Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
It is when it bed blocks the development of real talent like Edwards. Hence why we keep a 22 man squad now rather than a 35 man one
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Ross Barkley
- Thread starter Maltese Falcon
- Start date
It is when it bed blocks the development of real talent like Edwards. Hence why we keep a 22 man squad now rather than a 35 man one
awesome dawson
Mitchell Thomas
Would you seriously want to go into next season, Champions League, debatable home advantage etc etc with as thin a squad as we currently have?
Last season we barely had enough cover as is the norm over the last few years. Marcus Edwards has zero top tier experience and looks as raw as that would reflect. He'll get his minutes in the League Cup and Europa if we drop down into that in December. Not the EPL or CL.
Barkley is not a novice player, he's extremely talented and under Poch would improve his fitness and be surrounded by better players on the training pitch. I fail to see how anyone can think that of the available targets (especially with less than a year left on their contracts) this would be a mistake. Greg came on here when we bought Sissoko and said it was an error, from the Everton fans I know they couldn't exactly say Barkley isn't up to the task of competing at the upper end of the Premier League at least.
22 man squad is not big enough for what we have ahead of us. I would say it should be at least 25 including the likes of Winks, CCV, Onamah, Walker-Peters and Edwards.
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
Mourinho's best Chelsea teams tended to be 22. It's about the tightness of the group, as much as having a 5th RB in case of 11 injuries.
I guess with Lopez, Walker-Peters and Edwards as 3rd GK, 5th FB and 7th AM, it probably will be 25
I guess with Lopez, Walker-Peters and Edwards as 3rd GK, 5th FB and 7th AM, it probably will be 25
awesome dawson
Mitchell Thomas
I'm not sure doing what Mourinho does is the best strategy going forward from here. Doing what Poch does is fine for me.
milo
Jack L. Jones
I agree that we should keep the squad size down and no one is suggesting a 35 man squad. Would signing Barkley block Edwards development? The same argument could have been made for Wanyama and Winks last summer and it did not work out like that.
Finney Is Back
Luka Modric
If you remember back 12 months GB didn't want Wanyama either.
Difference being Mourhino had a squad of 22 with quality and experience throughout - at the moment we have a good quality first 16 provided everyone is fit but then we drop off in terms of quality and experience - if we want to challenge for trophies (which GB you make a big song and dance over iirc) and keep our momentum at the top of the table then we need reinforcements otherwise we risk losing our better players and if that happens we'll find ourselves starting all over again.
Pochettino has shown he won't play players just because of their price tag, and will happily prefer to pick the youngsters ahead of big name/money players if he thinks they are more deserving of a place in the team/squad - so there's absolutely no argument to be made for someone like Barkley blocking a youngsters development
Pochettino has shown he won't play players just because of their price tag, and will happily prefer to pick the youngsters ahead of big name/money players if he thinks they are more deserving of a place in the team/squad - so there's absolutely no argument to be made for someone like Barkley blocking a youngsters development
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
Lloris - Vorm
New RB - Trippier
Rose - Davies
Verts - Wimmer
Alder - 2CV
Wanyama - Dier
Dembele - Winks
Son - GKN
Alli - Onomah
Eriksen - Lamela
Kane - Janssen
+ Lopez, KWP, Edwards
Where are we really lacking? And that's not even considering the versatility of Dier and Davies. Do you think we could keep a 3rd senior CF, a 7th senior AM, a 5th senior CB happy/not disputing the squad when they aren't getting enough gametime?
New RB
New CB if Wimmer is on his way maybe even one more anyway if we intend on player 3 at the back
New CM
New AM
We need to see ourselves as a side which is going to challenge on all fronts - because that's the type of club our better players will will want to be at - we've put ourselves ahead of schedule by putting together a top first XI - which is obviously great credit to all involved but it's a double edged sword in that now we are in this position will our players accept a regression on the pitch because we want to rely on youth and give them experience? It would be a total waste of all the good work we have put in building this team to see it break up over the next couple of seasons
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braineclipse
Steve Sedgley
But you're saying that our squad has been too thin in recent years. Under Pochettino...
Not sure about a new CM. I think the reason we only signed Wanyama last season was that Pochettino really rated Winks. Now Winks has proved what he can do we should sign another CM? We also have Onomah coming through...
Winks and Wanyama don't really compete for the same role. I think that's a bit of a straw man.
Had we signed Wanyama a year earlier could it have blocked Dier? Just maybe... Had we signed a creative CM last summer could it have blocked Winks? Maybe. Had we signed a new first choice striker in Pochettino's first summer could it have blocked Kane? Each of those examples I think there were a lot of fans arguing very forcefully that were should sign players to fill those roles.
I see no reason to start doubting the "a new signing could block a young player" argument. Our strategy in recent years seems to indicate that Pochettino believes in it too.
RunTMC
Steven Caulker
Does it really? Wanyama was signed after Dier had his breakout season in DM and we have signed Son and Sissoko for the AM positions when we have had options within the squad already so I'm not sure that our strategy proves what you think it does.
Dembele seemingly can't be relied upon week in week out for 90 minutes let alone when you throw in cup games midweek - Winks I'm happy with looks to have taken to the league like a duck to water, Onomah not so much, going to need time but has the potential but I wouldn't want to rely on him if stuck in a jam and I'm not a fan of changing the defence to play Dier at CM if Wanyama is out so I think we need another option in there.
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braineclipse
Steve Sedgley
I don't understand what signing Wanyama after Dier had established himself does for your side of the argument. It seems that signing was made with a plan to play Dier at the back more. And with no emerging young DM the signing was made.
Not signing a DM the year before that and trusting Dier seems much more telling to me. As does the obvious trust put in young players in general.
I'm not arguing that we shouldn't sign players. But the signings you mention are players in positions or roles where we haven't had young players breaking through. What young player could Son or Sissoko have blocked so far?
Look instead at the positions/roles we haven't signed players for and trusted young players to develop. Is it just luck or coincidence that we didn't sign more experienced players to fill those roles? Or is it a conscious decision from Pochettino to allow that path to regular first team football to remain open for our most promising young players? Both academy players and signed young players like Alli and Dier.
Pirate55
The Last Man Standing 17/18
The trouble for me is that our youth prospects simply aren't ready this season. Onomah and CCV looked well off the first team level last season. Edwards is still two seasons away. In my view they simply aren't at the stage in their development to step into cauldron PL or ECL games and deliver. Winks however proved himself. The others still need easing in with the easier games. Consequently, we still need quality cover in key positions.
We didn't switch formation until the season was well under way so I'm not sure you can argue the plan in the summer was to play Dier at CB. We basically replaced Dier in the starting XI with the Wanyama signing and then once we switched to 3 at the back he got back in the team in a different position - so to me that's proves that Pochettino will sign what he sees as an improvement for the team at the expense of a young player.
Sissoko Son and also N'jie/N'koudou have at various times been signed when Townsend Onomah (only played AM roles for the first team) Mason (argued to be a better no.10 than Eriksen) and Edwards have been tipped for minutes in those positions - Poch preferred to sign more experienced players at their expense - as he should have because giving those players more game time would have seen a drop in quality, similar to the situation we are in now in that our young players aren't quite ready yet
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it could be argued that Dembele was out at the start of the season meaning we went with Dier in the MF and when he was back and fit we switched to 3 at the back and this was always the plan
Fair point - although (and maybe I'm misremembering here) wasn't there a spell after Dembele was back when we played 4231 with Wanyama and Dembele starting and with Dier sitting out on the bench? I always had the catalyst for the formation change down as being Lamela getting injured
yes this was the case but if you want to give the benefit of the doubt you could argue that this was transition period while Dembele got full fitness as we had no cover in MF.
Not convinced either way myself.
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
True Onomah seemed to regress a bit last season but he showed a level of ability and maturity in the U20s tournament way beyond what we have seen from him previously. Yes it was *only* the U20s but Poch will nevertheless have witnessed a youngster starting to reveal his immense potential and will be eager to give him more opportunities to prove himself in the coming months.
Onomah's ultimate challenge of course will be to rival to the likes of Eriksen and Barkley (assuming he arrives this window). I believe he does have that potential, so it will be interesting to see how far he can consolidate his growing reputation as the season progresses.
Finney Is Back
Luka Modric
The weak links in that are:
Not having a first choice right back
Wimmer/CCV as first choice cover at centre half
Onomah and GKN as first choice cover in the attcking midfield roles.
And (perhaps) Winks as first choice cover for a slightly injury prone player.
From looking at the above we need an extra right back, another centre half and an attacking midfield player as a minimum. We can probably spend 80 odd million on the three combined and still have a net transfer profit overall.