Lincoln City head coach Chris Cohen believes the Imps are heading into Saturday’s clash with Portsmouth in a strong position, with the squad beginning to take shape after a summer of recruitment.
City have had injury issues to manage during the opening weeks of the campaign. Tom Bayliss only returned to the squad last weekend after a spell out, while Sonny Bradley remains sidelined and James Collins is continuing his rehabilitation from his long-term knee injury.
There was also a brief concern at Middlesbrough when Conor McGrandles went down early in the game, although the midfielder was able to continue as City eventually suffered a 2-1 defeat. Still, when asked about the fitness of his squad ahead of the first home league game of the season, Cohen was positive.
“Yeah, we’re in a good place,” Chris told press this afternoon.
“Obviously, a couple are not too far away as well, so we’re in a really good place.
“Some new players have obviously come in to join us as well, so the strength is looking really good at the moment and we’re excited to showcase the new faces to the supporters.”
One of those new faces is Yunus Emre Konak, who has arrived to bolster the midfield options available to Cohen and Tom Shaw. His addition also prompted the question of whether City’s recruitment this summer has been aimed more specifically at bringing in players capable of immediately challenging for places.
With players like Yunus arriving, and potentially further signings to follow, Cohen was asked whether that represented a slight change from last season, when some of the loan additions were initially used more as depth.
“Yeah. I think every head coach will always say you want to have options of the same level in every position.
“We’ve got three wonderful midfielders who have done incredibly well for the football club, and we’ve now added a fourth who we think competes with those three really well. When we get to Saturday afternoon, dependent on how the training week has gone, dependent on what the opposition do and dependent on what we feel is the best fit for the team, we want to have at least two options in every position to pick from.
“As always, football has an organic way of picking a team by how they train, how they react and obviously what they do on a Saturday afternoon.”
That competition for places is likely to increase further before the transfer window closes. City have already strengthened the squad significantly, but Cohen confirmed that further additions remain possible.
“We’re really happy with the squad,” added Chris. “We know there might be one or two more coming in, but we’re always in constant communication with Jez and Liam. We’re really content with where we’re at and excited about potentially a couple more coming in.”
For now, the immediate focus is Portsmouth and the opportunity for the new-look squad to make its first Championship appearance of the season in front of the Sincil Bank crowd.
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