January window

[The Rational Fan]

Yes there are over three months to go, and a lot of water will flow under the bridge before then. Anything can happen before then. But it is clear to me that we will need reinforcements by January, especially if injuries take their toll.
We have a comparatively small squad for a club with aspirations to get back in the Premier League, it lacks depth in certain positions, and we may not be quite so fortunate as we were with injuries compared to the last time we achieved promotion.

Spot on, we are not the Manchester City of the Championship and if we can afford it in terms of FFP that's the kind of depth we should aim for. A championship is won by winning 27 games and that means beating Sunderland and Barnsley every time you play them, even when many of our reserves have to play.

[MJG]

Yes there are over three months to go, and a lot of water will flow under the bridge before then. Anything can happen before then. But it is clear to me that we will need reinforcements by January, especially if injuries take their toll.
We have a comparatively small squad for a club with aspirations to get back in the Premier League, it lacks depth in certain positions, and we may not be quite so fortunate as we were with injuries compared to the last time we achieved promotion.

Spot on, we are not the Manchester City of the Championship and if we can afford it in terms of FFP that's the kind of depth we should aim for. A championship is won by winning 27 games and that means beating Sunderland and Barnsley every time you play them, even when many of our reserves have to play.

to back that 27 game claim up here are last six seasons.

[We Are Premier League]

Asmir Begovic and Robbie Brady

[hovewhite]

Woolly who knows what will happen,think myself the plan is to not push till a rebuilt riverside is ready to charge you lot loads of money then will coincide with PL.

[Sting of the North]

Yes there are over three months to go, and a lot of water will flow under the bridge before then. Anything can happen before then. But it is clear to me that we will need reinforcements by January, especially if injuries take their toll.
We have a comparatively small squad for a club with aspirations to get back in the Premier League, it lacks depth in certain positions, and we may not be quite so fortunate as we were with injuries compared to the last time we achieved promotion.

Spot on, we are not the Manchester City of the Championship and if we can afford it in terms of FFP that's the kind of depth we should aim for. A championship is won by winning 27 games and that means beating Sunderland and Barnsley every time you play them, even when many of our reserves have to play.

I have tried to question this before, without getting a response, but I'll give it another try: Man City used the least amount of players of all teams last year in the PL. Could it therefore maybe be worth considering that it is not necessarily that important to have a huge squad (unless you are very unlucky with injuries)? Man City won the league because they had great players in every position, and a few great subs, as well as having a team in which most players were well integrated and knew each other. Sounds a little like FFC if you break it down to Championship level, except we are still working on getting the players to play as a unit.

With that said, would you care to explain what alleged depth of Man City that you are referring to?

[The Rational Fan]

Yes there are over three months to go, and a lot of water will flow under the bridge before then. Anything can happen before then. But it is clear to me that we will need reinforcements by January, especially if injuries take their toll.
We have a comparatively small squad for a club with aspirations to get back in the Premier League, it lacks depth in certain positions, and we may not be quite so fortunate as we were with injuries compared to the last time we achieved promotion.

Spot on, we are not the Manchester City of the Championship and if we can afford it in terms of FFP that's the kind of depth we should aim for. A championship is won by winning 27 games and that means beating Sunderland and Barnsley every time you play them, even when many of our reserves have to play.

I have tried to question this before, without getting a response, but I'll give it another try: Man City used the least amount of players of all teams last year in the PL. Could it therefore maybe be worth considering that it is not necessarily that important to have a huge squad (unless you are very unlucky with injuries)? Man City won the league because they had great players in every position, and a few great subs, as well as having a team in which most players were well integrated and knew each other. Sounds a little like FFC if you break it down to Championship level, except we are still working on getting the players to play as a unit.

With that said, would you care to explain what alleged depth of Man City that you are referring to?

Last season, Man City used 20 outfield players, with the two playing the least being England International "Fabien Delph" and Teenager "Phil Foden", for me a strong squad of 20 outfielder and 3 goalkeepers is squad depth. The fact that ManCity didn't play more players is not because Pep had a small squad, but because he knew who his best 20 outfield players were. I would argue that if you have small squad it is more likely that you swap and change trialling various unknowns in the squad (e.g. Fabri, TFM, Nordveidt, Cisse, Kebano, Ayite, Markovoic and Elliott).

Man City player depth from their 11th to 20th best outfield player is enormous. According to transfermarkt; our 13th, 14th and 15th most valuable players are Christie, KMac and Kebano, where as ManCity's 13th, 14th and 15th most valuable players are Gündogan, Walker and Mendy. Our 20th most valuable outfield player is Cisse and ManCity's 20th most valuable outfield player is Fernandinho.

Man City won the league, because they had a top matchday 18 every week even after "Kevin De Bruyne" was injured, with ManCities finishing XI (XI on the field at the end of the match) being better than anyone apart from Liverpool's starting XI. If Fulham want to be the ManCity of the Championship, Fulham need to have two proven top players in every position also; but unlike ManCity a lot of our players are unproven at championship level (e.g. MLM or Cisse) or if they are proven its a while since they have performed well (e.g. Christie or KMac).

If you look at the statistics of previous relegated teams first season in the championship, it is typically that half of the players perform well enough to get the team promoted, but most relegated find they fail to find a decent player in the squad in a few positions (mostly because they had two options in that positions who failed in the premier league that were expected to perform in the championship that didn't).

The other benefit to squad depth, is at least 6 to 10 of the victories will happen while our subs are on the field. In this league, a combined strong starting/finishing XI will get a lot more points than just a strong starting XI. And lastly, it is easier to buy lots of players than buy the best players.