Originally Posted by
Loramski
Not a lot to report here, things seem to be moving along much as expected. That probably won't stop me turning this into an essay though.
Isaak Davies is getting a lot of mentions on here, and rightly so. I'm certainly no expert on him but he seems to have gone full circle since I first saw him play. He looked like a striker then but Bellamy's Academy team had another player like him so Isaak played a bit at number 10 and out on the wing as well as up front. While he struggled to adapt at times he soon picked it up to the point, a year or so later, when he started an FA Youth Cup tie against Ipswich as a striker, scored the opening goal then switched to the wing when Crole came on. Having been a handful out there he then came up with a brilliant bit of play to beat his full back and pull it across for Crole to tap in the winner.
Having developed an all-round game, however, the goals started to dry up. I seem to remember mentions of bad misses and a general decline in front of goal at under 23/21 level and while there was plenty to be encouraged by when he broke into the first team there wasn't as much threat in front of goal as there could have been. That threat seems be well and truly there now though. His striker's instincts are back from the goals I've seen; good positioning and movement along with confident finishing.
What now though? If Bulut sees Kieffer Moore as his ideal striker then it's hard to imagine him starting Isaak up front but will we be killing the goose that lays the golden egg a bit if we stick him out wide again. Him and Tsunoda both seem to be flourishing in a 5 at the back system, maybe that would suit them both best here too. Time will tell.
Malachi Fagan-Walcott seems to going from strength to strength at Dunfermline. Excellent performances week in week out, mature interviews and an obvious desire to be a team player while working on improving his own game. I don't think I've seen a bad word said about him yet. I never quite got how Casey Ryback ended up as a chef on a train in Under Siege 2 and I'm equally unsure why Fagan-Walcott is at Dunfermline. Maybe he's going to save the planet too, we'll see.
As I mentioned in the Academy thread, a few loan players are missing out. Benjamin, Crole, Kavanagh, Bagan and King didn't make their squads this weekend, King's injured but I'm not sure about the others. Zimba hasn't got on for three games, Keiron Evans was sacrificed ten minutes in after an early red card for Gateshead and Sheyi Ojo didn't get on for Kortrijk.
Ollie Denham is still going well at Sligo though. Him Adams and Rinomhota all got 90 minutes in this weekend. Joe Ralls new deal means we've now got seven central midfielders still under contract going into next season. I'm sure we'll be looking to get Joel Colwill out on loan and probably move Rinomhota on but that still leaves five going for two places.
While some players are struggling to establish themselves on loan it's nice to see 18-year-old Jake Dennis getting into the Gloucester City team. He'd been on the bench until the regular keeper shipped seven recently and he's done well in the two games since. A 2-1 defeat at league leaders Tamworth was followed by a last minute win at Warrington yesterday, the winner being scored by City old boy Harry Pinchard. A happy ending for you there, just like Under Siege.
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