Senior Squad of 27, and Formations for the Season?

With the sudden rush to the door marked 'ENTER' at The Valley, and with things seemingly gone quiet at the 'EXIT' door at least as Messrs Euell and Fish are concerned, by my calculations we have a 'senior' squad of 27 players, not even counting a handful of youngsters (Sam, Varney, Sankofa, Fuller etc..) who may knock on the first team door in due course. With more signings likely before the season starts, it begs the question, can we keep a squad of this size happy? This is particularly relevant as Curbs is not typically one to rotate for the sake of it, and moreover clearly has his favourites whose regular selection baffles many fans (Kishishev, JJ, Lisbie etc..).

Just to put it in perspective, in midfield for example we will have Murphy, Holland, Smertin, Kishishev, Thomas, Rommedahl, Hughes, Ambrose, and Euell competing for probably four, and perhaps occasionally five first-team places. None of these players strike me as likely to enjoy a prolonged stint on the bench or in the stiffs, and moreover Euell proved it last season. Just in central midfield alone, it is a huge selection headache to pick two from Murphy, Holland and Smertin. It is easy to say "drop Holland" or similar, but he is club captain, Murphy is perhaps the highest profile player at the club and Smertin played 16 times for the runaway Champions last season. Admittedly the likes of Chelsea have this problem in spades every week, but we are Charlton after all - it's not like they're earning £50k per week to sit on the bench. Curbs clearly has some interesting selection decisions to make next season.

I suspect he will line up with a more defensive looking team away, and a more attacking one at home. He has shown willingness to line up with a entirely defensively-minded midfield in the past and I suspect his usual caution will be apparent again. Hence I see irregular appearances from Rommedahl and Thomas away from the Valley, and regular stints there for Kishishev and Holland. I suspect we will line up both home and away with just one up front (Bent?), since we have more than one player who can fill the attacking midfielder role (Euell, Ambrose, Murphy etc..). If we play both Rommedahl and Thomas at the same time, and an attacking midfielder in the 'hole' then by definition we have to play two defensive-minded midfielders behind him, and two of Holland, Smertin and Kishishev seem well-suited. Indeed, if I was in Curbs' shoes (which I'm not) this would be my 'default' team selection and shape for every game, home or away. Only Bartlett is a natural 'receiver' of crosses from the flanks, but the pace of Rommedahl and Thomas is such that their threat may come from their willingness to use their pace to cut inside and become the second striker, rather than the deliverer of chances. Indeed the combination of their pace of the two wingers plus Bent, and the guile of either Ambrose or Murphy behind, has me positively salivating. Clearly this formation requires the Herminator and Young to avoid the temptation to bomb forward, but these are hardly their strengths in the first place.

Most fans have been frustrated at times with the caution of Curbs, but in my view by having a solid core of seven players (keeper, back four, two defensive-minded midfielders), we can allow the flair players to express themselves going forward, without the fear that we're going to risk losing too many games 3-2. The likes of Thomas and Rommedahl will only add real value if they are allowed to drop their defensive shackles and play the way that comes naturally; with a squad of 27 surely there is enough depth in the defensive departments to give them free rein?