Now fearing the worst?

[OzzieBudgie 0]

Yes our squad is of premier league quality but surely most now have relegation in the back of our minds. Yes I know this is early but here is my reasoning.

1) CB - This is my biggest worry to be honest. Neither of our first team center backs instill confidence in me Martin is clumsy and turns slowly so when playing against a faster player the only way he can stop them is to bring them down however I do believe he is our best center back. Where as Bassong is awful in my opinion, he has the turning speed of a tank and always seems uncomfortable in possession. Despite these two players flaws they are adequate for the premier league and can even have great performances like Bassong in the derby last year. Yet the depth in this position is poor if one of these two is to go down we are doomed, Bassong has hamstring history and if I remember Martin has had injury history, even if this is not the case injuries can happen. Our only back up CB is Ryan Bennet who on is day is good however his days are few and far between and his injury record is poor. Don''t get me wrong I really like Bennett I just think we need more back up than him. I would dread to think what would happen if he got injured aswell.

2) Full backs - Whittaker is a good Rw but not a RB and for Wisdom, I saw him play a few times last year for West Brom and he wasn''t too bad so would play him instead of Whitts (This is why I didnt mention him as CB cover.)

Olsson/Toffolo/Brady are fine in my opinion.

That being said I am still happy with the team I just am fearful we didn''t get the necessary players in over the window. Would of liked to see one or two new CB''s and maybe another winger as we were light before selling Johnson so Jarvis just replaces Johnson.

An idea I would like to try is a 4-3-1-2

And try either both Strikers up top or even try Redmond up the top as he would give may defenders problems.

This does result in a lack of width but I believe the central midfielders would give cover so we could have attacking full backs in Brady and Olsson. (Don''t know how easy it is to change sides for a full back)

Ruddy

Brady Wisdom Martin Olsson

Tettey or Howson Mulumbu Dorrans

Wes

Redmond Jerome or M''bokani

I think our defence is too poor to keep alot of clean sheets so we will have to score alot and win games 3-2 and 2-1.

Just wondering what people thoughts would be on making the team more attacking so we become a ''You scored three? well we will score 4" team to combat the defensive problems?

[Iwans Big Toe 382]

I think with the defenders we have we could optimistically expect to keep may be 5 or 6 clean sheets this season. I would also think we will be on the recieving end of a 3 or 4 goal drubbing about the same amount of times, 5 or 6. So this means that in 26-28 games this season we are going to have to score two or more goals to stand a chance of a win. 4 of them have gone, so we''re down to 22-24 games. So I think if we are going to stay up this season, this means we need to find between 40-50 goals from somewhere.So to break it down, from now until May, we would ideally need a return something like this:-Strikers - 20/30Midfield - 15/20Defence - 5/10

It''s a big ask.

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,220]

The only thing you should fear is fear itself..........

[Salopian 1]

We have strengthened the midfield over the summer, and to a lesser extent the strike force, but we have made very little improvement to a defence which has leaked goals since the first game of the season - five games without a clean sheet, and conceding almost two per match.

Olsson is soon to return, but we shall still be vulnerable down the centre, even with Tettey/Mulumbu guarding, and especially down our right. So far Wisdom seems to reflect our existing players - very good going forward, but a little suspect defensively.

We are vulnerable in the centre of the back four. Seb is not entirely convincing and Russell is prone to be out of position. Worse, the cover is almost bare, and Ryan Bennett doesn''t seem as good as we thought he was going to be. We may have to convert someone into an emergency CB.

We didn''t spend so much, nett, as our rivals, and I fear that we could suffer for it.