After splashing out a few quid over the summer do you think this team/squad is better than the team/squad that finished last season? How many of last years loan players would get into the current team?. Naughton, Bruma, Vitor, Mee, Van Aanholt, Vakubu, Kamara.
Naughton, Yakubu and Kamara all would. Shows how bad our attacking options are when Kamara still would.
Out of last seasons squad i would only want Naughton and Yakubu back and maybe Vitor. The rest i wouldnt bother with. Van Aanholt and Bruma was crap, Mee just gave away too many penos (He gave a peno away yesterday while playing for Burnley) Kamara had a 1 good game so it wasnt a massive loss not getting him. We replaced Kamara with Nugent but still havent replaced Yak
I would have Mee back, yes he does give away a lot of penos but with age I think he'd be less rash. From what I've seen so far he's easily as good as Mills (he could pass the ball far better, was quicker and more versatile) and we are short in that area anyway. I must say though he does give an obscene amount of penos away. 3 for us, one for England U21 and now one for Burnley in his young senior career. Yakubu and Kamara I would have back for what are very obvious reasons at the moment. Peltier and Pantsil are both good signings I reckon but Naughton just looked a class above, he should be ahead of Glen Johnson in the England pecking order already. Other than those 4 nobody.
In my opinion our strongest squad last season was Weale, Naughton, Bamba, Davies, Cunningham, King, Wellens, Abe, Gallagher, Kamara, Yakubu And this season Schmeichel, Peltier, Bamba, Mills, Konchesky, Wellens, Fernandes, Danns, King, Gallagher, Nugent Player for player on paper last seasons squad was probaly better but they was aload of players thrown together while this season seems a stronger team and built properly
To be fair, all you have to do is take a CM out and put Yakubu in and the team is stronger. Schmeichel Naughton Mills Bamba Koncheskey Danns Wellens Fernandes Gallagher Yakubu Nugent Would that get promoted? It would in my eyes.
Replace Nugent with a quick winger, and I'd probably have King in instead of Danns at this point. Then we'd be fine.
Players will always come and go at clubs like ours.. I dont feel we are any stronger as of yet, too early. But we are definately weaker without a striker. Im mr know it all and was the 1st to mention we needed one, someone the team can look upto in critical moments. Were we lucky to beat cov (even tho theyr ****)? Mills hasnt impressed me yet, and if SOL the rock is our best player something is wrong. Im sure in the knowledge we always have the jan transfer window sven may loan a couple PL striker
Well the team from this time last year is 100% stronger than it was under Sousa. Sven got alot of "quick-fix" loans last year.
Bamba still scares me though. There was a moment on saturday when he dribbled the ball through his own area beating the strikers along the way. I wish he cut that out a bit and just hoof the ball from time to time
I think this seasons team is just a top striker away from having a great team. If we had a decent striker on saturday with some decent movement then we would of scored. Only Nugent makes decent movement but its easy for the defenders to what one striker
A few words get links put over them. I dont know why but npower and Michael Johnson do aswell as last season
Pound for pound, the starting XI's from this and last season look more or less equal for me. But one thing we have this season is strength in depth. Last season, when players were playing badly or were tired, we didn't have the quality to replace them with that we do now. I'll be very surprised if the first choice team now is the same as it will be in April and there will be loss of form and injuries and tiredness throughout the season and we can now deal with that without severely weakening our team. In a league season, if you had two teams, one with an amazing starting XI but no strength in depth and another with not as good a first choice team but a lot of strength in depth and a strong squad, I'd back the 2nd team to win all the time. So whilst we might have had similar starting XI's, we have a much stronger squad now.
Pound for pound, the starting XI's from this and last season look more or less equal for me. But one thing we have this season is strength in depth. Last season, when players were playing badly or were tired, we didn't have the quality to replace them with that we do now. I'll be very surprised if the first choice team now is the same as it will be in April and there will be loss of form and injuries and tiredness throughout the season and we can now deal with that without severely weakening our team. In a league season, if you had two teams, one with an amazing starting XI but no strength in depth and another with not as good a first choice team but a lot of strength in depth and a strong squad, I'd back the 2nd team to win all the time. So whilst we might have had similar starting XI's, we have a much stronger squad now.
