23/24 Squad Building Introduction - The Goalkeepers
(Image: HTAFC)
Matt Shaw, Founder.
Twitter: @TTCMatt
So recently ‘The Juice’ (Brady) threw together an And He Takes That Chance Listeners Survey which around 100 of you filled in. Thanks for that, I think… In and amongst the sea of “Your sounds shit”, “buy a better mic, you hairy prick”, “Stop doing YouTube videos, you look like a Yeti procreated with The Honey Monster and it scares my kids”, “Your sounds shit”, “Don’t let Kosi near any playgrounds”, “Your sounds shit”, “Pozza looks like Flat Eric, lolz”, “Your sound quality is shit”, there it was… Glistening in a pit of criticism (it wasn’t all bad, really). The excuse I needed to whip out the laptop and write this article.
That’s all I needed! So, thank you @Mattsmum8736892020 for the feedback, whomever you are. Maybe less of the Farage retweets on your twitter timeline in future though.
So here we are, I’ve just given the game away as to what this is all about, but I’ll indulge further anyway. Last year I wrote a series of articles about the strength of Town’s squad and did a touch of analysis to identify weak areas and potential signings of whom may fit into the roles identified. Carlos Corberan (Lee Morris has just stopped reading ☹) I found was a fairly easy head coach to predict for and with Dean Hoyle’s MO of cutting back spending and requiring player sales I half knew where we stood in terms of the market and possible attainable targets. Now, roll this forward to 25th June 2023 (as I write this) and I’ve got absolutely no idea. Kevin Nagle (It’s Nagle btw, not Nagel like the bagel) has just bought the club and we’re yet to really hear from him (we will soon and I’m looking forward to that). So, what’s the vision? Where do we want to go? Will we be after high quality players, will we still be bargain hunting? It’s all incredibly intriguing.
What do we know so far?
What we know is that The Grandmaster of Escapology, ‘The Warlock’ himself Neil Warnock is staying on for another season. Will he see out the season at almost 75 years of age? It does feel like a short-term move, but like the man himself regales several times, he went for the Derby job but was turned down as he wasn’t seen as a long-term solution, only for Derby to sack the long-term investment chosen over Warnock after 3 months. Don’t bet against the man outlasting many of his peers next season!
Warnock is also likely to act like an old-school manager overseeing recruitment and transfers in light of Leigh Bromby’s recent dismissal. How Town’s hierarchy approach this will be interesting. Is there a long-term plan on recruitment? If not, will Town then be saddled with a number of new ‘Warnock players’ on lengthy contracts after Warnock has gone as they muddle through to the next head coach? Having no Director of Football could also make planning for Warnock’s eventual exit all the more difficult. But I’ll worry about that when the great man decides that enough is enough!
The Leigh Bromby factor will be interesting. The often maligned Head of Football Ops had built up a good relationship with Chelsea and Man City for loaning players to the club. How is his removal going to impact Town’s ability to take on young loanees like Levi Colwill and Tino Anjorin? Will Neil Warnock even want young loanees? It’s going to be an interesting watch.
On to the good stuff!
Last year I did a graphic to show the various systems deployed by Carlos Corberan. There was the 4231, 343, 352, 433 and 442. By happy coincidence these are all system used by Neil Warnock last season, so the lovely thing here is I can be lazy and use the same graphic. What a time saving boon that is for me! Going forward, I would imagine that Warnock will prefer the 433 or 352 and each shape will require some form of flexibility from the players to be able to fit into several different roles. However, in terms of detail, Corberan and Warnock are at polar ends of the scale. Corberan a very meticulous coach known for complicated structures and several in game changes per half contrasted to Warnock’s simplification of the game and removing pressure from players through excellent man management. Both approaches have their pros and cons but there are at least parallels in that neither coach is married to a set system like David Wagner was in 2016/17. This is enjoyable news for a lot of the existing playing staff providing they enjoy it by being fucking disciplined!
The systems of Carlos Corberan Neil Warnock
Attack of the Killer B’s
Yeah, I know, I had the same section in last year but let’s be fair, it served its purpose! With Town looking to cut back on expenditure we saw debuts given to Etienne Camara, Tyreece Simpson, Brodie Spencer and a league debut for Nic Bilokapic, along with more minutes given to Scott High, Pat Jones, Ben Jackson, Brahima Diarra and Kian Harratt.
Neil Warnock made mention in his recent press conference that he will be taking some young lads to Cornwall in pre-season and that they will be given every opportunity to shine. Whether this opens the door for more debuts for the likes of Luke Daley, Jacob Chapman or David Adewoju or presents a league debut for Loick Ayina to add to his crazy 38 minutes at Preston is up to the players in question. Ayina did his cause no harm whatsoever with a series of impressive performances for Dundee Utd last season, despite The Terrors living up to their club nickname on the field, Ayina impressed the fans and officials north of the border.
Goalkeepers
OUTS
Ryan Schofield - released.
Tomas Vaclik – released.
Josh Mazfari – released.
Michael Roxburgh – released.
Sam Taylor - released.
Jordan Smith - returned to parent club.
Preamble
There was a jolt amongst the fanbase this summer as popular Town keeper coach Paul Clements was released as part of a Neil Warnock backroom shuffle. Many Town fans took to social media to lament the loss of a Keeper coach who had been with The Terriers through some incredible highs and when the going got tough and Town started to tumble, he stayed despite offers to jump ship. How Clem’s loss effects the goalkeeping department will also be interesting with rumours circulating of Lee Nicholls unhappiness with the move. On the plus side, Town welcome back Ian Bennett who was a bit of a cult hero among the fan base from 2010-2012 and ‘Benno’ I’m sure will also be a popular figure amongst the Town fans.
In this same article last year, I remarked that whilst Town’s keepers are full of promise they lack suitable cover if Lee Nicholls was to get injured and would need to rely on the loan market. Nicholls inevitable injury resulted in a desperate near month long scramble resulting in Tomas Vaclik and Jordan Smith signing. Vaclik took a while to get to some level of sharpness but once he did, he was a fairly decent keeper. Roll forward 12 months and Town are in the same position. Six keepers have left the club and whilst some of the younger lads have a little more experience under their belts thanks to loans away, is there a keeper at the club that you would be happy with if Nicholls misses another 4 months? Add in that a young keeper’s development is often best served playing further down the pyramid, should we see movement in this area?
Lee Nicholls
Age: 30
Contract: Expiring 2026 (1 year option).
Verdict: Secured as Town’s #1
The best goalkeeper in the Championship in 21/22. Nicholls had a dip early doors last season (who didn’t) but he came back blazing to win the B&W player of November and December. Town’s greatest challenge this summer is keeping hold of a prized asset coming into his prime years. If a Premier League move was to materialise for Nicholls it would be tough to deny him the opportunity, but Town fans will be hoping nothing comes of reported interest from Luton Town.
Jacob Chapman
Age: 22
Contract: Expiring 2024
Verdict: Loan out.
It’s tough to decide what to do with Jacob Chapman. He spent the first half of last season on loan at Salford where he only made 5 appearances. However, the reviews of Chapman’s performances were good from Salford fans. Ideally for his own development, Chapman needs to go out and play games. Whether this is at League 2 level or non-league it doesn’t really matter at this stage, the games are the key. Alternatively, Chapman could sit on Town’s bench behind Lee Nicholls but if Nicholls was to be injured then I suspect Town may visit the emergency loan market for a keeper as under the rules they would be allowed to do so providing Bilokapic is out on loan.
Giosue Bellagambi
Age: 21
Contract: Expiring 2024
Verdict: Loan out.
Gio Bellagambi has made great strides over the last 18 months and the key to this has been a number of well picked and structured loan moves. Last season Bellagambi had an impressive loan at Spennymoor Town in the National League North before taking over from Jacob Chapman to be no2 at Salford City. Bellagambi also made his international debut last season playing for Uganda against Libya in a friendly. Next season Town need to find another loan for Bellagambi as he continues his progression up the football pyramid.
Nicholas Bilokapic
Age: 20
Contract: Expiring 2026 (1 year option)
Verdict: Loan out.
It’s been 2 seasons of good development for the man from down under. In 21/22 Bilokapic signed a new long-term contract, made his Town debut, played a couple of games on loan in League 2 for Hartlepool and was capped at u23 level by Australia. This past season he stepped in for Lee Nicholls and Tomas Vaclik playing on 6 occasions and showing great promise. Had Town being in a comfortable mid table position I dare say that the club would have kept ‘Bilo’ in goal from January until Lee Nicholls was fit again, such was his maturity in deputising. Next season though is tricky. I feel that a season as a sub to Nicholls would start to slow the rapid progress of the last 2 seasons and that the best move now would be to try secure a loan move in either League 1 or 2 where Bilokapic can play 20 games or so.
Michael Acquah
Age: 19
Contract: Expiring 2024 (1 year option)
Verdict: B Team minutes/short loan.
During the course of last season, the club saw fit to offer Michael Acquah a new contract. The new deal was testament to his hard work over the last few seasons. Acquah has starred for the u19’s, had successful loans at Brighouse and Emley and was again loaned out to Sheffield FC at the end of last season. Acquah has also been involved with the B Team and often trains with the first team keepers. Next season I suspect that he will become Town’s main B Team keeper with another short loan around the new year to push him further along.
Francis Hurl
Age: 17
Contract: Expiring 2024
Verdict: Under 19/B Team Minutes
If there was ever a name that was made to be a goalkeeper! Francis Hurl standing at 6ft5” casts an imposing figure in the u19’s goal. The Londoner has already enjoyed a good loan at Golcar earning rave reviews in a draw against Knaresborough. Potentially one to watch this season through the academy.
Keepers Verdict
Just like 12 months ago, the whole goalkeeping department depends on the availability and form of Lee Nicholls. Currently there isn’t a serious threat to the undisputed Town keeper’s throne albeit talented youngsters like Bilokapic are coming up on the rails. I feel that Bilokapic needs games in order to keep pushing to be Nicholls long term successor, but to do this you would remove a keeper from the squad who is the most ready and capable to step in at short notice if Nicholls is injured. Jacob Chapman is another keeper who at 22 really needs to get out and play games and improve to be able to push Nicholls and Bilokapic in the future.
Budget constraints
We’ve already seen Neil Warnock and Kevin Nagle intimate that there are challenges around Town’s budget. It’s a budget that was slashed last summer and with Neil Warnock talking of trying to bring in a new striker (thems the expensive ones!) then the goalkeeping department which has already lost 6 players may be sacrificed in order to improve the first XI.
Thi whet, Matt?
Due to Town prioritising spending higher up the pitch then it may be the case that Town utilise Jacob Chapman as Town’s no2 next season and in the event that Lee Nicholls is injured then they would move to replace him in the emergency loan market. The emergency loan market is there if keepers in the squad haven’t yet made 5 first team appearances. As Bilokapic has made 7 senior appearances for the club, the emergency market would only be available should he be injured or out on loan. Chapman having made no appearances for Town assists with that process if we’re outside of a transfer window and there isn’t a suitable free agent available. This however could potentially stifle Chapman’s progression through lack of match practice.
I would add that my personal preference would be for Town to sign a decent #2 to allow the young lads to flourish elsewhere but at the expense of reinforcing the front line? Nah.
