One of whom is a midfielder playing out of position.

In my book, having a squad adequately prepared for injuries and suspensions at the start of the season - for the duration (or until January) is part of the manager's job. He's not doing his job properly, to be frank (Unless he's going to play a 2-5-3 formation, of course, but I'm suspecting he'll have at least four at the back). The risk of injuries and suspensions to your back four is high, especially when they all lack pace - plus you have no competition for places. The full-backs (and for all intents and purposes the centre-backs minus Ellis) know they can turn up, do whatever they like - perform to any standard - and we'll still be forced to pick them.

Accepting this level of risk is thoroughly unprofessional, and completely unacceptable for our club.

I'd add this to the captitulation after Christmas, the failure to plan and be proactive in the January transfer window, the waste of resources on terrible players last season and the abject failure to improve our defence as reasons why I don't believe Curle should continue in employment as our manager.

Also, I still believe in the old adage that good teams are built from the back - our team hasn't been. It doesn't matter who you have in midfield or upfront if you don't have adequate quality and cover in the defence - the lessons from the past two and half seasons have not been learned.

If he proves me wrong, the back four stay fit all season and miraculously transform into a quality defence - I'll eat my hat. But I'm not holding my breath.