Putting the Reid argument aside, of the ten possible outfield players, we have had Thomas, Ambrose, Holland, Fortune, Bougerra, ZZ & Sam from our Premiership side with Sankofa as an obvious contender this year, all available for selection most of the year. So the only area for significant change was the forwards, where we already had the promising Dickson, the option to keep big Bent and spent £4m on two rated scorers from lower leagues, additionally Toddy & big Chris on a free. Another £1.5m in the window also.
OK, some of these forwards had bad luck with injuries, but I’d say their collective failure to score regularly had more to do with a lack of coherent pattern of play than anything else. The reason for us underperforming is not the huge upheaval on the squad, but the lack of consistent selection or game plan and Pardew's desire to use everyone in one of the biggest & expensive squads in the CCC. That's why our current predicament is such a disappointment.
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Players must be crapping themselves as if they don't score/perform impeccably one week then they are totally out of the squad the week after.