Steve Bruce believes he now has his "best" squad since taking over at Sunderland. Bruce is in his third season on Wearside and believes he's got an excellent group of players with which to take on the Barclays Premier League. Now the Black Cats boss is looking forward to seeing the squad - featuring a total of 10 new signings - mature and grow in what he feels is an excellent atmosphere on Wearside. He revealed: "This is easily the best squad I've had since I've been here. They're a delightful bunch to work with. "We've got good competition for places. "We have a group which hopefully we can keep hold of and have some stability over the next two to three years, which will be vital." Meanwhile Bruce has praised midfielder David Vaughan for a fine debut during last weekend's 4-0 win over Stoke. The 28-year-old Welsh international had previously only featured as a substitute in league action but made a huge impact on his full top-flight debut. Vaughan ran the midfield to devastating effect as the Black Cats steamrollered the Potters, leaving Bruce to praise his poise and calmness on the ball. "I'm paid to make big decisions and Lee Cattermole and Jack Colback can feel hard done by because they have both contributed in their own way," he said. "Vaughany keeps us ticking over in the middle of the pitch. He keeps the ball very, very well as we saw when he was with Blackpool last year. "Against Stoke I knew that would be vitally important. He had a very good debut." Best squad, agree or not?
Not sure if it's the strongest squad overall - think we're still light up-front but the rest I think is quite strong - But I agree with bruce that we have a squad that is good to work with w from what I've seen
Won't be our best until we have the striker issued settled. If Ji and Wickham step up then great, but we need a permanent top-flight forward as well. If Bendtner does good he'll be off after the loan is up and we need to sort this out in January
Its up there IF the strikers do their job. If they don't, well, how can it be the best squad without a decent striker. x
Take the striker situation out and its the best goal keeper, defense and midfield. Remember we have 2 LW and 1 potential LW in Richardson, McClean & Sess. I have got a feeling when McClean comes in he is going to be good, Bruce has kept him on the bench for a couple of games now, I expect him to get the odd 10 minutes soon and then push his way into the team before Jan, this will then tell us if we need a LW or if we have bought one that can step up now. I have watched him in the warm up and while you can't tell much from a warm up he does seem to have an excellent touch on the ball, loads of pace and a very accurate shot. For me we need to bring in 2 quality strikers, if we had Welbeck and Gyan still I might agree with Bruce.
Not too far away in your thoughts LIV to mine, with the exception of a proper LB. With a real LB the core defence of Bardo, Brown, Titus, Tina and O'Shea would have the flexibility and versatility to cover if any 2 were injured/suspended. It is up front where we really lack - in depth and quality. Great potential but we need proven strikers asap.
It's not the best because we are missing a striker LB LW, it's not the worst I've seen though maybe that's what he meant.
I personally think we have one in Bentner, OK, he's not an out and out striker but once he breaks his duck i can see him bagging 15 goals this season. Whickam is the new Bent for me, another who just needs a run of games and a goal to lift his confidence but i do agree, a proven striker would complete our squad. Lets see what we have to spend in January, apparently the board are going to back Bruce in the market to replace Judas mark 2. ****ing greedy ****.
I think it's the strongest single squad since Bruce has been here, but we've had players that have come and gone who would have made up one of our strongest ever squads. A striking line-up of Bent/Gyan/Welbeck/Jones, fantastic. And Larsson, Sessegnon and Henderson in the same team, a bit of Malbranque on the side, oh, heavenly!
