[Archived] Squad strength

[Torgeir]

A not so thorough look at our squad

Defense:

P. Jones out, Dann in. England's biggest talent swapped for a relegated centre half. Dann has been a disappointment for me but that is not only down to him but also how the whole team is defending like a unit. Nelsen ageing and injury prone and Hanley not a ready replacement (yet). Salgado another year older and Bruno is a flop. Needed a left back to move Givet in the middle to compete with Dann and push Olsson into midfield but wasn't addressed. Lowe a positive surprise as stand-in right back.

Verdict: A little weaker

Midfield:

Petrovic for J. Jones not an improvement so far. N'Zonzi injured most of last season and has been sorely missed. Dunn too injury prone, and letting Emerton and Diouf go for free has been Kean's two biggest mistakes so far. Gamst Pedersen has been rolling up his sleeves lately and improving his performances, about time too - but will surely suffer a drop in form again. Hoilett and Olsson steadily improving and are already key players, but with limited constellations available we're sometimes left with a midfield where the only player tracking back is N'Zonzi.

Verdict: A little weaker

Attack:

I think Yakubu is marginally better than Kalinic because he's better at holding the ball up and involving the likes of Olsson and Hoilett, as well as always being willing to get at the end of things in the box. However, he has surely seen better days and is not good enough for a starting place in a top 10 side (Kean's aim, not mine). Goodwillie so far a disappointment but in a 4-4-2 I think he will snatch a few goals feeding off his strike partner. Formica and Rochina showing glimpses and gives us more options.

Verdict: A little stronger

We have been in dire need for a proven goalscorer for several seasons now, and in my eyes we failed to address other areas that needed strengthening in the summer; both fullbacks and central midfield. A lot of people were happy with our transfer activity in the summer window. I opened the window being optimistic judging by the size of Kean's grin and when it shut firmly I was left baffled at how they (Venky's and Kean) got away with spending less than what we sold for. January is key, with or without Kean. Venky's have to invest in our squad or we risk going down regardless of who is managing us.

Thoughts?

[American Rover12]

Defense:

Verdict: A little weaker

Midfield:

Verdict: A little weaker

Attack:

Verdict: A little stronger

Thoughts?

Manager:

Nonexistent

[Brfcrule1]

Torgeir I don't mean to have a go but if you ask me in no way our attack any stronger if it was stronger we would have addressed this problem and have at least one striker hitting 25 goals a season.

I do agree Defence is definitely weaker Dann I believe will come good I do think Hanley should go out on loan might help him bulk out a bit & could help his development,saying Ribeiro is a flop is a bit premature he hasn't been given a chance but agree Kean's reluctance to play him make him back-up at best I do believe Left Back & Right Back need to be rectified in Jan.

Midfield I would say is a conundrum if the best players were put from the start they would be stronger Petrovic is mainly a defensive midfielder I would say will turn out a stronger addition, Vucevic brought in should be playing every week from the start very good winger and is quite good when crossing & gets back to protect his defensive partner,N'Zonzi is a steady prem. Lge midfielder,Hoilett & Ollson are good wingers with lots of pace about the only area IMO no money needs spending loads of options.

In attack Yakubu is about the only striker who looks like scoring last year we had Kalinic scoring regularly 1 every 2 or three games Yak will not get that many this year but is our strongest striker, Goodwillie is total garbage yes works hard but does not score regularly enough and we have one of those in Roberts but will never score enough at this level and between those 3 we will never score 25-30 goals to stand a chance in this league and feel this needs addressing in January I think a 10M bid for Anelka/Defoe/Ibisevic/Papisse Cisse/even maybe a Berbatov even if it's a loan could probably do a job for us but the striker position is a priority and needs urgently addressing just my opinion.

Oh & most importantly a manager who knows how to setup the team properly, who defend with the emphasis on keeping clean sheets e.g. MON/Sparky/Curbs/Ancellotti/ even Sven could probably make a better fist of things.

[hesfromburn]

Kalinic 1 in 3!!!! Dont be daft not in the prem he aint!

[Torgeir]

Brfcrule1, the reason I think our attack is stronger is because we now have a striker able to hold the ball up more in Yakubu. He has also at least the same goal per game ratio as Kalinic did. To add to that we have Formica who has been brought into the mix this season and has chipped in with some good goals. However, our attacking 'force' is far from strong enough and is definitely an area that needs further strenghtening in January.

I think we can't afford too many luxury players, and that's why Sam was reluctant to play too many at the same time - and also having a difficult time in fitting Hoilett in as he didn't fit with the system upfront in a 4-4-2, and is a defensive liability as a winger.

Currently, our squad is too imbalanced to stay up - and we don't have a proper manager to compensate for it. No investment in January + Kean keeping his job = relegation.

[LeftWinger]

Torgeir I don't mean to have a go but if you ask me in no way our attack any stronger if it was stronger we would have addressed this problem and have at least one striker hitting 25 goals a season.

Who the hell should we have bought that was going to get 25 goals for us in a season? You think 25 goal strikers are cheap?

Rooney got 16 goals last season.

Darren Bent got 21 goals last season.

RVP got 22 goals.

So I'm waiting to see which striker we should have gone for that would have outscored these guys - feeding off scraps.

[Andy3809]

Who the hell should we have bought that was going to get 25 goals for us in a season? You think 25 goal strikers are cheap?

Rooney got 16 goals last season.

Darren Bent got 21 goals last season.

RVP got 22 goals.

So I'm waiting to see which striker we should have gone for that would have outscored these guys - feeding off scraps.

I'll give you a clue. He played at Ewood Wednesday night and was available on a free.

Yakubu is past it and is worse than Roberts at holding the ball up. Never seems to get the ball under control quick enough.

Goodwillie has nothing to offer at all. Letting Kalanic go for me was the wrong move as he is twice the player of anything we have up-front allthough I understand that we got very good money for him so understand that he had to go. All well and good but that £6mill should have gone on a decent premership striker.. Fee or wages I don't really care.

Just re-read the above and mis understood it slightly. I dont think he would have scored 25+ but should have been the player we went for. Strikers getting 25+ a year is an old fashioned marker. 15+ is a more than decent return.

[RibbleValleyRover]

A not so thorough look at our squad

Defense:

P. Jones out, Dann in. England's biggest talent swapped for a relegated centre half. Dann has been a disappointment for me but that is not only down to him but also how the whole team is defending like a unit. Nelsen ageing and injury prone and Hanley not a ready replacement (yet). Salgado another year older and Bruno is a flop. Needed a left back to move Givet in the middle to compete with Dann and push Olsson into midfield but wasn't addressed. Lowe a positive surprise as stand-in right back.

Verdict: A little weaker

Midfield:

Petrovic for J. Jones not an improvement so far. N'Zonzi injured most of last season and has been sorely missed. Dunn too injury prone, and letting Emerton and Diouf go for free has been Kean's two biggest mistakes so far. Gamst Pedersen has been rolling up his sleeves lately and improving his performances, about time too - but will surely suffer a drop in form again. Hoilett and Olsson steadily improving and are already key players, but with limited constellations available we're sometimes left with a midfield where the only player tracking back is N'Zonzi.

Verdict: A little weaker

Attack:

I think Yakubu is marginally better than Kalinic because he's better at holding the ball up and involving the likes of Olsson and Hoilett, as well as always being willing to get at the end of things in the box. However, he has surely seen better days and is not good enough for a starting place in a top 10 side (Kean's aim, not mine). Goodwillie so far a disappointment but in a 4-4-2 I think he will snatch a few goals feeding off his strike partner. Formica and Rochina showing glimpses and gives us more options.

Verdict: A little stronger

We have been in dire need for a proven goalscorer for several seasons now, and in my eyes we failed to address other areas that needed strengthening in the summer; both fullbacks and central midfield. A lot of people were happy with our transfer activity in the summer window. I opened the window being optimistic judging by the size of Kean's grin and when it shut firmly I was left baffled at how they (Venky's and Kean) got away with spending less than what we sold for. January is key, with or without Kean. Venky's have to invest in our squad or we risk going down regardless of who is managing us.

Thoughts?

I would say our defense is a lot weaker this season. We were never going to replace Jones completely because the lad is a top class centre back, but Dann I thought would have done a decent enough job to replace the loss of Jones. Dann hasn't been impressive but I guess you have to factor in he was injured towards the end of last season and by the looks of it hasn't fully recovered/gained enough match fitness yet to show what he can do. Next season (if he is still here) will be the time to judge on whether Dann was worth it. Like you said at full-back we are weaker, Salgado is starting to show his age and we lost Emerton at a real stupid time. Nelsen looks finished at this level and Samba will be pining for a move in January as usual. Givet is solid especially at centre back instead of left back, but there are games where he looks all over the place.

Central midfield we are lot weaker than last season. Jones (Jermaine that is) played a key part in our survival last season and we have lost Phil Jones who could do a shift there if needed. N'zonzi doesn't have any consistency and Petrovic may take another season to settle in by the looks of it. Pedersen isn't really a central midfielder, in games when we come against a combative and dominating midfielder he's going to be targetted. Dunny is becoming more injury prone as he gets older. I would say this is the main problem area when it comes to the lack of clean sheets, more often than not our midfield provides no protection to our back four.

On the wings I don't think we can say if we are stronger or weaker right now. Hoilett remains and he's a talent but he's not dominating games like he did last season especially towards the end of the season. Olsson seems to be stuck in a difficult situation, is he a full-back or a winger? He's 23 now and he or the manager needs to decide what he is so he can focus his talent and develop in that role. Vukcevic looks like a talent but for some reason Kean won't play him in league games - I wish we knew why...

Attacking midfield we might be slightly stronger but then there are question marks about all those players. I have major doubts about Formica, and Rochina seems to play one game have a major impact then gets dropped.

In the striking department I think there really isn't much of a improvement/or decline. Kalinic has gone but none of the strikers that have come in have really done a much better job than he did. Goodwillie imo looks like the sort of player that needs a player or players alongside him so in a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2. Problem is I don't think Rovers have the quality in midfield to play the sort of system that would get the best out of him. Yakubu had the one decent game but hasn't really been seen much since, probably due to injuries. Slew we haven't seen and Roberts is Jason Roberts. With Roberts you aren't going to get more than 5 goals a season from him.

Overall I would say the squad is pretty much where it was last season if not slightly weaker. If Rovers have funds in January the areas we need to invest in are Central Midfield (we have been saying this for 4 seasons) and Strikers. If we have substancial funds we might also have to look at the full-back positions or wait until the summer to get a Salgado replacement in.

There are two problems I can see right now that might prevent us from actually sorting these areas out.

1. Money.

2. We have players on the books already in those areas, players that aren't good enough but are in the squad.

The owners might say we have to offload before we can do business and that might be tricky. Who is going to buy a Pedersen or a Roberts?

[Torgeir]

Good post Ribble, and we seem to agree where we need strengthening. I'd say our main worry is a goal scoring striker, secondary our central midfield and then both fullbacks. I don't think the owners can run away from their obligation to put £5m into the next window or there will be an even bigger uproar than what is currently the case. If we're stuck in the bottom then surely they'll aknowledge at least one of two things.

1. We have competent squad with an incompetent manager and £5m needs to be spent to replace him.

or

2. We have a competent manager with an incompetent squad and (at least) £5m is needed to strengthen it.

[K-Hod]

Our strength isn't so bad, it's the manager who's the issue. A centre mid and a proper striker would have seen me a whole lot happier about things. (relating to the numbers at any rate)

[Amo]

We don't have a bad squad, to be honest. Okay, we're weak in a few areas but you'll find every club of our size has a weak link or three. We certainly don't have the worst team in the Premier League, that's for sure. Only the worst manager.