“Keeping the squad together”

[Milo]

Last time we were in the Premiership, our post mortem was that we tried to incorporate too many faces all at once.

Four games in, it looks like the following players are going to be first team starters that weren't here last year:

Areola
Tete/Aina
Robinson
Anguissa
Lookman

Plus you would think at least one new CB today.

That's 6 out of the 11 are effectively new faces. Anguissa debatably so.

We lamented the bulk signings last time out, and over the past year there were references to Sheff Utd and saying it is possible to keep the squad together and be successful at the higher level.

So I wondered if everyone still thinks we should limit the new faces in the first team? Have we been forced to change our policy? Will we make the same mistakes again?

[junior white]

That depend son if the faces that were here last season are good enough for the premier league. Looking at it so far i would say Ream, Odoi, Kebano, Knockers appear ti me to definitely not be Cav, AK, Hector, MLM Stef Jo, Onomah, BDR are borderline, some will be more useful as impact subs like AK, but they would all those need to sharpen up a lot and I mean a lot.

MLM and Ream played well yesterday for me best I have seen us at the back this season, but based on that you would have to say anyone who is better or deemed an upgrade should start and be given a chance to show they are better than those that clearly are not good enough.

Rodak has been unlucky really, Areola is a very decent keeper and the good news is we have 2 keepers this year that can push each other.

[Statto]

My opinion on this is unchanged since August. Nothing wrong with 6-8 new faces. The problem in 2018 was we signed 11 new faces, most of them with no experience of English football, and tried to throw 9 of them straight into a starting XI that kept only Mitrovic and Cairney from the previous season.

I've seen lots of people suggesting we should only sign 3-4 new players. Personally, I'd like, and expect, us to sign more, anywhere from 7 to 9 new faces (depending, among other things, on whether Reed and Anguissa are here next season). 

The difference IMO is that this season a maximum of 3-4 of those new faces should be going straight into the starting XI (others can be eased in later) and a maximum of 1-2 who've no experience of English football.

FWIW I also wouldn't class Anguissa as a new face given he's had a full season with the club, and Parker and most of our existing players, before this one.

[Whitestone]

Despite the messages coming out from the club it was very obvious that last seasons squad needed a major overhaul in the event of promotion. It was full of players that either failed last time we were in the Premier League and others like Cav and Knocky who were surplus to requirements at their old clubs. We finished fourth and had some shocking results along the way. Parker did well to get the team up. Last season Fulham signed players to supplement the existing squad to achieve promotion. That IMO was short sighted because now we're stuck with expensive signings like Cav, Knocky and Reid in addition to many others who simply aren't good enough for the level we are now at. The club should have recruited players with the ability to step up just as Wolves did.

[Bassey the warrior]

Keeping the squad together should never have been the goal. We just scraped through last season but we were not really the third best team. We didn't score enough goals and were too vulnerable to the counter attack. Rather than avoiding bringing too many players in, we just needed to bring in the right players. So far we have improved the squad, but we still haven't sufficiently strengthened the most needed areas.

I have no issues with any of the signings, they all look good, it's more those that haven't signed.