We have a strong team, arguably the best in the world. However we need another central defender, another midfielder if Wijnaldum goes, plus another forward.
We’re short of a central defender now. Ideally we buy one in January and bring forward the summer purchase if the club can recruit who they want.
Wijnaldum ideally stays but prospects probably not great. Thiago is a great player but does succumb to injury. Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain too many injuries. Shaqiri likewise but will probably be sold. Jones has grown this season and stood up well so that’s a plus. But feel the need for another midfielder, more quality and depth.
Next season we are going to miss Mane and Salah with AFCON duties. Consistently our top two scorers and this is a real concern. Would look at selling Origi and Minamino if he doesn’t improve.
Mbappe would be ideal but chances are slim. Haaland would be great but will be expensive. Sure there will be other options out there but these two would have to be near enough top of the list.
Vestergaard at Southampton looks good. ‘Tall’ just to satisfy some members requests , additionally seems very comfortable on the ball, can play the long diagonal ball and is an attacking threat from set pieces.
Regarding success rates in the air, how are they accounted for? Like many stats in football it can be manipulated to prove a point to suit the debate. For example, pass success rate, a player may pass the ball 300 times in a game at an average distance of 5 yrds successfully, this does not mean he is a great passer of the ball.
With the way football has developed, long balls are less common in the EPL and so the reluctance on tall, strong, target men has faded. As a result, defenders nowadays are relied on for their ball playing skills, rather than defending. So as long as our team are competing for the header and more importantly the second ball it usually doesn’t matter.
Signing wise defensively, either of the Leipzig CBs would be good but not essential. Midfield wise, we are sound unless Gini moves on. I personally would spunk our whole transfer budget on Mbappe.
In my neck of the woods (Oz), spunk is an alternative word for semen, or referring to someone of the opposite sex as being you know, sexually attractive. In any case i wouldn’t blow our whole transfer budget on just Mbappe.
What I did (for a starting point only) was look at percentage of aerial duels won, ground duels won, pass accuracy and long pass accuracy. If players weren’t coming close to achieving those things then we shouldn’t be going too near. On top of this I also checked injury history, watched clips to judge speed and confidence on the ball. But I’m no expert I was just trying to get a feel of what CBs were out there that fit my blueprint of what I think we need. We are highly specialised in what we need from our CBs in my opinion and some great CBs would be absolutely exposed in the way our system is set up. Meanwhile some seemingly average CBs may look brilliant simply because they are “good enough” at all the things it’s essential our CBs cover.
Above is what we will have if Gini leaves and we sell Origi, Shaq, Wilson, Grujic, Ox, Nat and others. If we don’t have injury issues, we don’t even need to buy any new player. But we will have injury issues and lot of cup games. So we may need 1 attacker, 1 midfielder and 1 center back.
Dont think we’ll be in the market for a defender this January unless a really good opportunity opens up or is a short term injury cover.
Rhys and Nat phillips will only improve as they play more and more. Yep , both will make mistakes but buying a defender who will almost always be warming the benches when Vvd , gomez , matip and even fabinho be above them in the pecking order… Doesnt make for good football sense.
As far as the forward goes , we recall elliot from loan and play him and minamino more. That oughta suffice till jota returns. Thats probably the least of our worries.
And midfield , we are more or less stacked. Ideally gini extending the contract for another 2 years would be ideal.
You are forgetting the versatility that milner and fabinho offer to the team. And to a lesser extent what someone like minamino does too. Milner can play both left wingback and right wingback. And fabinho does a great job both at defense and in midfield.
Milner is old now and imho won’t be playing that many matches next season. In a crunch, we can play him one or two matches here and there. Playing him continuously for 10 matches is not gonna work out.
Fab I have considered him as a midfield foremost to highlight the point that Wij leaving makes us drastically weak in midfield. Just leaves Hendo as the experienced one. Thiago though world class is new and hasn’t played 10 games together yet. Jones though coming up excellently will have ups/down and should be managed carefully. Keita is still not trustable first 11 player. Milner - refer above. I just don’t get the confidence that we can compete on multiple front with this midfield. This is my pov at this moment - if Thiago plays upto his usual standards after coming back from injury, then by the end of season may reconsider my pov.
I imagine that Matip, Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain will be given another season and that another midfielder will be targeted to replace Wijnaldum (so that Fabinho can continue dividing his time between CB and DM). Other than that, if everybody recovers and there are no serious injuries or important players leaving, I don’t see another player coming in next summer, let alone January.
, additionally seems very comfortable on the ball, can play the long diagonal ball and is an attacking threat from set pieces.