1 McGregor 2 Davies 3 Huddlestone 4 Livermore (If we can keep him) 5 Aluko (If he can stay fit) Sagbo's getting closer but he needs to improve his positional play / strike rate (a striker coach might be an idea) IMO no one else has shown the consistency to add to that list yet. Thoughts?
I would put Bruce and Elmo on there, also Rosie when shape calls on his service. Edit: meant to add that they have all had their off-days - Mac possibly the only exception.
Not really; do you believe it is a perfect straight line between goalkeepers? I have always understood it to mean your mainstays, the strength and consistency within the team, the players who are the backbone of the side and on whom you can generally depend to give your team the consistency that wins games. Not so much anatomically correct in terms of layout, more to do with the core strength of the team, it's backbone or spine. But yes, I can also see why it would be used to highlight players through the centre, but that really limits it when talking of consistency, which Craig was. But if I have offended your idea of geometric neatness then I will apologise and withdraw their names (Elmo and Rosie) even though they have provided more strength and consistency than Sagbo and Aluko (although, as I have said elsewhere, I am sure his time is to come)
In the past, we've had spines that could best be described as proper Richard III's in more ways than one. Steve Bruce has put together a truly great first team. A bit more strength in depth and then we'll be looking for some other weak link.
McGregor Davies Huddlestone Livermore Sagbo Right now they're the players I hope are fit for every league game. The rest are performing well too but those 5 for me are the "cross your fingers and hope they don't get injured" group, while with other positions around them we can cover an injury or two. Sagbo might not be scoring goals but he creates so many openings for others - particularly midfielders pushing up to play off him. I don't think our other forwards can do that.
Sagbo is one of our best and most consistent players. We play him with his back to goal all game so to say he has any shots on target at all against the caliber of some of the teams we've been playing against is impressive. If we had faster build up play and he was told to poach he'd be a good little finisher!
