Brendan looks to reduce the squad

[zummerset]

This is good - BR is making decisions that will make or break our immediate future rather than spouting on that all in the garden is rosy. Perhaps the saved wages may mean some better signings in January too?

[Ian Royal]

You want two players for each position ideally. But we're light on wingers and a right back. Two players I think would really benefit from loans would be Kelly & Church

I'd definitely want to keep
Hamer & Federici
O'Dea, Ivar, Pearce & Mills
Cummings, Bertrand & Armstrong
Siggurdsson, Karacan, Gunnarsson & Matejovsky
McAnuff & Kebe
Hunt & Long

That's 17, but leaves us light on wingers, strikers, midfielders and a full back.
There is also no way we're going to send Howard out on loan, in fact I don't think we can because that would be his third team this season.

I think players like Kelly, Davies, Church & HRK would benefit from loans, but at the same time are the players who actually offer something different to the others that are available.

I'd probably keep Davies for his pace and ability to play wide right. Rasiak as he offers a different option upfront. So I'd keep Mooney as he could play a similar role to Rasiak.

That means try and get Tabb (sorry), Kelly, Church, HRK & Cisse out on loan. Although I'd actually prefer to keep either Cisse or Tabb to Howard. We definitely shouldn't have more than 6 central midfielders available. Even that seems a lot.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

I'd love to keep Davies here myself - I feel he offers a lot more than a lot of his colleagues even though he is still very raw. And it would be suicidal in getting rid of Long too in my opinion.

Remember that we can now name 7 substitutes on the bench so squads are likely to be bigger than years past anyway.

In the last squad there was no room for Long, Matejovsky, Cisse, Pearce, Davies, Kelly

He won't sell Davies but will probably loan him out. Think Cisse, Long and sadly quite possibly Matejovsky might be on their way out, loan first them gone in Jan.

This isn't the last squad though, AP. If anything the squad is now weaker, so those players you've mentioned are more likely to be needed.

Beforehand we had Doyle, Hunt, Harper, Rosenior, Lita, Doobs... the list goes on. Although I personally don't rate a couple of those players, Coppell clearly did.

We now play in a different formation, and seeing as Doyle has gone, I'd say Long is our only striker who can offer a bit of pace and has the ability to run at players. He has to stay in my opinion. I don't think he's a world-beater, far from it, but there is no way he can go at this stage in the season, absolutely no way.

Kelly is no big loss in my opinion. I'd much rather have no back-up there and keep Davies who is capable of filling in as well as offering more further up the park.

I agree with you though, that it would be sad if Matejovsky is one of those to lose out. He must've been champing at the bit when he found out Rodgers, who likes to play passing football with an attacking midfielder, was coming in as he would finally get his chance. Doesn't look like it's going to unfold like that though unfortunately for him (and to a certain degree, us).

[Dorset-Knob]

He recognises a need for stability, if he has too many player of similar quality there is no way he can get a stable team and play everyone and keep everyone happy.

Getting some of them out will be the best thing for them all.

Don't agree, what I'm trying to say is, if you deduct crap from crap you are still left with crap! We are not winning! BR's job is to choose whom to use from his squad, he is not obliged to use them because they exist!

It smacks of indecision, desperation or flat out guesswork, in the hope that something will work out. SSC used to get flack for not using his entire squad, perhaps BR has an embarassment of riches, (perhaps not) or SSC was a better judge?

It may be true that a smaller, tighter squad will oblige him to create a settled team, but I'd rather that came about by design, rather than because of fewer choices, they are after all now BR's players!

I hope you are right, but I'm not convinced!

[brendywendy]

it is by design

the players who have performed- siggurddson, karacan etc will stay
the ones who havent will go

surely that was the point

[ZacNaloen]

We haven't got "Crap".

What we have got is an with too many people who can play the same position to a similar level.

Some players over the course of the season so far have shuffled themselves towards the top end.

Some haven't.

but to keep them happy he needs to play them, but he can't play them because he needs to maintain stability.

It's a Catch-22.

Simple solution, Loan them out.

[Dorset-Knob]

it is by design

the players who have performed- siggurddson, karacan etc will stay
the ones who havent will go

surely that was the point

Happy to wait and see, (til xmas at least) but I remain unconvinced and hopeful!

[adamh4608]

roger,s can,t be that good because we have all seen that kebe is s*it for the last couple of season yet rogers still plays him and a 7/10 like tabb we look to get rid of. and not forgetting last seasons player of the season.

[brendywendy]

same as really DK


i just occasionally go overboard in my positivity as a reaction to the massive ammount of negativity and gloom on here

[Dorset-Knob]

We haven't got "Crap".

What we have got is an with too many people who can play the same position to a similar level.

Some players over the course of the season so far have shuffled themselves towards the top end.

Some haven't.

but to keep them happy he needs to play them, but he can't play them because he needs to maintain stability.

It's a Catch-22.

Simple solution, Loan them out.

"Crap" is an immotive word, I should/could have said apples, oranges, whatever! The point still remains the same. If you subtract like from like you end up with like and if that's not suitable for purpose you fail. We are failing, if we had what it takes would we be fourth bottom of the division?

Keeping players happy is not the managers first job (admittedly it doesn't hurt) but making them successful is a higher priority!

[Ian Royal]

But if you have fewer like for like players, you allow the ones you have playing the chance to recover from their mistakes and play themselves into form, rather than having to keep changing to keep players who are just as good and not failing in matches happy, or because of the urge to tinker until you hit the magic combination.

Fewer players in the same position also allows better training, because you can concentrate on each player more fully and it's easier to set up tests, because you only have enough for two for each position. Not four, with two having to perform a different role or watch.

Frankly buying Howard was a stupid idea IMO. We already had too many midfielders. All he's done is add to the confusion and performed no better, if not actually worse than most of the others. But he's a new signing, so we're now pretty much stuck with him.

['lista]

So, it looks like BR has made up his mind so I expect we should get an idea of who is staying (and who is not) by tonight's match squad.

[ZacNaloen]

If you have too many players in a squad you end up with some players unsettled, if their attitude is wrong they will sulk because they want to play. That brings down moral and undermines the manager. The only way the manager can deal with it is to play them, let them rot, or loan them out.

One is irresponsible and will lead to backroom strife. One will lead to an unsettled match-day squad that will take too long to click into a fully functioning unit. The other will at least get them games and experience in the case of the younger players.

Your arguement works only on the level that things aren't working right now because the players aren't good enough, my arguement is operating on the assumption that the majority of the players are good enough but that things have been too unsettled with all the chopping and changing to create a team that can play together effectively.

[Vision]

Your arguement works only on the level that things aren't working right now because the players aren't good enough, my arguement is operating on the assumption that the majority of the players are good enough but that things have been too unsettled with all the chopping and changing to create a team that can play together effectively.

Thats it for me. I'm not convinced we've a squad good enough for the play-offs just yet by any means but certainly in my opinion the ability here is better than 4th from bottom. It just needs to be handled (dare i say managed) better in order to give it the best chance to succeed

[Dorset-Knob]

If you have too many players in a squad you end up with some players unsettled, if their attitude is wrong they will sulk because they want to play. That brings down moral and undermines the manager. The only way the manager can deal with it is to play them, let them rot, or loan them out.

One is irresponsible and will lead to backroom strife. One will lead to an unsettled match-day squad that will take too long to click into a fully functioning unit. The other will at least get them games and experience in the case of the younger players.

Your arguement works only on the level that things aren't working right now because the players aren't good enough, my arguement is operating on the assumption that the majority of the players are good enough but that things have been too unsettled with all the chopping and changing to create a team that can play together effectively.

Not an argument really, I want the same as you do, a successful team! not really bothered who the manager is to be honest. I hope you're right in all you say, my fear is that we may have made a mistake with BR and we are unwilling, or unable to deal with it. This experimental learning curve is for me at least, un-nerving.

I understand what you are saying, but the doubts still nag away, hopefully time will tell that I was just being a tart!

[Ryn]

I'll be honest and say that this is the most pleasing news I have heard this year so far.

Hopefully a pared down squad will enable us to get settled into some sort of rhythm, the same core of players starting most weeks should give some stability to this sinking ship.

We won't have to worry about giving the kids a game to help their development, as they'll be doing that at another club.

Maybe Rodgers knows what he's doing after all!

[andrew1957]

Rodgers knows what he is doing. He has had a look at all the players - will now send some of the younger (or unwanted) out on loan and we will start to move up the table.

Have some faith guys - I still think he may well turn out to be our best ever manager - if he is given a chance that is!

[PieEater]

To me this looks a bit amateurish, he's already had pre season as well as all the league games we've played, and he's now saying basically he didn't know what his first team is till now. Has having too many players has confused him, only to add to that by grabbing more before the transfer deadline.

Give players a chance by all means, but there is not some rota where everyone gets a turn while our position in the league plummets to the relegation zone.

[CMRoyal]

Rodgers knows what he is doing. He has had a look at all the players - will now send some of the younger (or unwanted) out on loan and we will start to move up the table.

Have some faith guys - I still think he may well turn out to be our best ever manager - if he is given a chance that is!

I hope you're right. To me it looks like he's learning on the job, so I hope he gets up that learning curve quickly!

[urzmikep]

Are you sure it's not another directive from above (Mr Mad) requesting that he has to save even more money by reducing the wage bill futher and loaning players out/getting rid of them??