It also depends on how MM lines up and how or if he gets the best or more out of the players. If he is tied by this current situation he has to get organised for some serious signings during the winter lockdown (sorry transfer window)
To answer the Original question....
Is it ****, nowhere near it.
If we had a blank canvas, existing contracts could be scrapped, we could realistically sign a whole squad and we were allowed to say X player would remain injury free, ask yourself who makes your starting XI?
Connolly
Butcher
Pawlett
Shankland
all make mine.
The rest are combination of
Inexperienced
Maybe not ready
Maybe not good enough
Maybe the legs have gone.
Guys like Appere should be able to handle it, but it's a big ask in only his 2nd full season, Harkes might flourish when there's more football being played, I think Liam Smith could be ok.
You get my drift, it depends on where the club want to be and how much investment we plan to make.
Add quality in 3-4 key positions and we can stay up, if folk are expecting us to challenge for top 6, there's a lot of work needing done.
It also depends on how MM lines up and how or if he gets the best or more out of the players. If he is tied by this current situation he has to get organised for some serious signings during the winter lockdown (sorry transfer window)
Quite a bit of pessimism on this thread. I actually think we have a squad, as it stands, to do OK. An impossible question to answer though.
Of course we dont. Neilson, Asghar said so themselves at the end of last season that we need to strengthen. There are factors why we haven't mainly the paralysis just now because of arbitration and being without a manager for a period. Its not ideal preparations for the new season. And if a bid came in for Shankland that would leave us rally high and dry and pretty much a championship squad with a few who could probably hold their own in the Premiership. As soon as this legal circus is sorted out I hope we have targets ready to pounce on. It is badly needed.
We don't have many prem standard as it is, if any of them inc Shankland miss games either by being sold or out injured, then it will hurt us.
If injury prone Pawlett, who is inconsistent/frustrating is viewed as one of our best. then we are in big trouble.
Mellon needs backing for players now and get them up to speed quickly, especially for the very important run of 8 or so games starting 19th Sep where we should be targeting 5 or 6 wins minimum
Interesting comments from MM yesterday regarding Livi game. We matched them physically but need to work on going forward. This for me sounds promising in relation to standard of football he wants to play. I’ve no doubt once arbitration is over with players will be signed.
When the EPL restarted goals were at a premium. Takes players a while to get going without a proper pre-season.
I think we have the makings of a squad, I’m interested to see if MM is tactically better than RN was and if he can blood some of the youngsters too. Also, I believe MM can change the game unlike RN did. I suspect he’ll bring players in once the arbitration has been called.
Rangers on Wednesday