YOU CAN tell how strong a squad is by looking at its bench. For the muted friendly against AZ Alkmaar - the last before the big kick-off and traditionally a game where bosses turn out the team they expect to start the season - Boro's bench looked woefully short of the Premiership: Brad Jones, Jason Euell, Dong Gook Lee, Seb Hines, Jonathan Grounds, Josh Walker and Tom Craddock.
Some of those youngsters have plenty of potential and may well yet follow the well worn path from academy to first team pioneered by Stewy Downing and Lee Cattermole (or veer off on the Jock Morrison branchline and pay back some of the investment in the youth system) but you would not like to stake Premiership survival on them. The older ones have been tried and tested in the big league and you wouldn't gamble on them as match-winners from the bench either.
And yes, there were a few senior players out with niggles or suspensions but that will happen when the campaign kicks off for real too. There will come times in the season when Boro will need to call on the full depths of the squad and as it stands it is Posh Spice visibly boney.
The skeletal squad was further emphasised when Boro released their squad numbers. Like the stands there are glaring gaps that leap out at you. The numbers 4 and 9, last year occupied by Ugo Ehiogu and Mark Viduka, are blank along with 12, 13 and 15. The 23 is left open too but I wouldn't assume David Beckham's arrival is imminent and 25 is of course not allocated, retired in honour of Juninho's first coming.
We should assume that those low numbers have been consciously left blank. If the squad was complete then some of the fringe players would be symbolically promoted up the pecking order to fill them. There are plenty of clubs who don't have a No 13 but very few who don't have their recognised No 9. And after all there are still three weeks in which shrewd shopping can address those key positions but it is a graphic illustration of the severity of the cull that has taken place over the past 12 months nevertheless.
So far the Summer recruitment drive has seen Woodgate, Aliadiere, Tuncay and Young arrive and that must be regarded as a positive series of signings. Woodgate was arguably the biggest factor in keeping Boro up last term because not only was he a commanding and cool figure at the back but he also helped transform Emanuel Pogatetz from rash one-man free-kick machine into an assured defender and inspire the whole back four to new heights. Tuncay has the ability and verve to be a talismanic presence who can make the new high-energy attacking philosophy a reality and Aliadiere can help make that happen while erstwhile England man Young has solved the long standing problem at right back.
But what of the departures? It is not just Viduka for Aliadiere in a straight swap up front but also since the start of last term Malcolm Christie and Massimo Maccarone have departed with only the lightweight and as yet goalless Lee coming in. Without reinforcements Boro are only a whisker away from starting with a Lee-Euell frontline and Craddock on the bench, especially if Yakubu stays and then goes away for a month for the African Nations Cup in January.
And that slimming down of the workforce is reproduced in other departments too. At the back Young has arrived but Parnaby, Xavier and Ehoigu have gone while in midfield it is Tuncay in but Morrison, Parlour and Mendieta - who hasn't even been given a squad number - out. You can argue that most of those needed to be moved on - and I would - but the leap from there to not replacing them at all is one fraught with danger.
A run of injuries or suspensions to even just a few key players - Tuncay and Downing for instance - could quickly leave Boro unbalanced and back to the old square peg/round hole conunderum and without options the boss could be forced to retreat from a brave new era of attacking football to shoring it up, playing five across the middle and digging in. That would be seen as a political and philosophical disaster for Southgate and an indictment of the Summer reshuffle and entire transfer policy and will add to the already widespread discontent.
The club know that and continue to search for the right players at the right prices but need to find a complex cocktail of proven players with Premiership ability and a winning mentality but conversely also ones that accept that they are not guarenteed a first team start. It is a difficult test but it must be completed before the deadline or Boro run the risk of going into the season with a strong first XI (when fit) but a paper thin squad that could find itself in trouble.
Many of those pruned from the squad over the past year were among the higher earners so in theory it has freed up a big chunk of the wage bill that can be used to now fill those all important glaringly vacant numbers, especially 4 and 9 and hopefully 12 and 15 too (we'll be generous and accept that 13 may be left blank for reasons of superstition).
By my reckoning Boro need reinforcing with a right-sided midfielder to cover for Turkish transformer Tuncay (who on his arrival was packaged as free roaming striker but who appears to have since morphed into a flanker with a licence to cut in) or with McMorrison out of the picture we face playing Lee Cattermole or George Boateng out there again should he pick up a knock.
The team also needs an creative central midfielder with pace to provide competition for Arca and Rochemback and to give the option of playing an attacking role behind the main striker in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1, the role that Smith was presumably being targetted for.
Next in line of importance is cover at right-back (and possibly a versatile player who can also slot in at left back) because Young is the only specialist in that role bar the perma-crocked Tony McMahon and on the other side Andrew Taylor can't easily be replaced without taking Pogatetz or Arca out of far more effective roles.
Ideally Boro need another proven striker too, preferably one with Premiership expereince and one who can shift a bit (Darius Vassell, Kanu and Shola Ameobi have all bubbled to the surface of the speculation stew today) although if it turns out to be a warhorse targetman like Rob Hulse or even Paul Dickov then at least that will offer a Plan B for the last 20. Of course, if the Yak proves there is no smoke without fire Boro will need two strikers but let's not go there.Yet.
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