We have a squad of very good individuals across the board, arguably the best we've had in a decade, but we have some glaring gaps in the delta between the quality of assets we have on paper and how that translates to pretty much any modern requirement of any football systems we would feasibly play. this will continue to impact our ability to regain relevance regardless of manager at the wheel. The key takeaway here is looking at our squad without the transfer fee's attached.
Goalkeeper: The only complaint I have is we have too many outstanding keepers, and as a result we are overpaying on wages as Romero should have been let go. De Gea is getting back to his best, and his best is world class. Henderson has shown enough to provide a foot up De Gea's ass and Romero is an outstanding no.2 who would start at plenty of clubs. We should shed 100k off the wage bill here.
Fullback; It has become a modern day requirement of fullbacks to be an offensive presence in pretty much every system imaginable, in some ways they are THE most important element of your transition to attack. If your playing with wingers, the fullbacks provide overlap to draw defenders away and to provide a crossing outlet if the winger is unable to beat a man, this is almost universal. We have 3 First team fullbacks on the books as I see it with Diego Dalot on loan. Luke Shaw, AWB and Alex Telles. Luke shaw post injury is a bit of a conundrum, he's a somewhat capable defender, but his final product has been missing for a while. We are pinning pretty much all our hopes of Alex telles continuing his offensive form on the left at this point with Shaw as a no.2. Now for the controversy, AWB is a world class defender, absolutely outstanding, and has a big future at the club. But i think his lack of an offensive output is a huge handicap for the entire team, unless he is able to drastically improve in this area in the future, we have a big big problem here as our attacks down the right have become insanely easy to defend against. it might come to a situation where he may have to become a "big game" role player, man marking your neymars/mbapps out of games. We need an offensive rightback in the squad Tariq lamptey would be absolutely sensational in this capacity for example.
Centerback: Big oof here. I dont really know what to say i dont fancy any of our CB options in comparison to our competition. Harry maguire is a decent defender, albiet with big flaws in his athleticism that then has to be compensated for with both his partner in defence and also in midfield, its a big handicap once again. Lindelof feels like a 3rd choice option, he's not bad, but he isn't outstanding in any area of the game and feels like there's always a mistake in him. Jones/Rojo/Bailly are virtually irrelevant to the conversation because they could be world class in every way, but they are too injury prone to be depended upon unfortunately, need to be replaced. The one ray of hope here is Axel Tuanzebe, if he can get a run of games in the team, and can stay fit, has all the attributes to be a mainstay in our defence for the next decade. Overall, we need 2 additions here after the offloading of rojo/jones/bailly. I dont have any recommendations here as the quality of defenders has become really hard to judge nowadays.
Midfield: Once again we have a selection of incredible individual players here, albiet most with Huge downsides that hurt the team. We dont have a single "Complete" player of any level of quality in this position and as a result the combination of players we have to play has become immensely important. I view Matic/fred/Mctree as our more defensive midfielders, Matic is getting on, and as a result cant be looked at for long term planning but is arguably our best player here currently. Fred is an amazing player but doesn't have a passing range to play by himself and Mctomminay isn't good enough. We need a complete midfielder to partner with fred and compensate for his passing, the player we thought pogba would be for us, and we need a replacement for Mctominay for rotation. Im not sure what players are available in the mould of a Veratti who can make an instant impact.
Offensively we have arguably one of the Best selections of attacking midfielders in the world, Pogba becomes less of a liability here and can start to influence games, Bruno has had the best impact ive seen on a team since RVP signed and mata continues to age like a fine wine and is a capable squad player. DVB has come in and hasn't really had a chance yet. We are fine in this position, with the only question being do we need pogba considering the depth we already have for 1 or 2 at a push slots in a teamsheet, or could we use his sale to improve other areas of the squad that need addressing.
Forwards: We are stacked for strikers, Rashford/martial/greenwood/cavani is beyond good enough, the only question is we don't have a single winger of quality should we want to use a system that uses them. James needs to go as soon as possible, the experiment has failed. We are going to want at least 2 wingers with pace who can beat a man or there's no point. Jadon Sancho has been the main target, but we have also signed 2 long term targets in this position that should be integrating into the team over the next 2/3 years.
What's clear to me is we have way too many players that have caveats to them, Pretty much every player in the spine of our team requires 1 or 2 other players to compensate for 1 glaring problem they have, we have very few complete players for their positions which means we get drastically different performances based on 1 or 2 variations of squad selection. I've never seen a team this swingy before, its a complete coinflip whether we are going to win 6-0 or lose 2-0 based on 1 or 2 changes in the team even within the same system, that have huge compensatory ramifications across the entire 11.
To illustrate this ill give you 2 starting 11's in the same system with 2 changes.
-----------------------De Gea--------------------------------------------------------De Gea
----AWB---Maguire---Lindelof---Shaw--------------AWB-----Maguire--------Lindelof------shaw
-----------------Fred-------Matic-----------------------------------------------Fred--------Mctominnay---------
Greenwood---Bruno--------Rashford-------------------James--------Bruno----------Rashford----
---------------------Martial-----------------------------------------------------------Martial----------------------------
1 starting 11 that has matic and fred together and lets say, greenwood on the right. but the next game Mctomminay comes in for matic and James comes in for greenwood, the entire team falls apart at the seams because suddenly without matic the teams transition from defence to attack breaks down because Mctominay cant compensate for freds passing like matic can, and most likely leads to maguire bringing the ball forward from deep which creates gaps at the back and an ineffective overload at DM as Mctominay cant join the attack effectively when maguire moves up. Furthermore, in the first 11 Greenwood, whilst not a winger, at least has the capacity to attack the box from the right hand side and can take a man on or provide a credible threat from the wing which compensates for AWB having to provide an offensive outlet as he only needs to occupy a space as a short passing option. With james replacing greenwood, there is no player on the right hand side who is a credible threat, which means the defence doesn't have to switch a man over to cover for AWB to the same extent they would have to do if Greenwood or maybe a sancho would command, which means there is more defenders to mark martial or pushing out to Bruno Fernandez to shut down the attack.
The same thing happens in other formations with other players, but it is a systematic problem across the squad that doesn't seem to have an answer at the moment, regardless of manager.
Goalkeeper: The only complaint I have is we have too many outstanding keepers, and as a result we are overpaying on wages as Romero should have been let go. De Gea is getting back to his best, and his best is world class. Henderson has shown enough to provide a foot up De Gea's ass and Romero is an outstanding no.2 who would start at plenty of clubs. We should shed 100k off the wage bill here.
Fullback; It has become a modern day requirement of fullbacks to be an offensive presence in pretty much every system imaginable, in some ways they are THE most important element of your transition to attack. If your playing with wingers, the fullbacks provide overlap to draw defenders away and to provide a crossing outlet if the winger is unable to beat a man, this is almost universal. We have 3 First team fullbacks on the books as I see it with Diego Dalot on loan. Luke Shaw, AWB and Alex Telles. Luke shaw post injury is a bit of a conundrum, he's a somewhat capable defender, but his final product has been missing for a while. We are pinning pretty much all our hopes of Alex telles continuing his offensive form on the left at this point with Shaw as a no.2. Now for the controversy, AWB is a world class defender, absolutely outstanding, and has a big future at the club. But i think his lack of an offensive output is a huge handicap for the entire team, unless he is able to drastically improve in this area in the future, we have a big big problem here as our attacks down the right have become insanely easy to defend against. it might come to a situation where he may have to become a "big game" role player, man marking your neymars/mbapps out of games. We need an offensive rightback in the squad Tariq lamptey would be absolutely sensational in this capacity for example.
Centerback: Big oof here. I dont really know what to say i dont fancy any of our CB options in comparison to our competition. Harry maguire is a decent defender, albiet with big flaws in his athleticism that then has to be compensated for with both his partner in defence and also in midfield, its a big handicap once again. Lindelof feels like a 3rd choice option, he's not bad, but he isn't outstanding in any area of the game and feels like there's always a mistake in him. Jones/Rojo/Bailly are virtually irrelevant to the conversation because they could be world class in every way, but they are too injury prone to be depended upon unfortunately, need to be replaced. The one ray of hope here is Axel Tuanzebe, if he can get a run of games in the team, and can stay fit, has all the attributes to be a mainstay in our defence for the next decade. Overall, we need 2 additions here after the offloading of rojo/jones/bailly. I dont have any recommendations here as the quality of defenders has become really hard to judge nowadays.
Midfield: Once again we have a selection of incredible individual players here, albiet most with Huge downsides that hurt the team. We dont have a single "Complete" player of any level of quality in this position and as a result the combination of players we have to play has become immensely important. I view Matic/fred/Mctree as our more defensive midfielders, Matic is getting on, and as a result cant be looked at for long term planning but is arguably our best player here currently. Fred is an amazing player but doesn't have a passing range to play by himself and Mctomminay isn't good enough. We need a complete midfielder to partner with fred and compensate for his passing, the player we thought pogba would be for us, and we need a replacement for Mctominay for rotation. Im not sure what players are available in the mould of a Veratti who can make an instant impact.
Offensively we have arguably one of the Best selections of attacking midfielders in the world, Pogba becomes less of a liability here and can start to influence games, Bruno has had the best impact ive seen on a team since RVP signed and mata continues to age like a fine wine and is a capable squad player. DVB has come in and hasn't really had a chance yet. We are fine in this position, with the only question being do we need pogba considering the depth we already have for 1 or 2 at a push slots in a teamsheet, or could we use his sale to improve other areas of the squad that need addressing.
Forwards: We are stacked for strikers, Rashford/martial/greenwood/cavani is beyond good enough, the only question is we don't have a single winger of quality should we want to use a system that uses them. James needs to go as soon as possible, the experiment has failed. We are going to want at least 2 wingers with pace who can beat a man or there's no point. Jadon Sancho has been the main target, but we have also signed 2 long term targets in this position that should be integrating into the team over the next 2/3 years.
What's clear to me is we have way too many players that have caveats to them, Pretty much every player in the spine of our team requires 1 or 2 other players to compensate for 1 glaring problem they have, we have very few complete players for their positions which means we get drastically different performances based on 1 or 2 variations of squad selection. I've never seen a team this swingy before, its a complete coinflip whether we are going to win 6-0 or lose 2-0 based on 1 or 2 changes in the team even within the same system, that have huge compensatory ramifications across the entire 11.
To illustrate this ill give you 2 starting 11's in the same system with 2 changes.
-----------------------De Gea--------------------------------------------------------De Gea
----AWB---Maguire---Lindelof---Shaw--------------AWB-----Maguire--------Lindelof------shaw
-----------------Fred-------Matic-----------------------------------------------Fred--------Mctominnay---------
Greenwood---Bruno--------Rashford-------------------James--------Bruno----------Rashford----
---------------------Martial-----------------------------------------------------------Martial----------------------------
1 starting 11 that has matic and fred together and lets say, greenwood on the right. but the next game Mctomminay comes in for matic and James comes in for greenwood, the entire team falls apart at the seams because suddenly without matic the teams transition from defence to attack breaks down because Mctominay cant compensate for freds passing like matic can, and most likely leads to maguire bringing the ball forward from deep which creates gaps at the back and an ineffective overload at DM as Mctominay cant join the attack effectively when maguire moves up. Furthermore, in the first 11 Greenwood, whilst not a winger, at least has the capacity to attack the box from the right hand side and can take a man on or provide a credible threat from the wing which compensates for AWB having to provide an offensive outlet as he only needs to occupy a space as a short passing option. With james replacing greenwood, there is no player on the right hand side who is a credible threat, which means the defence doesn't have to switch a man over to cover for AWB to the same extent they would have to do if Greenwood or maybe a sancho would command, which means there is more defenders to mark martial or pushing out to Bruno Fernandez to shut down the attack.
The same thing happens in other formations with other players, but it is a systematic problem across the squad that doesn't seem to have an answer at the moment, regardless of manager.
