afsoc4life
Vedran Corluka
We never had a chance to win the league this season. Not with this squad. We are barebones at the moment. We need more players.
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The glorious march to CL qualification
- Thread starter 90291Spur
- Start date
We never had a chance to win the league this season. Not with this squad. We are barebones at the moment. We need more players.
I don’t think anyone thought we would bar a couple on here believing we was in a title race. Those in the media were only mentioning us because points wise we couldn’t of been ruled out of it at the time. The thing that still baffles me how people were claiming that we had a good window last summer because we didn’t sell anyone. It was clear as day that the squad needed both strengthening and freshening up in the summer as we’ve again found ourselves with the same issues as last season. Get the feeling we will be making moves this summer though, and with the new stadium and some fresh hungry talent whilst getting rid of the weak perhaps next season will be the season we can seriously target trophies....
Agree with the comments about the league. Really just think we're a couple decent players short - a CM who can put his foot on the ball and an attacking player - but missing those extra players is being really highlighted now where some players are playing all the time and we're forced to play certain formations in some games just because of the players available
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
But other fans think we need other players on other positions which is is why it isn’t easy
I think this summer we will be replacing players we lose in the window personally
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
Easier said than done. We'll need to do one hell of a lot better than in recent seasons.
Arrivals since summer 2016:
Gazzaniga
Moura
Aurier
Sissoko
LLorente
Janssen
Foyth
Sanchez
N'doudou
Wanyama
glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
Arsenal, man u and Chelsea all have hard games still to play, and games against each other so let's not get too gloomy yet.
We are in a different position now to the types of signings we were making in the early Poch years. The 'punts' are less frequent. We can attract more established internationals now, and I have no doubt we can afford to pay big for the right type of player. I dont see many of our recent sigings as being bad signings at all - Moura,Foyth,Sanchez, even Aurier who I still think is a decent player they all have more to come from them potential wise as well. Gazza looks to be one for the future, Sissoko has proven to be an asset, Llorente is realistically about as good as we could get for someone experienced to sit on our bench most of the season. The only ones who really havent worked on that list are Janssen who was very much a punt and another who struggled to be understudy to Kane, and N'Koudou another punt - But I dont really see us as speculating on the N'Koudou types anymore.....
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
Obviously not selling anyone is 'good' and I'd argue that signing a couple of players would not bridge the gap from, where we remamarkbly are, to CiTy and Liverpool.
Not signing anyone for 2 windows makes us a bit pessimistic, we go jittery on our expectations, but then the team excel again...raising our expectations, we think 'if only'. The problem is the last step to overcome everyone and win the title is bigger than we think, and probably financially an impossible step to take atm.
The team breaking up is a bigger worry. Eriksen and Toby could easily be off, Jan isn't getting any younger, RB is an issue. And we need to work out who's who in CM.
It depends who the couple of players we signed are. Why Liverpool have gone to genuine title contender is that they addressed the areas that needed strengthening, CB and GK. You say 'the team excel again...raising our expectations' yes its a recurring theme - we are good enough to be in and amongst it but always tail off. It was clear last season if we wanted to kick on we needed to add and its clear as day this season.
The team breaking up might not be a bad thing, naturally players go stale when in the same surroundings for a long period of time - it looks like we could be starting to gradually ease some of those 'originals' out starting with Dembele. It was bound to happen at some point, and as long as its not half the team leaving in one go I'm sure we will cope just fine.....
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
The kind of players we need ''to kick on' are expensive. Liverpool have more spending power than us to start with. If Eriksen goes for 130m (ala Coutinho), plus some other sales we can buy either brilliant prospects or ready made players. But you said goodbye to CE? He is our serious transfer fund booster at the moment. Is that your choice? Liverpool chose that.
On your other point about the team breaking up. Change is needed BUT that's one thing I would negatively say about no ins and outs for two windows is it does feel like you might have to do major turnover in a shorter period rather than it organically happening from season to season.
Opinions...we all have them, some have multiple ones on the same subject! Take the two players per position concept though and based on our best 4-2-3-1 formation, our gaps are clear:
GK - 2 needed - check
LB - 2 needed - check
RB - 2 needed, we have 3 - check [setting aside some upgrades needed if we have the cash]
CB - 4 needed and we have 4 - check [ignoring contract issues]
DM - 3 - check (Dier, Wanyama, Sissoko); ignores for the minute fitness questions and what you class Sissoko as (work-horse/DM)
Creative CM - 1 - FAIL!!! Definitely 1 short
Lastly, categorising attackers/no 10s/wingers/CFs in one group to avoid debates over what Son/Moura are: Attackers - 8 needed, we only have 6 (Kane, Son, Eriksen, Dele, Lamela, Moura) who Poch seems to trust to start regularly. Llorente, Janssen and GKN don't really count given they only seem to be used in desperate measures.
Very simplistic but I think it shows we're a creative CM and at least 1, possibly 2, attacking-types short. I'd suggest its also those areas where we look most burned out at the moment. We're not really able to dominate the midfield like we used to - Winks and Sissoko are having to play all the time and Eriksen and Son look absolutely knackered. Its not helped by Lamela and Moura not really being on form, but with the 1 or 2 extra bodies we could cope with that.
Not intended to be a rant at all (post is much longer than intended!), and obviously the stadium is impacting, but those extra couple bodies make a massive difference. We're kind of caught between two stools - clubs outside the top 6 don't have European football to contend with, and other top 6 teams are richer and not building a stadium. Hopefully we can bring in two more in the summer (net of departures) who Poch trusts to play
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
Agree with all of this
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
Ignoring my opinion of some of the players that make us sufficient in the areas you have broken down, i do agree with most of your post. The 'net of departures' bit is key and is exactly where we were last summer, if who we wanted to leave, did leave we'd of accumulated £100+M to spend (and i do believe if Man U had played ball in the Toby/Martial swap it would have happened).
Circumstances of the WC and Sonny trooping of to two tournaments has not helped, and '2 extra bodies' doesn't sound like players that will make a difference. For example, if we were to sign similar players like Lamela and Moura it might well cost us £60m and it appears we are not really thinking that those two are that helpful (i cant really work out if they are out of form, not playing enough or just okayish and no more).
Looking at yor list
I think CM has been a struggle this season, with who has been available, the strongmen of Dier,Moose, Wanyama not featuring.
RB is a bit of a brick show.
CB toby could go, Jan is getting on and Sanchez/Foyth have much to learn
Definately some decisions ahead, but too many squad issues - contracts/age/inexperience coinciding at once can be problematic....i'd say you need 7 or 8 that are settled, focussed, and well worthy of a starting spot.
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
Technically we had a real chance though
But we would most likely to have needed to set a league record of consecutive wins
We were never gonna do that even a fully fit squad
StephenH
David Ginola
Same here, we need reinforcements to make tilt at the summit. With the stadium sorted, 2021 at the earliest.
parklane1
Vic Buckingham
I do not think we really were in for first, one of the reasons their are some supporters slitting their wrists at our bad run is that they were hyped by Sky into believing we were in with a REAL chance of winning the title and now they are getting carried away and over the top in their comments about us.
parklane1
Vic Buckingham
What we need is what Poch has been on about, sad to say that some of our players ( even though they have talent) are quick to fade away when the crunch is on.