Not me. It’s only fair to let the new man have a look at the players by himself before deciding to make moves. Also, we have a competitive squad and made a lot of transfers last season. So, there is no need to rush.
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BUT TRANSFERS!
Are you even a fan??? IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TRANSFER WINDOW!!!
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What do u mean not a single signing yet?
Matip - out / SvdB - in
Thiago - out / Carvalho - in
FSG run the club remember that.
Honestly, I’m not concerned with any of these spending figures.
There are at least 4 or 5 players who could step in at various positions over the course of the season: Bajcetic (DM), Van den Berg (CB), Carvalho (FW) + some game-time for Doak (RW), Danns (FW), etc. Not all will pan out, but I expect a couple of them to emerge which would change things dramatically.
This is a significant upgrade to last year. Unless there are outgoings… if we can’t buy a really, really top player, I believe we are better off holding off until we can.
It won’t be easy to find an attainable young CB that did much better than SvdB last year and with so many bodies in midfield, it will be a great opportunity to see if Bajcetic can reclaim his form from the previous year. If he does, the outlook for a new DM will be much different.
You could think of transfer timing another way: we made our moves a long time ago by buying and training a good number of youngsters.
Let’s only buy top and not for the sake of it. Let’s be honest… if we buy Ignacio (no clue whether he is that good, name just conveniently popped into my head) and only play him in the rare cases when we need to rest VVD… that won’t do us much good.
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I’m sure he meant quality, first team-ready signings. Those two examples you put forward are neither I’m afraid. Or are you being ironic? If so, please use an appropriate emoticon.
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I agree to an extent on SvdB, but relying on Bajcetic for DM would be a huge gamble. He’s just back from a massive injury and wasn’t established before it.
Endo, Baj as our first choice DMs is a disaster waiting to happen.
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We will have to disagree on this one then. Endo was solid and above-average (game time will probably need to be managed though), Bajcetic was not established but was making quite a strong early impression. 20 to 22 games each = 40 to 44 games per season.
As an unideal backup (but reasonable backup nonetheless), MacAllister can play there again. A disaster waiting to happen is quite an exaggeration.
It is an area we can improve on to get better… but with whom? Bayern went for Palhinha for a big whack of cash simply because there aren’t many good choices on the market. Would Andre be better than what we have? Not sure.
We have enough bodies, but if it isn’t a top player… we are unlikely to improve. Maybe Joao Neves, but could we get him (still unproven as well)?
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Endo gets injured and we have to rely on Bajcetic all season or Macca out of position.
Look at the players our rivals have in this (vital) position.
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Like who?
Outside of Rodri and Rice, who else is there?
to be fair, outside of arsenal and citeh, who are our rivals?
so yes, its not controversial IMHO to want an upgrade on Endo…as good as he was at the tail end of last season…
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And rice seldom plays there for Arsenal. Plays more of the 8 role with Jorginho playing the 6
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And let’s be honest, Endo was never really the plan for DM last summer anyway.
Completely agree we need a top DM but there are two big questions here.
Who are the top DM options we have any realistic hope of buying?
And if we do sign one, are we keeping both Endo and Bajcetic around?
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Let’s see how Slot plans to use Trent. We might not need a specialist DM if Slot continues Klopp’s policy of Trent getting inverted.
But what does Slot think?
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They represent the two teams who finished above us.
We operate in rarified air, so there won’t be many who are better, but last season, those two were.
I feel we need a DM, a central defender, and a wide forward/winger. Thats before any unexpected departures - and there are credible question marks over a couple of very big players.
Edit:
But the team is now of such a level that any incoming players have to be very good indeed, to bump someone else out, or down the pecking order. Probably out actually, as there is a ceiling on how many players we can have in the first team squad.
Caveat being we should continue to sign talented youngsters, like the Chelsea lad.
Agree with your general point, but didn’t Trent spend more and more time in midfield last season? Maybe Slot will further that transition towards making him a midfielder in his own right?
Also, hasn’t Jones good potential to play as a DM?
The Trent in MF question is still open and may remain so for the rest of his career.
I’ve not seen Jones at DM, but tough tackling a discipline may not be his strong points. However, there’s always the example of Gini.
U21 football is definitely not the premier league, but he was exceptional last summer for England in a very reserved double pivot role. Trent is very good when playing in CM areas when facing the opposition goal and able to play the ball forward, but that is only a portion of the role and has struggled in those other aspects. Those other areas are where Jones thrives when further up the pitch - able to receive the ball when under pressure, protect it, and play out of it, and that is why he played such an important role in that england’s team ability to play good football.
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