Squad depth and options

mardi 2 septembre 2014

Apologies if there is already a better thread that this could have gone into but I couldn't see one (from an admittedly quick look).



There has been some consternation surrounding our transfer business this window with much of it unfounded IMO, but when considering the move of Murray it hammered home to me the point that building a squad of players for a club in our position is a pretty hard task unless you can somehow a) guarantee players regular starting positions / game time or b) pay them extortionately to be bench warmers. It seems that a) isn't really possible and b) isn't how this club operates.



Murray surely left to get some game time under his belt and we already know that perfectly decent (albeit unspectacular) squad players like Parr and KG left because we couldn't offer them regular game time. As such, that needs to be taken into account when we are hoping for a raft of exciting signings whilst simultaneously wanting to keep the likes of Jedi, Williams, Gayle (and to a lesser extent) Bannan, Boateng and KaiKai 'happy'.



This led me to look at the squad depth we actually have and it is far from poor and we do have a host of options in various positions:



Keepers:

Speroni

Hennessey



LB:

Fryers

Ward

Binom-Williams



RB:

Ward

Kelly

Mariappa



CB:

Dann

Delaney

Kelly

Hangeland

Mariappa

McCarthy

Inniss



DM:

Jedi

Ledley

McArthur

O'Keefe

Guedioura

Boateng

Ward (at an absolute last resort)



CM / ACM:

Chamakh

McArthur

Williams

Bannan

Campbell

Grey



Wingers / wide midfielders:

Punch

Zaha

Bolasie

Thomas

Bannan (not ideal)

Williams (not ideal)

KaiKai



Strikers:

Gayle

Campbell

Chamkah

Doyle



Now our striking options are fairly weak, but Gayle is looking sharp, Campbell can do a job. Chamakh is a physical presence and Doyle can offer us a target man option occasionally.



The striking thing here is that most positions on the pitch have options and players can be kept relatively happy in the sense that many of them can cover more than one position. It looks to me like a squad that can compete at this level, is capable of staying up and doesn't necessarily block the path of a few youngsters that are waiting in the wings.




0 commentaires:

Enregistrer un commentaire