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Upgrading the Team

SPURSBOY said:
anyone worried about the fitness of the team for when the prem kicks off, Kane, Ali, Trippier looked dead on their feet at the of the WC, isn't Son meant to be on international duty til Sept
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Very, we had 9 players in the semi finals and Son being away means half our squad won't be fully ready till after the international break.
 
I'm not sure (referring to the rather old thread title), we will see a lot of "upgrading" (outside of RB), what we hopefully will see is some "rebalancing"
 
Raziel said:
I'm not sure (referring to the rather old thread title), we will see a lot of "upgrading" (outside of RB), what we hopefully will see is some "rebalancing"
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I don’t know, if the rumours of us chasing Southamptons midfielder and former captain are true, we could at last be upgrading our midfield. Only two years late.

If I had to single out one reason for Pochs demise, I’d say it was due to our lack of world class talent in midfield and Nombele and LeCelso not being suitable/ready/fit.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
SpurMeUp said:
I don’t know, if the rumours of us chasing Southamptons midfielder and former captain are true, we could at last be upgrading our midfield. Only two years late.

If I had to single out one reason for Pochs demise, I’d say it was due to our lack of world class talent in midfield and Nombele and LeCelso not being suitable/ready/fit.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
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That’s two reasons :D
 
A holding midfielder that is defensively sound, good enough on the ball and an overall good player would strengthen us.

An option or competitor to Aurier at right back (alternatively two new right backs) would at least give us strength in depth, options and would improve us through that.

Similarly a backup option to Kane, would also give us more tactical options.

None of those should be massively expensive and this doable.

Other than that I think the most realistic path to improvement lies within the existing squad. More consistency and somewhat improved overall performance should be possible from some of our players.

A proper establishing season for Sessegnon, Tanganga, Skipp or someone could happen.

Ndombele is the joker in the deck. Either through a big money sale or through sorting out his defensive weaknesses. Not sure how likely either is and the probability of him doing well enough defensively to make himself a regular starter is difficult to assess. There's some chance he does though and that could be the most exciting change going into next season if it does happen.
 
With Jan gone, and KWP, Rose and Foyth about to follow, it’s just hit me how short we are in defence.

We will have 1 senior right back, 1 senior left back, and 3 senior centre halves. And then Tanganga basically covering all 3 positions. That’s very light for a season!

Sess will have to become a left back very quickly, which worries me how short we are there.

We still need at least 1 right back, two if Aurier also decides again that he wants to move on.

If we sort right back, then Tanganga is fine as 4th centre back. If not, then we need a CD too!

Have I forgotten anyone? :-/

* and no, not CCV!
 
Jon said:
With Jan gone, and KWP, Rose and Foyth about to follow, it’s just hit me how short we are in defence.

We will have 1 senior right back, 1 senior left back, and 3 senior centre halves. And then Tanganga basically covering all 3 positions. That’s very light for a season!

Sess will have to become a left back very quickly, which worries me how short we are there.

We still need at least 1 right back, two if Aurier also decides again that he wants to move on.

If we sort right back, then Tanganga is fine as 4th centre back. If not, then we need a CD too!

Have I forgotten anyone? :-/

* and no, not CCV!
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I don't think you're forgetting anyone, but I think you're overstating the point slightly.

If Mourinho considers Sessegnon an adequate backup at LB, we need one defender (RB would be the most natural).

If he doesn't we need two.

If Mourinho rates Aurier as good enough we need a rotation/competition/backup option. Preferably with potential to become a lot better. Similar situation at LB with Davies if Mourinho doesn't rate Sessegnon as ready for that role.

So we need one or two defenders and (arguably at least) aren't in a position where we need them to make a quick immediate impact as first choice players . That's not so bad.

Of course if several of the players you list simply aren't good enough and we need upgrades on them that will make a quick impact we're in trouble.
 
braineclipse said:
I don't think you're forgetting anyone, but I think you're overstating the point slightly.

If Mourinho considers Sessegnon an adequate backup at LB, we need one defender (RB would be the most natural).

If he doesn't we need two.

If Mourinho rates Aurier as good enough we need a rotation/competition/backup option. Preferably with potential to become a lot better. Similar situation at LB with Davies if Mourinho doesn't rate Sessegnon as ready for that role.

So we need one or two defenders and (arguably at least) aren't in a position where we need them to make a quick immediate impact as first choice players . That's not so bad.

Of course if several of the players you list simply aren't good enough and we need upgrades on them that will make a quick impact we're in trouble.
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Ok. So our numbers and assessments align.

How am I overstating it?
 
It will be a mistake to not try and improve the back 4 - all well and good 'defending well' when we have 30% possession and 9 men behind the ball but unless that's our long term tactic (hopefully not) they will soon remind us they are not up to the level required
 
Regarding defence I wonder if Malachi Walcott is being looked at by Jose as cover. Don’t know much about him apart from he came on at RB against Leipzig. Is that his natural position.
 
Jon said:
Ok. So our numbers and assessments align.

How am I overstating it?
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Perhaps I misread your post. You said it just hit you how short we are in defense.

To me potentially needing one player doesn't strike me as particularly short given our other shortcomings (particularly DM).

No disagreement is good.
 
braineclipse said:
Perhaps I misread your post. You said it just hit you how short we are in defense.

To me potentially needing one player doesn't strike me as particularly short given our other shortcomings (particularly DM).

No disagreement is good.
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I’d been comparing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of how the squad will be after likely sales out. I guess that’s the missing context I didn’t articulate very well!

I had in my mind that the ‘before’ potentially looked like this (ie potentially overstocked) :-

Aurier - Toby - Jan - Rose
KWP - Sanchez- Dier - Davies
Foyth - Tanganga - CCV - Sessegnon

When I then applied the ‘outs’ it looked like this:-

Aurier - Toby - Dier - Davies
Tang - - Sanchez - Sessegnon

Which if you remove the untried and tested, then looks like this for the season:-

Aurier - Toby - Dier - Davies
- - Sanchez -

I guess that’s where I was going really.

So I reckon we need a RB a DC a DMC and a ST - and that’s without losing any players I haven’t anticipated as definitely offing.
 
tw12yid said:
Regarding defence I wonder if Malachi Walcott is being looked at by Jose as cover. Don’t know much about him apart from he came on at RB against Leipzig. Is that his natural position.
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Yeah possibly, that did cross my mind.

Walcott, Tanganga, and Sessegnon are 3 very in experienced defenders though to have in such high squad rotation places...
 
Jon said:
So I reckon we need a RB a DC a DMC and a ST - and that’s without losing any players I haven’t anticipated as definitely offing.
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Agree with that as a quartet. Some people say we need a LB however given there is a limit on how many players we will sign this summer, I think we can survive with Davies and then with Tanganga, Cirkin, Sessegnon filling in where needed and using next seaon to see how that young trio develop
 
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