I honestly don't know why we keep saying the squad is top 6 quality

We finished top 6 two seasons ago. Just. Do we think our current squad has as good or better ability?

GK - Gunn/Long
RB - Stacey/Fisher
LB - McCallum/Giannoulis
CB - Hanley, Gibson, Duffy, Batth
MF - Kenny, Sara, Nunez, Lunghi
FW - Sainz, Rowe, Onel, Fassnacht, Placheta
ST: Sargent, Barnes, Idah

On current evidence, rather than pure hope, I think we have better backup keepers (based purely on how bad Long was), same RBs (because they are the same), and MAYBE better striker depth although we haven't really played Makama there much and we haven't seen Kvistgaarden long enough. Central defence might be better - Darling definitely better than all that we had but Medic, Cordoba & McConville vs Gibson, Hanley and Duffy is questionable I think.

Or does anybody really think we can already say that Crnac/Schwartau/Marcondes/Kvistgaarden/Jurasek/Diallo/Makama is a better set than Sainz, Rowe, Onel and Placheta? Maybe in depth but not sure of that - certainly not the first two.

Can we say that McLean/Topic/Mattsson/Gibbs/Wright are better than McLean/Sara/Nunez/Sorensen?

Are Chrisene/Schlupp better than McCallum & Dimi?

Perhaps some people will look at this and say yes, but for me no position other than one central defence position is an upgrade on the first choice XI from that season, and many of them are considerable downgrades, so how can we talk about a top 6 quality squad when it is weaker than one which only 2 seasons ago scraped into the top 6?

I could do the same exercise with last season really. We finished 13th. What has improved? Striker depth for sure, backup keeper, Darling probably > Doyle. Hopefully Mattsson and Topic upgrades on Slimane but he wasn't exactly key anyway. For me overall still not certain if we have improved on last season's quality or not. If we have I don't think we have improved to the level that we can match the squad the season before. Not on evidence so far, at least.

Posted By: Legacy Fan on October 2nd 2025 at 12:26:30

Message Thread

Am I missing something from last nights game? (NCFC) - stringersrevenge, Oct 2, 10:33:00
- Well it was better and we didn’t deserve to lose but it was still pedestrian and boring (n/m) (NCFC) - Jim, Oct 2, 11:18:04
  - I think you’ve described it well Jim (n/m) (NCFC) - Chopper, Oct 2, 13:49:29
- work it out wide to Stacey seems to be the plan... (n/m) (NCFC) - Goosebumps, Oct 2, 11:08:30
- The collective quality of our squad defines the best level we can possibly achieve. The (NCFC) - The Gaffer, Oct 2, 10:57:24
  - I honestly don't know why we keep saying the squad is top 6 quality (NCFC) - Legacy Fan, Oct 2, 12:26:30
    - But we’re 18th…..are you saying it’s a bottom 6 six v top 6 (n/m) (NCFC) - Ulf jr, Oct 2, 13:34:35
      - No sure how you come to that (n/m) (NCFC) - Legacy Fan, Oct 2, 15:29:43
    - It's rather pointless comparing the squad to previous seasons. What it needs to be (NCFC) - The Gaffer, Oct 2, 13:01:24
      - So what you are saying, if I understand correctly , is that based on (NCFC) - Legacy Fan, Oct 2, 13:38:22
        
        I'll try again. My preferred approach is to compare the potential quality of the squads (NCFC) - The Gaffer, Oct 2, 13:51:42
        
        But how are you measuring “potential” given that it is unmeasurable? (n/m) (NCFC) - Legacy Fan, Oct 2, 15:30:29
        
        Not measuring but estimating. It's an art rather than a science trying to to forecast the (NCFC) - The Gaffer, Oct 2, 20:11:34
  - Is it top 6? (NCFC) - Knitted Jesus, Oct 2, 11:07:44
    - As per my original post I believe a big part of that is that Manning isn't getting the (NCFC) - The Gaffer, Oct 2, 11:26:06
- Stacey was decent again and Fisher... (n/m) (NCFC) - Goosebumps, Oct 2, 10:38:29
  - Eh?!!! Fisher?! You can’t be serious he was dreadful. (NCFC) - Chopper, Oct 2, 13:52:52
    - Fisher is a better right back than left back... (NCFC) - Goosebumps, Oct 2, 14:59:55
- Well, we controlled the game for most parts, created good chances and restricted them to (NCFC) - Pixelman, Oct 2, 10:38:21
  - we only created some real chances towards the end when they'd gone fully defensive (NCFC) - Cable Gap Pioneer, Oct 2, 18:18:10
  - Hmm I didn’t feel like we were in control of the game (NCFC) - stringersrevenge, Oct 2, 11:00:40
    - Me either (n/m) (NCFC) - Chopper, Oct 2, 13:53:22
    - Don't think we controlled the first half especially (NCFC) - jamesward, Oct 2, 11:17:29
- We were certainly better last night and could easily have won (NCFC) - strap_on sally, Oct 2, 10:36:40
  - I’m not sure we deserved to win but yeah a draw would have been fair (NCFC) - stringersrevenge, Oct 2, 10:56:39

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