The Team for Next Season

Morning peeps here is a thought for the day. With less than three weeks to the real business starts, what shape are we in to start the season?

Up front there have been no changes but as the end of the season showed Fletcher is a capable goal scorer at this level and together with a fit Doyle and a fit SEB (well half fit SEB!) we should have a reasonable amount of fire power.

Midfield the signing of O'Hara gives us more steel in midfield. I hope, with O'Hara available, MM will have confidence to play Miljas and leave Henry on the bench. We will then have pace outside and some creativity in the middle. So we should have a competitive midfield which can score goals.

At the back we have lost to young defenders and brought in one. Despite Cradock’s extension I hope he will not play a major part this season. Johnson is a good buy and will strengthen the centre back pairing. So Foley and Zubar covering the right plus two from Berra, Steerman and Johnson 3/4 of the defence is looking sound. This brings me neatly to the left back position!

This was a problem last season and I have a nagging feeling MM is content to stick with George and Ward. I think this a big mistake as George is slow, gets caught out of position and has poor distribution. Ward probably cannot remember what his position is he has had so many and although he is quicker than George, he is also inexperienced, if we were serious about playing at left back he should go out on loan to a championship club and play a whole season in that position.

So IMO we have potential to score more goals this season probably mid 50s but with the left back still a weakness we will also concede goals and unless it is fixed we will spend the season in a relegation battle.