I didn't see this before I replied to Fred in the Palace Verdict and so...
GK; Rui Patricio, John Ruddy
FB/WB; Ki-Jana Hoever, Nelson Semedo, Marcal, Rayan Ait Nouri, Jonny
CB; Willy Boly, Conor Coady, Max Kilman, Romain Saiss (Donk & Marcal can play here)
Mid; Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Leander Dendoncker (Saiss can play here)
CAM; Morgan Gibbs-White, Vitinha
Wide F; Daniel Podence, Adama Traore, Pedro Neto,
Fwd; Willian Jose, Fabio Silva, Raul Jimenez(inj)
Players who have made the bench/started
Def; Hugo Bueno, Christian Marques, Nigel Lonwijk, Luke Matheson, Lewis Richards
Mid; Luke Cundle, Owen Otasowie*, Taylor Perry, Meritan Shabani,
Fwd; Theo Corbeanu
* A case can be made for Owen to be considered as one of the first XI midfielders now and so we have a “First Team Squad” of 23 plus 9 others that can be considered as live outsiders for the first team so we are hardly at “bare bones” level.
What I will give you though is there must be a question mark over the ability of some of the players listed above. We don’t know if any of the kids are at the required level but we hope at least a few are. We also know that we have reached the stage where the club must seriously look at upgrading some of the first XI.
I’ll say that, for me, we need a keeper that can seriously challenge Rui. John Ruddy keeping a clean sheet against Chorley is no barometer and I’d like to see a young keeper brought in with the view to succeeding Patricio when he is ready ( by "young" mean someone who is in their 20's and has 1st team experience already)
We are pretty well stocked at full/wing back and Jonny can’t get passed fit quick enough! I would like to see a new, experienced (not 18) central defender brought in
Joao Moutinho and Leander Dendoncker are 2 midfielders who, I think, are the easiest to upgrade and we need to sort that position out pdq. We can’t rely on O.O fitting in and playing every game.
The attacking midfield and wide forwards area is pretty well stocked but I’d like to see an experienced central attacking midfielder brought in, one who can do the role that Donk is constantly put in of the “box to box link player”. Won’t be cheap but it needs to happen.
As for the forwards, we are looking pretty good when Raul gets back especially if we sign Willian and if Corbeanu can develop further.
So I think we need a Keeper, CB, CM and a Box to Box type player. We may also benefit from signing someone who cab do the duel CF/WF role