Kranjcar to Sunderland

Erm... not they don't mate.

Ohsea---Brown---Bramble--Bardsley

Larsson---Cattermole-Gardner--Richardson

----------------Sessegnon---------

---------------Gyan-------------------

Who are their defensive replacements? Anton Ferdinand, Michael Turner? Dropping Richardson to fullback position?

Who's their replacements for midfield? They've gotten rid of Henderson, Malwank and Zenden. The people they have for cover for their midfield don't match ours really.

Who's their striker cover? After Gyan they have Ji Won Don who's hardly Jesus. Then they have Wickham who's unproven at this level. After these 3 they have no one.

You're talking out your arse and you need to get out of this fit of ****ing depression man. You're making high standards for us that other teams in midtable haven't achieved.

 

Defence: Bardsley, Turner, Brown, O'Shea, Bramble, Ferdinand. Larsson, Elmohamady & Richardson can drop into defence as well. Most of them can cover all positions in the back 4 as well
Midfield: Cattermole, Larsson, Richardson, Gardner, Colback, Vaughan, Meyler, McClean, Elmohamady, Sessegnon
Forwards: Gyan, Ji Dong- Won, Wickham, Campbell

And they are still after players i'd say that's alot of depth

 

Campbell is injured and out for the seaosn.

Their defense rests of midfielders dropping back out of position when their actual defenders get injured, quite similar to ours actually. And you also haven't mentioned the gamble in fitness of their new defenders. If they were really that good Ferguson wouldn't have sold them for cheap, they're obviously crocked too much.



Their fullback positions are stronger, but i'd take Colo and Taylor over Bramble and Brown.

We have Barton, Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas, Obertan, Marveaux, Ben Arfa, Raylor, Vuckic, Ferguson. I'd take that over their midfield.

I'm not saying our squad is better for squad depth mate, i'm just saying that no team in midtable has a bench full of quality, and no team in midtable can boast they could replace a quality team with another quality team.

 

I think we have a better midfield. Defensively there is nothing in it. Neither has a left back at present (Richardson is certainly not one). Both have good options centrally though I prefer our first choice centre backs. Right back I'd say O'Shea and Bardsley are slightly better than Simpson. Up front they have much much better options. Gyan is a class act for me. The young Korean lad is an unknown but my mackem mates reckon he looks very tidy. I like Wickham and I'd have few worries about him eventually establishing himself in the top flight.

 

They have the better striker out of any of our strikers together, but after that they have two players that haven't even play in the league.

If we sign another quality striker, we'll have him and Ba, two good strikers playing, plus a bench of good cover strikers. Shola, Lover, Best aren't great starting strikers but they're good cover mate.

 

Their back-up is total pants though.

Our midfield ****s all over theirs. Infact if we get another GOOD striker and Cissokho our team will be far superior imo.

 

To be clear I'd rather have Gyan, Wickham and the Korean over any of our current 4 strikers. And I haven't even seen the Korean play! You'll never convince me mate, I just don't rate our current strikers. As I've said all along if we get a quality striker and a quality left back it will massively change the threat our team poses. Not just in the goals they'll get, but the goals the others will get as a result of the team functioning better. Best is decent cover. Shola is bag of ****e and Lovenkrands, although a trier, is finished at this level now his pace has gone. Ba, I want to believe, I really do but my head is telling me we'll be lucky to see him get 10. I'll keep supporting him and giving him a chance because its only one game, but I can't ignore what I've already seen of the lad at West Ham.

 

I give up...

The point i'm trying to make is that no team midtable has quality squad depth in every position. A lot of teams in this league don't have quality depth in any position really.

 

Tash, don't start insulting mate, its a discussion.

We'll see who's right at the end of the season

 

I'm just sick of people being so negative man. We've had one game and got one good result. It's like the people who would rather draw 2-2 than 0-0...

If Ba scores 10, a new striker also scores 10, and our back up strikers all score 6 goals each like last season, our forwards alone would have contributed 38 goals.

Our midfield can add 15 to that total. 53 goals, and then 7 goals could come from the likes of Taylor and Colo.

I know i'm just making predictions, but i prefer to be optimistic going into a new season.

 

True, but most teams have problems at full backs/wingers whereas striker is much more important imo!

 

22 goals from midfield and defence is probably too optimistic i'd say...

 

And I admire your optimism. But imo, this transfer window has been nothing short of a disaster. 2 of our players have left, one is on the transfer list. We haven't spent money that we know we have and we seem to be losing out on every player we go for because of a **** offer from NUFC. We have been constantly lied to, the signings of Cabaye and Marveaux help, but we haven't replaced our best players that have left. There is still time, but I don't see us doing it.

That's where my pessimism comes from.

 

well that settles it then your team is by far superior to ares were doooooooooomed

 

Tash you're a tad frustrating truth be told. We're not basing our opinion on our ranks based on one freaking game. Most have us have seen all of our strikers on a regular basis including Ba. We are are worried that they are all guff based on what we have seen with our own eyes. If our expectation of said strikers proves to be correct, we will struggle to get the goals required to get anywhere near the top 10. We may well have equal or better strength in depth across our squad than Sunderland and others around us. It will matter not if we can't score goals because this is a fairly important facet of football.

 

Not really, i could see Saylor getting around 5/6, Colo getting 2 or 3, and our midfielders could score around 12+ between them IMO

 

Couple of people having a pop at out midfield. There may be a few players who lack the big name but we've seen them play and look quality!

Cattermole was fantastic v Liverpool and I still hold a hope that one day he could be challenging the England squad if he gets consistency and discipline.

Larsson is a top, top set piece man and he has the knack of scoring a screamer such as at the weekend.

Richardson. Our weak link IMO good utility man but needs a brain.

Gardner, battling midfielder with a thunderbolt shot.

Colback. Really, really good midfielder. He has fought off competition to make our starting 11. People rave about Henderson but he is more of a winger. Colback is better than Henderson in the middle easy.

Haven't seen too much of Vaughan but he beat Charlie Adam to player of the season so must be decent.

Meyler has been really unlucky with injuries but looked very good before them.

McClean. In the reserves.

Elmo. I've never ever seen a midfielder win so many headers. Unreal.

Sessegnon > Ben Arfa. Simple as.

 

Tiote and Barton would walk into your midfield IMO.

 

Tiote and Barton would walk into your midfield IMO.