4 new signings is what id like between now and the end of the window - a CB - 2 forward players - a RB The 2 forward players I'm flexible on the roles they could play but 1 has to be a natural winger, the other could be a CF whose good with back to goal. Rb I'm less fusses on but feel Hume needs someone that could really challenge him and I want huggins to get a loan deal
Yeah I get the cup run element just a fine balance keeping everyone involved - its fine being on the bench and not getting on to an extent but being in the stands will be tough Yeah I'm not sure on Cirkin it does seem that way with the 2 LB's coming in but both will be out of action in the winter for Afcon so he would be the only one
Absolutely not. 1 plus 1 ain’t it. Nobody in right mind would have 4 of 20 as centre forwards. Wingers can cover if there’s an unlucky double injury or whatever.
I'm not convinced about some of this loan strategy.The problem I have in this instance would be that if we are to bring a RB in to challenge Hume,it will likely be a 3 or 4 year deal.If we send Huggins out for the season,and he fulfils his obvious talent elsewhere,when we want to bring him back,we'll have a first team player surplus to requirements.
If it's 4 out and out strikers then no, but i actually think Mayenda would be more effective at RM for us. We need game changing players and you can't have enough of them imo. I think we are lacking there at the minute. We need goal threats in the forward areas and I think we are lacking there at the minute. Mundle can't be trusted due to 3 hamstring Injuries in a short space of time so we need other options for LM. If we only got 1 in then I'm fine with that if they are top top quality but my preference is 2 more forward options.
Then we have the option of selling one at a good profit. Not loaning him out means he possibly doesn't get the game time to show us how good he could be.
I would go for a flexible forward with real quality. An off the striker who could fill as striker left right or 10. plus CB Plus right back cover
Desperately need outgoings mind. Over 40 first team players currently on the books. What would be considered the ‘usable’ first team group is north of 30. With likely another three to arrive it’s a massive struggle to get that group close to 25 (which still represents a pretty big squad in pl terms). Personally I couldn’t get it below 28. Even that assumes that we’re 100% successful in shedding the players we don’t want.
Id expect we will get it down to 26-28 players by the end of the window I think there'll be lots of movement in next few weeks
100%. Smaller squads are good on a lot of levels. Training, team bonding, overall morale. 26-28 is about right and then we’ve a heap of talented young lads who we can gradually integrate as they level up.
Yeah probably 26 is what you want to be near for injuries suspensions afcon etc, think its just currently in my head don't want to see anyone left out of a match day squad but that's the harsh reality of levelling up and trying to compete
I think it’s gonna be tough to get it down to 28 in reality. Just assumes a pretty much perfect success rate. 25/26 will mean shifting every one of the Huggins-Roberts level group. Either way it remains a lot of players for a coach who typically doesn’t rotate much imo.
24 feels about right to me personally. Gives you 3 not in a match day squad. 7 not playing any of the match - 5 outfield players. I come at it from a coaches perspective where trying to have high quality sessions with lots of players is difficult. And then I cant get my head round being a player and sat watching the game and having no input. It would drive me mad tbh.
I’ve seen a post in the past were a team sheet has 3 players in each position Can some one do this for our current/team/squad and we can see were we stand and need strengthen
So I’d go for 24 as well but considering we always have at least 2 players injured at any one time perhaps 26 is right
That's the thing for me, I'd have a bigger squad this season due to injuries We can't be left short in the PL
for what it's worth Tom White said on the RR podcast the lads who we want out and aren't with the squad, their wages are nothing in comparison to the main squad and shouldn't make a dent even if they don't manage to move on