Central midfielders: Sandro, Capoue, Paulinho, Dembele, Bentaleb, Holtby, Sigurdsson, Eriksen
Eight central midfielders.
That is too much competition even for a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Now we have Tim's preference for 4-4-2 there is a huge danger of over spill and bad atmosphere being created. At that rate some of those players must thinking "with the competition around me as it is, instead of just being dropped I could become 3rd or even fourth choice!" It's one thing for a manager to have one or two players knocking on the door every week but 4 to 8 players every week, that's a headache any manager could do without, especially when the focus should be on getting the squad to play together, gel etc. Something has to give, loaning out Holtby and Capoue makes sense.
I really don't mind seeing Livermore back at the club, he never set the world alight but did the job. Really don't understand this message board's obsession with have 25 perfect players.