Prof style long, repitive rant below. :icon_lol: (It'll be my only one of the week, I promise. :icon_wink)
The following line up of; Schmeichel, Peltier, Mills, Bamba, Konchesky, King, Abe, Danns, Gallagher, Beckford and Nugent should be easily good enough to get consistent results in this league. Aside from form and confidence issues, on paper or on past history, all are good enough at this level.
If you're basing this on past history, Pantsil should be there ahead of Peltier, Ball ahead of Bamba, Johnson ahead of Abe, Oakley ahead of King and Howard ahead of Gallagher.
All good enough for this level - yes.
Any of them good enough to lead the line for a promotion chasing side and for a promotion chasing side to be built around at this level - no.
We have no star players who can really make something happen, none of our players who can genuinely lead the line and stand out. It's not that they aren't decent or good Championship players, it's that that's all our squad is full of and that's what most of the Championship is full of. We don't have any players who really stand out and who we can really build the team around. No one to organise the defence, to create something from nothing or to score goals consistently.
That's exactly the problem, people keep being sucked in by names and "this player used to play in the PL" or "this player was part of a play-off side in the past" etc. but none of these players were ever the star players in those sides that those sides were built around, they were all just "cog players". Kerrea Gilbert was a regular in our League One winning side, he now plays non-league football, we had virtually no decent keeper and a crap left-back throughout that entire season, Andy King wasn't really fantastic that season and neither was Bruno Berner in midfield either (though both played well the following season), but still won the league because we had the players who make the difference. Based on the past few seasons it seems to me you don't really need 11 players who are "proven at this level," you don't need 11 solid or good players like Nugent, Konchesky, Danns, King, Peltier etc. you only need 4 or 5 of them, what you need to stand out is 3 or 4 star players who will win you games and that's what we have none of atm, bar maybe Kasper. Again, judging by past instances, I think you can actually afford to carry 2 or 3 crap players as regulars in promotion winning sides.
If you look at the Southampton team, most of their regulars aren't any better than ours on paper, but if you look at Nottingham Forest's or Ipswich's team most of their regulars aren't any worse than ours on paper either. The Championship is extremely close in terms of quality, there isn't really that much between any clubs in this division in terms of quality, it's those star players with something extra who set the teams apart and that's what we and that team you listed completely lacks. It's Adam Lallana, Jack Cork, Jose Fonte and Rickie Lambert who set Southampton apart from us, not David Connolly, Dean Hammond, Frazier Richardson or Danny Fox (and Connolly has been one of these in his past history, but that should mean nothing as to what he is now).
In that sense, I think we're only 3 or 4 players short, the problem is these 3 or 4 players are the players you build your team around and they're the hardest players to find.