strongest team?

[General]

I have to admit when I look to the future of the club on days like today my mouth starts watering with excitement.

Duff and Berba seem to be thriving together, we have a wealth of talent at the club and the youngsters constantly seem to be coming through and making us genuinely think they're in contention - I had heard a bit about Alex Smith but whilst he had very little time to impress he obviously had the confidence to run at players which is promising.

There's a really nice blend of old class and youthful promise too. Great to have a manager who balances the two.

Plus - I have no idea who I'd pick as my top team now - Ruiz is class, Petric, Rodallega, Berbatov, Duff, Kacaniklic, Frei, Davies, Dejegah and Richardson all for how many places?

[General]

and, all this having seemingly navigated the whole Dembele and Dempsey departures.

[RidgeRider]

thing is we have depth sitting on the bench in senior players as well....Kelly, Baird (well until today) and the others on the training table: Senderos, Ruiz, Diarra, Davies, Dejageh, Petric, Frei, Richardson and the fella from Greece waiting to get match fit.

We have NEVER (pardon me if I am out of line here but I wasn't around before 2007) had this much talent in the side. This is a top 7 squad if we can get guys back and get them playing together.

Mix in Briggs, Trotta, Smith, Kasami and wow...pretty dang amazing squad.

[MrFFC]

I been saying this for ages but only last week people saying we got no depth and will come 13th at best most of you change your mind weekly

[Classic94]

Funny how opinions change after one game but yes, we have quality throughout the squad even with the Dems exclusion.

We were without 6 first-team players in Ruiz, Diarra, Petric, Richardson, Frei and Dejagah, 7 if you consider Karagounis was not match-fit and yet we won, and won convincingly against a team who were unbeaten up until yesterday's game. Before and during Hodgson's tenure, I suspect we would have struggled even to make up the numbers.

As for our strongest line-up, I think it's difficult to say. Everyone has a different view but this is mine:

------------------Berbatov---------------

--------Dejagah----Ruiz------Duff----------

-------------Diarra------Richardson--------

Riise-----Hangeland-----Hughes-----Reither

------------------Schwarzer----------------

Subs:
Stockdale
Baird
Sidwell
Kacaniklic
Frei
Rodallega
Petric

I can't find a place for Kelly, Senderos, Karagounis or Davies in the squad and a few youngsters have also been left out - Briggs, Smith, Mesca, Kasami and Trotta.

As for the team itself, Petric's exclusion from the starting XI is probably unjustified but Jol seems adamant on a 4-2-3-1 formation in which case i've picked the best player for each position - Berbatov is our best player. Also, Richardson is obviously highly-rated by Jol and judging by recent comments, he considers him a more central player. With time, I think he'll acclimatize to this role.

Finally, Dejagah gets in ahead of Frei + Kaca. He was the stand-out player last season in an admittedly poor Wolfsburg side, and one of the most effective wingers in the Bundesliga. He'll provide the team with some much needed pace and has an excellent delivery, something we've been missing despite Duff's excellent form.

[Senior Supporter]

I honestly don't see how you can put Richardson in ahead of Baird after yesterday's performance. At the moment IMHO the position is Baird's to lose. It has been claimed that he is too slow when not given time on the ball. Funnily enough that is exactly what we have been saying about Danny for the last couple of seasons. 

[MrFFC]

I like Baird great player but for me Sidwell and Diarra the strongest in there, Dejagah will have his work cut out getting in over Duff. My team would be

Schwarzer

Riether Hughes Hangeland Riise

Sidwell Diarra

Duff Ruiz Kaca

Berbatov

Subs - Stockdale , Baird , Karagounis , Frei , Dejagah , Rodallega , Petric

[HatterDon]

and, all this having seemingly navigated the whole Dembele and Dempsey departures.

remember Friday when we were telling ourselves that 3 matches weren't enough to determine how we'd be without the Dems? Well, 4 matches isn't enough either.

[Jack Fulham]

I don't think we can name it yet. Haven't seen enough of Rodallega, Petric or Berba yet. Same applies to Richardson, Karagounis and Degajah.

[General]

It for me is just the calibre and the real palpable air that we could win stuff with this team.

Jol seems to be tactically quite astute, plays attacking football but also expects his players to not fit one particular formation. There's a healthy group of young talented players making their breakthroughs to the first team in Kaka, Frei, Mesca, Smith, Trotta and Kasami and they seem to be stepping up to the plate, this is being improved on by the fact that there are a number of other top youngsters on the verge of looking like being squad members in Burn, Woodrow and exciting talents like Hyndman, Dembele etc, whilst in the main squad you just have player of supremely gifted / talented ability.

a lot of our squad seemingly have won titles now (minus a few) - Dejegah, Diarra, Karagounis, Riether, Hangeland, Berbatov, Duff, Riise and one or two others, whilst others have played in finals and cup winning teams.

[Walsh]

Personally I think there are a few positions which we don't have a certain starter in. Berbatov will most likely be lone striker for us which is a shame for Petric, it would be nice to see us adapt Petric to another role but I can't see it happening.

This is the line-up I would go for, for the Wigan game:

------------------Berbatov---------------

--------Kacaniklic----Ruiz------Duff----------

-------------Diarra------Baird----------------

Riise-----Hangeland-----Hughes-----Reither

------------------Schwarzer----------------


I don't think we should start Dejegah as we can't just throw him in at the deep end, I would like to see him make an appearance around the 70th minute mark for Kacaniklic and maybe take Duff off for Rodallega (being a former Wigan player and all) I would be chuffed to see Bryan Ruiz make a 90 minute appearance but this is unlikely as he will be coming off an injury and Jol won't want to risk it.

The line-up which I personally think will be our future line-up is:

------------------Berbatov---------------

--------?????-----Ruiz------????----------

-------------Diarra------???????--------

Riise-----Hangeland-----?????????-----Reither

------------------Schwarzer----------------


The question marks are positions which are open for a mixture of players or possibly a new signing in January, attacking wise I think most position are open but I would like to see us keep Bryan Ruiz in there as I think he will become a key player for us within the next 12 months.

Midfield is a worrying position for us as we only have one top quality player which is Diarra, I wouldn't say that Sidwell and Richardson are good enough, Baird seemed really good against West Brom but you can't really go off one performance. I am glad that Jol has time to look for a player who would suit our type of Football, if we get a top quality Midfield I think we could be pushing for a Europa League spot next season, yes it's hard to say now but if we can keep all these players and get rid of some players we don't use/need then we will have a really strong squad. We also need to fix this away record as we can't always depend on our home form.

All I can say is that we have some great youngsters (Kasami, Trotta, Frei, Kacaniklic ect...) and if we don't offload the younger players I personally think Martin Jol could do what he did with Tottenham and make us a top 6 club, ambitious I know but I think we have the quality to be up there.