Dowie players

Brisie12

With most of the signings made Dowie has expressed how each will provide quality and/or athleticism. Fitness, in harness with Harbin, appears to be more and more important in the current game and the benefit of its worth was there to see clearly in the Bolton win.

The players acquired this week both appear to be strong combative types, which will undoubtedly see us fall off of the radar in terms of the Fair Play League for this season. This is no bad thing IMHO.

Aside from JFH it was strange to see that Dowie, as an ex-Forward himself, did not see the need to strengthen that area further. Lets hope that decision come back to haunt him. We will all look on anxiously everytime Bent jnr takes a tumble.

The squad photo will make an interesting sight when compared to that from last season. There is no doubt that the team which starts against Chelsea will be Dowie made: even Young and Bent he helped to keep.

Hopefully the new signings will bring the best out of players like Hughes, Holland and Kishisheve who are not quite good enough on current form, but may prove useful squad players particularly on league cup nights.

AFKABartram

i'm also starting to wonder whether playing two of the first three games with ten men may actually help us more in the next 2-6 games, with players achieving peak levels earlier than other clubs.

Or am i just going out of my way to find a positive spin ??? !!

Brisie12

In some ways it is a shame that the international break has come along when we could have looked to build up some momentum, but with Chelsea up next I suppose there was always little chance of that happening. That game will test out the fitness levels, for sure.