Page 9 - 358264 LP231909 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (Issue 257)

third choice striker. Therefore, it was probably best for all parties that he left the club permanently.
In midfield, the addition of dynamic midfielder, Jay Matete is a very welcome addition and provides some much-needed competition but standing at just 5’8, we are still lacking a much needed physical presence in the middle of the park. Dan Neil, Corey Evans and Elliot Embleton are very tidy ball players and the latter provides a degree of protection
for the back four but all too often we have been exposed for a lack of strength in such a key area of the pitch. Carl Winchester is capable of being an all action midfielder but given our lack of depth in the fullback position, he could very well find opportunities in his preferred position very limited.
This brings me on nicely to the elephant in the room, which is our lack of cover in almost every defensive position. While few people mourned
the departure of Tom Flanagan, to not bring in a replacement for the Northern Irish international seems risky in the extreme. Danny Batth brought much needed experience to the back four and despite the comical own goal he scored vs Bolton, he showed more than enough against Portsmouth to provide fans with plenty of optimism; however, following the departures of Alves, Younger and Flanagan, we have just four recognised centre halves at the club.
This usually, wouldn’t ring too many alarm bells, until you remember that Bailey Wright has a horrendous injury record and Arbenit Xhemajli has played two competitive games since signing for the lads back in the summer of 2020. You could argue that Luke O’Nien has very capably filled in at centre back in the past, but his return to first team football is far from imminent and having to plug gaps with out of position players is far from ideal.
The same applies to Denver Hume, although his time on Wearside fizzled out towards the end, he was provided decent cover and as part of a back five he looked dangerous from an attacking view point. This combined with the long term absence
of Niall Huggins, means we are left with Dennis Cirkin as our sole specialist left back, with a history of picking up knocks in his first season of regular first team football. Trai Hume may be an exciting prospect for the future, but he has yet to play a minute of first team football, which would suggest that previous manager, Lee Johnson, didn’t think he was quite ready to play first team football.
This lack of strength in depth means there is a
real possibility that at some stage this season we could be operating without specialist fullbacks and a centre half who hasn’t played a single minute
for us in the league. Overall, we have brought in a decent blend of youth and experience, but we exit
the transfer window with pretty much the same question marks hanging over the squad.
Hopefully, I’m proven wrong, we don’t regret leaving ourselves light on bodies between now and the end of the season, the new lads can fire the lads to promotion and avoid the dreaded play offs.
ROBERTS
CLARKE
MATETE
BATTH
ALOVESUPREME
ISSUE257
09
BY MICHAEL LOUGH