The squad

[Paul Cooper]

I am just picking bits out of other threads really and whilst we have had a great start, the worry is the overall small numbers in the squad.

One thing seems certain, CW does not trust the younger players yet. They have of course come from the Development Squad and this time next year the hope is that the players still here from this year may be more ready than they are now. But for this year? CW has traditionally brought on 3 substitutes in previous years. But now? 1 or 2 substitutions. O Dowda, Marsh do not appear to be trusted except in emergencies. Williams is being used a little.

If Smalley is going to be injured more often than not then we are in trouble.

I suspect that on Saturday at home CW will surely have to play one wide man (I suspect that Hall will be left side midfield). So if Smalley doesn't play what does he do? I suspect that there will be groans around the ground if Davies is playing on the right. This would really be ultra defensive at home (it can just about work away I guess). So Potter on the right and Smalley in the middle or Potter in the middle and Williams on the right?

[Brahma Bull]

One thing seems certain, CW does not trust the younger players yet. They have of course come from the Development Squad and this time next year the hope is that the players still here from this year may be more ready than they are now. But for this year? CW has traditionally brought on 3 substitutes in previous years. But now? 1 or 2 substitutions. O Dowda, Marsh do not appear to be trusted except in emergencies. Williams is being used a little.

I am beginning to think Wilder is backing himself into a corner with the youth. I agree he doesn't seem to trust "some" of the younger players and that was evidenced with his comments after the Rochdale game where he stated he looked behind him at his options and it was too inexperienced or youthful to introduce any of them. I found that a frustrating comment.

I want to see our youth being given more of a chance; perhaps I am specifically on about Callum O'Dowda. Williams has been introduced three/four times this season in the league, Marsh has come on in a couple of games and offered little. Ruffells looks like he is established as a substitute and has also been introduced, notably Torquay. But I want to see 'our' kids, I want to see Callum being given his chance. Pre-season he did exceptionally well.

The line-up on Saturday, having been criticised last home game out for his defensive/negative set-up, is going to be key.

I am hoping Lenagan doesn't sanction any more loan signings at present and forces the issue.

[neilw]

All this banging on about using the youth / development squad, I find somewhat naive. COD is a very promising young player whom will hopefully prove to be an exciting league player in a few years. Right now, he's merely potential. The jump from youth footie to playing against experienced, cynical, physical league 2 players is massive. Light year’s apart. By all means, let’s introduce COD, Marsh and others for the last 10/15 minutes when we are 3-0 up, but to rely on them from the start, against the likes of Chesterfield, is too much.

Take Danny Rose, as a young player he showed real potential and enjoyed the best coaching available: It's taken him a good few years and a lot of commitment to finally compete at professional level. The romance of a local lad coming through the youth team is great and should be encouraged. In reality, it’s likely that they are not yet ready and might never be. Also, our fans are hardly patient enough to accept a few losses along the way in order to aid development.

Regardless, it would give the crowd a life to see COD run out on Saturday and assist in getting the fans behind the team from the off.

[Paul Cooper]

I think that the banging on about using the Development squad is because IL planned this to be the case (no other short term loans- use the development squad)

My view is that IL/ CW don't quite agree on this although the Development Squad players will clearly be more experienced and hopefully better next season.

The worry I guess is that in certain positions we are woefully short of players if the Development Squad players are deemed to be too inexperienced.

[neilw]

The development squad concept is good. Hopefully it will pay dividends in the longer term. The problem right now is that the development squad haven't yet developed. Unfortunately, our injury situation, and hence reliance on the DV squad, has been dumped on us before we've got going.

Of course Wilder doesn't agree with the approach. If he's not successful this season, he won't be around to benefit from the DV strategy. He must be really pissed off with the current injuries, knowing the impact they could ultimately have on him personally.

[joepoolman]

I suspect that on Saturday at home CW will surely have to play one wide man (I suspect that Hall will be left side midfield). So if Smalley doesn't play what does he do? I suspect that there will be groans around the ground if Davies is playing on the right. This would really be ultra defensive at home (it can just about work away I guess). So Potter on the right and Smalley in the middle or Potter in the middle and Williams on the right?

How were we defensive on Saturday though? Since Rigg got injured in at the start of the Torquay game we've had at least one player that usually plays centrally playing out wide, and in that time, 5 games, we've scored 10 goals.

[Paul Cooper]

I think that it is defensive at home (5 goals in 3 games).

Away we are good on the break when teams come at us. But playing 4 centre midfield players for a home game does seem to me to be pretty defensive and trying to contain rather than to get through other teams and making chances.

On the goals for front, we seem to have significantly improved our set pieces and at the moment we are taking our chances. Some statistics seemed to show that Chesterfield make twice as many chances as we do but we are scoring a much higher % of our chances.

[Brahma Bull]

Callum is very promising and has shown in pre-season that he is ready to be close to the first team picture. I am not suggesting for one minute the gap isn't huge between the DS and L2 action but the DS has been in place for some significant time and has been cleverly added to in recent months (Williams & Ruffells signing, with the youth management casting their eye on players released from other Premiership and Championship clubs).

The Danny Rose analogy I don't agree with. If you meant it has taken Danny Rose a good few years to finally compete and be accepted as an OUFC player then that may be a view that exists amongst some of our fanbase. However, Danny Rose has demonstrated since he left OUFC the first time that he is a capable player and has done excpetionally well at Newport, got a move to Fleetwood and played regularly for Aldershot.

The Development Squad represents a pathway for our 'local' players and that is something most fans, regardless of a clubs status or place in the pyramid, buy into and want to see develop. It also provides plenty of other benefits, flogging them being the key one. I want to see Callum more, especially when Rigg is laid up injured.

Moreover, our development squad train every day with the senior players. They have been introduced plenty of times already this season (Williams in three league games, Ruffells against Torquay, COD at Charlton, Marsh at home to Rochdale and Burton) so I would say they are ready or at least to be trusted based on that.

Thankfully today the OM report that Wilder and OUFC won't be getting in loan players to cover Constable and Wright and that's something I agree with.

[Out of the gloom]

Would not say small. Rather parts are being underused.

As mentioned in other places. Williams is on loan, not part of the Development Squad. Whilst he is not the preferred option to start when Potter plays central (Davies has been to date), difficult to see what the club, Williams or Fulham are gaining. It certainly doesn't aid the case for more loan signings.

Also, looking at the four Development Squad games so far, a number of trialists have been used. Two trialist appearances have been in defence. They are understandable given Long is injured. Although they were perhaps missed opportunities to give Raynes some game time. But three were in midfield or attack despite no Development Squad member being unavailable.

Overall I think IL and CW had a good (arguably very good) summer in recruitment; planning, budget, execution and timing. However, whilst Williams is not being used for the first team and there appears a gap in the Development Squad, neither short nor long term prospects are being fully realised.

[Mooro]

As some are saying, the nature of the DevSquad is that at some stage it required a big investment to get enough players in to make up the bulk (if not the whole) of an XI to play in the Dev games planned. I think we were right to do it when we did, rather than trying to do it gradually, but the inevitable problem being that that investment has impacted upon the amount left to spend on the senior squad. Wilder has focused on an experienced core, many of whom are capable of playing in different positions, so you can see the thinking was to try to get through this season (or at least the first half/two-thirds) by juggling the senior players and slowly introducing the more developed DS boys along the way. What they didn't bank on (or did but hoped they would avoid) is such a major injury crisis, particularly at such an early stage in the season, exposing this lack of depth beyond the core 15/16 players.

Where I think we may have missed a trick (although I can see why they have done it), is by focusing on 18-19 year olds, who are generally not ready to feature in the first team this season, whereas this transition year might have been better managed by trying to include a couple of slightly older lads (who would be the equivalent to 2nd/3rd year DS players) who could still benefit from being in the DevSquad, but would also represent players that the manager could feel comfortable in using in the first team from the word go (ie. like Ryan Williams, but signed rather than loaned). My preference would have been for a striker and a centre-back (particularly now our three main strikers are all showing vulnerabilities that may mean them missing games regularly and our main DevSquad centre-back has been injured since the first week of pre-season).

However, we (IL) have chosen to not go down that route or the loan path, so I think we have to be prepared for more juggling over the next few months....which if nothing else, will keep things interesting.

[slappy]

Josh Shama is nominated for Young Player of the Year in the Asian Football Awards 2013.