Squad review now transfer window has closed

[andrew1957]

Goalkeepers - We are very strong. I still fail to understand why we signed Stuart Taylor again. Nothing against him but we currently have amongst the best 3 keepers in the division which seems overkill. I can only think we expected Fed to move on and I would not be surprised to see him going out on loan to keep him up to speed.

Full backs - we have 4 which is arguably enough but only Bridge is a specialist left back. I am surprised that we did not bring in a left back as cover. Both Kelly and Cummings can play there, but there is a worry over Kelly now - I am sure we all wish him and his family well but one can only think that there is an issue at home for him to drop out of the ROI squad as well as the RFC one.

Centre Back - Pearce and Morrison are fine at this level but although Gorkks was part of the Championship winning squad, there must now be big question mark over his ability to rise to the occasion if we do have an injury to either of our first choice pairing. We are certainly much weaker for losing Mariappa.

Centre Mid - arguably now our strongest area - after being our weakest last season - which does make the pursuit of Sissoko strange as this did not seem a priority position. If Leigertwood recovers he is more than adequate in the defensive midfield role and we have four ahead of him.

Wide midfield - much weakened with the loss of Kebe but perhaps Jordan Obita can step up this season.

Strikers - This is the major concern and it is really surprising that nothing has happened on this front. If we are to have any chance this season we now need Pog to want to play but how do you motivate someone who is on reputedly 60K a week for the next 3 years and has made it quite clear he does not relish playing in this hoofball division (as he implied). Also will Roberts ever play again? Big question mark which leaves us with just ALF and Blackman - the jury is still very much out on the latter.

So overall if we have very few injuries like 2005-6 we have a chance of top 6, but a few injuries to key players and because there is so little difference between success and relegation in this division, we could be staring League 1 in the face rather than the PL.

[Hatty9]

A pretty good review, I am also very worried about the CB situation and believe we really do need someone with a bit more pace.The Pog IS the answer to our striking problems prior to coming here the type of player we need now is exactly what I saw in him playing for Russia and Stuttgart, he was big and could hold the ball up and given a chance he finished it. So what went wrong? Is it will or skill whatever it is please please work on finding a solution he could be so awesome at this level.

[St. Brynjar]

Keepers - A*
Full backs - B
Centre backs - C
Wingers - B
Centre mids - A
Strikers - D

[super darren caskey]

excellent post Andrew

Agree with everything you say

[Ian Royal]

Goalkeepers - We are very strong. I still fail to understand why we signed Stuart Taylor again. Nothing against him but we currently have amongst the best 3 keepers in the division which seems overkill. I can only think we expected Fed to move on and I would not be surprised to see him going out on loan to keep him up to speed.

Full backs - we have 4 which is arguably enough but only Bridge is a specialist left back. I am surprised that we did not bring in a left back as cover. Both Kelly and Cummings can play there, but there is a worry over Kelly now - I am sure we all wish him and his family well but one can only think that there is an issue at home for him to drop out of the ROI squad as well as the RFC one.

Centre Back - Pearce and Morrison are fine at this level but although Gorkks was part of the Championship winning squad, there must now be big question mark over his ability to rise to the occasion if we do have an injury to either of our first choice pairing. We are certainly much weaker for losing Mariappa.

Centre Mid - arguably now our strongest area - after being our weakest last season - which does make the pursuit of Sissoko strange as this did not seem a priority position. If Leigertwood recovers he is more than adequate in the defensive midfield role and we have four ahead of him.

Wide midfield - weakened with the loss of Kebe but we had plenty of quality and depth there anyway, perhaps Jordan Obita can step up this season.

Strikers - This is a concern and it is really surprising that nothing has happened on this front given we have Pog and Roberts sucking up big wages. But then we have excellent young prospects in Ugwu and Samuel. ALF has already scored in every League game he's started. Depth is weak, but Blackman could also step up.

We're fine. We'll almost certainly fail to impact on the title without further additions, but then we were told loans were a possibility. We're capable of the Play Offs. If we can have a solid first half then we can easily do enough in January to mount a serious charge once more.

Slightly disappointing based on early hype and enthusiasm, but nothing more.

[P!ssed Off]

Keepers - A*
Full backs - B
Centre backs - C
Wingers - B
Centre mids - A
Strikers - D

+1

[ManchesterRoyals]

Keepers - A*
Full backs - B
Centre backs - C
Wingers - B
Centre mids - A
Strikers - D

This

[Cypry]

Goalkeepers - We are very strong. I still fail to understand why we signed Stuart Taylor again. Nothing against him but we currently have amongst the best 3 keepers in the division which seems overkill. I can only think we expected Fed to move on and I would not be surprised to see him going out on loan to keep him up to speed.

Agreed

Full backs - we have 4 which is arguably enough but only Bridge is a specialist left back. I am surprised that we did not bring in a left back as cover. Both Kelly and Cummings can play there, but there is a worry over Kelly now - I am sure we all wish him and his family well but one can only think that there is an issue at home for him to drop out of the ROI squad as well as the RFC one.

Not so sure that your concerns over Kelly are founded - I don't anticipate he'll be out of our squad for long, it's only a week since the baby was born...

Centre Back - Pearce and Morrison are fine at this level but although Gorkks was part of the Championship winning squad, there must now be big question mark over his ability to rise to the occasion if we do have an injury to either of our first choice pairing. We are certainly much weaker for losing Mariappa.

We might consider recalling Hector, or strengthening with a loan - I'm also not so convinced that Gorkks has "lost it" - yes, he played when we got hammered at Peterborough, but that was alongside a disinterested Mariappa - I don't think we can write him off yet...

Centre Mid - arguably now our strongest area - after being our weakest last season - which does make the pursuit of Sissoko strange as this did not seem a priority position. If Leigertwood recovers he is more than adequate in the defensive midfield role and we have four ahead of him.

Agreed, although I suspect that Sissoko would play the DM role better in Adkins system - seems to me the DM is expected to drop back between the CBs with the FBs pushing on when we have possession, can't see who in our current squad fully fits this role.

Wide midfield - much weakened with the loss of Kebe but perhaps Jordan Obita can step up this season.

Given that Kebe hasn't played for so long it's strange to describe us a weakened - we're no weaker than we've been for the last 6 months....we have Drenthe, McAnuff, HRK, McLeary and Obita who can play wide. Also, given Adkins emphasis on FBs overlapping and making crosses, the wide role is less important as the "wide" men seem to be encouraged to cut inside a lot of the time....

Strikers - This is the major concern and it is really surprising that nothing has happened on this front. If we are to have any chance this season we now need Pog to want to play but how do you motivate someone who is on reputedly 60K a week for the next 3 years and has made it quite clear he does not relish playing in this hoofball division (as he implied). Also will Roberts ever play again? Big question mark which leaves us with just ALF and Blackman - the jury is still very much out on the latter.

Agreed - fully expect to see us do something with a loan, or free...don't forget Ugwu and Samuel, both of whom might feature this year...

So overall if we have very few injuries like 2005-6 we have a chance of top 6, but a few injuries to key players and because there is so little difference between success and relegation in this division, we could be staring League 1 in the face rather than the PL.

Not so pessimistic myself - we have adequate cover in most roles, if we could get a striker and a CB on loan I'd be happy....

[Ian Royal]

Goalkeepers
Quality A*
Depth A*
Full backs
Quality A
Depth B-
Centrebacks
Quality A
Depth C
Midfield
Quality A*
Depth A
Wingers
Quality A
Depth B
Strikers
Quality C+
Depth D

[JC]

Cannot agree at all about the centre backs. On Saturday I thought they looked suspect whenever Yeovil ran at them. Pearce was better than Morrison but neither filled me with confidence.

[Caversham Royal]

It's the centre back area that still bothers me the most. The Pearce/Morrison combination really doesn't convince me at all & now we've had our answer as to why Mariappa has barely featured the club should really have invested in someone new, preferably someone a lot more comfortable & composed on the ball to fit more into the new style of play the manager wants to develop (how I wish Dariusz Wdowcyk was a good 20-25yrs younger than he is now!).
The striking options are the next most obvious worry & as a few folk have already said I think the club will regret not offering Noel Hunt a better deal over the Summer. He's always proved he can do a decent job at Championship level, can play the lone striker role okay, and has always made a very good strike partner for the more natural goal scorers we've had at the club over the years. And most importantly, especially compared to Pog, he wanted to be here & wouldn't have been the challenge to motivate our big Russian friend will no doubt be. I'm not saying he would've been the answer to all our problems but I'd certainly rather have been left with him than Pog as back up if there were no new striking faces coming in. With both positions, the only hope is if suitable free-agents or loan signings can be found now I guess. If not, it's a steep learning curve for our 1st choice centre backs & a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Mr Le Fondre.

[sandman]

Unbalanced squad in two crucial areas namely Centre Back and Strikers. CB's are all similar and lack pace and there are question marks on all of the strikers to varying degrees. Would also have liked us to sell one of the RB's to buy a specialised left back to cover for Bridge.

Hopefully there will be loans coming in but it's difficult to properly build a squad or a team around players who won't be here for long and as Ady Williams said earlier aren't always particularly keen to be at loan clubs because they live out of a hotel away from family and prefer permanent moves as they get more money that way.

but it's difficult to properly build a squad or a team around players who won't be here for long.

Worked for Watford.

Yes, Melonomahead you're right in your answer that is so obvious I've pre-empted it. It did work for Watford. However, Watford are part of a group of clubs that have the same owner so it was much easier for them to exploit the loan market and experiment so that the players who were a success could come back relatively easily. Many of them probably realised they were joining Watford permanently quite early last season and the loan deal loophole was just an easy way to get the deals done quickly.

[Millsy]

Generally strong except

CB - EXTREMELY weak without Maps. Let's assume those 3 are good enough... Still one short.

No AM. that's right we still have no AM. it's only been about 72,000 years we've been crying out for one. Ok so Drenthe can play there? So where does that leave us for wingers? HRK, Jobi, Garath... Hmm

Striker - absolute no brainer we are buggered here. EXCEPT what if Pog comes good, and Blackman? And Rodgers comes back strong from injury?

Perhaps the flying pigs will help with aerial presence.

[sandman]

Rodgers has been retired for 20+ years so I doubt he'll come back.

[RoyalBlue]

Goalkeepers
Quality A*
Depth A*
Full backs
Quality A
Depth B-
Centrebacks
Quality A
Depth C
Midfield
Quality A*
Depth A
Wingers
Quality A
Depth B
Strikers
Quality C+
Depth D

Not a bad assessment there Ian. What a shame you couldn't get that message through to Anton, Hammond and co before the window slammed shut!

[SLAMMED]

before the window slammed shut!

What window?

[Will95]

We NEED two centre backs, a full back and another striker to have a squad capable of going up.

[royalsroyalsroyals92]

I'm happy with the entire squad compared to the last time we won the championship, however for the first time all year I am worried about strikers - I was sure we'd get at least one.

In POG and ALF, we do have two really good strikers but none of them really suit the way we play, which is where we look far better on paper than we are

[ZacNaloen]

Yeh we need a striker, hope we can get one on loan

Decent options everywhere else.

[Broxroyal]

We definitely need a centre back now, of 1st team quality. I'm just about OK with Gorkss as 4th choice, but no higher than that. I don't buy the argument that we could always recall Hector. We need someone at least as good as Morrison / Pearce now.

We need a central attacking midfielder - a Sig type if you will.

We need a striker who can play up top on his own, - a Shane Long type if you will.


Further down the line we need a young left back to cover and eventually take over from Bridge but that is not quite so urgent.

Wonder which 3 positions Adkins had in mind...