Size might matter as big men go

With Mark DeVries following Dion Dublin out of the door by signing for Heerenveen on loan, Leicester City are starting to look decidedly lightweight for their relegation fight.

They must surely be hoping to get some sizeable loan signings soon because Dublin and DeVries were undoubtedly the biggest men in the first team squad.

And, in letting both veteran heavyweights depart there is little doubt that City could well be even more vulnerable to the likes of QPR's Paul Furlong in tonight's match at Loftus Road and to other tall strikers until and if reinforcements arrive.

Heerenveen play in the Dutch League Division One, and in the UEFA Cup, so might be considered a step up, but DeVries has been looking more and more surplus to City's requirements for a while.

Chris O'Grady is much more in the general mould of City's team, being young, energetic and fairly mobile and with Matt Fryatt, Iain Hume Elvis Hammond and even Ashley Chambers as youthful back-up, City's direction seems clear.

But they probably won't survive long without any players of real height and strength.

Fans have already remarked that good teams invariably have a strong spine.

Douglas has been solid enough of late but is not young, McCarthy is still learning, excellent prospect though he is, and none of our current strikers are big enough, experienced or proven enough to be called formidable.

Let's hope QPR don't become the first team to catch us short, so to speak.

The situation should certainly encourage City to play fast, open football and to play the ball forward constructively. They just need to do it well and for 90 minutes.