I think you're right in a way. I can't see Poch relying too much on the likes of KWP, CCV, Winks, Onomah, Edwards and Harrison. Last season he barely gave any of them playing time, even in the cups.
KWP, CCV, Harrison and Edwards still haven't even make their debuts.
Winks has got 21 minutes total across 4 separate games over 3 different seasons.
Onomah is only one of them I see getting a real chance this season, but even has only play 82 minutes total in the league.
You're right, and yet, these are the players that are now being pencilled in to fill up an increasing number of squad slots.
Has Poch ever said this or is it just a case of 2+2=5? Wanyama has the physical attributes to do what Dembele does. Right now it's a case of the whole team not finding its rhytm yet.
He does not have the technical skills. He struggles with distribution, and he doesn't dribble nearly as well. I never expected him to be a Dembele backup given these glaringly obvious limitations - I fully expected him to be an excellent backup/rotation option for Dier, since his skillset (strength, height, tackling, tracking back) is what you'd expect someone fitting the bill as a DM to have. As for Poch's view on things, He played Wanyama and Schneiderlin together in midfield for a reason - if Wanyama was meant to be the forward-thinking option, then what on Earth was Schneiderlin (a distributor, but not fast or very physical) meant to do alongside him?
We know Poch likes a smaller squad with versatile players. That way you don't need a direct backup for every position, but instead have a core of 15-18 of outfield players that rotate. If Gorgeous Kevin signs we'll have 7 players for 4 attacking spots. Some players can cover several positions in case of emergency like Dier, Dembele, Alli.
GK: Lloris, Vorm
RB: Walker, Trippier
LB: Rose, Davies
CB: Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Wimmer (+CCV)
CM: Dier, Dembele, Wanyama (+Winks)
AM: Lamela, Eriksen, Alli, Son, A.N. Other in place of Chadli (+Onomah)
ST: Kane, Janssen
How small? Southampton's squad heading into Poch's full season there consisted of Davis, Boruc, Gazzaniga (GKs), Clyne, Yoshida, Lovren, Fonte, Hooiveld, Lee, Chambers, Shaw, Fox (DFs) , Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Ramirez, Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Cork, Reed, Davis, Lallana, Do Prado (MFs), Lambert, Osvaldo, and Gallagher (FWs).
In terms of pros who had made at least fifteen appearances for the first-team in the previous season (save for the goalies, for obvious reasons) or were sufficiently old (I arbitrarily chose 24 as the cut-off), I count 22 out of that 25 man squad. Where has Poch said that he prefers a core of 15-18 players? The closest I can get is when he stated that he wanted exactly 25 players in his squad, waaaay back at the start of his career here. Given past evidence, I don't think this '15-18' player business is something he prioritizes, and I don't think leaving ourselves as stretched as that will do any good.
It's common to contact the player or his representatives to see if a deal is worth pursuing before making a bid. Sometimes even with the selling club's knowledge and approval.
Where does contact equal 'come over to my house, and I'll tell you how you fit into my plans, my squad, my matchday line-up, and how you'll improve with me' and so on? The process would get drearily long if Poch had to make the pitch to every single player we enquired about. The fact that the boss himself speaks to a player seems pretty telling in terms of the transfer being further along than a typical enquiry.
If filling the squad is considered a requirement, then there is no escaping a few cheaper punts/relative unknowns. It does seem that a lot of our fanbase will forever hold it against someone that they weren't expensive or well known when we signed them.
I held it against Stambo and Fazio, both of whom were unceremoniously dumped after a year where anyone could see that they were cheap panic buys at the close of a failure of a window. I don't hold it against someone signed on the basis of their obvious quality (like Toby - he came for 13-odd million, but I didn't call him a 'mid-range' signing) or someone signed with obvious upside (Alli/Dier/Wimmer, although again, I would have been sniffy if we'd stuck with Wimmer alone after that). Often, signings we make are marginal, or fall into the gap between being a young prospect with lots of upside and a first-team player ready to contribute - sometimes I give them the benefit of the doubt, but sadly, given our long, distinguished record of scrimping on better options to go for the cheaper deal, more often than not I tend to assume we've signed them because someone else would cost more money, damn the difference in immediate ability/upside, and damn what the manager wants. That's true, and I freely admit it, although I will point out that, given that all these signings still play for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, 'holding it against them' is usually a case of willing them to prove me wrong, as opposed to willing players to prove me right, as is the case with more readily ambitious or promising signings. I also tend to quickly warm to them when they display passion for the club, pride when wearing the shirt or a readiness to defend their team-mates (as Fazio did when he headbutted some c*nt who tried to square up to Lloris), but that's getting too off-topic
