Who else is there? Aside from signing up some loan defenders a la Dailly and Lucketti last season, we have to make do with the young defenders we have, with either ageing, injury prone Svensson, Thomas and Perry to help out, or midfielders like Surman, Skacel or Wotton.
The key is getting the youngsters to concentrate for the 90 minutes, but of course there is no substitute for experience, which the youth will only get by playing. I doubt though that the situation will be addressed, and we'll be seeing a few more nailbiting results before the end of the season.