There definitely seems to be a renewed sense of optimism around the Club after the Rotherham and Sheffield United games and the signings we've made. The main thing for Kit and the Players to do now is to keep spirits high because while the Rotherham result in particular was nice given we actually got 3 Points, Kit is still in quite a precarious position and the fans will still be on edge and ready to turn until we get a string of positive results/performances against- with respect to Rotherham, good Championship teams.
Looking at our business during the Window as far as overall Transfer Windows go- this has been one of our best in recent memory- at least where I'm concerned. There seems to be this weird thing some people are hung up on about and wanting the club to go out and fork out massive fees on players. While a "marquee signing" is always nice and something to shout about, I'd much rather we spend money smartly as opposed to carelessly. Without knowing for definite, I think it's a pretty safe assumption that we've made a Profit this window. Making a profit is one thing, but we've made a profit while getting in quality in pretty much every area of the pitch- and we've hopefully/seemingly plugged all of the gaps from last season's abject failure of a season now. That's a great window in my book. I said it during Deadline Day as well, while signing Gary Hooper would have been nice it wasn't a make or break type signing for us as a team- and long-term giving Dembele more game-time now may even benefit us.
Looking at the selection for Sunday, and a few selections in particular will definitely be quite interesting due to injury and one in particular because of the Internationals. One selection that isn't that interesting is Andy Lonergan continuing in goal, it's a given at the minute that Lonergan will continue in goal. Unless Lonergan makes a mistake/goes on a bad run Joe Lewis won't even have a sniff of getting into the First-Team at least until January when the FA Cup starts given how we're approaching the League Cup this season and as I've repeatedly said I want us to completely go for it.
The Defensive selection is a lot more interesting. The Jazz Richards (maybe) injury is a bit annoying coming off the International's where Jazz played really well and he'll have come back into training full of confidence. That said, if Richards is injured it just so happens that we signed a decent back-up in Ryan Fredericks, I love this whole "depth" thing. Some people seem to think we've brought Fredericks in to play as a Right-Mid seemingly solely because we gave him the #7, while I'm not saying it's impossible that Kit will try (again) to convert a Full-Back into a Winger I think it's more of a case of #7 being the lowest available number.
The Centre-Back selection is quite interesting for Sunday, I think Ream & Stearman have quite a good balance as a pairing- and in a vacuum that's our first-choice pairing despite my reservations over Ream at Centre-Back when he comes up against "powerful" Strikers. But with the Internationals in mind and the amount of travelling Ream's had to do Kit might not take the risk on playing Ream so soon after coming back. But I doubt he will, and he'll want to establish the Ream/Stearman pairing early. With Centre-Back we do have depth with Hutchinson and Burn, I'm not going to get drawn into a Dan Burn debate anymore- it's simply not worth the energy when chances are he won't be playing anyway and should it come down to a Burn/Hutchinson debate again it'll come down to what side the Centre-Back is required on. The Left-Back selection is a lot more straightforward with Husband continuing, I said it heading into Rotherham as well- the only thing that's annoyed me about this Husband deal is that we only got him for a Month heading into an International Break.
The other half of the Jazz Richards (maybe) injury is Ben Pringle, after the Rotherham game I'm a lot more enthused when it comes to Pringle- so if he is out for Sunday it's unfortunate. However, going back to the depth point while Kacaniklic is completely shot for confidence at present he still has the potential to make a difference- so I don't have any issue with him coming in should Pringle not be fit. Then of course Cairney will continue on the Right, and going by our current track record of players scoring against their former-club this season he's one to look out for- and if you bet on Fulham games as I don't an Anytime Goalscorer Bet on Cairney is what I'd go for.
The Centre-Mid selection SHOULD be straightforward, O'Hara is a given and Tunnicliffe's two performances before the Internationals have made him secure in his place at present. The big news that came out over the Internationals when it comes to Centre-Mids is of course Scott Parker (the newly upgraded on FIFA Scott Parker) is nearly back in contention for a First-Team place now. Scott Parker is still a valuable asset to us, that isn't in doubt to me- the problem Parker had last season was his legs simply couldn't handle the number of games he had to play last season because of our complete lack of depth and the need for experienced heads in the team. That's a non-issue now both in-terms of experienced heads and depth so I'm actually quite happy Parker's near the team again. I'm not suggesting he should come straight back into the team, but as a rotation option- Scott Parker isn't a bad one to have. The challenge this season for Kit when it comes to Parker is to keep him fresh and fit so we get more performances like we got when we played Derby at Home.
The Striker selection is quite straightforward as well. Obviously McCormack will continue, and then despite Dembele not scoring and Woodrow doing so against Rotherham- Dembele's overall play against Rotherham makes him more than worthy of keeping his place in the team for me. It's simple, Dembele is a Striker who causes Defences problems- and especially heading into a game against Blackburn who while being a really tricky team definitely have weaknesses starting Dembele will help us to exploit them.
Team for Blackburn
Sunday's game is a weird full-circle type thing for Kit, his first game coming in was of course against Blackburn at Home- and roughly around this time of the year as well. While the jury is still MASSIVELY out on Kit and his managerial ability, you can't deny in the year he's been here we've gotten into a better overall position. Especially heading into Sunday where we've got good depth in pretty much every area of the pitch, that overall improvement as a team has become particularly apparent.
You just have to look at the Squad, we've got a player who can slot in for pretty much every position on the pitch and there not be a massive gap in quality and because of this fact we're infinitely better equipped to handle the Championship than we were last season. Obviously we still have "musts" in the team like McCormack, O'Hara, Lonergan for now and hopefully Stearman will cement himself as one of those players- and we're still a bit thin at Centre-Back but on the whole I'm over the moon with our business and the way we've built the squad.
I'm honestly not sure how much time Kit's got now, September's a tricky month for us- but with 4 of the 5 fixtures we've got being at Home if things don't go our way this month the pressure will be massively back on. There might be a scenario where it's a fine line between giving time for the team to gel and giving Kit time he doesn't deserve, but hopefully we don't get to that situation and we take the Rotherham win however uncomfortable it got towards the end, use it and start a run now. Kit's got the squad he wants now, this was the window everyone was saying he should have (including me)- so there's no excuses now for Kit and these next few games in particular will be an interesting test of Kit and the team.
Thanks for reading as always, out of the 5 fixtures this Month Sunday is the "easiest"- but as already said it's not going to be an easy game for us, and we'll have to be at our best to win and hopefully set the tone for the rest of the month/season. We are of course in front of the Sky Cameras where we didn't have much luck last season, so hopefully those fortunes change this season as well (especially given we've got two more in the next month). Thanks again for reading, the Review will be up on Sunday as usual- so hopefully you stay tuned for that. Then we're back on Monday for the Wolv- Oh Yeah, thanks Chelsea.
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