Strongest Bench for ages.

Whatever people think about our best starting XI we must surely have the strongest bench we've had in years especially if Bellamy and Lawrence sign tommorow as expected.

What about our defensive cover? We are so weak in defence it's unreal. Hopefully Gerrard and now Blake probably leaving along with Naylor, Gyepes and Quinn means Malky can bring at least 4 new defenders in. If we don't get a minimum of 4 defenders in, we will not have the defensive cover to last this season. If Blake goes, Keinan is the only defensive cover available within the first team squad.

Whatever people think about our best starting XI we must surely have the strongest bench we've had in years especially if Bellamy and Lawrence sign tommorow as expected.

We'll need a strong bench to accomodate Darcy's butt

What about our defensive cover? We are so weak in defence it's unreal. Hopefully Gerrard and now Blake probably leaving along with Naylor, Gyepes and Quinn means Malky can bring at least 4 new defenders in. If we don't get a minimum of 4 defenders in, we will not have the defensive cover to last this season. If Blake goes, Keinan is the only defensive cover available within the first team squad.

This has been worrying me for ages...yet not even any names mentioned since Keogh. Hope Malky has a few up his sleeve

What about our defensive cover? We are so weak in defence it's unreal. Hopefully Gerrard and now Blake probably leaving along with Naylor, Gyepes and Quinn means Malky can bring at least 4 new defenders in. If we don't get a minimum of 4 defenders in, we will not have the defensive cover to last this season. If Blake goes, Keinan is the only defensive cover available within the first team squad.

Nugent has done well in pre season so youth coming through, gunnarson can play right back, kev can be shifted across the park.

Why get four? One maybe two max.

Other than Darcy none of the above got more than the briefest run in the cup side. No major losses.

What about our defensive cover? We are so weak in defence it's unreal. Hopefully Gerrard and now Blake probably leaving along with Naylor, Gyepes and Quinn means Malky can bring at least 4 new defenders in. If we don't get a minimum of 4 defenders in, we will not have the defensive cover to last this season. If Blake goes, Keinan is the only defensive cover available within the first team squad.

Nugent has done well in pre season so youth coming through, gunnarson can play right back, kev can be shifted across the park.

Why get four? One maybe two max.

Other than Darcy none of the above got more than the briefest run in the cup side. No major losses.

What about our defensive cover? We are so weak in defence it's unreal. Hopefully Gerrard and now Blake probably leaving along with Naylor, Gyepes and Quinn means Malky can bring at least 4 new defenders in. If we don't get a minimum of 4 defenders in, we will not have the defensive cover to last this season. If Blake goes, Keinan is the only defensive cover available within the first team squad.

Nugent has done well in pre season so youth coming through, gunnarson can play right back, kev can be shifted across the park.

Why get four? One maybe two max.

Other than Darcy none of the above got more than the briefest run in the cup side. No major losses.

Nugent has potential but he's not ready yet. Gunnarsson can do a job at right back, but would you be happy him playing the majority of the season at right back if our only current right back McNaughton is out for months? If the versatile McNaughton is out for months, where's the cover then? Nugent can play anywhere across the back 4, but surely he isn't ready to step up yet? We need a minimum of 4 I think, a left back to cover Taylor, or ideally to replace Taylor as I don't trust Taylor defensively against a good right winger, a centre back to give Turner and Hudson competition, or replace Hudson depending on how he performs, a right back to replace McNaughton who is not good enough now and another versatile defender who can do a reliable job anywhere across the back 4, a young Tony Vidmar would be perfect! That's what I would look for anyway.

If you honestly think we only need two more defenders when we look to be losing 5 defenders this summer if Blake goes, and we haven't added a single defender to improve our squad yet, we have no hope of going up. Remember we threw away the most points from winning positions in the league last season so our defence needs to be drastically improved, starting with a new right back imo. Reading only dropped 3 points from winning positions before they secured the title last season. Our 2010-2011 season was the same as how this current season is looking, Bellamy looking close to joining, plenty of good options in attack and midfield, but a poor defence which will cost us once again unless we improve it. Hopefully with Malky letting so many defenders go, he sees this is an area that needs strengthening and will start bringing some new defenders in.