As the English transfer window closes on August 9th that gives us just under 3 weeks to conclude our business. The question is: what does our squad need in order to be competitive – or even improve upon last season’s 9th place finish?
The squad as it stands is thus (unless I’ve missed anyone):
1 GK Kasper Schmeichel
2 GK Eldin Jakupovic
3 GK Danny Ward
4 RB Danny Simpson
5 RB Ricardo Pereira
6 LB Ben Chilwell
7 LB Christian Fuchs
8 CB Wes Morgan
9 CB Harry Maguire
10 CB Jonny Evans
11 CB Yohan Benalouane
12 Mid Andy King
13 Mid Adrien Silva
14 Mid Vicente Iborra
15 Mid Matty James
16 Mid Daniel Amartey
17 Mid Nampalys Mendy
18 Mid Wilfred Ndidi
19 Mid James Maddison
20 Wide Demarai Gray
21 Wide Marc Albrighton
22 Wide Ahmed Musa
23 Wide Fousseni Diabate
23a Wide Bartosz Kapustka
24 FW Kelechi Iheanacho
25 FW Jamie Vardy
26 FW Islam Slimani
27 FW Shinji Okazaki
28 FW Leonardo Ulloa
29 Youth George Thomas
30 Youth Callum Elder
31 Youth Harvey Barnes
32 Youth Josh Knight
33 Youth Layton Ndukwu
34 Youth Hamza Choudhury
35 Youth Sam Hughes
Where do we need to improve? A few questions immediately come into my mind:
1. We are only one injury away from Benny sitting on the bench. Unless one of the youth players is going to step up?
2. We’ve got loads of midfielders, but not sure which two will start. It’s Ndidi and someone, but who? Will Puel still look towards the likes of Matty James?
3. After losing Mahrez can we trust Diabete or Gray to step up? At the moment it looks like we might be relying on Albrighton for consistency over invention
4. Who will play with Vardy? It might well be Maddison as an AM, but that leaves four other disgruntled forwards out of the team. Is there a future for Iheanacho? Can we find a new home for Ulloa (or should we just offer him a new contract??)?
Decisions decisions ….. the pragmatic amongst us (Dunge) will insist it’s all in hand. Thorney will only be bothered about what referee we might get for the Man Utd game. Blackstarr will already be taking out a contract on Jon Rudkin. Mersey will have started panicking back in February and Nev will believe that Puel could get us into the Champions League with the U23 squad. But how concerned/optimistic should we be?
The squad as it stands
posted on 23/7/18
Kapustka? Totally forgot about him.
And if we were really being pedantic it would be: “window’s”, but what’s an apostrophe between friends.
posted on 23/7/18
Agree that the squad looks healthy except for the following:
Centre midfield is full of averageness. We need to ship out 2-3 players and get some quality in there to back up Ndidi. It’s Ndidi, Iborra and then.... Andy among and the minute.
Centre forward - well this is a dog’s dinner. We’re blessed with a million wife forwards and then Vardy. As per Joby’s point. We desperately need to work out what we’re doing here and offload Slim, Ulloa and Musa and take it from there.
That would do me. It’s a case of one in one out then. Maguire goes, replace him etc.
I still worry that we’re relying on maddison making the step up for anythingto work. I feel we may start the season with Diabate, Maddison and Gray behind Vardy.
posted on 23/7/18
“The squad as it stands” is not good enough, maybe 5 top half premiership players at a push, the A’s said above full of averageness.
posted on 24/7/18
For me the best teams would be as follows-
3-5-2
Schmeichel
Morgan Maguire Evans
Pereira Ndidi Iborra Chilwell
Maddison
Vardy Iheanacho
or (if 4-4-2)
Schmeichel
Pereira Maguire Evans Fuchs
Gray Iborra Ndidi Albrighton
Maddison
Vardy
If we are to play 3-5-2 we need another centrehalf and if we are going with the tried and tested 4-4-2 I would suggest we need to spend some real money on a tried and tested winger and let gray/albrighton fight it out for the other spot.
posted on 24/7/18
Broadly agree with what you’ve written there CDUBYA, but Puel seems to favour 4-2-3-1, and he seems to be talking about using Gray down the middle.
I think the safest and most effective use of our current squad would be to play with 3 at the back.
Who knows what formation Puel has up his sleeve.
posted on 24/7/18
I think as Nev says Mersey the beauty of the wing backs is that you aren't directly replacing the (almost irreplaceable) Mahrez. It also allows for a start for Slimani/Iheanacho alongside Vardy...
I was very tempted to put Slimani/Iheanacho/Musa above....
posted on 24/7/18
3-5-2
Schmeichel
Morgan Maguire Evans
Pereira Ndidi Iborra Chilwell
Maddison
Vardy Iheanacho
CDUBYA
This is the team and formation for me.
And I'm definitely in the glass half full with the squad and signings this summer.
Ward - able deputy for Schmeichel and may even push him for the No.1 spot
Pereira - we've been calling for a better attacking RB than Simpson. Looks like we might have him.
Evans - a snip at £3m for a quality experienced CB
Maddison - hopefully the missing link between attack and midfield that only Shinji was able to fill last season. Looks a quality signing but will obviously need time to step up to the Premier League.
To complete the picture I would ideally like to see a quick CB as none of ours have any pace and we could be exposed, as well as a tricky winger with a decent pass in him
posted on 24/7/18
No love for Silva from anyone?
I'd rather see him sit alongside Ndidi than Iborra as I think he's going to give us a better attacking option this season. Iborra and Ndidi are too similar for me.
posted on 24/7/18
comment by See The Stars (U21395)
posted 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
No love for Silva from anyone?
I'd rather see him sit alongside Ndidi than Iborra as I think he's going to give us a better attacking option this season. Iborra and Ndidi are too similar for me.
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This.
posted on 24/7/18
Ibbora is more suited to a 2 behind an attacking 3 to provide more protection to the defence.
Silva better if we have a back 5 as more protection.
Just relying on Ndidi and Silva to cover a back 4 is suicide for me!