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Yorkshire  Canary

This Squad much weaker than the last Championship Squad

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Even without any further additions we have a competitive squad by championship standards albeit play off material at best. Our main offensive staff last time we were at this level were Jerome, Hooper, Grabben, Johnson and Redmond. Currently the 2016/17 version consists of Jerome, Naismith Canos ,Pritchard, Brady and the Murphy twins. IMO that puts us potentially 20 to 25 goals light on what we got on the previous campaign. On the plus side the defence looks tighter so we may not need to score quite so many as we did in the last promotion season.

In addition Hoolahan whilst playing some of his best football is two years older at 34 and Tettey has gone on record as saying he struggles with 2 games a week.

The striker issue has been done to death but we really need 2 to get close to the 25 to 30 goals that Hooper and Grabben got between them. We may need to take a bit of a punt on say the lad at Wigan Grigg who has continued his good form of last season.

I sense we will be hard to beat this season but in the absence of two good strikers may finish up drawing quite a few

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FWIW I think we''re missing a bit of quality in midfield, hence we lose possession, can''t string passes together and resort to long balls too often. But I''ve come to the conclusion that it''s the way we play rather than strictly a personel issue.

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[quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]The striker issue has been done to death[/quote]Yup.

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I would suggest this is the strongest ever squad any club has put together by staying within the FFP rules. Plenty have been put together by breaking the rules, but nothing is ever done.

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The squad is much stronger.

We have added Klose, Brady, Naismith, Jarvis, Dorrans (Perm) Mulumbu, Pritchard, Canos, McGovern, Maddison and Pinto.

We have lost Redmond, BJ, Hooper, Grabban and O''Neil, and shifted dead wood in Vadis, RVW, Kean.

GK: McGovern brought in and Kean gone, big improvement!

Defence: Stronger, we have invested in Klose and Pinto.

Midfield: Indifferent, replace BJ with Dorrans and O''Neil with Mulumbu effectively.

Attack: Yes, you''re right, we''ve lost 2 strikers and bought in none (as Mbok loan ended).

So, overall, I see that 3/4 areas of the pitch have actually been improved or are no worse than before. It''s only one area which everyone knows we need to bring in a couple of strikers.

The squad being "much weaker" overall?! No chance!

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My concerns go well beyond the much publicized lack of striker options. Johnson and Redmond are no longer there compared to our last championship campaign, they contributed in the region of 25 goals that season between them. It is hoped that Pritchard and Canos will make significant contributions this season but for a combination of reasons injury/fitness etc we have not really seen them yet so cannot make a confident judgement. Naismith is being played i suspect because he cost us £8m and is on high wages, other than the Liverpool game he has made no significant contribution and the early optimism that he would set the championship ablaze seems to be diminishing by the minute. Maddison seems well regarded but again we have not seen him so cannot judge. Jacob Murphy looks to have developed but Josh seems in the short term anyway to have gone backwards. Brady is a good player but will he still be here and it is a lot of money tied up using him as a left back. His credentials are strong but there has to be an even chance he will soon move on. hoolahan is the stand out midfielder but at 34 he needs to be used more sparingly it would be stupid to expect him to play 40 games or so. Howson is a good player but all too often his attributes are undermined by playing him out of position. In short our defence is better than before but in the middle of the park and up front this squad imo is behind the one in our last championship season

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If Bassong, Martin and Whittaker can''t get into the team it must be stronger than it was. The problem is the style of football we are playing we are far to narrow with the short passing between Brady, Naismith and Hoolahan so often breaking down we gift possession back to the opposition so easily.

The problem lies with those organising the team and tactics.

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Ridgeman is quite correct. On paper the squad is much stronger but the present Manager/Coaching Staff are nowhere near the quality of Lambert/Culverhouse. The latter bought largely unknown players but developed them in to a very competent team. I can only think of one

player who has improved under the present regime. The exception was Bradley Johnson but he was converted in to an attacking midfielder by Neil Adams. OK I know Lambo was not successful at Villa but that was partly because he inherited several deadwood senior players who he found difficult to handle.

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