First signing of the summer - Courtney Clarke

Transfer Centre 25/26
142

Liam Gordon: Graded in different parts of the pitch

  • Defensive Third: As a defender - B/C Satisfactory, good enough for us.
  • Middle Third: Moving the ball through the middle third: -A - Excellent, looks really good.
  • Attacking Third: Making chances for the team: E - Not good enough

The trouble is that looking good in the middle third does not win matches.

3 Likes
143

Or expecting one player to be fantastic in all of those areas. Especially if youā€™re giving out a harsh grade in the first category.

1 Like
144

To be fair, especially in the first half of the season, Taylor Allenā€™s ability to put a good cross in from that side from a different angle compensated for Gordonā€™s poor output in that area. He was someone who could carry the ball forward and also take a defender away to give Allen more room.

5 Likes
145

Jury is still out on Barret for me. He was like two different players last season, the drop off in the second half was so big. Hard to know which is the real him!

146

Cracking point.

1 Like
147

It is a good point and highlights how effective Gordon can be in helping create chances whilst not getting the ā€œassistā€ tag.

1 Like
148

I would argue then that most competent professional left wing backs could do that exact same job - but also have better delivery themselves.

1 Like
149

I agree that Gordonā€™s delivery is generally poor - that needs to improve. But the big question is: can we get (I.e. attract to the club) better in his position? Iā€™m not sure we can.

3 Likes
150

I donā€™t disagree on that but unfortunately such all rounders are likely to be out of our price range.

1 Like
151

I agree, for me heā€™s one of the top half dozen wing backs in the league, weā€™re lucky to have him.

1 Like
152

I think when we were playing well and blowing teams away first half of the season Barrett was full on and was usually up against one of the opponents defenders and easily got past them and usually delivered a better ball in the area, but as the season went on two things took him out of most games as a threat.,

  1. Teams started to get us sussed and usually put two and sometmes three players on our wingbacks to snuff their danger balls in the box.
  2. I think being new to league football he was starting to run out of gas, but that I blame more on the manager, not the player.
3 Likes
153

I remember that too. I remember when I heard him say that I thought ā€œWHAT??? You must be the only person in football who doesnā€™t then mate!ā€

154

I think Barrettā€™s performances partly dispel the myth that MS is good at developing talent. He was fantastic for the first half of the season, presumably doing what heā€™d learnt at Fylde. Then MS gets his ideas and methods into him and gradually his performances start to deteriorate, similar to Jellis.

155

Replying to Natalie-Drest (not karm)
I am trying to think of some counter examples, of players who were nothing special when they first came, but have really blossomed after having some time here under Sadlerā€™s coaching. Taylor Allen; Harry Williams, possibly Okagbue.

On the other hand there is quite a long list of players who flattered to deceive and looked good prospects when they came here, but seemed to get worse the longer they stayed, such as, Foulkes, Knowles, Tierney, Oteh, Riley, Barrett, Liam Gordon, Jellis, Stirk. There may be some disagreement about some of those, but I think it is pretty clear that none of them improved here.

And of course there are the players who seemed promising when we glimpsed them, but then disappeared before we had enough information to decide.

1 Like