Our 2nd 11 - How does it perform?

[KRBFC]

Where does our 2nd 11 finish in this year's Championship?

(assuming this is our strongest possible 11) Muric, Roberts, THB, Beyer, Maatsen, Cork, Cullen, Brownhill, Zaroury, Benson, Foster.

Our 2nd 11 would look something like;

BPF
Vitinho Al-Dakhi Ekdal Taylor
CJ Bastien Twine
JBG Obafemi Tella

Players missing from both teams: Rodriguez, Barnes, Churlinov, Mcnally, Halil. (you could argue which of the 4 strikers fit where, I just assume Foster will be first choice because of the big fee).

I'd fancy us to get top 6, a really strong looking team (look at some of the players missing from both sides!).

[Devils_Advocate]

If you took away our starting 11 then the remaining squad would be nowhere near the top 6 over a full Championship season. Removing just Muric, THB, Cork, Cullen and Brownhill would completely limit our ability to play the possession football thats taken us to the top.

Our squad minus the best 11 would be around 12th-16th

[Burnley1989]

If you took away our starting 11 then the remaining squad would be nowhere near the top 6 over a full Championship season. Removing just Muric, THB, Cork, Cullen and Brownhill would completely limit our ability to play the possession football thats taken us to the top.

Our squad minus the best 11 would be around 12th-16th

Yeah I agree, nowhere near good enough but neither would anyone else’s

[Devils_Advocate]

Yeah I agree, nowhere near good enough but neither would anyone else’s

Yep I would guess that every other teams squad minus their best 11 would do well not to come 24th

[HiThere]

The starting 11 in the OP is easily a top 6 side.

[NRC]

Funny, I was musing the same thing yesterday. The weakness in th e 2nd 11 is midfield, but I would be confident it would be competitive in this league. Quite something really

[HiThere]

Funny, I was musing the same thing yesterday. The weakness in th e 2nd 11 is midfield, but I would be confident it would be competitive in this league. Quite something really

I think it's defensive central midfield, not midfield in general. When you have someone like Twine (who I think will be a starter in time) in the second 11 it speaks volumes.

[KRBFC]

I think the biggest weakness in the 2nd side is the CM area, Bastien and CJ for Cork and Cullen. Muric is pretty integral too.

[KRBFC]

If we brought in the Bosnian lad, that would likely relegate Cork to the 2nd 11

[Devils_Advocate]

Excluding the 3 new players the other 8 have played in a combined total of about 80 league games this season so you need to find another 8 squad members capable of filling that gap to top 6 standard?

[Vegas Claret]

above Blackburn

[HiThere]

Excluding the 3 new players the other 8 have played in a combined total of about 80 league games this season so you need to find another 8 squad members capable of filling that gap to top 6 standard?

It's down to opinions. Looking at that second eleven it's a top 6 side every day of the week.

[Silkyskills1]

The 'second eleven' struggled at times yesterday. Lack of cohesion/ positional play nearly cost them a couple of times. Midfield did struggle, hence the introduction of Cullen and Browning together. We rely on two wide men posing a threat to the opposition and yesterday we didn't really have one although Churlinov looked to be finding.his feet and was then replaced by Zaroury who wasn't given the ball enough.

[TPClaret]

Can’t really judge the 2nd eleven on team performance as they don’t play together every week. If you played that same team for a few weeks, you’d think the understanding and performances would improve week on week. I know first the team changes most weeks but only by a couple of players.

[Rileybobs]

I know it's hypothetical, but...

There are three players in that starting eleven who we've seen almost nothing of in order to make a judgement, and another two who have never played for us. That's 50% of the outfield where you're taking a complete leap of faith. Then when you factor in the impossibility of playing a season with just eleven players we have to assume the subs would be inferior to this starting eleven. And considering how important the strength of our bench has been to our success it's wishful thinking to suggest we would finish in the top six without our best eleven players.

[tarkys_ears]

Are we still playing those friendlies/b team fixtures?

Don't seem to hear much about it these days.

[TPClaret]

I know VK will have wanted to win, but he’s quite happy to play them again at the turf, another chance to get competitive minutes into players, because we will need them all as we get towards the business end of the season.

[roperclaret]

Where does our 2nd 11 finish in this year's Championship?

(assuming this is our strongest possible 11) Muric, Roberts, THB, Beyer, Maatsen, Cork, Cullen, Brownhill, Zaroury, Benson, Foster.

Our 2nd 11 would look something like;

BPF
Vitinho Al-Dakhi Ekdal Taylor
CJ Bastien Twine
JBG Obafemi Tella

Players missing from both teams: Rodriguez, Barnes, Churlinov, Mcnally, Halil. (you could argue which of the 4 strikers fit where, I just assume Foster will be first choice because of the big fee).

I'd fancy us to get top 6, a really strong looking team (look at some of the players missing from both sides!).

I think you’ll find Rodriguez will be first choice for the rest of this season in the big games

[Silkyskills1]

I think you’ll find Rodriguez will be first choice for the rest of this season in the big games

Might have agreed with you a couple of months ago. Since he returned from injury he looks half a yard off the pace and I just believe this is a result of the accumulation of Injuries sustained over the years. Very skilful, bright footballer and I genuinely hope I am proved wrong on this.