As we battled arguably the worst injury crisis in Premier League history last season, it became very clear that our kryptonite was our lack of squad depth.
Bar a few positions, our starting 11 when all players were fit and available was up there with the big boys, however the talent others held in reserve set them apart from us as we had to plug our gaps with subpar replacements.
This summer, not only did we not add to those gaps in the starting 11, but we also added very little depth to our squad. In the early stages of this season, we are fortunately yet to see many issues on the injury front, however our performances so far have presented another problem that comes with a lack of depth – the lack of competition for positions that comes with it.
The big names in our starting 11, such as the likes of Isak, Bruno and Gordon, have nobody truly breathing down their neck to take their place in the team. No matter how poor their form gets, it’s unlikely they will be benched as Howe does not have anybody with enough quality to give them a run for their money, even if they are performing poorly.
This is most glaringly obvious upfront, with Howe clearly reluctant to give Osula many minutes at this stage and Wilson perpetually unavailable. As a result, Isak has no real competitor for his place in the squad, and I would argue that has contributed to his lacklustre start to the season.
His rivalry with Wilson during the 22/23 season, particularly in the latter stages, brought the absolute best out of both players. Rarely a game went by where neither scored, and a poor performance by either would see them swiftly replaced by their counterpart the following fixture. Both players were aware of the fragility of their position, as well as the quality of their competitor, and as a result we had 2 of the best performing strikers in the league.
With Wilson eternally on the treatment table, signing a backup striker who would not be an instant competitor was both naive and short sighted. Signing for the future is great, but not when current competition is needed as soon as possible.
The current exceptional form of Harvey Barnes would usually be a major threat to Gordon’s place in the squad, with left wing being the best position of both players. However, our lack of any real depth or competition on the right wing means that Gordon will be in the team regardless. Even though both of our right wingers in Murphy and Almiron are fit, they still pose virtually no threat or competition to an out of position Gordon.
This lack of competition across the park makes the attempted signing of Marc Guehi appear incredibly short sighted, as the 65 million we attempted to sign him with could have gone towards strengthening multiple positions whilst keeping our starters on their toes.
We can only hope our big names find some other motivations as we approach a run of increasingly difficult fixtures.
What a load of tosh, it’s not as simple as just buy a back up striker, you propose to any CF worth their salt they’ll be behind isak and Wilson (when fit) and I’m sure they’d jump at the opportunity… But it suits your narrative to forget we have good cover everywhere on the pitch barring CB due to TWO ACL injuries, you think we’ve struggled performance wise this season due to lack of signings? We’ve got the same team that finished 4th but better in depth. Give yer head a wobble we’re 3 points from 1st
Sean(Quote)
Key players can get injured at any given time, that’s something that has to be prepared for. As stated, if our full team was fit at any given time there’d be little to worry about, but injuries and spells of poor form are inevitable and we don’t have the resources to deal with those problems when they come IMO
Oden Hudson(Quote)
They can, so what’s the solution? Add depth to your squad, and we did, we now have two great options in every position when they’re all fit, 3 in some cases, cm for example. Our performances haven’t been poor because there’s nobody breathing down isaks neck, he’s barely had a sniff of the ball, Gordon was awful against Fulham and as you pointed out, Barnes arguably should be taking that lw on form.
Our issue is we lack the intensity we were known for, be that because of the new fitness expert or something else, but quality in depth is certainly much better now than it ever has been since Howe took over.
Sorry but these kinds of articles do nothing but add ammo to the closet mackems who only seem happy when there’s something to complain about.
Sean(Quote)
I stopped reading when the 4th word in the article was “arguably”.
“Arguably” is the tool used when someone feels they want to make a point but can’t quite back up what they have to say with “facts”, so they just stick in an “arguably” in the hope that nobody will question it.
You know, like saying Sunderland are arguably the best team in the region.
JFA127(Quote)
I think you nailed it. The intensity and urgency doesn’t seem to be there outside of Barnes. Although inconsistent I believe bringing Almiron back in the lineup may help as he always shows max effort and embodies the effort we need to compete. Maybe it’d light a fire on some of the others. I didn’t know we had a new fitness expert as this may have an affect as well.
Josh(Quote)