Squad Depth Strategy

[SanFranWolf]

I hate to say this given that one of our players has suffered a serious, potentially long term injury.

But...

The loss of Sasa shows the risks inherrant with having a lack of first team ready cover in key positions.

We can all see that we were / are one serious injury at CB or ST away from major problems.

- It was the same with CM for a long time but we just about got away with it.

I say this through gritted teeth - we've been playing with fire here and now have gotten burned.

I honestly can't fathom why we choose to take risks Like this where the potential impact is so high. We have about six first team level wide forward players but 2 CB's and 2 Strikers.

Again I don't enjoy typing this and I honestly dont know why we had to learn this the hard way but I hope the silver lining of losing Sasa is that we finally take our medecine and stop leaving ourselves short of cover in key positions.

 

[Axle]

Said it at the time that l was sure we had a replacement for Fabio lined up when he left.

I was wrong, but didn’t know how wrong l would be.

While l don’t think Sasa was a panic buy, we should have adequate cover across all positions to mitigate for this.

We didn’t and we haven’t. Now look at the state we are in.

 

[VancouverWolf]

I hate to say this given that one of our players has suffered a serious, potentially long term injury.

But...

The loss of Sasa shows the risks inherrant with having a lack of first team ready cover in key positions.

We can all see that we were / are one serious injury at CB or ST away from major problems.

- It was the same with CM for a long time but we just about got away with it.

I say this through gritted teeth - we've been playing with fire here and now have gotten burned.

I honestly can't fathom why we choose to take risks Like this where the potential impact is so high. We have about six first team level wide forward players but 2 CB's and 2 Strikers.

Again I don't enjoy typing this and I honestly dont know why we had to learn this the hard way but I hope the silver lining of losing Sasa is that we finally take our medecine and stop leaving ourselves short of cover in key positions.

It’s not ideal but we’re not so bad.
Good transfer window and today Wolves are already trying to bring in another striker.
Seems Fosun are moving us up a notch.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

You can either have depth or you can have quality starters when you aren't in the big 6. You can't have both.

 

[wwbug]

We don’t seem to be prepared to pay the going rate for an oven ready Premier League striker. Or even a proven European goalscorer .
I really have lost the desire to watch our team struggle to score goals since Jimenez was injured . We spoke well before that of over reliance on one goal scoring striker , then we sell our nearest thing Jota .
It’s wrong

 

[Wolf in Kenilworth]

We play with one striker and you generally have two to choose from in each position which, by the way, is something we haven’t had for years until now.

We had two, albeit briefly, and now we’ll bring another in.

We are actually well stocked in forward positions and in theory Hwang or Guedes can play there too. The bad part is that Bruno is looking for presence in the striker position which these two don’t really have.

I think Costa could be a great signing.

 

[wwbug]

You can either have depth or you can have quality starters when you aren't in the big 6. You can't have both.

Forget the top 6., we are the worst in the league to entertain or score goals and have been for two or more years,

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

We don’t seem to be prepared to pay the going rate for an oven ready Premier League striker. Or even a proven European goalscorer .
I really have lost the desire to watch our team struggle to score goals since Jimenez was injured . We spoke well before that of over reliance on one goal scoring striker , then we sell our nearest thing Jota .
It’s wrong

Can you name me an oven ready Premier League striker we could have signed?

 

[Wolf in Kenilworth]

We don’t seem to be prepared to pay the going rate for an oven ready Premier League striker. Or even a proven European goalscorer .
I really have lost the desire to watch our team struggle to score goals since Jimenez was injured . We spoke well before that of over reliance on one goal scoring striker , then we sell our nearest thing Jota .
It’s wrong

Jota is a forward not a striker. Letting Silva go is the bigger mistake.

 

[wwbug]

Can you name me an oven ready Premier League striker we could have signed?

I tell you what ,you name a team without a fit natural central striker .Most have two ,many have more . We have been in this top league for five years. We relied on a teenager last year
It is disgraceful

 

[Chris H]

I honestly can't fathom why we choose to take risks Like this where the potential impact is so high.

Because it got us two 7th place finishes.

We’ve had a great team but lacked depth, you’ve pointed out the risk but the reward was clear, and we have benefited from it previously already.

The alternative is a deeper squad of lesser talent. We’d be less at risk of injury issues but also more likely to do nothing of note.

It’s interesting to note that both Liverpool and Man City have been shown to be short in some areas (defence in both cases having to play players out of position to cover this) over the past few years when injuries have taken hold (albeit they have enough quality to get away with this) but have also been head and shoulders above the rest including teams with bloated squads.

You’ve got a set budget you just have to decide how thinly you spread it to balance quality vs quantity. There’s always a risk, too little quantity and you have a great side that’s one or two injuries from disaster, you have too much quantity and you lack the quality required to compete.

I’d argue we’ve got the balance pretty well over our time in the PL, yes we’ve been hampered by injuries but we’ve also had finishes we probably should have had no right to have in the past 4 seasons when you look at the seasoned clubs at this level we leapfrogged.

Am I happy we're now short again at CF, not really. Am I pleased to have seen Wolves do as well as they have in recent years because they’ve run this risk with the squad quality over squad size, absolutely.

 

[Bostin]

Before Saturday we had Raul and a £15m striker. Plus a £35m striker out on loan learning his trade. Plus Guedes who’s also arguably a striker.

We’re in no position to be spending another £15-20m on a striker to be third choice. We’re not a top 6 team who can afford that sort of strength in depth unfortunately.

Some one like Batshuayi would’ve been ideal but what self respecting quality striker, who’s better than what we’ve already got is going to want to come and be 3rd choice?

 

[OLDGOLD]

Or playing devil's advocate, we have Jiminez and Hwang who routinely , or can play central and upront. Guedes, Podence, Neto and Adama have on occasion as well. If the magic of the Internet is to be believed we are already looking for a Sasa cover. Now you can argue if we should have signed him or not
At centre back we are playing one less in this position this season, and Kilman and Collins look very decent. Toti looks to gave potential, Mosquera, who knows. Rumours also suggest we are looking for out of contract cover.
Centre midfield has finally been addressed and the though of Nunes and Traore is exciting.

Life is not always perfect, but bar spending even more money and not being able to keep fringe players happy, I am not sure theclub could have done/ be doing a whole lot more.

 

[wwbug]

Can you name me an oven ready Premier League striker we could have signed?

Maupay moved .

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

I tell you what ,you name a team without a fit natural central striker .Most have two ,many have more . We have been in this top league for five years.
It is disgraceful

We had 2, if most teams in the league had 2 strikers out injured they'd be in exactly the same position as us.

Brighton to use e.g from today have two strikers. Danny Welbeck and Undez (who has never scored a league goal). If both of them got injured they are in our exact position.

Very few teams in the league carry more than 2 CFs. Liverpool and City don't even have a 3rd proper Forward as we are talking.

In fact struggling to find a team who do. Outside of Forest

 

[wwbug]

We had 2, if most teams in the league had 2 strikers out injured they'd be in exactly the same position as us.

Brighton to use e.g from today have two strikers. Danny Welbeck and Undez (who has never scored a league goal). If both of them got injured they are in our exact position.

Very few teams in the league carry more than 2 CFs. Liverpool and City don't even have a 3rd proper Forward as we are talking.

In fact struggling to find a team who do. Outside of Forest

It’s clear Jimenez and Silva were not able to play at this physical level ,this season or last.
And looking at Sasa he appeared a risk.
We all know the physique , energy levels and skill required at this level
A team with 2 natural goal scorers doesn’t find it difficult to score for two years without a reason or a poor manager . Even Norwich had Pukki

 

[Surrey Wolf]

bah... I knew we shoulda signed 27 strikers

 

[Skrilla]

With all due respect, how many strikers did you expect us to have? Two senior strikers in a team that starts games with one is fine. It's unfortunate this injury happened, but they knew it was an increased possibility given he'd already had an ACL and a long list of injuries that he came with.

You can't expect us to have 3 players for every position, because that puts you well over 25 players, and you'd have a bunch of disgruntled players that rarely if ever play.

 

[IOMWolf]

bah... I knew we shoulda signed 27 strikers

Yep and 6 CBs, 4 CMs and 3 FBS

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

It’s clear Jimenez and Silva were not able to play at this physical level ,this season or last.
And looking at Sasa he appeared a risk.
We all know the physique , energy levels and skill required at this level
A team with 2 natural goal scorers doesn’t find it difficult to score for two years without a reason or a poor manager . Even Norwich had Pukki

Brighton scored 5 today with a striker leading the line who hasn't hit double digit league goals on his career despite playing for over a decade in the Prem.

You suggested us signing Maupay, who is the opposite of a proven goalscorer. He only scored twice more than Raul last year.

 

[wolfslair]

It’s not ideal but we’re not so bad.
Good transfer window and today Wolves are already trying to bring in another striker.
Seems Fosun are moving us up a notch.

Eh? Not so bad? Fosun moving us up a notch?

They are frantically running around and going to the old peoples home for a former premier league great because they failed to their jobs correctly over the few MONTHS the window was open because they didnt address the issue in the squad of having goal scorers and depth in the striker position.
You cannot help injuries in sport, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think, we are signing a guy who has a crap fitness record damaged an ACL already with no one near him on the training pitch to the most physical league in the world.

Why on earth wouldn’t you pick up a third striker knowing all we did about him!!! This situation was 100% avoidable and very likely with his injury record. If he didn’t have the record he did I would genuinely say this was just bad luck and nothing else, but this is bad luck tinged with a massive dose of failure to plan/have a contingency for a very very likely event of him breaking down at some point.

This debacle is another notch on the Scott sellars failure chart.

 

[Rabid Wolf]

bah... I knew we shoulda signed 27 strikers

I knew it, you're Barry Fry.

 

[wwbug]

Brighton scored 5 today with a striker leading the line who hasn't hit double digit league goals on his career despite playing for over a decade in the Prem.

You suggested us signing Maupay, who is the opposite of a proven goalscorer. He only scored twice more than Raul last year.

We have had trouble scoring goals since Jimmy was injured do you really believe that this Sasa was the end result of a fully professional worldwide search for a goal scorer . Then you ask a poster to make a few suggestions. It is not a case that there are no goal scorers out there, because other teams have them.
Look I have been going to almost every match for 30 years I am ****ing frustrated at what I watch in the opposition box.

 

[Erick1011]

Can you name me an oven ready Premier League striker we could have signed?

Neal Maupay

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Neal Maupay

People aren't actually serious with this? Brighton bombed him to start Danny Welbeck. In what world is he proven? He had the same goals+assist numbers to Raul last year in a much better attacking team.

 

[WickedWolfie]

You can either have depth or you can have quality starters when you aren't in the big 6. You can't have both.

FFP, enough said....

 

[WickedWolfie]

I knew it, you're Barry Fry.

... or whoever does player buying for Forest....

 

[Lisas Husband]

There's not much wrong with the squad depth, we've just been very unlucky in the CF department. Two up front is probably the norm.

 

[Lisas Husband]

... or whoever does player buying for Forest....

They've got a Bookers card and they're going to use it.

 

[Eastern Wolf]

Read that Pep Guardiola only wanted a squad of 18 this season. Just saying

 

[Minimalist]

I tell you what ,you name a team without a fit natural central striker .Most have two ,many have more . We have been in this top league for five years. We relied on a teenager last year
It is disgraceful

Chelsea are playing with sterling as the central striker. I wouldn’t call him a natural for that position.
If Haaland gets injured city will be playing someone like Foden there.

Quality players but not natural strikers in the traditional sense.

They are genuinely few and far between now days, which I believe is why we have done what we have with silva, to try and develop our own.

 

[DJLWolf]

Said all summer we should have gone in for Brereton Diaz.Ticks so many of the boxes for us.1 year on his deal left so probably could have got him for 20/25 million or so.Unproven in this division so you aren't looking at the daft price you would have to pay for a Toney type player.6 foot 1 so a good focal point up top to bring others into play.Only 23 so brilliant sell on potential.I think he was even born in the Midlands (not that that really matters).

Missed opportunity.

 

[Direwolf]

I think we would have been wise to have had another option up front. Either a loan or a goal scoring championship player. Easy to say now but to be fair their were concerns in the fanbase over Sasa's potential for an injury and Raul's overall level of performance.

 

[jrpb-3]

Or playing devil's advocate, we have Jiminez and Hwang who routinely , or can play central and upront. Guedes, Podence, Neto and Adama have on occasion as well. If the magic of the Internet is to be believed we are already looking for a Sasa cover. Now you can argue if we should have signed him or not
At centre back we are playing one less in this position this season, and Kilman and Collins look very decent. Toti looks to gave potential, Mosquera, who knows. Rumours also suggest we are looking for out of contract cover.
Centre midfield has finally been addressed and the though of Nunes and Traore is exciting.

Life is not always perfect, but bar spending even more money and not being able to keep fringe players happy, I am not sure theclub could have done/ be doing a whole lot more.

this really. In effect we did have 3 (counting Hwang who can play there) 2 now have injuries.

Maybe the more important questionable decision now was spending £35M on Silva who wasn't ready first season (wouldn't have been expected to play much but for Rauls long term injury) didn't score second season and is now out on loan, meaning that after strengthening elsewhere with players cosing in the £20-£30M range we then only had £15M to spend on another striker which in these days isn't enough to get a decent player, so we ended up taking a bit of a gamble with one who was cheaper mainy I would think down to injury record, and it's not paid off.

We needed someone and for the money we had he was probably a decent option, at the moment the worse decision was first signing Silva and now having signed him sent him out on loan in his third season, money that with hindsight would have been better spent elsewhere

 

[Sketchead]

Our squad depth looks alright now the window has closed tbh.

Could do with a better centre half as the drop between the first two and the backups is alarming, but overall, we look in decent shape I think.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Said all summer we should have gone in for Brereton Diaz.Ticks so many of the boxes for us.1 year on his deal left so probably could have got him for 20/25 million or so.Unproven in this division so you aren't looking at the daft price you would have to pay for a Toney type player.6 foot 1 so a good focal point up top to bring others into play.Only 23 so brilliant sell on potential.I think he was even born in the Midlands (not that that really matters).

Missed opportunity.

He plays off the left not down the middle, Hirst is their central striker

 

[wwbug]

Chelsea are playing with sterling as the central striker. I wouldn’t call him a natural for that position.
If Haaland gets injured city will be playing someone like Foden there.

Quality players but not natural strikers in the traditional sense.

They are genuinely few and far between now days, which I believe is why we have done what we have with silva, to try and develop our own.

But WE dont score goals. I have lived off Richard and Dougan , Kindon and Bull, Keane and Gray, Jimmy and Jota .
I go to matches and dont see goals or even many shots on target .
Our whole midfield and Neto , Podence, Traore have not been the answer.

 

[JohnB]

I hate to say this given that one of our players has suffered a serious, potentially long term injury.

But...

The loss of Sasa shows the risks inherrant with having a lack of first team ready cover in key positions.

We can all see that we were / are one serious injury at CB or ST away from major problems.

- It was the same with CM for a long time but we just about got away with it.

I say this through gritted teeth - we've been playing with fire here and now have gotten burned.

I honestly can't fathom why we choose to take risks Like this where the potential impact is so high. We have about six first team level wide forward players but 2 CB's and 2 Strikers.

Again I don't enjoy typing this and I honestly dont know why we had to learn this the hard way but I hope the silver lining of losing Sasa is that we finally take our medecine and stop leaving ourselves short of cover in key positions.

I completely agree that we are light and have been in the past as well. We’ve been lucky but remain with huge risks if WB, CM and CB is injured (and not great in GK).

However it has worked for us and if we had spread the money to buy more players the harmony could have been upset and we’d have to have spread money thinner (eg 2 £20m players for 1 £40m player or 2 £10m players for 1 £20m player). This could well have given us depth but a weaker first 11.

We’ve made our bed and now need to lie in it. In the squad and reserves we need solutions for the next 13 games.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

To people saying we are light, can I ask whether you have looked at other teams squads? Is there a reason you want us to follow Forest model rather than the rest of the league essentially.

Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea have less senior attacking players than us.

City have 19 senior pros, we have 21.

Good teams understand that quality starters is more important than loads of mediocre ones who don't make the match day squad.

I can see the argument for one in like Denayer as he coves 2 positions (don't really buy him as a DM) along with Costa given the injuries - and that would put us in a comparatively deep position with virtually every team in the league more or less.

Just for some reference and context:

If Haaland had done his ACL (his injury history isn't too pretty btw)and Alvarez had a knock they'd be back to using a wide player up top. You know, a bit like us.

 

[Taffywolf]

We don't learn our lessons, we let MGW out last season which left us short of midfielders, there's no way fabio should of gone out until we had a replacement through the door. We've lost Saiss, dendonker, Boly and Coady and replaced those 4 with just Collins, yes Collins looks a great signing but the squad is weaker than it was last season in numbers..