It is a strong bench, and certainly better than a lot of the benches we've seen in recent years. But if one were to nitpick there are still areas to improve that bench.
For starters Kelleher isn't convincing as backup. In his last preseason start he conceded four goals from four shots on target.
The other position in the squad where we would see a dropoff if the starter got injured would be RB. Unlike LB where we have a senior LB backing up Robertson in Tsimikas, the RB spot doesn't have a legit backup for Trent.
The midfield is strong, but a little bit brittle.
I don't know how much of the pre season games you watched, but if you did so, you will know that Kelleher conceded 1 goal in his last pre season appearance, and 3 in total in his 4 pre season games. He is now the cup goalkeeper by default, so if we have any more penalty shoot outs in them, I can trust him to go the right way and make saves, more than Allisson who just jumps out of the way whenever he has to face one.
If anything happens at right back, Neco is next in line, and if he isn't available, Gomez can fill in. It was the first position he played in when he signed for the club. We are light at left back. Robbo is at least out for a month or two, if Tsimikas breaks down again, we'll need Milner to step in there, as there's nobody else.
We have players to come back and strengthen the midfield. While I don't really want Shaq to abandon ship, the reality is Elliott is now ahead of him. Upfront we currently have 6 strikers for 3 spots. If that isn't enough, then I don't know what is.
After reviewing the posts on the last couple of pages, it's clear and obvious that we won the game.
From watching pre season, it was clear and obvious that VVD was ready for action, so he was straight in on Day 1. 3 goals, 3 points on the board, 3 points clear of City, 9 wins in the last 11 league games, 29 points from the last 33 available. How dare the pundits write us off in mid-August.
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