Saint James
Active member
for our Academy?
Thinking back a few years Tis was clear in his squad building to have multiple cover throughout with there being e.g. four centre halfs and four forwards to enable a double substitution if Plan B was required. We now have a situation where we have a mere 13 senior players, 2 additional young GK's, 3 young players with less than 30 games (McAllindon, Watkins and Tilson) and the squad bulked out by 4 other kids. I haven't included Oakley or Butterfield as despite utterances that they are registered to play in an emergency clearly neither of them is considered to be fit enough to play if yesterday's emergency is anything to go by?
The squad is clearly light in numbers but worryingly the lack of foresight in critical positions is alarming. A huge over reliance on goals from Watkins which if he is sold in the next 2 weeks sees us relying on Simpson (3 last season), McAllindon (less experienced version of Simpson with one goal), Wheeler and Grant (neither of which you could argue are proven goalscorers) and Jamie Reid who Tis has so much faith in that he is on loan. At the back we have no right back and effectively just 2 centre half's one of which has been regularly crocked throughout his entire career. Therefore two injuries and we have no back four to speak of. Midfield doesn't appear any better served either with no cover in the middle whatsoever if Harley or James is unavailable.
Given this lack of depth was obvious before an injury took place it appears the resources for the first team have been cut back to the bare minimum. The question therefore is are we purely a club that develops young players and the first team is incidental? I cannot believe any manager would put together a squad with so many obvious deficiencies and should Tiz not be rushing through 3-4 new signings does it show where the club's real priorities are?
Thinking back a few years Tis was clear in his squad building to have multiple cover throughout with there being e.g. four centre halfs and four forwards to enable a double substitution if Plan B was required. We now have a situation where we have a mere 13 senior players, 2 additional young GK's, 3 young players with less than 30 games (McAllindon, Watkins and Tilson) and the squad bulked out by 4 other kids. I haven't included Oakley or Butterfield as despite utterances that they are registered to play in an emergency clearly neither of them is considered to be fit enough to play if yesterday's emergency is anything to go by?
The squad is clearly light in numbers but worryingly the lack of foresight in critical positions is alarming. A huge over reliance on goals from Watkins which if he is sold in the next 2 weeks sees us relying on Simpson (3 last season), McAllindon (less experienced version of Simpson with one goal), Wheeler and Grant (neither of which you could argue are proven goalscorers) and Jamie Reid who Tis has so much faith in that he is on loan. At the back we have no right back and effectively just 2 centre half's one of which has been regularly crocked throughout his entire career. Therefore two injuries and we have no back four to speak of. Midfield doesn't appear any better served either with no cover in the middle whatsoever if Harley or James is unavailable.
Given this lack of depth was obvious before an injury took place it appears the resources for the first team have been cut back to the bare minimum. The question therefore is are we purely a club that develops young players and the first team is incidental? I cannot believe any manager would put together a squad with so many obvious deficiencies and should Tiz not be rushing through 3-4 new signings does it show where the club's real priorities are?
