Sat here on and off all pissing day hoping for a miracle transfer, I knew better as well but I still hoped.
So we officially signed nobody and dare anyone claim now that our squad is stronger than last season, I think not...
Right lets take a good look at this: Rachubka and lonners gd keepers quite happy there LB: Aidy White, decent young player happy to have him in the squad. Ben Parker, crocked not sure he is ever going to be fit enough to be the player we thought he was. Darren O Dea, have to put him as left back mainly due to the fact we have no other options, poor lb okish cb. CB: Kis, strong leader but legs are on the go needs a pacy cb with him. Leigh Bromby, reliable always been gd back up nothing special tho. Bruce, appears to have done a disappearing act. RB: Lees, good talent needs more time to develop tho. Paul Connelly, like Bruce appears to have gone off the radar, as always solid last season tho I think he will be back in soon. Wings: Snoddy, we needed to keep him, enough said. Sam, good option from the bench, might see a bit more game time now. Nunez, lets hope he takes his chance to shine. CM: Brown, injured not sure when back but has not looked match sharp. Clayton, Rough diamond, looks to have improved a lot after being out on loan. Howson, going to have to put a big shift in now there is no gradel to supply midfield goals. Target men: Billy, should have taken whatever was offered for him. Keogh: Has looked decent but will need to chip in with a few goals if max isnt here to score them. Becchio, hope he is back soon. Play off striker: Mccormack, Has played well this season, looks a lot better for having company up top. Somma, out til who knows when. Based on this my team for palace, assuming players with knocks are not fit to start but might be for the bench: Lonners, O Dea, Paddy, Lees, Connelly, Nunez, Clayton, Howson, Snoddy, Ross Mc, Keogh Bench: Rachubka, Bromby, Sam, Brown, Becchio (if players with knocks not fit) Bench: Rachubka, Bruce, Sam, Thompson, Billy
I'd say we're slightly improved actually. More confident in the defence (Connolly-Collins-Bruce-McCartney, anyone!?) Clayton is better than Bradders/Killa... If Gradel hadn't left and we didn't have these injuries, I'd be confident for promotion. However, we need two blinders of a loan signing, or we're mid-table at best.
It's true Clayton and Nunez are basically like new signings but Nunez is better in the middle and isn't a real winger. Howson is mediocre and Brown is crocked already. This "slightly improved" team is already 1-1-3 and we've just lost our second best source of goals after Becchio. How you have any confidence in the defence is bizarre considering they've conceeded in every game played this season so far. The squad itself is now so threadbare that any more injuries and Grayson will be turning out himself. Still I imagine we'll be scraping the bottom of the loan barrel next week when the window opens.
If we could find a couple of good defenders and a good CM in the loan market it'll be great. Of course we won't but one can dream!
Delusional if you really do honestly believe we are stronger this season LondonWhite sorry mate we just are not. Lichaj was on loan and is twice the defender O'Dea is. Gradel was banging goals in, Becchio was banging goals in and Somma was coming off the bench to score. Granted we are on the verge of getting Becchio back but we can rule out Somma for the season. His replacement Keough? Like I said earlier when we first signed him he isn't a prolific scorer. Kilkenny was not my favourite I didn't rate him to be honest and Johnson was okay, any worse than Brown, I don't believe so. We already had Nunez and Clayton, we should have recalled them from loan earlier, a player isn't made over the close season but arguments to one side, they were both already Leeds players. Like Jugster has already said, we are thread bare and take a look at goals against us, we are a shambles.
