In the squad that we have now I like having McCentee in the midfield. He does do good things there amongst all his obvious shortcomings. I like having a real physical presence in there personally.
The real issue is that we didn’t recruit a specialist to play there in the summer and look unlikely to in January or next summer unless there is a managerial change.
I will give McCentee some credit and suggest that due to his upbringing in international youth football and a premier league academy that he does possess the ability and tactical nouse to improve which I think he has done during this season. However it leaves us waiting for something that may not materialise on a really key position.
This was exactly my point in the summer mate - It was a massive black hole within the squad; along with the right wing back position.
We certainly need one or two key additions but I think there is lot more to come from this squad. We have seen the improvement in Gordon this year. I would expect improvements from a number of our younger players eg Hutchinson, Stirk, Tierney ( if we can sign him) , Williams, Foulkes as well as McEntee and if we do I think we have the basis for a team that can challenge at the top. Obviously we need a good replacement for Draper and another RB.
Players can improve with experience you know. I have seen it happen many times. Cheer up old chap 
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I think the clubs view is that these young players have the ability to improve. I agree with that and believe they will.
But for us to be serious challengers then we are going to need them all to improve and all at the same time unless we invest in some proven players to help them and us along the way and to also keep the ones that improve the most from looking to move on from us
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When is he back does anyone know? He could be a big miss and we don’t even know because he’s hardly played long enough to see if we are more solid with him than without him.
They definitely can. I’m very cheery. We’re about blob on where I expected us to be (probably a couple of points and a couple of places worse) but this is now us unfortunately so recycling the same squad isn’t a huge surprise.
You’re right about players improving but they can also regress depending upon the environment we provide. I look at how some struggled here and yet flowered elsewhere (Dan scarr a good example). I also look at some of our longer serving lads (and longer serving means more than one season these days). Has Knowles improved, stagnated or regressed? Someone like Kinsella who I always thought of having a great future ahead of him until I realised it was half a decade later and he had a great future behind him. Didn’t improve at all.
It’s where that back room is so so important. Number twos sometimes as important as number ones. Look at Smith and O’Driscoll across their whole careers with and without Richard O’Kelly.
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I mean, lots of players have the fitness required to get around the pitch. He runs a lot, I’ll give him that. Trouble is he’s normally chasing shadows.
Yes. Any centre half would in midfield.
Is he a good one though? I mean that is one of the key attributes you need as a midfielder. People went ape about Kinsella, is his passing range any better?
He’s shoe horned into a position he’s clearly not suited to, for … reasons. He’s a youth international at centre half, probably a reason for that.
Now we’ve tied him down to a long term contract and he’s here for the foreseeable future, time for a song for our midfield dynamo??
At first read, I was sure you’d said “time for a long term injury”!!!
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Knowing Sadlers luck it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he did his cruciates on Saturday and was out for a significant period.
Don’t even say that in jest!
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So what?
I give you Francis Benali…
Francis Benali - Wikipedia
So that’s probably his primary position. Unless Francis Benali played in goal or something at international level it’s irrelevant to my point.
Can’t see him being much good, 55 later this year.
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Read his wiki .
youth international striker scored a hatful as a schoolboy, Southampton signed him, decided he’s a left back, only one goal as a pro for them.
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Yes, too young. Maybe in a few years?
Another one of Chris Nicholls boys from Southampton. He had a bit of a Midas touch with youngsters and transfers in the time he was there.
Soooooo maybe if they had played him as striker he could have been their top scorer instead? Great 
he probably will only get one goal for them if they played him left back.
School Boy football is very different to U18/21s by the way. Completely different standard and most haven’t even developed properly at that stage. There’s tons of players that were strikers at school boy level, because you tend to put your best players up front at that point regardless. U18/21 is much more developed and structured.
I’m going to guess the main difference though, is that Benali looked good at left back, as a pose to McEntee in midfield.
Always good to pick out a typo when you can’t answer the point. The Piers Morgan defence 