[Archived] No Strength In Depth

[Guest Rovers4Good]

A Premiership managers worst nightmare is that they don't have enough players to field a full squad for a game which happened to Middlesborough a few seasons ago.

Blackburn's squad though has enough players to field 2 sides but why do i find myself looking at our bench and wonder why i have no faith in them changing a game for the better if given the chance?

With the Norwich and Newcastle games still fresh in my memory you've got to think to yourself is Kean really as stupid as he looks? Time and time again he's faced the media with tails of "judge me on my new squad", "wait until my experienced memebrs of the squad are back" bla bla bla (i could list more) but yet again another week goes by and do we see signs that we are moving in the right direction? In my opinion NO.

Kean has had the time, the resources and the backing of the owners which some managers in the Premiership would love but our squad hasn't got enough half decent players to cut the mustard in this league anymore. Take Dunn for instance, this lad has been blighted by injury after injury and having thought he'd turned a corner when he resigned then he picks up yet another injury that i'b be suprised if the lad could walk when he's 50 but Kean sticks with him and there are even rumours that he'll get another contract. Then the one that really gets my back up is Salgado, yes he's played at the very highest level, yes he could be great to have around but let's face it, he's over the hill and on numerous occasions has cost us goals due to his lack of pace but you guessed it Kean sticks with him.

Lastly, these new signings such as Slew, Petrovic, Vukcevic and Goodwillie you have to say that not one of these players are good enough at the present time to cut it in this league and if you had to rely on them in a scrap then you might as well throw in the towel now.

Kean has had enough time to increase our squad numbers with established premiership player and ones who know's what a relagation scrap is all about and i see this has the deciding factor when it comes to him being sacked which i personally think won't be far off now if Venky's want to remain in this league.

[den]

This whole situation with the new signings not making any kind of real impression, is a result of placing a manager there who, because of his total lack of experience, has got himself relying on a football agent to find him players.

Predictable from day one and is the whole thinking behind JA's plan for the club. Still, we all know that by now, anyway.

[FourLaneBlue]

It's hard to know if any of the signing were Kean's choices, or all of them, or somewhere in between.

I would think Jerome Anderson has been having the biggest say.

[LeChuck]

Only Yakubu has been a success so far, the rest have been mixed at best. Kean has admitted that Anderson picked the January signings, so we can't give him credit for Formcia and Rochina...even they still aren't ready to contribute on a weekly basis though.

Dann has yet to put any kind of performance that you would expect from a £7 million defender. Givet looks five times the player he does at centre half.

If we had more back up I'd say loan Goodwillie out to the Championship, but with only 2 other strikers on the books we can't really do that. Petrovic looks a million miles away and Vukcevic hasn't really been given a chance.

I will give a Kean a bit of credit and say I appreciate the intent behind the signings - all under 30 (most under 25) with plenty of room for improvement so I won't write them all off completely.

The bottom line though is that you can't take so many Premier League experienced players out of a team (Jermaine Jones, Phil Jones, Santa Cruz, Brett Emerton, El Hadji Diouf, Benjani) and replace them with a group of players who need at least 6-12 months to settle in. We needed more Yakubu style signings to balance out the younger ones.

[DE.]

The bottom line though is that you can't take so many Premier League experienced players out of a team (Jermaine Jones, Phil Jones, Santa Cruz, Brett Emerton, El Hadji Diouf, Benjani) and replace them with a group of players who need at least 6-12 months to settle in. We needed more Yakubu style signings to balance out the younger ones.

This. The aim of getting a good, youthful team together is admirable but it's been done too quickly.

[den]

This. The aim of getting a good, youthful team together is admirable but it's been done too quickly.

and very rarely works.

[DE.]

and very rarely works.

True, you have to be a 'big' club nowadays capable of attracting the very best of young talent. We ain't at that level and probably never will be.

[sijoco]

Dann has yet to put any kind of performance that you would expect from a £7 million defender. Givet looks five times the player he does at centre half.

Agree 100% - l think that Givet is easily our second (if not first) choice CB at the moment. I hold my hand up tho to being one that thought Dann was our best bit of business in the window.

[Guest Rovers4Good]

If you're saying that Anderson is choosing the new signings then you've got to ask, what the f**k is Kean doing?

Surely the manager says who he wants and at the end of the day if it doesn't work out and someone as to get sacked then it's not going to be Anderson is it?

The whole club is a shambles at the moment and until Venky's can actually put some time into seeing what is going on for themselves then this mess will continue.

[booth]

Agree 100% - l think that Givet is easily our second (if not first) choice CB at the moment. I hold my hand up tho to being one that thought Dann was our best bit of business in the window.

Dann may still be a good bit of business. He's being led by a chancer. Under a decent manager he may just turn out alright.

Same with some of the other signings. Goodwillie under a different manager and with a bit of confidence, may be a better player.

[chris]

Lastly, these new signings such as Slew, Petrovic, Vukcevic and Goodwillie you have to say that not one of these players are good enough at the present time to cut it in this league and if you had to rely on them in a scrap then you might as well throw in the towel now.

While I was doubt that spending 2 million players was not going to bring much benifit to the team this season.

I would say 90% of the board disagreed with me and was raving about Petrovic, Vukcevic and to a less extent Goodwillie.

It never made sense.

I was arguing with one person about how Petrovic was stolen from Roma's watchful eye, yet Roma go and spend 20 million on midfielders and we sign a £2 million CL 22 year old.

when its sounds too good to be true, you guess what.

and who claimed Dann was worth 14 million, and agrued with me for about three days? you know who you are

A player has to prove himself week in week out to be worth that value.

[onlyonejackwalker]

While I was doubt that spending 2 million players was not going to bring much benifit to the team this season.

I would say 90% of the board disagreed with me and was raving about Petrovic, Vukcevic and to a less extent Goodwillie.

It never made sense.

I was arguing with one person about how Petrovic was stolen from Roma's watchful eye, yet Roma go and spend 20 million on midfielders and we sign a £2 million CL 22 year old.

when its sounds too good to be true, you guess what.

and who claimed Dann was worth 14 million, and agrued with me for about three days? you know who you are

A player has to prove himself week in week out to be worth that value.

At long last I am finding some people who agree with me.

I have said it before and will say it again. Kean's recruitment policy has been awful, highlighted by the fact that only Yakubu can get a regular start. Our best players remain those at the club when he arrived, which after spending the thick end of 22 million is an absolute joke.

Only two of his signings good enough to start against bottom of the league Wigan? One of them only played due to injury problems elsewhere.

Ove the last 2 years or so our bench at times has looked very strong indeed. Not any longer. Our bench at weekend looked absolutely useless with few options to change a game. Kean's recruitment policy and the way he re-shaped the squad is now being tested to the full

[booth]

I can't judge any of his signings with him in charge.

Rochina for example, looks great some days, a match winner.

No player is ever going to excel with Kean in charge.

[Amo]

I still maintain that it's difficult to judge the quality of our signings (except for Anderson & Dennis Irwin) when we've got Steve Kean for a manager. Kidd/Parkes made a meal of things in Division 1 when they had the likes of Jansen, Duff & Dunn in the side. Souness came in and disciplined the team, allowing those three to play with confidence. That's what we really need, a manager who knows what he's doing, to instil shape and organisation to the first eleven. Rovers under Kean look all over the shop. It's no surprise we're shippin' goals like nobody's business.

The real problem isn't so much the signings we made but the signings we didn't make. It's okay having attacking potential like Formica, Rochina, Vukcevic etc. but our midfield looks frail without a Jermaine Jones-type to partner Nzonzi. Okay, Pedersen has looked okay recently but he's certainly not the answer. Too lightweight and doesn't have a tackle in him. Striker-wise, we heard names like Papiss Cisse, Iaquinta, and El Hamdaoui mentioned in the summer. Strikers with pedigree. Instead, we went the cut-price route of signing Yakubu & Goodwillie, squad players at best and not the headline striker we needed. It was also glaringly obvious that we needed a right-back to succeed Salgado. Lord only knows what the point of Bruno Ribeiro was. Probably another SEM client wanting a big break.

[Guest Rovers4Good]

It's all well and good saying that these player might play better if another man was in charge but the fact is that this manager brought these players in and they are not performing which is both down to the manager and player in my eyes and if Kean wants to judge us on his new squad then at the moment they are failing.

The point i am making is that our squad really isn't good enough to cut it in the Premier League but Kean seems to think it is. We have some fine individuals to get a good starting 11 but as for a squad then i think not.

[Mattyblue]

It was obvious in August, get rid of experienced Premier League players and replace with cheap, unproven kids who would be under the guidance of a cheap, unproven manager was a recipe for disaster.

Plus, Scott Dann was a panic buy for a position that was not a priority and the whole window was an incoherent mess from day one.

[onlyonejackwalker]

It was obvious in August, get rid of experienced Premier League players and replace with cheap, unproven kids who would be under the guidance of a cheap, unproven manager was a recipe for disaster.

Plus, Scott Dann was a panic buy for a position that was not a priority and the whole window was an incoherent mess from day one.

Fully agree but many don't. I have lost count of the number of posts I have read stating how 'brilliantly' Kean has done in the transfer window and how wonderfully 'shrewd' he has been.

Better players = Worse performances, results and league position. Err ok then.

[Waggy76]

It was obvious in August, get rid of experienced Premier League players and replace with cheap, unproven kids who would be under the guidance of a cheap, unproven manager was a recipe for disaster.

Plus, Scott Dann was a panic buy for a position that was not a priority and the whole window was an incoherent mess from day one.

Dann as not lived up to his £7 mill price tag , but with Nelsen injured all season , Samba injured for some games and Hanley not up to it at the moment (he played better at Wigan) that just leaves Givet , it is as well we signed him , but he was £2 or £3 mill overpriced ...

[Majiball]

The ironic part of Dann signing was he did so to escape the championship, whoops.

[roverandout]

venkys need to get their checkbook out in january and spend some serious money if we are to have any chance of survival, bring in a manager who can attract good players and who knows how to get the best out of them, anything less than my afforementioned points will result in relegation.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

It was obvious in August, get rid of experienced Premier League players and replace with cheap, unproven kids who would be under the guidance of a cheap, unproven manager was a recipe for disaster.

Plus, Scott Dann was a panic buy for a position that was not a priority and the whole window was an incoherent mess from day one.

You've also got to wonder, given the injury crisis in defence and lack of strikers at the beginning of the season, why on earth did he not use the loan market?

[Jock]

These idiots didnt buy experienced players because they cost proper money.

Hearing Kean giving out excuses that our players are young and need time to develop is the sign of a deluded ######.

[John]

Surely his comment on the value of the squad is a bit premature - not sure we would get our money back on Dann (so far) plus no one else consistently has been that good.

We do have some young prospects however having an inexperienced bull-s***er as manager makes it hard to judge their full potential.

[bob fleming]

You've also got to wonder, given the injury crisis in defence and lack of strikers at the beginning of the season, why on earth did he not use the loan market?

Maybe Kean just couldn't find the right deal eh? Or maybe his agent couldn't. I mean it's got to be right for everyone after all hasn't it?

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Maybe Kean just couldn't find the right deal eh? Or maybe his agent couldn't. I mean it's got to be right for everyone after all hasn't it?

No doubt.