So. Do we have a decent squad?

WilliamMunny said:
Now that we've made it to the second international break, I think the squad is looking quite healthy personally. 5 consecutive wins in all comps obviously makes everything look better, but I always thought we would see the real Boro emerge after the first international break, not before. Hopefully we can improve again after this break.
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yes the huge number of new faces made it difficult to get results and consistency, particularly when most teams don't play to our philosophy.

I think the next step is really getting the new players deeply embedded in the squad. Dieng and Greenwood are in the side on merit, Van Den Berg also.

Need to see Rogers pushing for more game time, he's done well in spells, now needs to impose himself on games and kick on. Engels improving and Bangura has been held back by fitness issues. Lath has looked really bright and if there was a game Tuesday he'd be starting for me.

Silvera is probably the only one that started bright and has gone backwards.

Two weeks to the next match, and there will be a lot of competition even to get on the bench, Dijksteel has played an U21 game, Clarke has played 1 1/2 U21 games. VDB and Bangura have a good opportunity to get themselves 100% fit, and Howson and Lenihan will shake off their illness.

Looks like for Birmingham we will have 22 fit senior outfield players and that means 3 players won't even make the bench.
 
WilliamMunny said:
Now that we've made it to the second international break, I think the squad is looking quite healthy personally. 5 consecutive wins in all comps obviously makes everything look better, but I always thought we would see the real Boro emerge after the first international break, not before. Hopefully we can improve again after this break.

Saturday's win was acheived without Van den Berg, Lenihan, O'Brien, Howson and McGree. Also Latte Lath, Rodgers, Forss, Silvera and Bangura started on the bench. And Clarke may be on his way back as well. For me personally, I think we may have enough quality to get into the playoffs even after giving everyone a head start, with rejuvenated Jones like a new signing, Hackney getting better and better and Barlaser looking like the player we hoped we had signed. Latte Lath, Greenwood, Coburn, Rodgers, VDB and at least one of the two left backs could improve further given time.

We'll clearly have some stumbles along the way, but Leicester aside (and possibly Ipswich), I think the rest of the division is much of a muchness and we are one of 10 or more teams that realistically hope to make the top 6. I'm quietly confident we will.

UTB!
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It’s daft to argue with results (and why would you want to) and this run is very encouraging.
I don’t share your optimism re play offs and some signings, but hope I am wrong.
Hackney’s class, Jones resurgence and the character of crooks will be key
I saw promise in Rogers and Greenwood from the off, they have obvious ability, but Engel had a good half last Tuesday.
OBrien is the type of signing I was after and Dieng has been much better than Steffen.
I’d pass comment about VdB when I’ve seen him at CB.
 
WilliamMunny said:
Now that we've made it to the second international break, I think the squad is looking quite healthy personally. 5 consecutive wins in all comps obviously makes everything look better, but I always thought we would see the real Boro emerge after the first international break, not before. Hopefully we can improve again after this break.

Saturday's win was acheived without Van den Berg, Lenihan, O'Brien, Howson and McGree. Also Latte Lath, Rodgers, Forss, Silvera and Bangura started on the bench. And Clarke may be on his way back as well. For me personally, I think we may have enough quality to get into the playoffs even after giving everyone a head start, with rejuvenated Jones like a new signing, Hackney getting better and better and Barlaser looking like the player we hoped we had signed. Latte Lath, Greenwood, Coburn, Rodgers, VDB and at least one of the two left backs could improve further given time.

We'll clearly have some stumbles along the way, but Leicester aside (and possibly Ipswich), I think the rest of the division is much of a muchness and we are one of 10 or more teams that realistically hope to make the top 6. I'm quietly confident we will.

UTB!
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I think Ipswich will fall away over the season
 
indeedido said:
We have a mid table Championship squad, there is currently little real quality in it.
It is a big squad, massive in fact and the club clearly chose quantity over quality. There are 27 players in the first team squad, plus a lot of younger players and the academy.

I would personally prefer a smaller squad with more real quality.
Of course we could not afford to buy Archer, Ramsey and Giles at the summer prices without much greater investment. Keeping Akpom would have been another big commitment.
But I would have borrowed quality again. The club have gone down a different route.

It is so important to get up as quickly as you can. I don't personally think this squad is remotely ready to do that, which is disappointing after our experiences last year.
Furthermore I don't believe it will develop into being right next season.
I haven't seen evidence that anybody Scott has bought so far will turn a big profit, but in fairness that of course could change and I sincerely hope it does.
Profit may come from Hackney, Coburn, Fry and Jones, but I'm not sure how that endorses this low cost mass recruitment model.

Carrick has made mistakes, he will make more, but I think we are lucky to have him for a number of reasons.
I think he (and Danks) has already improved a number of players last season and this. I think he will get the best out of a relatively limited lot and crucially he may be able to get greater than the sum of the parts again.
I think that is the definition of good management and is why I think we are lucky to have him.

Last night was very much a tale of two halves. The first half was plain boring. I don't see us rampaging through matches like the second half of last season, so keeping it tight when we are not flowing will be key.The second half was much more enjoyable and successful.
Both were encouraging in their own way.
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Some right guff posted here.
 
Decent, yes, great, no.

We don't have close to the goal threat we had in the team last season (in fairness, I don't think many others do either, maybe only Leicester). We've kept 2 clean sheets in the last 2 matches which is a big improvement, but I doubt we're ever going to keep clean sheets on a consistent basis.

A lot of that is down to tactics, not the squad. If you're going to play that way and be successful, you do need that explosive goal threat. We're ok going forward, but not as good as last year.

I do see it as a squad with some potential. The number of new signings made a slow start very likely, and maybe that many signings were needed after the short-termism of all those loans last season. Even if we don't compete this season, I thnk we're building a platform more than we were last year.

However, as our turn in form has shown, there's not much in this division. Leicester look likely to dominate, but we can compete with any in the playoff mix. I'd say we're likely to finish in that 5th-8th window.
 
Frozen Horse said:
Decent, yes, great, no.

We don't have close to the goal threat we had in the team last season (in fairness, I don't think many others do either, maybe only Leicester). We've kept 2 clean sheets in the last 2 matches which is a big improvement, but I doubt we're ever going to keep clean sheets on a consistent basis.

A lot of that is down to tactics, not the squad. If you're going to play that way and be successful, you do need that explosive goal threat. We're ok going forward, but not as good as last year.

I do see it as a squad with some potential. The number of new signings made a slow start very likely, and maybe that many signings were needed after the short-termism of all those loans last season. Even if we don't compete this season, I thnk we're building a platform more than we were last year.

However, as our turn in form has shown, there's not much in this division. Leicester look likely to dominate, but we can compete with any in the playoff mix. I'd say we're likely to finish in that 5th-8th window.
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We have scored 3 more goals in our first 11 games than the same number of games last season. We carry a similar goal threat to last season, and I would expect us to score a similar number of goals to last season over the 48 games.

Our turn in form maybe to do with the "much-of-a-muchness" of the division, but I don't think so. We are playing much better now than at the start of the season and the same patterns of play are now starting to become clear, that we used last season. You would expect that to improve more as the new boys bed in.

You could argue our first 11 were stronger last season. I would definately argue that our squad is better this season, and they are, by and large, ours.
 
InglebyUTB said:
It was our worst ever start outside the Premier League, off the back of a terrible end to last season. It was absolutely nothing to do with fans expectations.

The players weren’t eased in because Michael Carrick tossed them them in at the deep end, thinking he could field a team of 5 or 6 new players and things would just work.

Playing players out of position in the vast majority of cases was down to poor team selection from Michael Carrick as he had options who could play those positions on the bench he just wasn’t picking them. Our best player being one of them.
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You still calling for Carrick to be sacked?
 
Laughing said:
We have scored 3 more goals in our first 11 games than the same number of games last season. We carry a similar goal threat to last season, and I would expect us to score a similar number of goals to last season over the 48 games.

Our turn in form maybe to do with the "much-of-a-muchness" of the division, but I don't think so. We are playing much better now than at the start of the season and the same patterns of play are now starting to become clear, that we used last season. You would expect that to improve more as the new boys bed in.

You could argue our first 11 were stronger last season. I would definately argue that our squad is better this season, and they are, by and large, ours.
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I admit I'm a little surprised by that, but let's face it: our goalscoring hadn't exploded yet this time last year.

I don't really see a player going on a run like Chuba did when MC arrived (I think it was 23 goals in 25 games). Nor do I count on another Archer coming in, and we were also not already playing MC's attacking style this time last year.

I like Josh a lot, and I see promise in Latte Lath, but its setting the bar unrealistically high to expect them to replicate last season's strikers.

We may share the goals around a little more this season, but I think we'll do well to get within 10 goals of last season's total.
 
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Too early to tell, recent signs very encouraging as we now, both team and supporters appear to be getting over the hangover from the playoff disappointment.

It is said so many times this is probably the most competitive league in the world.

From what I have seen I think we can challenge for the playoffs hopefully we can and this place is much better when the mood is positive.
 
We've enough right now for a 5 - 10th finish ( injuries depending)

With O'Brien out we're skinny in DM , and if he doesn't like Gilbert, we're skinny up top .
 
Frozen Horse said:
I admit I'm a little surprised by that, but let's face it: our goalscoring hadn't exploded yet this time last year.

I don't really see a player going on a run like Chuba did when MC arrived (I think it was 23 goals in 25 games). Nor do I count on another Archer coming in, and we were also not already playing MC's attacking style this time last year.

I like Josh a lot, and I see promise in Latte Lath, but its setting the bar unrealistically high to expect them to replicate last season's strikers.

We may share the goals around a little more this season, but I think we'll do well to get within 10 goals of last season's total.
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I was a little surprised too frozen.

History will tell us how good the squad is. It would be foolish to think they have peaked already though. I would expect the goals for tally to create an upwards curve through the season and bare in mind or goals dried up a bit towards the back end of last season.

We shall see. It will be fun though.
 
Laughing said:
I was a little surprised too frozen.

History will tell us how good the squad is. It would be foolish to think they have peaked already though. I would expect the goals for tally to create an upwards curve through the season and bare in mind or goals dried up a bit towards the back end of last season.

We shall see. It will be fun though.
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We didn’t score many in the early games when we were struggling, but we’ve scored 11 in the last 4 league games. That’s equivalent to last season’s goal scoring but it is only 4 games. Let’s see if we can score 10-12 in the next 5 games until the next international break. That will show us how much firepower we really have (a lot is my expectation).
 
The question is do we have a decent squad. Not do we have a good/great squad.

Of course we've got a decent squad. Good cover in all positions, a good mix of youth and experience, a smattering of real talent and a good variety in types of player.

It's about as balanced a squad as I've seen us have other than possibly being a midfielder light but only due to injury (and there are a few from other positions who can fill in if really needed).

Agree with others, how "good" it is in terms of overall quality, time will tell. But it's definitely decent, I'd say better than decent even.
 
It is a decent squad, no doubt about that. The big what if that remains is whether one of our summer attacking buys kicks on and gives us the quality we have lost.

I think that, of the lot of them, Rogers has the best chance to do it, but it's how to fit him into the team when he's up against Crooks. Hopefully Hackney and Howson can reprise their partnership from last season, giving Rogers the type of Akpom-platform (plakporm?) that will allow him to strut his stuff.
 
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