to get it forward quickly ( sometimes not a good watch) but it`s effective and keeps teams under the cosh !, you also have to play to your strengths and our back 5 never looked comfortable passing the ball around.

[Mark Johnson]

For me OB best position is a more defensive midfield role.. he can carry the ball in that pocket of space between defence and attack, to try to open up play for others.
He can tackle, pass, win headers but he's not as effective as a playmaking midfieilder, the role he was doing under Cooper and the role in which Brown dropped him under. He would be good sat in front of our defence especially in a tough away game.

The reason he gets booked is that his tackling is poor and he often misjudges challenges , as for carrying the ball forward he takes far too long to distribute the ball hence Brown dropping him in this league the policy is to get it forward quickly ( sometimes not a good watch) but it`s effective and keeps teams under the cosh !, you also have to play to your strengths and our back 5 never looked comfortable passing the ball around.

I'm advocating that we don't miss our midfield out and have a player that links defence to midfield. I think Banks would be a good candidate for that. The truth is we need to get Rooney on the ball as much as possible next season. He's the one we need to build our team around as he's by far our most gifted player. Getting it forward quickly might work in some games but I think we need a sensible mix of penetration and patience, where our most creative players are involved and allowed to influence the game.

We also need Brough as our left wing back regularly

We probably need 2 CB's , 2 full backs/wing backs, 2 strikers and we'll be set !

[Jonty]

For me OB best position is a more defensive midfield role.. he can carry the ball in that pocket of space between defence and attack, to try to open up play for others.
He can tackle, pass, win headers but he's not as effective as a playmaking midfieilder, the role he was doing under Cooper and the role in which Brown dropped him under. He would be good sat in front of our defence especially in a tough away game.

Your view of Banks is the players we need to fit alongside the creativity of Rooney but it never worked and he was dropped because he wasn’t effectively doing those things you said he does well?

[russell_anderson]

The reason he gets booked is that his tackling is poor and he often misjudges challenges , as for carrying the ball forward he takes far too long to distribute the ball hence Brown dropping him in this league the policy is to get it forward quickly ( sometimes not a good watch) but it`s effective and keeps teams under the cosh !, you also have to play to your strengths and our back 5 never looked comfortable passing the ball around.

I'm advocating that we don't miss our midfield out and have a player that links defence to midfield. I think Banks would be a good candidate for that. The truth is we need to get Rooney on the ball as much as possible next season. He's the one we need to build our team around as he's by far our most gifted player. Getting it forward quickly might work in some games but I think we need a sensible mix of penetration and patience, where our most creative players are involved and allowed to influence the game.

We also need Brough as our left wing back regularly

We probably need 2 CB's , 2 full backs/wing backs, 2 strikers and we'll be set !

As most people on here will know, I'm Rooney's biggest fan. However, he's not the player he was when he left us to go to Stockport. As you say, he's still by far our most gifted player but he no longer gets around the pitch as often and as quickly as he used to do. To play him and Banks in midfield means we have 2 players who are short of pace - Banks more so than Rooney - and we need 2 reasonably quick players to play alongside Rooney. Gotts fits the bill for one of those but we need another with similar quickness to Gotts.
IMO, we are also playing Rooney in the wrong place since he returned. Under Evatt, he played much deeper and constanly took the ball off the back 3 before advancing. Since he retuned he has been played much further forward - as he was at Stockport - and it doesn't suit him nearly as much as when the play is in front of him.
I agree with your point about Brough who is easily our best wing back. However, He's also probably also our best central defender at the moment!