Alex Neil has admitted that due to a lack of squad depth, he may be forced to play Jack Clarke as a striker, should Neil opt for a 3-5-2 formation. He also shared his initial views on our newest signing, Aji Alese...
BACKUP OPTION
“I’d hope that’s not the situation but we may very well find ourselves there. There are lots of things out of our control but it’s certainly an option."
BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS
“The simple fact is I’ll have the tools that I have like I did last season and I’ll try to and make the best of what we’ve got in terms of who is available. Equally, we want to try and improve and strengthen the squad to try and give ourselves the best chance of being successful this year. I’m pretty sure all the teams are the same so we’re no different.”
STEWART
“Yeah no problems. I certainly wouldn’t have risked them today if there had been problems. Ross wanted to play longer but that’s us done 45 minutes to 60 and then we’ll build him up to 90 in the next one. I think that is a good progression for him.”
WORK TO DO
“We still have signings to make in a variety of positions so we know we have work to do. We’ve worked well and quietly in the background to get players in which has been good but we understand that we have got more to do because it is going to be a long, hard, difficult season in the Championship."
EYE OPENER
“It’s a tough level to operate at, particularly when we haven’t been there for a significant amount of time. I think it will open some eyes when we get there.”
ALESE
"He is very different from what we have got. He’s big, strong, powerful, left footed which I think we needed for balance. He can equally play at left-back as well as left centre-back so it covers both positions off which, certainly last year, we were light in that area. I think he is a good signing."
RAW
“He’s not played a lot of minutes so what we don’t want to do is we don’t want to be too judgemental over him too early but he’s certainly got the raw attributes to become a big powerful centre-back. He can step in as you saw today (vs Dundee) and split a line, hit a diagonal so he’s got the tools.”
