Squad depth and potential lineups

[popillius]

Indeed. But you weren't arguing against him, so it would seem odd for me to say he also offers something.

Okay.

 

[Micky]

Still a real need to move some players on....

Choudhury and Ghezzal the most obvious.

Amartey, Mendy, Benkovic and Praet as potentials.

 

[Matt_B]

Still a real need to move some players on....

Choudhury and Ghezzal the most obvious.

Amartey, Mendy, Benkovic and Praet as potentials.

Nearly all of those players played a part last season, however small, in a season where we proved how small our squad is. If we aren't replacing them (we won't replace all of them) then getting rid of them all will leave us in a worse place.

 

[sparky79]

I think Choudhury and Ghezzal have been put in the ship window on the lcfc website and in the early preseason games. I expect both to move on.
For me - Praet and Castagne being in the squad makes our average squad quality much higher - even if they don't start ahead of Ricardo/Bertrand and Soumare/Maddison/Tielemans/Albrighton/Ndidi/Dewsbury Hall in Praet's case.
If Rodger's favours Dewsbury Hall as a reserve attacking/progressive midfielder then Praet's days are numbered and a spot on the wage bill will be open. I'd question getting rid of him though as he's a seasoned european and international footballer.
Looks like Sowah might be competing against Maswanhise for a spot in the broader squad.

 

[Micky]

I think Choudhury and Ghezzal have been put in the ship window on the lcfc website and in the early preseason games. I expect both to move on.
For me - Praet and Castagne being in the squad makes our average squad quality much higher - even if they don't start ahead of Ricardo/Bertrand and Soumare/Maddison/Tielemans/Albrighton/Ndidi/Dewsbury Hall in Praet's case.
If Rodger's favours Dewsbury Hall as a reserve attacking/progressive midfielder then Praet's days are numbered and a spot on the wage bill will be open. I'd question getting rid of him though as he's a seasoned european and international footballer.
Looks like Sowah might be competing against Maswanhise for a spot in the broader squad.

I forgot about Sowah. From my brief view of him in pre-season, I don't think he's ready.

 

[sparky79]

Starting line up for Wolves could be anything!

safe would be:

Schmeichel
Pereira Fofana Soyuncu Bertrand
Ndidi
Albrighton Tielemans Maddison Barnes
Vardy

or you could even see a case for

Schmeichel
Pereira Fofana Soyuncu Bertrand
Ndidi Tielemans Soumare
Daka Iheanacho Barnes

 

[alex]

Not sure there’s a case where Jamie doesn’t start

 

[popillius]

Not sure there’s a case where Jamie doesn’t start

There isn't. Any talk of him being 'finished' or 'not integral' is bed pissing to a point of drowning.

Let's actually have a look at him for a few games first before we consign our greatest ever striker to the scraps bin.

Holy ****ing flaps.

 

[Feriol]

The place is still Vardy's, but it's nice that we can now confidently give him a rest when he needs it, and bring someone in if he can't find his form. I Expect our most common lineup will be Vardy with AN Other.

 

[Brown Nose]

We're now going to start the season without an entire back four; Castagne, Fofana, Evans, Justin.

We have decent depth in defence. Ricardo and Bertrand look very good. Soyuncu is absolutely crucial. Thomas is also a solid player.

The backup players to them are all problematic. Nelson is a huge talent but clearly not ready for the PL. Amartey and Benkovic are just not up to it.

Amartey is positionally incapable of doing a job in a back four and I think he's a liability in a three too. The issue with Benkovic appears to be psychological. He has the physical attributes but he looks like a rabbit in headlights on the pitch. I'd be terrified of us relying on either player.

What we do now is dependent on the expected return dates for the absentees. Before Fofana broke his leg, we needed a back up central defender only. Now we need someone more reliable who could potentially have to play 20 games before Xmas.

So the likes of Cahill are out. We need someone physically robust and good enough not to look out of place in our very good team. I think we just have to push the boat out and get Tarkovski.

 

[Brown Nose]

We still need to do some work on this squad.

Defensively, we have to stick with what we've got unless there are genuine fears for Evans. The commentator said that Justin would be back in September but I've not heard that anywhere else. Ricardo looks terrific again. We have the quality in depth and the only thing we need to do is get Benkovic out for game time somewhere.

In midfield, we are ridiculously over with at least two too many central midfielders. Praet, Mendy and Choudhury are all surplus to requirements really. We have to somehow get two of them out, but it looks like loans are most likely.

We're sorted for forwards, the problem we have is in the creative positions. The options just aren't there. I had hopes for Sowah but it looks like BR doesn't think he's ready as he's disappeared from selections. I'm sure he'll go on loan to the Championship now. That leaves us with Barnes, Maddison and Perez with realistically no competition for their places. Albrighton is a back up which is fine but who else is there?

That's the problem we have. Barnes is coming back from injury, Maddison looks like he's made of glass and Perez isn't good enough. We don't need one more creative player, we need two. One for the right side and one other one to provide competition with Maddison.

So we will probably need to move out Benkovic and Sowah on loan and two of Praet, Mendy, Choudhury on permanent/loan deals. Then bring in two creative players - at least one you'd imagine would have to be on loan. That's a lot to do in a couple of weeks.

Coutinho is being linked again today and his wage demands for a loan deal now look within reach. The issue is his fitness. One other option is Eriksen. It was confirmed that we tried to sign him in January on loan and I read that he will be unable to play for Inter because of rules related to his heart condition in Italy. That means he needs to be loaned out somewhere if he's given the okay to play. Maybe we're considering this option too?

On the right sided player, the weird thing is how we've allowed several players we've been linked with over and over in that position move on this summer without us appearing to be in for them. We must have a target there and we must be relatively confident that we can do something because we simply cannot go through this season with that gaping hole in the team again. Madueke fits the bill but can we afford him?

 

[TommyK]

We still need to do some work on this squad.

Defensively, we have to stick with what we've got unless there are genuine fears for Evans. The commentator said that Justin would be back in September but I've not heard that anywhere else. Ricardo looks terrific again. We have the quality in depth and the only thing we need to do is get Benkovic out for game time somewhere.

In midfield, we are ridiculously over with at least two too many central midfielders. Praet, Mendy and Choudhury are all surplus to requirements really. We have to somehow get two of them out, but it looks like loans are most likely.

We're sorted for forwards, the problem we have is in the creative positions. The options just aren't there. I had hopes for Sowah but it looks like BR doesn't think he's ready as he's disappeared from selections. I'm sure he'll go on loan to the Championship now. That leaves us with Barnes, Maddison and Perez with realistically no competition for their places. Albrighton is a back up which is fine but who else is there?

That's the problem we have. Barnes is coming back from injury, Maddison looks like he's made of glass and Perez isn't good enough. We don't need one more creative player, we need two. One for the right side and one other one to provide competition with Maddison.

So we will probably need to move out Benkovic and Sowah on loan and two of Praet, Mendy, Choudhury on permanent/loan deals. Then bring in two creative players - at least one you'd imagine would have to be on loan. That's a lot to do in a couple of weeks.

Coutinho is being linked again today and his wage demands for a loan deal now look within reach. The issue is his fitness. One other option is Eriksen. It was confirmed that we tried to sign him in January on loan and I read that he will be unable to play for Inter because of rules related to his heart condition in Italy. That means he needs to be loaned out somewhere if he's given the okay to play. Maybe we're considering this option too?

On the right sided player, the weird thing is how we've allowed several players we've been linked with over and over in that position move on this summer without us appearing to be in for them. We must have a target there and we must be relatively confident that we can do something because we simply cannot go through this season with that gaping hole in the team again. Madueke ts the bill but can we afford him?

I think your right, which makes the signing of Soumare more baffling. He may turn out to be a fantastic signing. But I don't understand why we needed him in front of more creative options.

 

[M17TT C]

I think we'll see Castagne replace Perez when he is fit as Ted definitely seems to favour a more defensive minded/hard working playing to play in front of Ricardo.

I hope he doesn't push Ricardo forward though as it's never really worked playing him as a forward and I think he operates best running from deep.

I'd also imagine that the Vestergaard signing has changed our plans now as that was an unexpected buy with Fofana's injury so I think we will now be limited to another loan signing as we could definitely do with another wide attacking option.

 

[popillius]

I think your right, which makes the signing of Soumare more baffling. He may turn out to be a fantastic signing. But I don't understand why we needed him in front of more creative options.

We didn't. We needed him because our holding/defensive midfield options outside the first eleven are shite. Choudhury, Mendy, Praet... They're all garbage really. They're certainly not good enough for us in any case. Soumare was brought in so that we could ship those three out I suspect but who will want them? Praet will get a gig somewhere unless we are paying him a daft amount of cash. Choudhury? Well, unless a Championship side can afford him or we are willing to pay some of his salary for a loan move, I can't see anyone other than Steve Bruce being daft enough to pay for him and that looks to have gone cold now. Mendy? He's hardly played regular football for three years and when he has had a run in the team he's been average more often than not. Again, who is going to take a punt on him? Certainly no PL side and with the lack of money about in most clubs across the globe, there has to be some very considered and careful spending. Mendy is a punt at best.

I think we are going to be stuck with at least two of these for the season. What is abundantly clear is our lack of creativity. Barnes and Maddison aside (actually, Ricardo and Justin are creative but that isn't their primary role) we do lack competition for Maddison and Perez although some may say that KDH could provide that. We MUST address this before the window closes or we will struggle at times to break teams down, just as we did last year.

 

[popillius]

I think we'll see Castagne replace Perez when he is fit as Ted definitely seems to favour a more defensive minded/hard working playing to play in front of Ricardo.

I hope he doesn't push Ricardo forward though as it's never really worked playing him as a forward and I think he operates best running from deep.

I'd also imagine that the Vestergaard signing has changed our plans now as that was an unexpected buy with Fofana's injury so I think we will now be limited to another loan signing as we could definitely do with another wide attacking option.

I'm not so sure. I think Vestergaard was always on the cards.

 

[Robin127]

...We MUST address this before the window SLAMS SHUT or we will struggle at times to break teams down, just as we did last year...