Quote Originally Posted by bannon_ftd_83 View Post
The formation Ross played exposed far too many players. IMO the midfield looked the same at the end of last season with Butcher out and Fuchs gone. Average teams stretching our midfield wide open with Levitt scrambling about on his own back there. We had the 3 centre backs to cover it though. Graham is forever making last ditch blocks or tackles and covers the lack of pace from the other two at times. We are also alot happier to accept crosses into our box with the 3 in there which we dd all last season. Its fairly simple to look at and work out IMO.
Agree. Butcher was very limited as a footballer but was never bullied. He and Fuchs were never replaced. I said at the time we needed a player "like" Gogic, not necessarily him but a similar hard type. Now we have nobody. All our academy players are lighter weight footballers and our new recruits don't fill the gap either.

Despite some successes I would still say our recruitment in recent years has been very poor, especially given the budget available. It's fine bringing McGrath and Middleton but the midfield has no foundation, the Central defence has no cover and we've added an African hopeful to step in when Fletcher gets injured, which he will at some point.