On the one hand, we have posters saying: "We don't have enough cover!" On the other hand we have posters saying: "We have too many players for the positions! Who do we leave out?" Why is this a problem?
With me being an expert (on championship manager. 5 European titles, four FA cups and 4 premiers titles in 6 years), I would say too many players result in an absurd squad rotation system or unsettled players. Neither particularly good for squad morale. I was thinking rafa the tinkerman. Look at scunny under adkins a couple of years ago. Over achieved with a tiny squad. Just got to hope everyone stays fit!
Yes - but we've got Hobbs out now, Simpson (?) and McShane. Chesterfield will be up for it tomorrow - we could end up with more injuries.....
simpson out, plenty of cover McShane out, (last season we would have cheered!) only cover for rosenior anyway Hobbs, centre defence should be well covered anyway, chester and bradley. i dare say cooper could be recalled. apologies for errors, i am doing this on memory and may have made a mistake. actually, i am checking this for errors and as i think about it, i see what you mean. but how many players do you need for each position? at what point does competition for places become "unhealthy?"
In an ideal word you'd have 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders (two for each position), 8 midfielders (two for each position) and 4 strikers leaving you with a squad of 23. With that you'd be fine if there were any injuries as you'd have plenty of cover and you'd be able to make sure you don't fill up your allotted amount of players in one area (midfield for example) for your 25 man squad.
Well we have: Keepers: Basso, Gulacsi, Oxley Defenders: Dudgeon, Dawson, Hobbs, Chester, Mcshane, Bradley, Rosenior Midfielders: Kilbane, Devitt, Stewart, Koren, Atkinson, Evans, McKenna, Olofinjana, Harper, Cairney, Bullard, Barmby, Brady Strikers: Fryatt, Simpson, Mclean, Adebola, Ghilas. Thats 27 players. However Bullard won't be in it, I doubt Olofinjana will be or Ghilas. Then there's the under 21 rule which means we don't have to register Cairney, Evans, Dudgeon, Oxley, Gulacsi, Devitt, Bradley, Stewart or Brady which leaves us with a squad of around 15 players. Obviously we'll register a few of the 21 year olds as we have to have at least 16. So the likes of Gulacsi etc. But if you look at the squad before the ones I've pulled out we have a 27 man squad with: 3 keepers 7 defenders 13 midfielders and 5 strikers So we're a bit top heavy in midfield. Of course that's before the likes of Olofinjana and co move. And as you can see the 7 defenders (well really 6, I can't see Bradley playing many) leave us a bit scarce for cover so I reckon we'll go into the loan market for a new centre half.
Yes - McShane out, Hobbs out, Rosenior? Kilbane (eh?), Stewart out, Oli out, Bullard (eh?), Barmby - willing but not able to really cover. Simpson out? Ghilas (eh?). You may well be right re the loan market....
