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Millers Banter: Unofficial Rotherham United Fans Forum / Message Board → Football / Sport / RUFC Related → Strength In Depth
 

Topic: Strength In Depth

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smiler
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Strength In Depth
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Yesterday we had Shane Ferguson, Angus MacDonald, Mikkel Miller and Freddie Ladapo unavailable and Michael Ihiekwe and Wes Harding not deemed fit to start because they haven't trained all week. I'd suggest that they are six players who would walk into most League One teams. Yet we still fielded an eleven that went to the form team in the division and got a deserved and very professional win. To me that suggests that we have got a real strength in depth that will serve us well over the course of the season.

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ian
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Agree indeed.

It's a very good squad . Could it be one of our very best ever in Rotherhams history?

Hard to compare. I guess we will have a better idea after 46 games .

But smiler, can we and should we keep hold of those players whose contracts are up ?

If we were to lose one or two it might take the teeth out of the bite.

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My instinct is that while we are in League One it will be difficult to persuade our established players to sign new contracts, Ian A number of them will look at it and think that they have a chance of a deal with a Championship club on Championship wages, and they may be reluctant to commit to us when there is every chance we will be in League One again. For the same reason (not knowing which division we are going to be in and what our revenue will be) we probably couldnt risk making an offer that was too good to turn down. For the new contract to be signed both parties have got to want to do it. I'm afraid it's a fact of modern football life that there is a high turnover of players every summer, particularly at clubs that go up or down. In fact I think we did very well to keep the majority of the squad together in the Summer and that we have added nicely. On the whole I think it was a very good transfer window for us.

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uttis
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Must say I can’t remember a time where had the depth we have in the past we’ve at most 15/16 players you’d call 1st teamers backed up by a few young uns What we have now is 22 players who you could come in and do a job On another note I was thinking if we’d had Grigg say in January transfer window (compared with Hirst) we’d probably have stopped up I guess it’s all about timing in football though

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smiler
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Vickers: MacDonald, Mattock, Bola: Harding, Odoffin, Wiles, Sadlier, Miller: Kayode, Ladapo. That's an RUFC eleven made up of players who didnt start against Wimbledon. I'm going to suggest it would win as many games as it would lose in League One.

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ian
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I think that team lacks in midfield and would be struggling for goals.

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smiler
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Fair enough!

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I suspect Donny Rovers would love to be able to put that eleven out as a first team, never mind a second eleven.

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ian
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It's certainly a team that could stay up in L1 but of course in reality its a squad game these days so we'd need to add to that 11.

Another comparison to make is this squad vs the squads that got promoted in the 80s and the turn of the century.

Also, is this squad better than PW has ever had?

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smiler
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My answer Ian would be that this isn't the best first eleven that we have had in this division, but it is undoubtedly the squad with the most strength in depth.

In my lifetime the best starting eleven in this tier would have to be the Porterfield team with Towner, Seasman, Forrest, Breckin, Finney, Mullen, Fern, Moore, Breckin etc. Quite a side that. But there was only one sub allowed in those days, and I think I am right to say that we only used 14 or 15 players in the entire league campaign. That seems remarkable now but it was commonplace then.

The game has moved on dramatically. Players are pushed much nearer to the limits physically, like top athletes in all sports. Also cards and suspensions are dished out now for nothing, whereas in those days you could almost get away with murder. So having a deep squad where you can bring people in and out is essential and could really work for us over a long season. I think it is an area where we might have an edge on some of our rivals.

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