Bergkamp has done an impressive job over the past 4 seasons, and I think a lot of this has been his attention to defence. In his first season (S51) we conceded over 100 points in every competitive game apart from 1 (in which we conceded 98). In this past season we conceded less than 100 points in every game, even against BB powerhouse Lithuania. I would hope to continue this trend and continue to produce great defenders.
As for the future, I think we lack some key parts which would drastically improve the team, and that is big guys. Other then Barral we lack any good NT level bigs. Obviously I don't know the exact skills of any NT player as I only see them on the TL. We have some very good young bigs (Thomas, currently on TL, Franks and Cassell) who are close to NT level but aren't quite there yet. We have a couple of good bigs in Dolan and Carey but they don't come close to the bigs the top teams have at their disposal. I would look to work with managers to help us develop more high quality bigs so that we have a more balanced squad. Hank Easton has been a great C for us over the years but at age 34 we can't rely on him forever.
We have a lot of high quality guards/SFs to work with that are at a good age to be good for at least a few more season. To add to that, we have a lot of very good guards still developing so we are good on the perimeter for a while yet. This does not mean I would abandon the guard development, as it is very important this continues. I see this as a massive stregnth in our programme and we should do whatever we can to continue it.
I’ve had a look at the draw we’ve got this season and it looks pretty tough to crack the top 2. Bosnia look better than us who we would need to beat to finish 2nd. Although I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to for us to win if we’re at full strength. I’d be aiming for a 3rd place finish ahead of Finland as more more realistic target.
Last edited by arrowspg5 at 10/08/2021 08:15:14