Van Der Berg will cover that position. 
Phillips is a solid back up, has never let us down, i would rather him in the centre than gomez, gomez needs to be right back option and only put back in the centre if there is no other option due to injuries!
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Frankly, if we do this we deserve to get relegated.
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I wouldn’t trust Fabinho as CB cover right now.
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There’s always an issue with us bringing in new players because of quota’s etc. out of interest sake, how are Chelsea and Forest able to make so many signings and meet all quota criteria?
Just me who thinks Gvardiol would make an amazing left back for us?
If they able to get past Gomez and Trent What chance does Fabinho have.
Mate, he’s done, any position here, he’s done. There will be better youth prospects at the club who deserve minutes at center back and will perform better than him.
We need to fuck off sentimentality now or we will never get back to the top.
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Nat, Rhys, and £15m would equal to £30m, right? That would buy us a CB better than Gomez or Matip (Konate costed £34m). So why should we keep them?
Also, I don’t see us having five senior CB; it would be four senior CB and a youth player.
Whoever we’re keeping of Matip and Gomez, we’re left with three centre backs who have injury issues.
I just think we’re not selling him for any kind of fee, so the question becomes how can we use him.
He is probably more use to us as CB and DM cover than he is £10m in the kitty.
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How much off the wage bill?
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Not sure what stats say about Konstantinos Mavropanos and I’m not saying this because I have a soft spot for Stuttgart but I like him as a no nonsense CB.
Should be available for £17m-22m.
Leader on the pitch, strong and vocal - a real fighter.
Was at Arsenal for a few seasons and according to reports Stuttgart refused to let him go to Inter last month for €15m.
There’s a big decision to be made.
Trying to do wholesale changes when we’re probably loosing at least three players for nothing already (four if we don’t keep Bobby) and probably won’t have CL is going to be tricky. I get the shouts about moving on the likes of a Gomez, Matip, Fabinho but they’re not going to raise huge amounts to help a rebuild and then they’ll need replacing. We’re still going to need a squad and a bunch of those “squad” player types are already on their way out for little to nothing.
I don’t see us doing more than two who’d walk straight into our best team and both of those probably need to be in CM. Can we afford one of those to be Bellingham? I’m not sure but if it were a case of Bellingham and only Bellingham or two from the likes of Kone, Thuram, Mount, Sucic, Nunes (insert midfielder of your choosing) then I think we have to do the latter.
I don’t see us getting much for Fabinho if we tried to move him on this summer. With three CM’s already departing then he’s one I’d keep and hope a summer off, some new legs around him and a better set up in that area will see him improve. I just think he’s been run into the ground and is the one most exposed by the midfield set up issues.
A CB will be reliant on moving one on. Although I think Matip is the better player he’s older, only plays one role, is equally as injury prone and isn’t homegrown so I’d keep Gomez. There’s a player in Gomez, we’ve seen it before and I don’t think he’s become crap overnight. Even if he turns out to be Wes Brown type for us, someone who isn’t a world beater but fills in here and there then I think he’s worth retaining.
But how much do we have to spend on a new CB? If we’re spending £100m plus on centre midfield what’s the budget for someone you’d envisage would be third in the depth chart at CB for a season or two at least? Gvardiol is going to cost a fortune and expect to be a starter.
Ultimately though, dropping a new midfielder or two and a new centre back into the system we’re playing is not going to cure all our issues. Bellingham alone isn’t going to stop our midfield being rampaged through. There are some tactical changes needs as well and if we can make positive changes there I think we’ll see better performances from some of the lads who are struggling now.
Despite all the frustrations and shit performances, I still think we address this with a scalpel not a chainsaw.
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I wouldn’t trust him to take the trash out tbh
Not sure about that, £10mil and his £150k wages off the book and importantly a place in the squad open.
Kone is on £7k a week and it expires in 2 years. You could take the Fabinho money overall and get a younger player in for similar over 5 years.
Thuram looks a huge prospect btw…
Honestly there are so many fucking good young midfielders out there, makes me pretty fuming we’ve not purchased anyone over the last 12months. Proper shit strategic thinking.
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Fabinho cannot cover in midfield. Being versatile means playing to an acceptable level in multiple different positions, he can’t do that.
If anyone was to offer 10 million for him we’d be mental not to take it. He has no business being in the squad.
I’d replace him with Tielemans, Lerma or Doucoure on a free if it came to it, even if they’re not what we need they’d still be better options. It can’t be stressed how badly Fabinho is playing, Mac Red could easily knock up a list of 100 players better than him and actually be right.
Transfermrkt has Raphael Gurreiro’s contract running out in the summer. He could replace Tsimikas in the squad whilst offering an option on midfield. Bensebaini is another one who’s contract is up.
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Retrain Trent as a holding midfielder, no chance he isn’t switched on enough to track midfield runners, it doesn’t seem in his makeup
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I like Guerreiro, but he’s a bit too good to replace Tsimi. I understand he could try and push Robbo, but either stays at Dortmund or goes somewhere where there’s more of a realistic chance of starting regularly.
And please not Doucoure, no matter how bad Fabinho is!
Eh? Trent is one of the worst in the team at not tracking runners.