The Squad

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Christiffa25

Player Valuation: £35m
Looking at the squad, especially against the others challanging at the top is it realistic to be looking at a top 4 finish??

There's no doubting our first 11 all fit and firing IMO but once injuries/suspensions strike and/or you have players hitting a bit of bad form how strong/average are we???

Take out Gibson mirallas pienaar and say jelavic/Fellaini being off form or not quite fit where does that leave us??

All of a sudden the first 11 looks very average and lacks that goal scoring threat we'v had. It is a big worry. Granted we don't have the finances of the teams were challanging but your utd's city Chelsea arsenal spurs ect can bring in 5/6 quality players into there sides if needs be...

Our bench against Liverpool was shocking for a team wanting to challange top 4. All the talk about Liverpool having no striking options if Suarez is injured? What about us.. Jesus!

There's probably gonna be big fume if we fall away but given a few key injuries where do we deserve to be based on quality left in the team?

I hope to god moyes has some cash left for January. And he can bring in 2 or 3 like 4 like players of first team ability. Would love to see Donovan and Holtby if possible and the ofoe kid. If not much can be done in January I fear for us over the course of the season.
 

euro games might have been a bit too much for us this year I recon, and when eyeing next season - when we are in euro games - our squad definitely needs bolstering.
 
It's not ideal, but we played the 2nd half on Sunday minus Pienaar, Mirallas and Gibson, whilst neither Jelavic or Fellaini was on form. It wasn't great in the 2nd half but we held our own.

Anichebe showed earlier in the season that he can do a job up front. At the back we have options, with Hibbert, Heitinga and Oviedo covering the defensive positions. Midfield is tight though. Neville is pretty much the cover for the holding roles, with Naismith the cover for the attacking roles. The likes of Guaye can fill in but not sure we'd want him as a first choice.

Maybe Barkley will come back from his loan and chip in for the 2nd half of the season. If we can get that Belgian lad in on loan too it should help.
 
Regarding the striking options, I think part of the issue is the formation we play. I'm NOT suggesting it's bad, or we should change it, but by playing just one out and out striker we have to deal with two consequences:

1) The number of top class centre-forwards who can play as a lone striker is limited;
2) The number of top class centre-forwards who would be willing to sit on the bench waiting for Jelavic to get injured or lose form is pretty much zero. For instance, there is talk of Sturridge wanting to leave Chelsea to get more opportunities to play; he is the type of signing I would love to see but would he get any such opportunity at Everton, as Jelavic's backup? I should imagine he would view it as unlikely, given that we play one up front and Jelavic is the starter. Conversely, IF someone like Sturridge came in, shone in training and won the starting role, that would mean Jelavic consigned to the bench. How long would our Croatian hitman be happy to accept that for? Anichebe has shown signs of progress this year which are encouraging enough to have caused many on here to offer him praise - he's also chipped in with his share of goals, considering his limited playing time.

The bench on Saturday is not a fair indication of the squad's strength because Anichebe and Gibson were injured and Pienaar was unfairly suspended: remember there is a maximum limit on squad size so there is only so much cover any team can have now anyway. Long term I think Mirallas will actually replace Pienaar on the left - he looks more threatening there than on the right IMHO - so I believe we still actually need to sign a right mid/wing type player (Donovan is only a short-term solution due to his age. I'd only loan him.) but I can't think of a suitable candidate. Equally, Naismith is simply Osman's long-term replacement.

We're getting into Champo realm now, but I'd like to see Manny Fernandes back. I haven't seen enough of Holtby or Ofoe to offer an opinion on them, but I'd keep an eye on them, and Southampton's Adam Lallana. Finally, remembering the "home-grown" quota that has to be met, we need to nurtutre our own youth. Nothing would make me happier than seeing Ross Barkley break into the first team over the next 18 months - gives us another option in the CAM role, allows Felli to drop back into centre mid in place of Neville. Obviously we need him to be approaching Felli's standard of play for this to happen though.
 

Christiffa25 said:
Looking at the squad, especially against the others challanging at the top is it realistic to be looking at a top 4 finish??

There's no doubting our first 11 all fit and firing IMO but once injuries/suspensions strike and/or you have players hitting a bit of bad form how strong/average are we???

Take out Gibson mirallas pienaar and say jelavic/Fellaini being off form or not quite fit where does that leave us??

All of a sudden the first 11 looks very average and lacks that goal scoring threat we'v had. It is a big worry. Granted we don't have the finances of the teams were challanging but your utd's city Chelsea arsenal spurs ect can bring in 5/6 quality players into there sides if needs be...

Our bench against Liverpool was shocking for a team wanting to challange top 4. All the talk about Liverpool having no striking options if Suarez is injured? What about us.. Jesus!

There's probably gonna be big fume if we fall away but given a few key injuries where do we deserve to be based on quality left in the team?

I hope to god moyes has some cash left for January. And he can bring in 2 or 3 like 4 like players of first team ability. Would love to see Donovan and Holtby if possible and the ofoe kid. If not much can be done in January I fear for us over the course of the season.
Click to expand...


Our first team is a match for any in the premier league, and that's not blue tinted glasses. However the talk of a top four was very premature lets face it. To finish in the top four in the premier league, you need to perform consistently well throughout the season. To do so you need a squad. We have no where near a squad strong enough.

It's a real shame. Only when we stop having to sell to buy players will we develop a squad that's strong enough. Eg imagine not having to sell Rodwell to buy in the summer. Without Gibson we've looked vulnerable. Having a player like Rodwell in the squad would have helped elevate the problem. There's countless other examples of this, but we all know the reality of the situation.

Although with a wee bit of luck, you never know :)

Keep the faith.
 
Failing to bring in another CM before the deadline has cost us points this season imo. A squad can always be improved but right now (CM aside) i think we're as strong as we've been in a long time.
 
We lack what the top 4 have at their disposal - match winners on the bench. Our first XI can live with anyone, but the squad depth just isn't there, ultimately that's where we'll fall short imo.
 
Christiffa25 said:
Looking at the squad, especially against the others challanging at the top is it realistic to be looking at a top 4 finish??

There's no doubting our first 11 all fit and firing IMO but once injuries/suspensions strike and/or you have players hitting a bit of bad form how strong/average are we???

Take out Gibson mirallas pienaar and say jelavic/Fellaini being off form or not quite fit where does that leave us??

All of a sudden the first 11 looks very average and lacks that goal scoring threat we'v had. It is a big worry. Granted we don't have the finances of the teams were challanging but your utd's city Chelsea arsenal spurs ect can bring in 5/6 quality players into there sides if needs be...

Our bench against Liverpool was shocking for a team wanting to challange top 4. All the talk about Liverpool having no striking options if Suarez is injured? What about us.. Jesus!

There's probably gonna be big fume if we fall away but given a few key injuries where do we deserve to be based on quality left in the team?

I hope to god moyes has some cash left for January. And he can bring in 2 or 3 like 4 like players of first team ability. Would love to see Donovan and Holtby if possible and the ofoe kid. If not much can be done in January I fear for us over the course of the season.
Click to expand...

Don't think we're too bad up front to be honest.

Jelavic, Anichebe and Vellios are all capable of playing up front on their own. If they were all injured we have Naismith, Mirallas and Fellaini who could all do a good job up there as well if we adapted the formation a bit. And obviously if we were really struggling then McAleny could be an option, then Gueye.

Obviously the quality comes down but that applies to every team in world football. Admittedly Manu and Man City have a stronger front 4 than us but you would expect that with the money they've got.
 

Mucha
Hibbert Heitinga Duffy Garbutt
Gueye Hitzlesperger Neville Oviedo
Osman/Naismith
Anichebe​

This is our 2nds team atm, it's not the worse but then again fairly average, i like gueye, but he's not good enough for a team of our standard. I think we may see one more body in in january and then hopefully a few more in the summer when we have to think about europe again. Overall i would shift out mucha and gueye, bring in a youngish 1st team goalkeeper, someone around 27/28 years i.e. mignolet and move neville into the coaching role, possibly bringing in a new centre midfielder, although from what i've read/seen on junior and barkley, they are both more than capable to be 1st team fringe players next season. Our two main priorities in the summer have to be 1) a very good backup striker of equal equivalant of jelavic (because moyes doesn't seem to rate vellios & anichebe's injury record is too poor to be reliant as a 2nd striker) and 2) a good winger who can play both sides just to provide extra cover for mirallas/naismith and pienaar/oviedo - basically, someone better than gueye or mcfadden. We have great versatility, but when we'll be playing 45+? games in the season we need more numbers rather than players who can play multiple positions
 
This is a top 4 team:

____________Howard
Coleman Jags/Heitinga Distin Baines
___Mirallas Gibbo Osman Pienaar
_________Fellaini Jelavic
 
danausi said:
This is a top 4 team:

____________Howard
Coleman Jags/Heitinga Distin Baines
___Mirallas Gibbo Osman Pienaar
_________Fellaini Jelavic
Click to expand...

I agree with you there apart from the Jags or Heits alongside Distin. I like Distin dont get me wrong - but for me Jags is the top dog and its out of the other 2 to battle it out for whos alongside him. Id go for Heitinga but thats just because I think hes technically our best defender. The only reason hes been poor so far is hes obviously been maxing the gym and ended up bulking up too much causing him to become ridiculously slow. Same thing happened with David Beckham - too much gym work means your carrying extra muscle and extra weight
 
mkrudden said:
I agree with you there apart from the Jags or Heits alongside Distin. I like Distin dont get me wrong - but for me Jags is the top dog and its out of the other 2 to battle it out for whos alongside him. Id go for Heitinga but thats just because I think hes technically our best defender. The only reason hes been poor so far is hes obviously been maxing the gym and ended up bulking up too much causing him to become ridiculously slow. Same thing happened with David Beckham - too much gym work means your carrying extra muscle and extra weight
Click to expand...

you want let the 100m sprinters know about this.
 

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