No pace: 2 transfer regrets Carlisle United should have after summer transfer window | OneFootball

The owners believe that Carlisle had a good transfer window.

Carlisle United's owners have made the decision that the management team was to blame for the club's poor start to the season, and not the recruitment team.

Club chairman and owner, Tom Piatak, said, after making the decision to sack manager Paul Simpson and members of the backroom staff, including Gavin Skelton, Billy Barr and Jake Simpson, that the internal metrics that the management team were set to hit were not being met, and this was why the decision was made to part ways.

Conversely, the recruitment team, who have faced some scrutiny over the past year or so, were praised by Piatak. "The recruiting department did their job. I know we have the talent on board," said the American businessman to the News & Star.

Players with League One pedigree, like Charlie Wyke, Terell Thomas and Jordan Jones were brought in. There's certainly a lot to like about this squad for whoever becomes United's next head coach, but there are still a couple of areas, on the recruitment side of things, that maybe didn't go as well as they could have.

Lack of diversity

It was obvious, based on the players that Carlisle signed, in terms of their traits and their natural positions, that Simpson was going to ride or die with the 5-3-2 formation.

This meant that there was a lot of recruitment made to improve the spine of the team, but the only signings made in wide areas were wing-backs and one winger: Jones.

The lack of desire from Simpson to add players who could stretch the pitch in high areas baffled supporters, and their concerns were validated when, in a majority of the games so far this season, Simpson switched mid-game to a 4-3-3, which requires wingers.

The Northern Ireland international is the only player at the club who can naturally play this role. The likes of Dominic Sadi and Daniel Adu-Adjei can be used out wide, but their better work tends to come when playing down the centre of the park.

Carlisle's squad is very much built for a specific formation. Now that the manager who wanted to play in that way is gone, whoever the new boss is could find there are limitations with this team, thanks to the rigid approach taken during the window.

Lack of pace

Not only do the Blues lack players who can stretch the pitch widthways, they don't have many options in terms of players who can stretch defences lengthways either.

Of the strikers that Carlisle have available, Adu-Adjei, 19, is the only one of them who can consistently get in behind defences. Luke Armstrong attempts to, but he doesn't have the requisite acceleration to cause too many problems, and Wyke is a hold-up centre-forward at this stage of his career.

It's an even more bleak story out wide. Jones, the club's only wide forward, is a great technician, but he's not someone that's going to beat a full-back with a burst of speed and get to the by-line often.

Again, this makes Carlisle a bit of a one-dimensional team at times, because they don't have the tactical flexibility that is allowed by having these different profiles of players in their squad.

The most annoying thing for supporters will be that United had the same pace problem last year and yet it hasn't been addressed very well, even with the new financial resources available to them.