"Paper thin squad"

[Grumpy King of the West]

I've just been perusing Owlstalk to see what's exercising the snortbeasts. One thread caught my eye about how they're now on an unstoppable charge towards promotion. To be fair, it starts off light hearted with a fair bit of self mocking. But as it progresses it becomes more serious and the usual misplaced arrogance creeps in.

One poster has the audacity to proclaim that he believes the Millers will be Champions with the truffle diggers finishing in the play offs. He's taken to task, of course, with one chap claiming that come January all these lesser League 1 clubs WITH THEIR PAPER THIN SQUADS will fade away.

"Paper thin squad". It got me thinking about our current squad and I honestly, in all my time supporting RUFC, can't remember such a strong squad. Even Ronnie's great teams were more a case of a brilliant starting 11 with not so much depth. And of course "squads" weren't really a thing back in the halcyon days of the 80/81 championship winning team.

And when you think we only have two loan players as opposed to several over at SWFC and all loans have January recall clauses then I think that they may be deluded in their hope of us fading away. Or am I wrong and being overly confident myself?

Anything can happen of course (injuries, covid, etc) but unless I'm missing something here I wouldn't call us paper thin.

Thoughts?

[Beaufighter]

Fans tend not to know much about other teams squads, only the headline grabbing players they have. It’s also a general assumption, I think, that “lesser” clubs can only afford a reasonable first xi. Couple that with all the propaganda they get fed by Dee dar and the star every time they sign some no-mark journeyman and it’s bound to create an impression that their squad is the strongest.

Amusingly, on praise and grumble the other night one of them, looking for a reaction perhaps, commented that while we have been exceptionally good recently, they have only been average and because they are only 5 points behind shows how much better than us they are. Maybe he thinks that teams who are really good get bonus points when they win instead of only three?

[sawmiller]

Fans tend not to know much about other teams squads, only the headline grabbing players they have. It’s also a general assumption, I think, that “lesser” clubs can only afford a reasonable first xi. Couple that with all the propaganda they get fed by Dee dar and the star every time they sign some no-mark journeyman and it’s bound to create an impression that their squad is the strongest.

Amusingly, on praise and grumble the other night one of them, looking for a reaction perhaps, commented that while we have been exceptionally good recently, they have only been average and because they are only 5 points behind shows how much better than us they are. Maybe he thinks that teams who are really good get bonus points when they win instead of only three?

rearrange the following:

- at

- Owls

- straws

- clutching

- fans


Even Mystic Meg doesn't know how things will pan out - I'm just enjoying how things are at the moment - good results, good football, able to go to games, doing well in L1 - young players coming through and doing very well - what's not to like?

[flourbasher]

We,ve got quite a few fans with bipolar disorder too.
I suspect every club has.

Can you imagine (I know it's difficult) if we fail to win by two or three goals on Saturday.
All kinds of changes will be demanded and I'm not just referring to our resident wind up merchant

[millertop]

I thought you could only name so many players so are they breaking rules?

[pip_y]

And for a change our loan players aren’t goalkeepers. We have two of the best in Div 1 how critical is that. Take Ipswich when one suffers during the warm up, what a replacement!

[Lolmorgan]

Why the feck are the grunts so concerned about us we know who we are.Why are they in this league anyway they are massive.They want to take a look at Ipswich fans who seem to be a honest bunch even tho they are a BIG club.Toytown on the March.

[Townerslovechild]

As Flour says if we lose a couple the doom-mongers will be on saying sack Warne, etc,but the massives take being an idiot fan to a whole new level.
It is literally five minutes ago they all thought Moore was clueless.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Well, we will lose one sooner or later, but really it's never been about losing it's always been the manner of the defeat

There's been justifiable criticism in the past due to experimental formations, players unnecessarily playing out of position and schoolboy errors in defence.

These things though seem to have been worked on by PW and Co, so now a defeat will more than likely be due to being beaten by a better team, ref errors or a "worldy" goal.

So criticism wont be too severe if (and when) we lose one

[flourbasher]

In a strange way conceding that injury time equaliser to Crewe and the way we got taken apart by Fleetwood in quick succession were probably the best things that could have happened to us.
I remember at the time PW said the players were devastated.
Huge wake up call and they've bounced back magnificently. Model professionals