Apart from Doucoure at Watford? James was one of the best number 10s in the world and Allan had played CL football at Napoli and was a Brazilian international. All of them had arrived earlier in the pre season too.
Lindstrom needed an U21 game just to get fit enough to still look rusty against a league 2 side. He looks nowhere near ready to start a PL game yet, I’m sure he will do in time but I don’t see what the massive issue is, he was clearly miles behind where he needed to be with his fitness.
O’Brien was just in the door, he might not have even been fully familiar with all the set piece drills yet or with how the line pushes up and drops off and who makes those calls between the defenders and keeper. I’m sure he’ll displace Keane this season as Branthwaite did last season once fit.
All these players will more than likely end up being first team players for the vast majority of the season and moving forward beyond that. It’s not Armageddon because they didn’t start exactly when some fans wanted them to.
