Sunderland’s £100m Summer Splash: Squad depth is needed to compete at the top

Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images

Exciting times for every Sunderland fan. I saw a graphic earlier showing how much money we’d spent compared to other Premier League teams. That’s us! That’s our club!

“Sunderland aren’t messing about, are they?” said the Sky Sports News presenter. No, we aren’t! I still have to ‘give my head a wobble’ to realise how far we’ve come. Even under Peter Reid or Roy Keane, I can’t remember such anticipation or such well-laid plans. For context – I’m past retirement age.

But here’s an interesting observation

I’ve noticed in the last few days, both from views I’ve read online and different podcasts I’ve listened to – a lot of our fans (certainly on social media) have the mindset of, ‘well, if we sign him, that means we’d have to drop Dan Neil’, or, ‘what will that mean for Luke O’Nien, he’ll be pushed out.’ It really isn’t about a starting XI anymore. It’s not going to be about ‘dropping’ anyone. It’s going to be more of a squad game this season more than ever before.

If you watch any top-class game, the quality on the bench is astounding, and that’s what I think the club is aiming for. Jack Grealish hardly gets a start for Manchester City, being an excellent example.

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We wouldn’t mind him, either...

I looked at some stats for appearances last season in the Premier League, and nearly all teams had 15–18 players who appeared over 20 times in games during the course of the season. The total of squad members who were actually used at some stage ranged from 24 players to 32 players. That’s obvious, therefore, that we need a deep squad with plenty of quality. Forget about which person will be in the ‘first XI’ – there shouldn’t be such a thing. There should be formations that suit certain matches or certain tactics. That’s before we even think about injuries. There needs to be quality to support quality.

On the evidence of our new midfield so far, you may not pick Chris Rigg or Dan Neil ahead of Diarra, Le Fée and Sadiki – but no one can tell me that Riggy and Dan aren’t very important players for us. It is no longer a team game, and we need to change our mindsets accordingly.

The best example for me is rugby (both codes). They call their bench or substitutes ‘replacements’. Sometimes, the ‘best players’ are replacements. The coach knows he’ll be bringing them on after 50 minutes or so, to totally affect and change the game – usually en masse – as a well-worked-out tactic before the game has even started.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

That’s the depth and quality we should strive for. If we do land Xhaka (at time of writing, it’s still up in the air), does that mean Sadiki might ‘lose his place’? He may not start in certain games, but ‘losing one’s place’ shouldn’t come into it.

I’ve watched Sky Sports News more than ever before. I’m glued to blogs and podcasts. Such exciting times. I can’t wait to see how we perform against West Ham. I’m so pleased for the younger generation to be around to experience this new venture.

Hopefully, I’ll no longer have to sound like a dinosaur saying, ‘I remember when...’ or ‘You should have seen...’ – hopefully, with the foresight and planning of our board, this big ship is building up to full steam ahead.

Ha’way me bonnie lads!

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