Jack and Wood at the moment (though tempted by Quarshie). Wood has strength and aggression, and if Jack doesn't step up a bit on that front, then Wood and Quarshie. It's so easy to bully us right now.
I went Wood and Quarshie. they'll make a mistake or two but think between them there is enough pace and strength to recover it most of the time and at the least they seem to be ok at getting stuck in.
I am not under the illusion that Quarshie is a polished CB. I am also not under the illusion that being polished is as important as being big in this league!
Hard to know at the moment, Edwards hasn’t really been given enough of a run, but hewas quality for QPR & arguably deserves to start a few more. Wood has been decent when in a back 3 but not properly tried in a 2 yet. Idealistically & thinking of the future I think our most promising pairing is Quarshie & Edwards, they have strength, pace and vision between them but it would take a very ballsy move to start with those two moving forward as both are very young (if we were League One they’d be ideal to grow with the promotions like Adz, SRL etc did with us) Realistically, you’d probably have to say THB warrants being dropped so Stephens & Wood probably the next pairing behind those 2.
In theory Wood and Edwards should form a good partnership. However, Stephens isn't going to be dropped and probably doesn't deserve to be yet. THB absolutely needs to be dropped though. And Wood has got to be the one that comes in based on performances so far this season. He's a proper Championship defender and will battle with physical strikers and win headers. Not sure what I'd do with the cup game really. Such a pointless game for us. Maybe test out a Wood and Edwards partnership for that one.
Don't think Stephens has done enough to be dropped yet. THB has been shocking. Wood has looked decent. Edwards & Quarshie have looked poor, albeit in a smaller sample than the others.
Honestly don't really care right now. My main concern is what's going on down the other end of the pitch. The lack of shots per match is downright alarming.
I think THB's issue is we are in the championship and he doesn't want to be but no-one (AFAIK) came in for him so he's thinking he's stuck and obviously he hasn't got someone telling him to just knuckle down and work hard at being a better defender and he will get noticed again
Sadly, Stephens is immune from being dropped. Not that I think he should be right now. But I don't agree that the captain is an automatic pick if he's playing badly over a run of games.
My feeling is that if you are constantly chasing games it is very hard to focus on the other end. Today we were growing into it - soft goal. All over them - soft goal. Game done? Soft goal. And they are soft - they all were the exact same - ball up to striker, defender cannot compete in air, goal.
We were all over them until we got to the edge of their box. Not once did I anticipate us scoring today.
And as I said, we don’t give us ourselves the space to work that out if we concede soft goals. Our morale is rock bottom as it is.
Speed of thought, speed of pass and intensity. That starts from the back. For what it's worth, I thought Jander looked neat and tidy today at least.
