He wouldn’t be saying it if we’d won though would he? It’s reactionary - and I don’t agree anyway. Is the squad better now than it was before January? No. That’s not what was said though. Does it have enough depth? I don’t think any other side has more than we have.
He isn't saying anything different to what many people were saying at the end of January, which incidentally was slap bang in the middle of this unbeaten run.
It's not a god awful squad but we are short there's no doubt about that. I thought it was relatively obvious that after January ended we were essentially gambling that Moore and Woodrow would be able to play and contribute enough in every game. With thiam and Brown out wide and only hedges and an unproven Green to cover, it only leaves Victor as back up striker. Given how we've looked less effective with one up top, I felt January left us short on strikers for a team going for promotion. Imagine Woodrow wasn't available currently, our striking options would be in tatters. We're doing well and I'm not being negative nor criticising the club but it's clear we are short up top and are relying on our excellent two strikers being fit and on form every week. When this inevitably doesn't always happen, we'll need a plan b.
I don’t recall many saying ‘god awful’ or ‘wafer thin’. I was expecting a signing or two - and not the ones we got - given what we lost in January, but to lose only one proper first team player (and look better since he’s left as brown gives better balance), it wasn’t a disaster of a window as I’d feared may happen. We don’t have ready made and ‘as good’ replacements for all the side, but we are in division chuffing three. We have several players who are championship quality. No team in this league wouldn’t be weakened by missing Kieffer Moore and the same could be said if we were missing Pinnock, Mowatt, others. But how many sides have players as good as Kenny Dougall or Adam Jackson on the bench? This striker thing baffles me. How many sides in this division have got four centre forwards to rotate as seems to be the requirement for some of our fans? There’s premier league teams with barely a striker in their squad, never mind two scoring for fun. We are second in the league, there’s probably twenty plus sides in the division would love our squad. I wouldn’t want any other squad from this league. We probably won’t win the league, we might not even finish top two. Long way to go. But we’re a bloody good side at this level and the criticism is a bit unjust in my view.
Maybe the management team thought that we wouldn't be able to sign any strikers better then Victor or Brown in January? What were our options? Who'd be prepared to sign knowing they'd be on the bench at best? And potentially find themselves surplus to requirements at the end of the season if we'd have gone up? Or maybe we should have gone down the route of untried Prem league academy prospects - like Ugbo?
It wasn't unrealistic to bring someone in more capable than Victor, who could then have gone out on loan somewhere. We should be constantly looking to improve the squad.
Is that generalising or have you got a name in mind. As for sending out on loan, do you mean signing for the development squad?
I think that does a great job of illustrating the point the OP was making. You've waxed lyrical about the first 11, the great starting 11 the OP referred to,, and I agree with all the points you made about them. However, the alternatives you've offered... Two of the alternative strikers are our regular wingers, one's a midfield player who has never scored a league goal for us and the other is a kid who is not, at this stage of his career, a striker to get us promoted. He's played a few sub games. The alternatives to our wingers are a new signing who has never started a game for us and Hedges, who had a good opening 20 minutes tonight, probably the only decent 20 minutes he's had when he's started a game. One of the two alternatives in central midfield has never played a game for us. The two full back alternatives are kids with very little experience, some good games and some bad. Only one centre half was mentioned, and another kid as back up keeper. I reckon we've got two players as back up who are not quite as good as the first 11, but capable and experienced in Jackson and Dougall. Bahre has some attributes but we can't find a position for him. After those three, the drop off in quality and experience is huge.
You're never going to get huge strength in depth at this level with a wage structure/transfer budget like ours. Nobody is going to fancy coming to Oakwell to sit on the bench for 6 months. The squad depth isn't as deep as it ideally could be, but we do have adequate cover for most positions - and the chances of both Moore and Woodrow getting long term injuries are very low. And you can't build a squad based on that kind of probability. It's also a little coincidental that the Topic is posted when we have an off night rather than when we've been smashing teams.
Define proper and then educate us some more as to why Victor and Brownie aren’t proper. Perhaps you should change your monicker to Suppa-tyke.
Another clean sheet. Another point on the board. The unbeaten run continues and we still haven't lost at home since last season. Sack Stendal.
So you agree that we have a great first 11 then? And you have just told me that our amazing deep squad is so good because we can take players from other positions and shoe horn them into the ones we didn't sign cover for. Only problem with that is Jacob browns only one man. But hard for him to be our cover right back, first choice right winger and cover striker too. Ps I said the same things all throughout January so you can piss off with the idea it's a reactionary post
In hindsight going into the run in with Adebayejo as our backup striker was never a good option to take, at best he’s very raw and at worse he’s a waste of a shirt. We needed to sign another striker and we didn’t get that done, and then not even 2 week into February our top scorer gets his head took off his shoulders and that situation could’ve been a lot worse then what we have been presented with.
We’ve left ourselves short & took a gamble with flogging Potts & Moncur. Gamble one paid off with Jacob Brown doing a very good job on the right but I’m still concerned about squad depth. The main two back ups for the left wing & up front are Hedges & Adeboyejo, two players who’ve only looked up to it off the bench in my opinion. At RB I don’t think Jordan Williams is ready to be a first teamer from what I saw in the cups, defensively he looked far weaker than Ben Williams did when he first came in to the team & I don’t think Walton is good enough back up for Davies. So that for me is 4 positions I worry about. Of course someone will say Brown can play up front but if he does that weakens the right midfield slot & then you’re playing Thiam or Hedges on the right & neither look anywhere near as effective on the right or Green who the manager sees as been behind both in the current pecking order & none of us know much about. Excellent first eleven, a few capable back up starters in Pinillos, Jackson, Dougall & Bahre but after that we’re struggling in my opinion, hopefully we’ll get lucky with injuries & have enough to keep our current form up
How many back ups do you want with our wage structure? Generally speaking our bench is: Walton Jackson Williams Dougall Bahre Hedges Adeboyejo That's a keeper, centre half, full back, defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder, winger and a striker. You're only allowed seven subs. In addition to this we have: Fryers Williams Bird Styles Green Which is 2 more full backs, 2 more central midfielders and a winger. Granted, we probably are a little light up front with only Victor as back up (who isn't ready for League One football) but you can't stockpile players at this level. We didn't miss a beat over Christmas with Moore missing 4 games through illness, as we played a fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 formation. We did this last night, but it just didn't click. No need to panic.
I don't think that selling Potts has paid off simply because brown has done well because brown was here anyway. Stendel could have dropped Potts for brown any time he wanted and we would still have had Potts on the bench to come on. People have fooled themselves into thinking the squad is stronger in that position because the understudy has done well (and he has done really well). In reality we have weakened that position in the squad and it baffles me why so many people cannot see that.