25/26 Recruitment

[wassy04]

Good post DR, surprised it hasn’t been mentioned more.

In hindsight it certainly doesn’t look 10/10. You say steer clear of politics and I will but it certainly played a significant part which wasn’t (always) helpful.

My problem is the lack of strategy which is something we have seen before. Seems to be a “sign the player first, look at whether they fit later” approach. I dont mean just in the position they play more if they would work with style of play. This is where going from Nuno straight to Ange doesn’t help, to have diametrically opposed styles of play and then shoehorning random wingers into the equation is never going to be smooth.

Personally I don’t think we needed 3 new wingers at a cost of over £100m. Looks even more the case now when 2 of them have barely played. I think the idea of McAtee as cover for MGW is good and he should also have been the 4th wide option if you like, unfortunately not seen anything from him to suggest he will be successful.

Kalimuendo again different option fine but has anyone thought how he fits? Again seen nothing to suggest it will work and nobody seems to know how to get the best out of him.
Anderson desperately needs a break in midfield but we bring in Luiz who has a genetic condition we knew about that affects how much he can play.
Full back situation Zinchenko good on paper, in reality looks a liability defensively. If Savona is a right back Im a ballet dancer, he is a right sided CB. Looks a big lack in attention to detail here.
Jair I still hope will be quality but just wish some of the money we spent on forwards had been for an oven ready CB. No Morato is not good enough, did well yesterday but totally unsuited to Ange ball. We knew we needed a pacey centre back and didn’t get one.

Overall, for ambition fantastic and I appreciate the investment is unprecedented. Reality unfortunately is 6/10.

I think it's way too early to write this window off, players always take time to settle in.

Savona seems like a weird signing and a mistake, however aside from that I maintain it was as good a window as we could've hoped. 

Jesus looks like a bit of a bargain potentially, Luiz looks good if he can stay fit (which its not like he's never been fit enough to play). The three wingers all have potential and it's just way too early to judge them right now, Elanga is an established 55m winger that they are trying to replace, that's tough. Can't say I've been enthused by any of them but I think we need to see at the end of the year and judge. 

Aina getting injured was tough to take, and pretty unlucky timing and I doubt we find a better backup CB than Morato who wouldn't just get the same criticism. Dominguez also just coming back from injury which will help give us more options alongside Luiz, I guess he'll need time to build his fitness though.

I'm still pretty hopeful really, I think the bigger issue is some of the existing players just aren't as good as sometimes is believed. I'm thinking of the likes of Sangare (we as a fanbase know how good he is lol), CHO, plus MGW no-one seems to be able to find a good position for him, Wood had an incredible season but was previously a journeyman striker and is old. Aina is injured a lot, Milenkovic suited a specific style of tactics etc.

I think my reflection on the window won't necessarily be how the wingers fare, more the lack of full back cover (would actually have given Toff another year at this rate!) and not replacing Danilo

If Aina doesn't get injured though, not sure you'd have that view. We'd have eased Savona and Zinchenko in via rotation and we'd probably think they looked interesting.

Luiz replaced Danilo surely?