Is this the worst Royals squad ever? Who would you keep?

[Forbury Lion]

Yiadom - Has looked good at times
Bodvardsson - Top goals per minutes
Obita - I'd give him a chance once he's fit again
Kelly - One of our own, can still offer something

Other than that, I'd be prepared to let them all go as long as we can secure better replacements.

[Hampshire Royal]

People are being a bit harsh on jaakola. He is playing well behind a badly disorganised defence. OK, he needs to improve his distribution and his ability to play out of defence, but this can be addressed by strong coaching.

[Lower West]

In terms of depth of squad and talent of players this is one of our best championship squads ever.

Darren Caskey had talent. Unfortunately lack of application meant he fell from grace at Spurs and ended up in league one. Some players are able to rebuild their careers from a low base point. Once they mature.

[strap]

To the OP , not even close to being the worse squad EVER, quite comfortably yes in the 2nd tier though.

This. For a start TB2’s League One squad was much worse than this one.

Not sure I can agree with that, although numerically they are very similar, and ditto wages for the time.

[Snowflake Royal]

We've obviously had far worse squads when we were in the depths of the football league. We've got significantly better individuals than when we were last relegated from tier two, but I'd argue this lot are a bigger underperforming shambles.

I mean, Bod, Meite and Baldock vs Asaba, Williams and McIntyre. And yet, we're firmly mired in a relegation fight from day one of the season.

[Zip]

We've obviously had far worse squads when we were in the depths of the football league. We've got significantly better individuals than when we were last relegated from tier two, but I'd argue this lot are a bigger underperforming shambles.

I mean, Bod, Meite and Baldock vs Asaba, Williams and McIntyre. And yet, we're firmly mired in a relegation fight from day one of the season.

Yep although It’s not just down to the players. We have been tactically so poor over the past couple of years. Teams know how we are going to play and play a high press game. I hope to god things change but we don’t have good enough players to pass out from the back.

[SCIAG]

Al Habsi > Current goalkeeper
Gunter < Yiadom (only just)
Moore 16/17 > Moore 18/19
McShane > Ilori (by a country mile)
Obita > Gunter ( at LB)

Williams > Bacuna
Swift 16/17 > Swift 18/19
Joey > Kelly

McCleary 16/17 > McCleary 18/19
Yann > Bod
Beerens > Barrow

Some are dubious but I make that 10-1 to the 16/17 team

I broadly agree with you, but I think you're focusing on form while I was arguing that we have a reasonable quality of player but terrible form. Think it's impossible to argue that any of our players have been in better form than two years ago given our league positions. Maybe comparing Meite to Samuel...

As a team, there's nothing, you could see how much it meant to McShane, Moore, Joey, Gunter etc when we won in the 16/17 season, now there's nothing. Kelly and Swift and co are onInstagram five minutes after a defeat liking posts. Does that strike to anyone that we've actually got team players in our squad?

Two years ago people were also saying there was no team spirit. I wouldn't put any weight on whether people are going on Instagram after the match; that's like saying that Jimmy Quinn didn't care when we lost if he turned the telly on when he got home. It's just how young people live these days. There does seem to be a decline in players clapping the fans after the match, but Kelly is one of those who claps the most (along with Bod) and it's also followed by the fans becoming much more hostile towards the players.

putting Marshall in charge who picked his academy friends was a disaster (sorry but Loader and Richards are miles away).

Richards has barely played for the U23s since Marshall was appointed U23 manager. Marshall is more than twice Loader's age and I find it hard to believe that they are friends. Also think neither player is remotely a "disaster"; Richards is too enthusiastic going forward but generally has done well, and Loader hasn't been a matchwinner but he's been one of our better forwards over the past month.

[SCIAG]

We've obviously had far worse squads when we were in the depths of the football league. We've got significantly better individuals than when we were last relegated from tier two, but I'd argue this lot are a bigger underperforming shambles.

I mean, Bod, Meite and Baldock vs Asaba, Williams and McIntyre. And yet, we're firmly mired in a relegation fight from day one of the season.

Yep although It’s not just down to the players. We have been tactically so poor over the past couple of years. Teams know how we are going to play and play a high press game. I hope to god things change but we don’t have good enough players to pass out from the back.

I actually think we generally do better against teams who press high, as it creates space further up the pitch which we can exploit with our pace. We have real trouble against the teams who let us play it out from the back but then sit deep so we end up passing it around aimlessly. When we had Kermorgant that wasn't so much of an issue as we could just sling a cross in for him, but half our wide players can't cross and half our strikers can't head it.

[tmesis]

To the OP , not even close to being the worse squad EVER, quite comfortably yes in the 2nd tier though.

Only since promotion in 2002

The squad that went down in 1988 was definitely worse, albeit in a division that wasn't as good as now.

[Denver Royal]

I actually think we generally do better against teams who press high, as it creates space further up the pitch which we can exploit with our pace. We have real trouble against the teams who let us play it out from the back but then sit deep so we end up passing it around aimlessly. When we had Kermorgant that wasn't so much of an issue as we could just sling a cross in for him, but half our wide players can't cross and half our strikers can't head it.

Yep, that happened a fair bit at Millwall. We had lots of possession and we'd get in to good areas...but then just pass the ball back and forth across the edge of Millwall's box. This sometimes happened even on the break, and we'd just stop at their box. And yes, when we did decide to cross it in, their CB's gleefully ate it up. There was no penetration, and ultimately their keeper had an easy day with little to do. It's another of the challenges facing Gomes...

[Ascotexgunner]

In all honesty I don't know. The dark old days in division 4 there was some utter dross but the rules and squad set ups were different back then. Branfoots team was awful and then the old division 4 wasn't great at times.
Is it that there are a few players who are so bad that they seem to highlight the whole squad in that bracket?
I certainly believe the talent is there in the majority.
I'm gonna go back to the management thing again and poor purchases. I still believe their the biggest problem and when we had a chance to get it right after Stam we bought in a manager who had a ropey track record and judging by the summer purchases at Swansea he made, and then lost 11 of the first 14 games the warning signs were there.
I really hoped we had got it right this time but after the start and what I've seen of Gomez I'm really uninspired. I guess we will just have to see what happens in the transfer window...you never know......but is this the worst squad? Maybe judge it at the end of the season.

[Denver Royal]

In all honesty I don't know. The dark old days in division 4 there was some utter dross but the rules and squad set ups were different back then. Branfoots team was awful and then the old division 4 wasn't great at times.
Is it that there are a few players who are so bad that they seem to highlight the whole squad in that bracket?
I certainly believe the talent is there in the majority.
I'm gonna go back to the management thing again and poor purchases. I still believe their the biggest problem and when we had a chance to get it right after Stam we bought in a manager who had a ropey track record and judging by the summer purchases at Swansea he made, and then lost 11 of the first 14 games the warning signs were there.
I really hoped we had got it right this time but after the start and what I've seen of Gomez I'm really uninspired. I guess we will just have to see what happens in the transfer window...you never know......but is this the worst squad? Maybe judge it at the end of the season.

Ascot, good post, and well said. It's nowhere near the worst squad I've seen. I'm approaching 60 now, and I've seen a lot of bad one's.

[Ascotexgunner]

In all honesty I don't know. The dark old days in division 4 there was some utter dross but the rules and squad set ups were different back then. Branfoots team was awful and then the old division 4 wasn't great at times.
Is it that there are a few players who are so bad that they seem to highlight the whole squad in that bracket?
I certainly believe the talent is there in the majority.
I'm gonna go back to the management thing again and poor purchases. I still believe their the biggest problem and when we had a chance to get it right after Stam we bought in a manager who had a ropey track record and judging by the summer purchases at Swansea he made, and then lost 11 of the first 14 games the warning signs were there.
I really hoped we had got it right this time but after the start and what I've seen of Gomez I'm really uninspired. I guess we will just have to see what happens in the transfer window...you never know......but is this the worst squad? Maybe judge it at the end of the season.

Ascot, good post, and well said. It's nowhere near the worst squad I've seen. I'm approaching 60 now, and I've seen a lot of bad one's.

Afternoon Denver, indeed I'm 54 and there really have been some dark days growing up watching them. Back than the old division 2 was a pipe dream......