Squad status for Shady

Here’s where we are today:
GK: Sels, Victor, Benda
CD: Morato, Milenkovic, Murillo, Diomande (+Cunha, Abbott, Bindon who are under 21s and don't count towards the 25 man squad)
WB: Williams, Netz, Aina, Savona
MID: Sangare, Dominguez, Yates, Schlager, McAtee
AM: CHO, Gibbs-White, Ndoye, Hutchinson
FOR: Wood, Jesus, Kalimuendo

That's a total of 23 players registered to the squad before we sign Delap + a wing back and before the possible departures of Morato, Bindon and Abbott.

Glasner has talked about wanting 20 to 22 outfield players - we currently have 23 (if you count the under 21s, which I think he would), so 3 out, 2 in gets him his 22. Not convinced that our academy has the players he'll need to bulk out that squad depth.

Senior players out on loan: Cuibiana, Moreira, Sa, Bakwa

Home grown (need 8 of these to have a squad of 25, so it's not a concern): Benda, Wiliams, Aina, Yates, CHO, MGW, Hutchinson, Mcatee, Wood

Yates is our only club trained senior player but that doesn’t really matter as we’re not in Europe and not likely to be any time soon. Abbott obviously will qualify as club trained but he'll still qualify as an under 21 next season, so wouldn't make any difference to a European squad size in 27/28.

If Abbott, Bindon and Morato do all leave, and we don't sign another central defender, it implies he's very confident about Yates playing there or we look very thin.

Good work Simon. Only feedback would be that you could use markdown to format the post a little better. But overall well done.

Let me assure you that I can't.

Obviously, Delap is home-grown - that's 10 of them now, so we'll be fine (on that count) when Morgan and Neco leave on Monday.

This post already contains overuse of the word 'bruv'.

(As does this one, aargh!).

Here’s where we are at the end of the window:
GK: Sels, Victor, Benda
CD: Milenkovic, Murillo, Diomande, Cunha
WB: Williams, Netz, Aina, Savona, Munoz
MID: Sangare, Dominguez, Yates, Schlager, McAtee
AM: CHO, Gibbs-White, Ndoye
FOR: Wood, Jesus, Kalimuendo, Delap

Cunha is the only under 21 in that group, so, I think for the first time since promotion, we haven't used our 25 squad places (that's 23).

Home-grown: Benda, Williams, Aina, Yates, McAtee, CHO, MGW, Wood, Delap is 9 but with a 23 man squad, we'd only need 6 anyway.
Out on loan: Cuibiana, Moreira, Sa, Bakwa, Hutchinson, Abbott, Bindon, Morato

Glasner got his 20-22 outfield players. Likely he's expecting players to be more flexible than the boxes I've put them in - Jesus, Kalimuendo and McAtee can all play as one of the 10s, Yates, Aina, Savona (no idea when we are expecting him back), maybe Williams can play in the three at the back.

One thing I thought was interesting was to compare our likely strongest team to the Palace team that won the cup final, so

Sels; Diomande, Milenkovic, Murillo; Munoz, Sangare, McAtee, Williams; Gibbs-White, Ndoye; Delap
v
Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell; Sarr, Eze; Mateta.

I think clear wins for Henderson over Sels, Mateta over Delap, Wharton over McAtee, Sarr over Ndoye and Munoz then over now. In our favour Sangare over Kamada and Williams over Mitchell. The back 3s and Eze/MGW are arguable. But i guess the hope is that Glasner improved their players and will do likewise for ours.

The last paragraph is sobering.

Yeah, wasn't the conclusion I was expecting to draw. Not sure you can even make an argument for us having much greater depth. Their bench was - Turner, Ward, Clyne, Chilwell, Lerma, Hughes, Devenney, Nketiah and Esse (no idea if they had any notable injuries). Think we are stronger in centre of midfield and up front, they were better at wingback, centreback is probably about the same.

Time will obviously tell but I'm not convinced Mateta would have been a better option than Delap.

But you were going to pick either Mateta 18 months ago or Delap today (off the back of his crap season at Chelsea) for a one-off game, you'd take Mateta. In a month's time, that may well have changed.

I may be wrong, but wasn't Savona bought as a CB and just had to fill in at RB when we had injuries? He's certainly not a wing back anyway.

See, I'm not sure I would. Clearly, Glasner knows him better than any of us, but he's never struck me as an elite-level centre forward.

Then there's the age and the reported bad attitude (which seemed to be a concern for one or two on here in relation to Delap).

He had a really good moustache for a while though, so that needs to be factored in.

Savona is a centre back. Hopefully a rarely used one. He will never willingly be played as a wing back.

I don't get why people are down on Williams as a wing back. His engine combined with ability at both ends of the pitch makes him ideal.

Delap is an upgrade on Wood, have faith.

The concern has to be central midfield. Without Sangare on top form, we look weak and may require one of the 10s to do a lot of work as an 8.