I agree with all of this except that I think there are two holes in our squad rather than one. You're right that an experienced, older, backup keeper who wouldn't mind playing second fiddle and could help Meslier and Klaesson grow is one, but I do still think we need a sufficiently good additional player in CM.The Fonz wrote:Been giving some thought about our needs for players and our so called "small squad" and not so sure that is now the case.
Does anyone else think that Gelhardt, Bate, Heljde & Cresswell (possibly Summerville & Greenwood) be considered as first team squad members. Have they done enough to justify it, I think so.
Do we really need players that would push our young uns down the pecking order now that have had a taste.
Our well documented injury list has been freakish but it is now improving.
The biggest hole in our squad imho is goalkeeper I'm not sure any of our young keepers are ready to step in in Ilan gets injured, my choice would be a decent journeyman experienced keeper on the bench.
Bate has looked good, but raw. It's easy to see things more positively after the win at the weekend, but given the rate at which we've been hit with injuries this season, it wouldn't be at all prudent to assume that we're out of the woods because players are starting to come back. I said this in a post above but I think it's worth repeating - we have Klich, Shackleton, Forshaw, Phillips, Dallas and Bate in CM. Of those, three are injured (even if Forshaw's is minor), Klich is unpredictable and ageing, we'll likely need Dallas elsewhere, and Bate is young and very raw. It's not hard to see a situation in which Phillips isn't back til April, Klich and Shackleton aren't firing, Dallas is needed at LB, and Forshaw has niggles that keep him out (or worse).
I think most of us on here are agreed that we don't need to sign loads of player for the sake of it, and that anyone who comes in needs to be good enough to improve the team, while minimising the risk of pushing talented youngsters down the pecking order. As you say Fonz, I think we're now in an alright state in defence, attack, and on the wings, but I think adding one £8m-10m no.8/10, who's good enough but still has room for improvement, would be prudent. Given we only have Bate pushing through in CM the odds are it wouldn't affect his game time much anyway.