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Warburton & Lean Squads


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Something Warburton heavily believes in is a lean squad, so its interesting to see this table for players used by BPL teams.

The current top 4 in England are also the top 4 for least players used.

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What makes it more interesting is Rangers, aka the tinkerman, was rebound for making too many changes.

i believe that the smaller the squad the more closer it they become, something that was Morgan said about his Leicester teammates saying they are like brothers. You can see signs of that this year and hopefully any new additions will also fit in well ( something that MOH appears to be struggling with).

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Lean squads can read each other a lot better and can thrive on a state of stability. I totally support MW ethos on this and believe it's the correct way forward. Additional numbers (if needed) can be made up by the kids who can use it as a tool and motivation to break into the team. 

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For it to work each squad player must be very capable and the youths must be well enough equipped to hold their own when called upon.

This season that wasn't the case with too many of our fringe players, and as a result of the mass loaning of the youths.

Imo we got lucky with injuries otherwise we could have been in trouble if a couple more key performers were out.

Hopefully time and transfer windows will give MW the players he needs for his lean squad to cope with or without injuries, suspensions etc

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9 minutes ago, piperpete said:

When Dundee united won the league they used 13 players, how the mighty have fallen :)

Problem is, they were on 4 pence a week & tied in to 38 year contracts - they're all a bit past it now!

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26 minutes ago, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

For it to work each squad player must be very capable and the youths must be well enough equipped to hold their own when called upon.

This season that wasn't the case with too many of our fringe players, and as a result of the mass loaning of the youths.

Imo we got lucky with injuries otherwise we could have been in trouble if a couple more key performers were out.

Hopefully time and transfer windows will give MW the players he needs for his lean squad to cope with or without injuries, suspensions etc

Agree with this, losing just Forrester has seemed to cause a huge slump in RM attacking play and he was only a 6 month tryout deal. I think we need backup for full back positions, ideally a player that could play left or right with Halliday as extra cover, we could handle losing Tavernier (IMO anyway) but not Wallace. We need more strength in attack as well as defence.

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9 minutes ago, jim white's a bear said:

Agree with this, losing just Forrester has seemed to cause a huge slump in RM attacking play and he was only a 6 month tryout deal. I think we need backup for full back positions, ideally a player that could play left or right with Halliday as extra cover, we could handle losing Tavernier (IMO anyway) but not Wallace. We need more strength in attack as well as defence.

I'd rather a youth was used instead of relying on back ups, can't have too many players who don't play

Agree with what you say though, losing Harry definitely caused us issues on add in Waggy too

I'd like to see some more youth players given a chance, I just hope we have those who can perform

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20 minutes ago, A.T.G said:

I'd like to see some more youth players given a chance, I just hope we have those who can perform

I think Warburton thinks the same way, but it's obvious he wants them to be good enough and seriously apply themselves to making it as a pro.

The occasional lack of a full compliment of subs, combined with the likes of Clark being retained in the squad over Hardie, suggests to me that he's not yet been convinced. A slight concern given it's Scotland they're playing in.

 

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Just now, Hilly86 said:

I think Warburton thinks the same way, but it's obvious he wants them to be good enough and seriously apply themselves to making it as a pro.

The occasional lack of a full compliment of subs, combined with the likes of Clark being retained in the squad over Hardie, suggests to me that he's not yet been convinced. A slight concern given it's Scotland they're playing in.

 

That concern also crossed my mind, if they were good enough they would be on, surely tho, a couple of them could have been on the bench if we are short, sometimes it just takes that one game to give a youngster confidence

I'm sure there will be a gem or two in there and like McKay, MW will get the best out of him

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9 minutes ago, A.T.G said:

That concern also crossed my mind, if they were good enough they would be on, surely tho, a couple of them could have been on the bench if we are short, sometimes it just takes that one game to give a youngster confidence

I'm sure there will be a gem or two in there and like McKay, MW will get the best out of him

Indeed. The lack of any defenders on the subs bench at times is a bit strange - we only seem to have two full-backs worthy of being anywhere near the first team.

It's probably as simple as what MW says often, that he wants the first team squad to be involved as a group, given game time when possible.

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If we qualify for Europe, don't we have to give UEFA a 23 man squad, that we have to keep until the Jan transfer window, when we can add, & subtract players from the squad, if we're still in the competition in the new year?

If this is the case, then we'll need a good few youngsters to beef up our 23 man squad..

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Problem is lean squads don't cope well with multiple competitions ( and we expect to be on later stages of every cup)  nor a run of injuries but to be fair to MW he has said if we get European football we need more depth - so he seems to have acknowledged the need. 

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injury prone players regardless of their skill level should be avoided at all costs (Templeton) for example must have cost the club many £££s per game, we would want to be signing guys with 40 plus games a season under their belt, I know sometimes due to not being picked etc  (Forrester) it may be harder to guage but I would trust our staff to go into the nuts and bolts of every detail going back as long as it takes.

Even if Lewis McLeod and Jamie Ness were still with us they would not have racked up many games, and these guys had it in them to be terrific players. 

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8 hours ago, Courtyard Bear said:

He's already said if we win the Scottish Cup and therefore Euro football he will need a larger squad. 

So not that lean. 

1 or 2 extra were his words. Still pretty lean.

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9 hours ago, piperpete said:

When Dundee united won the league they used 13 players, how the mighty have fallen :)

have they still got that many? thought they'd sold more to a certain mob

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I think it depends on how lean is defined.

I don't think we will ever go down the route of the taigs having on average of something like 2.5 capable players for each position and a fair chunk of them not making the bench.

But we do need to bulk up this squad. Especially if we make Europe (Warburton confirmed this to be fair)

Also we need more numbers in there to keep things fresh. It's obvious the players chucked it after the Celtic game - we can't allow that sort of stagnation to be acceptable. More squad options would reduce the risk of this happening.

I'm not saying this would happen, either, but remember the Manchester season? we were in all 4 competitions until the end of the season and were running on empty. Ended up losing the 2 main prizes on offer. Then again, Walter Smith must take some blame for not utilising his squad options better earlier when he could. Guys like Alan Gow hardly played.

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10 hours ago, piperpete said:

When Dundee united won the league they used 13 players, how the mighty have fallen :)

I think another example of that was Aston villa in England in the early 80's...I think they used a squad of 14.  

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I don't understand this 'lucky with injuries' rubbish that the media and people use. We haven't been lucky it's down the fact were the fittest team in the country by a mile. We have had 3 serious injuries all season (Waggy, Holt and Forrester) and even then Holt was out for what 3 weeks? Not that serious and the other two were down to an awkward fall/poor tackle. 

I like the fact we have a lean squad. At least you know the players used as subs will come on and give 100% because the only thing between them and a starting place is essentially one player. I think it's worked great this season and next season when our bench is stronger I'll be full of confidence with someone like MoH or Forrester coming off the bench, knowing they'll give it their all to play their way into the managers thoughts.

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