Stronger or weaker than the squad that finished last season?

[Withdean11]

1 week away from the start of the season, which areas have we improved, and which areas are weaker?

Golkeeper - Maenpaa in, Walton out on loan. Stronger.

Right Back - Rosenoir in. Stonger.

Central Defence - Halford & Hughes out. Much weaker.

Left Back - Bennett out, Bong in. Remains to be seen.

Central Mid - No changes.

Right wing - Carayol out. No replacement Weaker.

Left Wing - No change (still very weak)

Attacking mid - Lost Tex. No replacement. Weaker.

Stiker - Hemed in. CMS out. Stonger.


We're not any better off are we?

 

[5ways]

We're stronger because we could hardly be weaker than the end of last season. We also have u21's in central defence and atk mid who will likely be ready for the step-up this season.

 

[supaseagull]

1 week away from the start of the season, which areas have we improved, and which areas are weaker?

Golkeeper - Maenpaa in, Walton out on loan. Stronger.

Right Back - Rosenoir in. Stonger.

Central Defence - Halford & Hughes out. Much weaker.

Left Back - Bennett out, Bong in. Remains to be seen.

Central Mid - No changes.

Right wing - Carayol out. No replacement Weaker.

Left Wing - No change (still very weak)

Attacking mid - Lost Tex. No replacement. Weaker.

Stiker - Hemed in. CMS out. Stonger.


We're not any better off are we?

I agree with all of that except the striker situation. Hemed is an unknown quantity and totally unproven and therefore, I think that makes us weaker.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Most new boys signed so far unproven this coming season. Obviously.

Tho more than happy that we'll never to see CMS run about speedily stupidly aimlessly in the Stripes ever again. Need to be building for the future now. Jack Harper could be anything. But Real Madrid saw something in him. for most of his teen years and offered him contracts accordingly. Could arguably prove to be the next Zamora - til we sell him to Norwich for footballing equivalent of thruppence. Oh well. Once a selling club...

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Personally OVERALL I think we look stronger, but this league looks tougher than ever.

 

[El Turi]

We barely created any goal scoring chances in the last 10 or so games of last season. Having Baldock back is a boost as we did look better going forward when he played (even though he was out of position) but we desperately need a creative player to be signed before next Friday.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

 

[WhingForPresident]

I'm confident that Hemed and Rosenior will do well for us, but our lack of width is just ridiculous.

If I was Hughton, I'd have been experimenting with a formation like this in pre-season, just in case:

----------------------------Stockdale----------------------------------
---Rosenior---------Greer----------Dunk----------Bong----------
--------------------------------Ince--------------------------------------
--------------Kayal-------Stephens-----Holla/Crofts--------------
---------------------Hemed---------Baldcock-----------------------

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Overall stronger than last season but with the other teams strengththening ours is still very weak by comparison.

 

[Icy Gull]

Stronger than the team that started last season. Jury out on whether it is any better than the one who finished it. We have not replaced Tex, the only creative player we had and that will come back to haunt us unless we have someone similar lined up. Having a player who can run at defences is essential in this division. Kayal can do it but apart from him?? Where is the pace, again absolutely essential at this level?

Not at all convinced that we have anywhere near enough quality to avoid relegation yet. No idea where the balls to the forwards are coming from either.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Managerially stronger. Hughton will get more from his players and will better set out his team to play whatever opposition.

As regards players. Similar. A lot rests on Hamed's shoulders. If he gets injured or is shite - we are fukced.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Look at any permutation of the current Albion squad and we're highly unlikely to be troubling anybody at all in the division, let alone the play-off judges. Oh well. We can tread water like this for ever in the Championship. Until the one season we get it wrong and find ourselves dumped unceremoniously into League One. at which point you find out who your real friends are. And its not American Express. And its not Nike. And its not 90% ofthe twunts wearing lanyards,

 

[brightonmark1234]

i will decided after the transfer window to say if the squad is stronger or weaker then when we finish last season

 

[Prince Monolulu]

i will decided after the transfer window to say if the squad is stronger or weaker then when we finish last season

If you say so

 

[daveyboy1973]

I'm confident that Hemed and Rosenior will do well for us, but our lack of width is just ridiculous.

If I was Hughton, I'd have been experimenting with a formation like this in pre-season, just in case:
Thats probably not far away from being his team but where does the creativity come from
----------------------------Stockdale----------------------------------
---Rosenior---------Greer----------Dunk----------Bong----------
--------------------------------Ince--------------------------------------
--------------Kayal-------Stephens-----Holla/Crofts--------------
---------------------Hemed---------Baldcock-----------------------

Thats probably not far away from his team, but where is the creativity gonna come from??

 

[HitchinSeagull]

1 week away from the start of the season, which areas have we improved, and which areas are weaker?

Golkeeper - Maenpaa in, Walton out on loan. Stronger.

Right Back - Rosenoir in. Stonger.

Central Defence - Halford & Hughes out. Much weaker.

Left Back - Bennett out, Bong in. Remains to be seen.

Central Mid - No changes.

Right wing - Carayol out. No replacement Weaker.

Left Wing - No change (still very weak)

Attacking mid - Lost Tex. No replacement. Weaker.

Stiker - Hemed in. CMS out. Stonger.


We're not any better off are we?

Central midfield we have Stephens back and looking sharp and Crofts recovering, hopefully a bit stronger this year, Bong should be better than Bennett, but I'm sure I'm just being wildly over optimistic!

 

[nwgull]

Just about stronger. The only weaker part is losing Tex. Having Baldock back is a boost; we were scoring an acceptable amount of goals per game under Hughton until he got injured.

 

[Munchkin]

Stronger. 100%

Rosenoir, Bong, Hemed are improvements on Bennett, Hughes and CMS

Throw into the equation March, Crofts, Baldock and Stephens all being fit then we are certainly in better shape.

The league isn't won or lost in August and I would expect another 3 or 4 additions before the transfer window closes.

I'm quietly optimistic we are going to have a much better season with play offs more likely than a relegation scrap.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Stronger already but will only get better. We'll need effective 1st team rivals/replacements for Baldock, Hemed, LuaLua, March, Dunk & Greer if we wish to push beyond 15th but we've got 31 days left and as yet, no seasons long Premier League loans so a lot of time and business to do left.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]