I have to agree that we have signed some not so very exciting players this summer. But how many of them are going to be first choice when looking at the positions that they play in? For example Hanley and Clark will probably sit on the bench in most games, and so will Murphy. And i'm pretty certain that "higher profile" players would have expected to start more often than not. These players are mainly signed because they can do a solid job when called upon and they have experience in this division so when needed they can come in and do a decent job and they wont have to be bedded in adapt before they get thrown in. Meanwhile players like Ritchie, Gayle, Diame, Hayden, Lazaar, Yedlin are more likely play a bigger role as our main starting players, together with players that we have since before.
I think Rafa is having a pretty good idea which 11 probably will be his main players, even though our "second eleven" will have a couple of players jumping in every now and then and start. To keep the main players fresh as well as when there are injuries and suspensions or whatever it might be. I'm pretty certain though that he wont play too many of his second eleven players at the same time as he will want to be sure that the eleven that starts will mainly include his more important players. It might sound weird when i say second eleven players and he will do rotation and all that, but the core in each team he starts will include more of his important players than the ones mainly used as squad players.
I also think that Rafa is trying to get a good good balance when it comes to signing new players, i would like to think that he wants to make us as strong as possible without spending crazy money. He will want to make sure that we go up without spending a ridiculous amount of money on the squad as whole, on too many players he probably wont see as good enough when/if we go up. I think he is a year ahead in his planning and is keeping his powder a bit dry as he aims to sign more high calibre players when we hopefully are in the Premier League again. That is probably why we haven't signed too many players in the £10-15m bracket. He will aim big next season and that's why i'm not too worried that we arent signing as many exciting players as we probably could. Wouldn't even surprise we if we sell a couple of players next season that we've just signed, without losing too much money on them (the ones not seemed good enough for our starting eleven or as backup)
