Is squad depth set to prove key?

[BBC]

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If Brentford miss out on qualifying for Europe, then lack of squad depth will be one of the main reasons.

During the January transfer window we were fair to players who weren't getting any game time like midfielders Frank Onyeka, Yunus Konak, Paris Maghoma and Myles Peart-Harris in letting them leave either on loan or permanently.

Unfortunately those decisions have backfired on us as we are now desperately short in midfield.

Antoni Milambo, Fabio Carvalho and Josh Dasilva are long-term injury casualties, but Vitaly Janelt got injured in February and Jordan Henderson was hurt on recent England duty.

Mikkel Damsgaard played the first half against Everton despite suffering from illness and the only option to replace him was Reiss Nelson, who is a winger not a midfielder.

At Leeds, the bench had five teenagers on it and there were four on Saturday. In each game, Keith Andrews only made one substitution.

This is not blaming those players but, apart from Romelle Donovan, it would have been unfair to throw the others on given their inexperience.

Meanwhile, Everton made a triple substitution in the 74th minute on Saturday and although we retook the lead almost immediately, the fresh legs then swung the momentum in their favour.

Despite all this, we still got a point against the Toffees. It would almost have felt better at full-time if it had finished 1-1 as, having been 2-1 up going into stoppage time, not winning from there is more disappointing.

That makes it four consecutive Premier League draws for the first time. The away ones at Bournemouth and Leeds were decent results, but Saturday and the match with Wolves could ultimately prove costly.

But it's not all doom and gloom. We are still in contention for Europe and this weekend's derby with Fulham is even more important than usual.

Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast