SinNombre
Full Member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2019
- Messages
- 2,626
There is a cliche that you should have one good substitute for every one of your starters but no top manager in the past 2 decades really believes that and they all like to work with a core group of 18 or so and use youth team players in case of emergencies.
How does that 18 person squad look like?
2 GKs. We have DDG and Hendo here. If DDG gets back to his 2018 form, or Hendo makes a step-up, we are good here.
3 CBs. As of today, these are Maguire, Lindelof and Smalling. We need a top class CB as the starter to pair up with one of Maguire/Lindelof but there is no urgency to solve this now.
3 FBs. 2 defensive, 1 attacking or 2 attacking, 1 defensive depending on how the team plays. We have Shaw and AWB who are both defensive. Clearly missing an attacking fullback.
2 deeper/defensive midfielders. We have Matic and Fred/McT here. Depth is fine and need a starting quality 6.
3 b2b/attacking midfielders. With Pogba, Bruno and DvB, we are good.
5 attackers. 3 wide forwards, 2 strikers or 1 striker, 1 support striker, many different flavors here. We only have Martial, Rashford and Mason so missing 2 players here.
Based off this, we need 2 (!) forwards and an attacking fullback as urgent team additions, and a starting xi quality CB and 6 as less urgent ones.
How does that 18 person squad look like?
2 GKs. We have DDG and Hendo here. If DDG gets back to his 2018 form, or Hendo makes a step-up, we are good here.
3 CBs. As of today, these are Maguire, Lindelof and Smalling. We need a top class CB as the starter to pair up with one of Maguire/Lindelof but there is no urgency to solve this now.
3 FBs. 2 defensive, 1 attacking or 2 attacking, 1 defensive depending on how the team plays. We have Shaw and AWB who are both defensive. Clearly missing an attacking fullback.
2 deeper/defensive midfielders. We have Matic and Fred/McT here. Depth is fine and need a starting quality 6.
3 b2b/attacking midfielders. With Pogba, Bruno and DvB, we are good.
5 attackers. 3 wide forwards, 2 strikers or 1 striker, 1 support striker, many different flavors here. We only have Martial, Rashford and Mason so missing 2 players here.
Based off this, we need 2 (!) forwards and an attacking fullback as urgent team additions, and a starting xi quality CB and 6 as less urgent ones.