Have we recruited incorrectly again?

Team consistency is key for success.
We've based our recruitment on an ideological desire to use the 352 system. Shouldn't we have based our recruitment on an attempt to keep as many of the capable existing squad in the lineup as possible?

The teamsheet has been torn-up before, and it's bitten us in the arse.
Time and again, sides have been successful after promotion by giving their better players a go- and complimenting them with a few quality signings.
Burnley & Leicester are doing it now and they're putting in better performances than us.

This list can be argued over until the cows come home, but here's my rough estimation of the group who prior to now showed glimpses of PL capability:


Hoillet, M.Phillips, Simspon, Onouha, Faurlin, Traore/Yun, Barton, Kranjcar, Austin, Green


We needed to recruit players to plug the gaps in that list. Instead we're creating a whole host of new gaps by adopting a new formation- and buying specialist players to plug those instead (i.e. Isla, additional Midfielders). 352 immediately rules out, or re-positions the first four in the list. Factor in Harry's dislike of Faurlin & Yun, and Kranjcar leaving- and we're only retaining 3/4 starters from the XI last season.
352 is a covert means of saying "I want to tear up the teamsheet and buy a f**load more players".

Not only that, but it automatically lumbers us with an additional gelling issue- a "formation gelling". If new players take 6 games to gel, how long does a formation take...more?

[NB: I reckon we should stick with 352- we've come too far with it now. It can't be ditched at the first sign of trouble]

 

Bump

 

I personally think we've got a good group of players as it stands, good enough to keep us up. But the way they were arranged on Saturday was not to my liking. Dunne clearly cannot play on the left side of the 3. That should be Clint Hill. I'm not sure how comfortable Onuoha is there.

Hoilett was our shining star of the pre-season. As soon as the season starts, he's dropped. Out of all the players we have (bar Taarabt), he's the player who is most suited to the hole behind the strikers. Mutch should be fighting for a place in CM. Fer should have to fight for his place and Faurlin should have started, for consistency and respect.

Remy looked crap and not bothered. Charlie should have started with him.

 

I personally think we've got a good group of players as it stands, good enough to keep us up.

That's what we said last time we were in the prem.

Remy looked crap and not bothered

That's also what we were saying about a lot of our players last time we were in the prem...

 

Sorry awjm, I was not having a dig at you or your post, It just brings back bad memory's of our last outing in the top flight.

Oh well it's still early days yet.

 

Lets hope we can find the QPR gel a bit quicker this time...

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Charlie injured. Remy got very little service. Maybe he was told to stay up and not come back to collect the ball in our own half.

 

I really do think we've recruited better players this time. It's clear to see the signings have been different. Before, it was players who go by past merit. Now it's younger players who have got something to prove. And Rio is a good pro, which he has shown so far.

We've got two staff members who don't take crap: Harry and Glenn. I think we'll be ok but we've made a couple of the same mistakes in terms of choosing match line-ups.

 

For some reason the team in general is not fit enough. I saw this all over the pitch in the Hull match and by reading accounts of the game on Sunday it was apparent then too. Its obvious we had a poor pre season and some of the new players are not up to speed yet.

 

Remy is also 2 weeks behind everyone on fitness. The team is fine, I'm sure the formation will be fine when they've adjusted. Hoddle has only had 1 week before the Tottenham game to get them playing 3-5-2, hardly enough time to get it working. I just hope our player have more bottle and common sense than a lot of our fans.

 

Green
Simpson Onouha Caulker Yun
M.Phillips Barton Faurlin Hoillet
Austin Remy


I'm not saying that's a lineup we should select (*), but you get my drift. It's the sort of thing we should've been looking to build upon with recruitment imo.
Leicester's XI against Chelsea only contained one player who wasn't in the squad last season (Ulloa), and they looked a lot better than we did.


*faurlin/barton too similar- not enough legs in midfield. Yun untested, M.Phillips rusty etc.

Hope you're right TLR!

 

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Fair play. Nay saying is not really my style so I will button it. Again it's way too early so lets give it at least ten more games to see where the water lies. If we are still winless after ten games then that will be the time to start sounding the alarm bells.

 

Biggest issue for me is that any new signings should have to 'beat' out the players already in the team. Just because you've been signed for x million and been given a hefty contract should not mean that you automatically start. You should have to win your place on the pitch on the training ground. Mutch and Fer should not be starting in midfield for me until they've proven they are more committed and a better fit for the team than Faurlin, Barton, Henry and any others. Whilst they are both certainly better players than Henry, I think its safe to say he probably would have turned in a better performance than either of them did on sunday. The same can be said of the defence where neither Rio or Caulker has shown to me so far that they should be starting ahead of Hill or Onuoha, despite being more talented players. At relegation threatened teams, its the commitment from players that is more important than their talent and you get much better commitment from the players who got you into the prem in the first place. It's the same problem that got us in the **** last time, where Hughes signed a whole team of "better" players and then picked them straight away which had the added bonus of pissing off the players already at the club who saw themselves removed from the team so that some arsehole with a Champions League medal can play. We've recruited much better this time but we shouldn't be playing them until they deserve to.

 

I think the current squad is better equipped to cope at this level than last time round, and I'm sure there will be a few more additions to strengthen further. We will be OK

 

Patience is a virtue, we should show some...

Still almost a week to go in the window, there will be more arrivals and a few departures, it's too early to write off the season just yet. We'll have a much clearer picture this time next week so let's just calm down a bit...

 

Perhaps, but don't you dare insinuate that the pre season programme, including choice of opposition for games and conditioning and tactical training for players is in any way the responsibility of the manager. Or team selection.