Happy with the squad?

I'm fairly happy.

I'm also concerned by the volume of similar centre kids we have. I'd be happier if Gallagher and Wellens were removed from the list and replaced with 1 solid holding midfielder (if James is not to be this man).

I think a lot will depend on our midfield this year. If our creative players in Marshall, Knockaert, DD, Dyer and King will be key. If we can get those guys firing, we should be good. If not, I'm a little worried our forward line will become isolated again.

I'm happy defensively and in attack - we look to have enough in both departments.

Who is Blythe? No Panayiotou?

I try to not look at these things optimistically or pessimistically, but pragmatically. On that basis I ask myself the question: do we have a squad that is going to get automatic promotion? Do we have a squad that will get us into the play offs?
I’d have to answer the first question with “unlikely” and the second with “possibly”. I’ll explain my logic.
The squad we had last year got us to mid table. In my opinion it was not good enough to get us much higher although, with a head wind and not changing manager mid season, we might have squeaked the play offs. The main deficiencies for me were a midfield who couldn’t contain a game defensively and couldn’t open up a game creatively. We had an ok-ish defence who were left exposed by the poor midfield in front of them and decent forward players.
This season the forward line looks at least as strong as last season. In terms of quality we’re probably similar in defence, although with the St Ledger injury we look light on numbers. In midfield we have added a couple of promising youngsters.
So in conclusion I would say it wouldn’t appear that we’ve done enough to suddenly become promotion favourites. Unless James and Knockaert are far better than I even dare hope then I suspect we might see the same frailties in midfield that have been present for a few seasons and that have not been cured by a succession of managers.
So with the squad as it stands my heart says we can get promoted, but my head says that we’re going to have our work cut out just to make the play offs.

I'd love to be proved wholly wrong, but personally I have doubts that this squad will prove good enough to get us up this season.

At the back I have full confidence in Schmeichel, Konchesky and (when fit) St Ledger, and I hope that De Laet is as good as (some) say. The rest of the defence squad looks very so-so to me. In midfield only Marshall and perhaps Drinkwater have proved they can do the business consistently: the rest are either still of unknown worth, or well-proven hit-and-missers like King and Danns. We are stronger up front with Nugent and (let’s hope) Beckford, and like others on here I have an idea Vardy may prove a winner. The rest are, again, either unproved, or in Waghorne’s case, long established as only so-so.

I hope that Pearson can make this work. Not obvious how, but he’s the man now.

I know we seem to be over run in the middle of the park but as so many have already pointed out, add to that list a real bar steward in midfield, the sort of player that becomes a little bit of a liability around the end of October because his bookings are adding up fast, and i'll be happier.

I am happy though, seems balanced both in terms of positions and youth/experience. Will be interesting to see the starting 11 come 18th (thinks it fairly predictable to be honest, but we never know) and seeing any changes in formation and tactics

Always believed we need a wing back as another attacking option (like naughton). Dont know if de laet is this type of player.

I can't help but feel that Danns is goin to be deployed as our "holding" midfielder.

He's not a holding player as such, more a busy player and could work in a 4-4-2 where the other centre mid can cover when he pushes on. Here's my concern ad I feel our other midfielders are too lightweight to do that.

Oh well, I personally think we have a squad capable of challenging but I'm neither supremely confident not concerned.

Mid table it is then

I think what we all felt was needed in terms of numbers/areas to add to were:

A left winger - Knockaert: signed.

Another experienced creative midfielder - Confirmation that we put a bid in for Koren

1 or 2 new CBs - Whitbread: signed. Gerrard: probably will sign.

A holding midfielder to have in the squad - James: signed.

Possibly a new striker - Vardy: signed. Futacs: signed.

Possibly a new RB - De Laet: signed.

So what we can say, is that Pearson identified the same areas to improve as most fans and has looked to address this over the summer.

What we don't know on the whole, is how they will work out because we have yet to see a lot of them play. So whilst it would be difficult to be over confident due to lack of supporting evidence, it would also be quite difficult to be so pessimistic as to state we are unlikely to do well, IMO.

I think the majority of us are happy with the defence and I think we have a dynamic frontline with regard to types of players - obviously consistent quality is something we won't be able to judge until the season has been going a while.

The main issue is midfield. I think most agree we have the talent, but it's whether they can perform as a unit this season.

If we play 4-4-2, I can't see how we can incorporate a holding midfielder and I think Danns was showing towards the end of last season that he could progress in to a competent box-to-box (much in the way King did under Pearson in his last spell here). So I could see these two battling for a spot with Drinkwater operating the 'Wellens' role (or alternatively, for a more sturdier formation in some games - winger sacrified Drinkwater pushed outside and James brought in).

Not sure I'd agree all the CM are similar: James (holding/defensive), Drinkwater (sitting/creative), Wellens (sitting/creative), King (box-to-box/attacking), Danns (box-to-box/attacking) - I actually think we have a nice balance there.

Not sure I'd agree all the CM are similar: James (holding/defensive), Drinkwater (sitting/creative), Wellens (sitting/creative), King (box-to-box/attacking), Danns (box-to-box/attacking) - I actually think we have a nice balance there.
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I would agree that we have a decent balance in midfield, but I’m not sure this is the issue. If we are to be challenging for automatic promotion you might expect us to have one of the best 2 midfields in this division. If it’s the play-offs then we might have one of the top 6 etc.

Some could make an argument for us having one of the best forward lines in this division, but I’m not sure we could make this claim for our midfield. The evidence being that we were very ordinary in this area of the team last year and have added Knockaert and James – two youngsters. Admittedly I’ve not seen much of the two new players, but they’d have to be pretty good to suddenly turn our midfield in to one of the required quality.

The only other hope is that we get more consistent performances out of players like Drinkwater, Danns and King who have each shown the required quality in individual games, but not over a run of games. Simply on the best available evidence and my limited knowledge of the new players I’d have to say that we have a pretty middle of the pack midfield but, as many are young and improving, with the potential to be top 6 – but we shall see.

Indeed we would need to have a consistently performing midfield, which we already know wasn't the case last season.

So if we are going to project how they will do this year based on last, one wouldn't be confident.

But I think there are far too many factors to take in to account to make it this simple and a host of them are ones which we won't be able to evaluate until the season starts.

The only thing we can do is look at our midfielders on paper and perhaps reflect on their potential/quality in comparison to other squads (who we are going to know less about anyway).

Senior and/or experienced: King, Danns, Wellens

Young with potential: Drinkwater, James, Marshall (if used centrally).

Yes, I would probably say we do have one of the better central midfields in the league on paper, but we could have said the same last year.

The one difference is that we seem to have invested more in young talent this time around.

I think an imperative part of our midfield will be if Danns and Drinkwater can build a relationship similar to that of King and Wellens in 09/10.