Best 11 at this moment

[Lambert09]

The optimism around the season is starting to build. Our squad is definitely looking strong despite no incomings.

 

A thread to post who you think is our strongest 11. 
 

Now that we have a bit of an idea what Marti will line up with. 
 

my 11 would be 

 

                           jakob

RP Nelson. Souttar (okoli until he’s fit) JJ

                   Winks  skipp

fatawu.               Bilal.               Monga 

                             Ayew

 

 

2nd 11

                         Bausor

hamza.      Vesty.         Faes.         Thomas

                     Ndidi.      Soumare 

Mcateer.               Alves.              Mav

                               Evans

 

that’s an embarrassment of riches. The second 11 is almost good enough in this league with a couple of tweaks and that’s with us selling mads,

 

and we still have the following spare:

Aluko

kristiansen 

Decordova-Reid 

page 

wanya 

braybrooke 

(1 of the cbs) 

coady 

Woyo (what a waste of a signing that was) 

goulding 

 

 

Edited 23 July 2025 by Lambert09

[Raj]

The optimism around the season is starting to build. Our squad is definitely looking strong...stopped reading after this!!!

[ParkerPen]

I love how you have ignored Daka

[Chief Keef]

There is no way Skipp should start over Ndidi, Soumare or even Page based on what we’ve seen so far from him. 
 

Unless his performances significantly improve I don’t feel confident about us mounting a serious challenge for promotion with him in the starting 11. 

[les-tah]

8 minutes ago, Raj said:

The optimism around the season is starting to build. Our squad is definitely looking strong...stopped reading after this!!!

You need to detatch yourself from last season and realise we are a championship side now and probably have one of the strongest championship squads around. We just have a world of pain if we get promoted again.

[Fear Of The Fox]

7 minutes ago, Raj said:

The optimism around the season is starting to build. Our squad is definitely looking strong...stopped reading after this!!!

Apart from the obvious issues in certain positions this is considered a quite strong team for Championship. Did you expect us to fully rebuild and being in serious danger to drop in League One? 

[Fear Of The Fox]

2 minutes ago, les-tah said:

You need to detatch yourself from last season and realise we are a championship side now and probably have one of the strongest championship squads around. We just have a world of pain if we get promoted again.

This is unfortunately one of the biggest problems. If we get promoted we'll need at least 15 quality players and I can't see how we can achieve that under the current stupid financial rules. 

[Finnegan]

Don't entirely know how Cifuentes is going to line up or who we're going to manage to sell, etc, or who he'll get a tune out of. Every new manager, at every club, there's always one or two players that surprise coming back in to the fold.

 

So, assuming a clean slate for everyone and assuming Enzo's formation because it's still probably the best way for our current squad to line up then the objectively best 11 is probably something like this (unpopular opinion incoming) -

 

Mads

Ricardo, Faes, Vestergaard, JJ

Winks

Fatawu, Ndidi, BEK, Mavididi

Daka

 

I mean, that's basically the team that won a load of games in this division last time out. We know they all work, BEK is probably a good enough replacement for KDH that you could carry on as we left off last time we were here.

 

Would I pick that team? Probably not. Do I expect they'll all be here come the first game? Probably not. But on paper I'd argue that's our strongest 11 still, regardless of how people see some of our kids are at the moment or how sick of Faes, Vestergaard, JJ, Ndidi, Winks and Daka some (most?) of you are.

 

Edited 23 July 2025 by Finnegan

[alanf0x]

My optimism will not return until the DOF has moved on.

 

Mistake after mistake, after mistake. 
 

Imagine watching Villa next season with Youri and Bilal for a combined £15 million.

 

Clubs such a mess behind the scenes. 

 

 

[Lambert09]

24 minutes ago, ParkerPen said:

I love how you have ignored Daka

I’m not wrong to leave him out tbh 

 

id have bdr up front over him at this stage as well. 

[Lambert09]

22 minutes ago, Chief Keef said:

There is no way Skipp should start over Ndidi, Soumare or even Page based on what we’ve seen so far from him. 
 

Unless his performances significantly improve I don’t feel confident about us mounting a serious challenge for promotion with him in the starting 11. 

For this system i personally think skipp will be more useful than wilf. I’m very much leaning on the hope that he’s at the level he was for Norwich (player of the season for them in this div)

[Stadt]

Daka

Mavididi  BEK  Fatawu

Ndidi Winks

Kristiansen Nelson Okoli Pereira

Hermansen 

 

Haven't seen enough of the younger players yet to say for certain whether they're better than this lot - I suspect it is the case. I think at least 3 of those move on though.

 

We need to sign a striker.

[FoxinNotts]

                       Hermansen

 

Ricardo.      Nelson      Okoli.       Justin.

                            Ndidi.

             Winks.            El.Kahnnouss

 

      Fatawu.     Mavididi.     Monga.

 

Edited 23 July 2025 by FoxinNotts

[Finnegan]

15 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

I’m not wrong to leave him out tbh 

 

id have bdr up front over him at this stage as well. 

 

jfc

[Lambert09]

5 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

jfc

Are we linked with him? I’ve heard he’s good at connecting with crosses

[honeybradger]

15 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

For this system i personally think skipp will be more useful than wilf. I’m very much leaning on the hope that he’s at the level he was for Norwich (player of the season for them in this div)

Did you not watch the games against Zalaegerszeg, Leuven or Peterborough? Skipp is nowhere near good enough, even against relatively weak opposition.

 

That season for Norwich was 5 years ago, it's like expecting Ndidi to still be one of the best midfielders in the PL because he was in that category from 2019-2021, like Ndidi Skipp is just not the same player anymore after his injuries.

[Noahfence]

I find it utterly mad it’s 2025 and we’re still seeing Ndidi in predicted line ups 

[les-tah]

44 minutes ago, Fear Of The Fox said:

This is unfortunately one of the biggest problems. If we get promoted we'll need at least 15 quality players and I can't see how we can achieve that under the current stupid financial rules. 

(If we keep them) I think only hope we have got if we get promoted is our young players such as Fatawu, Monga, Bilal, Nelson become world class and enough to scrape survival on return. Sounds unrealistic and very football manager but would make a good movie.

[fox_favourite]

For god sake. I can't take the optimism on Foxestalk. 

 

World has gone mad!!

[Lambert09]

10 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Did you not watch the games against Zalaegerszeg, Leuven or Peterborough? Skipp is nowhere near good enough, even against relatively weak opposition.

 

That season for Norwich was 5 years ago, it's like expecting Ndidi to still be one of the best midfielders in the PL because he was in that category from 2019-2021, like Ndidi Skipp is just not the same player anymore after his injuries.

I thought he looked positive in the leuven game. I’m not going to write him off yet, he has a role to play 

[Scotch]

                             Jakub.

 

Aluko.         Okoli.           Nelson.         Justin 

 

                 Ricardo.           Winks.   

 

Fatawu.                  Bilal.                      Monga.

   

                                Ayew.

 

Granted Aluko over Ndidi (with Ricardo at FB) and Monga over Stephy are gambles, those are the two that look ready and have impressed in pre-season so far so I'd give them their chance in this system, which I think suits them AND Ricardo centrally.  

[winteriscoming]

                 Jakob 

Justin  Okoli Nelson Thomas   

           Ricardo Winks

                  Bilal 

  Monga  Mavididi Fatuwo 

 

I heard that at QPR Cifuentes would play winger’s in a forward position and mix it up with changing who played up front by swapping it with wide players. I like the sound of that rather than Daka or Ayew starting up front. 
I don’t think Bilal will stay so can see Alves in that role. 

[Guest]

I'm inclined to agree it's similar to 23/24 and I'd be surprised by any radical departure from that setup aside from the obvious, enforced ones.

 

Regardless of how exactly we line up, the lack of goals in the team is probably the biggest concern for me. I'm generally quite sceptical of the value of signing "pure goalscorers" or whatever you want to call them but I think I'm right in saying that of the current squad it's only Mavididi and Daka who have managed double figures in the last decade, and the latter's crisis of confidence now looks pretty terminal. The closest thing we have to a goalscoring midfielder is Ndidi which is a sobering thought.

Edited 23 July 2025 by Guest

[moseeds]

There is no way Ndidi and Mavididi don't start. Monga is a growing young man, throwing him into the rough and tumble of the Championship regularly is a terrible idea and likely to hamper his career. Similar Faes and even Vestergaard are very decent at Championship level. It's strike that is concerning, and squad depth over 40 odd games.

[Chelmofox]

16 minutes ago, moseeds said:

There is no way Ndidi and Mavididi don't start. Monga is a growing young man, throwing him into the rough and tumble of the Championship regularly is a terrible idea and likely to hamper his career. Similar Faes and even Vestergaard are very decent at Championship level. It's strike that is concerning, and squad depth over 40 odd games.

Ndidi won't be here. I can see Mongda and Mavididi rotating for starts but honestly if things carry on it will get to the point where Mavi will be the rotation option. That is assuming that Monga stays on the wing.