Yeah. Udogie, Spence and Porro all established, trusted, fairly dependable despite not being old hugely experienced players. Another young LB with big potential could be very useful at some point. Particularly if we also keep our more experienced centre backs. Should be fairly high up the list of targets, either that or a LB/LCB hybrid player.
I think we need to see the defense as a unit and not individual players. Take Porro, a great RB in a wingback system without too many defensive responsibilities, but not very suited to a defense where the CBs are pushing up without a link. Usink a link anchor requires more of the two in the middle. Then you can't have midfielders who's natural reaction is passing sideways waiting for openings or runs that the attack doesn't make. This is what I liked about Frank initially, running most of the play through the middle having movement up top, but negates some of the best qualities of a back standing high to a static attack begging for scraps that Angeball did 90% of the time. And if so, you simply cannot have Roman Richarlison up top on his own while we lack a give-him-the-ball-while-we-do-something-else-kinda-player. And around it goes.
Speaking about CBs, VdV has a bit of Walker about him, positionally not very good but makes up for it in athleticism. So many times he's got caught out, needing a King-type TV-tackling intervention and getting lauded for it, although there should be less need for it in the first place. I may be wrong, but to me we look much more susceptible to counter attacks this season than for a long time. Romero is our best natural defender, but he's not very disciplined, needing better positional and defensive qualities from the back(s). And so on - and so on.
So I think we need to look more at who plays with who rather than who's potentially best in this and that position. Is it the system or is it the players? Too early to tell, but I think we should strive to get back the Poch players-match-role that we once had (until Kane figured he should play 3 positions at the same time). Not just buying the best solutions to the least of our problems. There are so many matches where "lesser" opposition looks more organised and have better flow than us. Not a dig at Bodø/Glimt, but we have order of magnitudes better training facilities, infrastructure, personnel, budget, everything. They have a huge doormat for a pitch and their Director has an office that looks mostly like a closet next to the toilet. Regardless of result, there is not a single reason we should look like the team who has just learned to pass a football.
As of now and how I see Frank's setup, I would like to try Spence at RB as long as Romero and VdV are our main CB pairing. He's much better defensively than Porro but can still hold his own on the flank, and looking at the season so far, Porro's been less visible and we look less dependant on him creating everything than last season anyway. I think a lot of pieces could plop into place when we get Maddison back, but then it's already next season.
