Great post.
I see us with a defensive formation which can be swiftly switched to a more offensive formation when required.

Defensive:
Guaita
W-B, Tomkins, Sakho, PvA
Milivojevic, Kouyate
Townsend, Meyer, Zaha
Benteke

Offensive:
Guaita
W-B, Tomkins, Sakho, PvA
Milivojevic
Townsend, Meyer, McArthur
Zaha
Benteke

Erm... quite simply injuries.

interesting - I was sceptical about our depth but isn't that back up team above quite a bit better than the first Premier League team we put out in our current run in the top flight - as posted elsewhere recently it was:

2013/14 Premiership v Tottenham H L 0-1
Julian Speroni
Joel Ward
Daniel Gabbidon
Dean Moxey
Damien Delaney
Kagisho Dikgacoi
Owen Garvan
Mile Jedinak
Stephen Dobbie
Dwight Gayle
Aaron Wilbraham

I agree about flexibility, and I agree our back ups would beat the team that played for us when we came up. I was really concerned going into the window as so many players appeared to be ending their contracts, and I also thought Roy might retire. But he didn't, we kept Wilf, and we appeared to use common sense in the transfer market.

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

There is so much talk these days of ‘squad depth’, but nobody talks about ‘squad hierarchy’, which is as important, if not more so.

The idea that we could have two distinct XIs at the club, both capable of winning any given Premier League game, is not only unlikely, but ultimately counter-productive. If you are a good enough player to do that then you will want to be first choice, and if you can’t be then you’ll become demoralised, dis-incentivised and grumpy. That will then spread to others in the squad, and where there was unity of purpose there will instead be divisions.

Back when Mourinho first rocked up at Chelsea, and was the brightest manager around, he immediately made it clear that for the reasons listed above he didn’t ever want more than 24 players to work with in his squad. Guardiola moved out several established big names as soon as he moved in to Man City, as he knew he didn’t want high-calibre experienced winners at the club if they weren’t going to be first choice picks. Ferguson used to make sure his squads were, as far as possible, split into three equal age bands. Eight very good youngsters who are hungry and pushing to play but won’t expect to be first choice yet, eight in their prime who you rely on the most, and eight elder heads who can do a job when needed and pass on their experience to the rest.

When I look at our squad, it’s the blend that interests me, not whether we have uniform quality and experience across the 25.

I see from Roy's press conference that Williams and Wickham are both injured again from training. I guess we can only see them as possibly available rather than ever as alternative options?

Edited by Direwolf (10 Aug 2018 5.38pm)