I think it’s a very interesting point you raise about ‘consistency vs quality’. Like you say, had we played to our full potential for a prolonged period of time last season, we would’ve been right up there. That said, I think that consistency and quality are intertwined in the sense that, the more depth of quality players you have, the more likely you are to be consistent. The deterioration of our results last season coincided with injuries to key players at the time such as Jacobs, Powell and Grigg. If we’d had a larger squad, it would have been easier for us to bring in quality replacements for these, so we would’ve had a better chance of carrying on our early season form, and hence establishing more consistency in terms of our results. As it were, the lack of depth in quality players meant that the replacements for the aforementioned players were inadequate, and, consequently, results tailed off and we failed to maintain any degree of consistency after our brilliant start. This goes back to my original point that, to be consistent in the league, you need to have a squad which has depth in quality players for most positions. So consistency isn’t really possible without the quality being there in the first place. This balance is something that I believe we have this season to a greater extent than in our last campaign, and so I genuinely think that we are in with a much better shot at a top-half, potentially even playoff finish this season, than we were last season. I hope I’ve explained this clearly enough!
Like you say though, other sides have strengthened in terms of depth so it’s difficult to predict what will happen.
