Is Our Squad Really that Bad? (2 Viewers)

Yes......,...

well if the squad isn't that bad but hasn't got results then who to blame?

Yes our squad is poor - you only had to look at Forest's starting line up and 7 or 8 would walk in to our team. What Thorn needs to do is galvenise them into a team playing for each other. That is the reason we beat Forest, we were the better team.

We still lack goals, and are so reliant on Juke getting the goals - he's got 5 of our 8 league goals this season, and we have failed to score in almost half of the league games we've played this season (5 out 11). The lack of goal's mean's we will struggle to get points away from home in particular.



Goalies: Murphy - Decent chship material - agreed
Dunn - looked ok when needed so far - agreed

Defence: Christie, Hussey, Wood, Crainie, Keogh, McPake, Cameron, Clarke.
Conclusion - Overall pretty solid and quite a bit of experience, I would argue defensive unit as good as most, even better teams in division. Our defensive unit is the strongest part of our squad however Christie, Clarke, Cameron and Hussey are all relative novices at this level and will make mistake,s some of which may costs us 3 points. They also go through inconsistency and loss of form. Plus McPake is always injured.
Midfield: Baker, Bell, McSheffrey, Deegan, Clingan, Bigi, Thomas
Conclusion: A little light but not too bad, great to have Deegan back. Be nice to have one or two loan signings just to add competition and take weight off younger players. Not too bad? Bell, Baker and McSheffery aren't consistent or good enough. Thomas and Bigi have looked really good so far but are kids and will make mistakes and go through bad patches - they have really showed up the elder statesmen with their performances. Deegan looks a player but needs to stay fit. Also there's very little pace or creativity in this department.

Strikers: Juke, Platt, ROD, Mcdonald......dare I say it Eastwood!
Conclusion: Juke getting better and better, Platt much more effective in this league than he is given credit for, McDonald potential, ROD good for sub to buzz around, Eastwood useful addition if he does get his act together. Probably missing out and out striker but so are many clubs not many gems about! Goals, Goals, Goals...or should i say the lack of them. The transformation in Juke's goalscoring has been remarkable, and i agree that Platt has been a handful and had a great game on Saturday but he will only get us 3 or 4 in a season, ROD is woeful, he's a trier but he is not good enough for this league, McDonald scored a lot of goals two leagues below but can only be considered potential. You can write off Eastwood, i really don't think he'll ever play for the club again.

I'm sorry but this season is going to be a struggle and we'll be flirting with the relegation zone for most of the season, i still fear the lack of goals may cost us dear.

I'm sorry but I too disagree. In my opinion our starting XI is poor. I would say only half of it, at this moment in time, are players capable of playing well in this division.

Murphy is decent at this level.

Cranie is good at this level, whilst keogh and wood are decent. The rest, for the time being, aren't good enough. I have no doubts that clarke, cameron and christie will improve, but at the moment are probably closer to being League 1/2 standard players. Hussey in my opinion isn't good enough. McPake, great on his day, but ALWAYS injured.

Midfield is atrocious. Clingan is okay, I think with another top midfielder he'd be very good, but has no support. Bell at times looks good, great control of a ball and knows what to do, but goes missing too often and looks as though he's given up. Baker, though talented is lightweight and almost looks like he's just happy to be there, I'd love to see him look a little more arrogant and have a clinical edge to his game. McSheffrey is inconsistent, but mostly poor, fades out of games far too often. Bigiramana, great potential, but played out of position by Thorn. I'd like to see him in Clingan's role (which I believe he could do better) or right behind the striker, threading through balls for mcdonald to run onto. Deegan I really don't know about. He did well when he came on the other week as a sub, but when he first came to the club I wasn't sure about him. Though tenacious and involved, I question whether he really has the quality to be our missing link. We shall see.

Upfront we have Juke and that's it. McDonald doesn't look like he's going to set the world alight (though still early days). Platt is poor at this level, I'm amazed people think he's under rated. ROD is dreadful, League 2 player at a push. Eastwood is a lazy shite, who's wasted a promising career.

Agree with Stupot there, we will flirt with relegation. Perhaps I'm being cynical but I wonder if we're preparing for relegation. We've spent very little, brought in no loans and there is almost a level of acceptance when greeted with defeat. We have brought through many youth players and our better players are continually in the media regarding transfer deals.

it is surely not a question of bad ?
more a question of depth, experience, quality, injuries, suspensions, and ability to cope with the rigours of championship existence, (46 + cups games per season),
we have the smallest (number) squad in a division that, on average, would require a minimum of 32 - 35,
achievement wise we have 'punched well above our weight' so far,
well done AT & THE SQUAD for what you have done so far,
PUSB

Exactly, George. It's a squad packed with potential but sorely lacking experience. That's why Wood and Platt made such a difference on Saturday: I have little doubt that Hussey, Cameron, Lukas, Gael and Connor will go on to play at a higher level than those two and prove to be better footballers. But they provided the vital missing ingredients of experience and leadership, making them worth double their actual footballing ability-God knows I've slagged the two of them off enough in the past year for being donkeys!

You only have to read what Lukas said about Platt constantly talking him through the game-that was clearly going on with Wood and Hussey at the back, too. It's almost like having a coach on the pitch besides you. Experience is vital both in getting us through matches, and in passing on the know-how to those kids whose game will benefit massively from it. And remember, that although Lukas and Hussey are a bit older than the academy lads, they aren't that far ahead of them in terms of experience at this level.

As has been said already. Squad is not big enough and therefore is not strong enough and therefore is weak, which translates as poor.

No-one is saying we don't have some good players. Just not enough of them.

I think the people claiming 'worst team ever' are going slightly overboard. With a fully-fit quota I think we're fine, but how often do you get a full squad available? It's quantity that's our main issue as has been said.

Sorry its poor compared to a large proportion of the league. I think some of fans are still viewing with sky blue tinted glasses, our keepers are mediocre, defense is average, Midfield is poor and strikers pathetic.

Would say we have an okay keeper, an average defence, a poor midfield and a very weak attack.

Besides that we're a good side.

Covstu said:

Sorry its poor compared to a large proportion of the league. I think some of fans are still viewing with sky blue tinted glasses, our keepers are mediocre, defense is average, Midfield is poor and strikers pathetic.

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Which glasses are you looking through? The ones that make you blind? Good to know Juke is pathetic :facepalm: We have a lack of experience and numbers, not a lack of average or above players.

covstu you may be right but all will improve the question is can they do it quick enough

The quality is there but the experience isn't. Where we have experience we generally lack quality (Baker and Bell) or in the case of Mcsheffrey have a player who has the quality but not the setup he needs around him. Jukebox has the potential but right now possibly not quite enough goals in him. Platt is a good foil for him but he has no goals in him. Actually we really need Jukebox to play with McDonald or Mcsheffrey sucessfully. If he can't do that then we need to try something like McDonald and Mcsheffrey. Point is we have quality young players and only 2 or 3 quality seniors. In a nutshell that's the problem

Spine of the team this season

---------Murphy----------
-----Keogh---Craine-----
----Clingan---Deegan---
-----Juke----Platt--------


Last season

------Westwood--------
----Turner--Wood-----
---Clingan---Gunnar---
----King ----Juke-------

sheffers is 5 years past his peak, he has quality but his first touch is now abysmal, and his lack of pace means he is not half the player he was in his last season with us/first season at Brum. Also the experiment at the beginning of the season showed that he can't play up top anymore.

Also we can't pin our hopes on McDonald - has has potential and scored a lot of goals in league two. Remember Eastwood and ROD have good goalscoring records in league one. I really hope he can fulfil his potential with us, but I feel that some of our fans already have unreal expectations for him that he's going to kick start our season and replace kings goals.

i also believe this squad is better than table suggests

12th-16th is probably their level,could go either way

but i still maintain marlon king is only player we truly miss

give me brigi/thomas over gunnar everyday,and westwood was AMAZING but murphy/dunn should be competent enough not to throw away points for us every game(murphys slate started at derby lol)

covcity4life said:

i also believe this squad is better than table suggests

12th-16th is probably their level,could go either way

but i still maintain marlon king is only player we truly miss

give me brigi/thomas over gunnar everyday,and westwood was AMAZING but murphy/dunn should be competent enough not to throw away points for us every game(murphys slate started at derby lol)

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we've only finished higher than 17-18th twice since relegation. Do you honestly think that this threadbare squad, which lacks quality, depth, pace and goals can finish as high as 12th?

That is a scary stat about only finishing higher than 17th twice.

Let's face it, we deserve relegation. If we were a horse we would have been put down by now.

where is this negativity coming from ,we watched a good team performance on saturday ,we beat what was in front of us ,lets wallow in it and see what occurs tonight ,oh and we're on the verge of takeover Cheer up sky blues.

The best way to judge is to look at other squads and see how many of their squad would walk into ours. For example a team around us is Doncaster, players like stock, sharp, coppinger, oster I think would get in our starting 11.

Otis said:

That is a scary stat about only finishing higher than 17th twice.

Let's face it, we deserve relegation. If we were a horse we would have been put down by now.

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ALL CCFC supporters would have been put down if we were horses due to all the suffering we have had to put up with !

Wingy - I don't think it's being negative, it's about realism. If fans realistically think this squad should finish 12-16th when we have consistently finished 18th and below since we were relegated then that's setting unrealistic expectations given the squad we have which will lead to fans frustration, which will lead to booing players and result with calls for Thorn to be sacked.

We need to be realistic with what we can achieve this season and anything above it is a bonus.

PUSB

Keepers- One average and another is unproven and playing league 2 football last year
Defenders- Mcpake is injury prone, Christie/Clarke/Hussey/Cameron are youung and inexperienced and still only have a handful of championship appearances between them, Keogh is our most consistent performer, Cranie is like a jack of all trades master of none, Wood played well on Saturday but I rate him as an average defender at this level/

Midfielders- Baker/Bell/Mcsheffrey are all inconsistent/not good enough, Clingan is an above average championship midfielder, Deegan has fitness questions still, Gael/Thomas have about 10 first team appearances between them

Strikers- Juke is slowly turning into a great striker at this level, Platt again played well on Saturday but is he going to keep that up for an entire season?, O'donovan will never be good enough at this level, Mcdonald has 2 appearances at this level and Eastwood looks like he will never play for us again.

How can people say it is not that bad when O'donovan who couldn't get anywhere near the squad of a team that finished 18th has started a lot of games this season. Not knocking ROD just putting in to perspective on how our squad has been weakened from last seasons team that finished 18th.

Also lets look at the quality of other teams squads. Ipswich had Andrews, Scotland, Bullard etc. Forest had Camp, Gunter, Boateng, Miller, Derbyshire. Leeds tonight will have McCormack, Snodgrass, Becchio, Forsell and Danny Pugh.

I think we will finish between 18th-22nd

stupot07 said:

we've only finished higher than 17-18th twice since relegation. Do you honestly think that this threadbare squad, which lacks quality, depth, pace and goals can finish as high as 12th?

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i think its possible,not likely

i felt the performance was just ok on saturday,im not getting carried away,its jsut when i remember performances such as reading and millwall last year i think to myself we have same things in place bar MK,if cody can get goals and juke ups his tally to 15 i believe we can better 17th

but at same time im not gonna forget how scared i was over intl break as we wallowed in relegation zone and put in pathetic performances to ipswhich and barnsley so i would take 17th and surivival as sad as that may sound

tonight i just want us to compete,not roll over away from home again

It will indeed. 3 points on Saturday would mean a haul of 7 points from 3 games. That would be fantastic.

It's the longevity I'm worried about though. Great that we have a few players coming back, but it's only a matter of time before we lose other key players to injury too. We lose Clingan or Juke we are really going to suffer.