Inspired by a debate on the transfer thread, i'm interested to know how many new CBs are required for next season fans think we need. All assuming that Vestergaard is leaving of course.
It’s a tough one. Ideally we’d have Klarer come in to 4th pick but I’m not sure where he is at with development or how he did in the Austrian Bundesliga.
I thinke we need to buy one who is a starter, hopefully that's Salisu And as Piri says, if we have an academy player who is good enough to be in the squad then that's perfect If we don't we need to get one We can't get away with 4 CBs who want to start, our USP is if you come here, you play, if you come as a development player you get a chance to play Oh, and the Ralph of course
One thing I will point out is if we have 3 less CBs than at the start of last season then bringing in 2 to replace them is not excessive.
The number of CBs we had present wasn't a reflection of how many CBs a team ought to have, though, it was a reflection of our capacity to buy large numbers of really bad CBs that we then couldn't offload. Hoedt, as an example, was amply replaced when Ralph found chewing gum on his shoe.
Imagine our two preferred starting CBs being injured/suspended at the same time it would leave us short of cover. I would argue that having to start Vestergaard cost us a few points last season. I would expect any new CB coming in to be more suited to the PL than he was/is!.
This is the crux of the matter, there has been no indication from Ralph that he thinks that Klarer or Alfie Jones is ready for a squad position yet but we'll have to wait and see as you say. It says on Wiki that Alfie Jones played DM for Gillingham for 30 games last season, Klarer only played 3 times for the whole season.
But Vestergaard was our 3rd choice, and at times a starter. Yes, you might have a small number of games where you need to start someone you'd rather not, but resources are finite. The marginal benefit of having a guy on substantial wages who won't even make the match squad 50%+ of the season is much smaller than the marginal benefit of other uses for that cash.
Our main weakness has been the defence for the last 3 seasons, we simply let in too many soft goals I would prefer to see the defence strengthened first and then add others if we need to.
People keep saying or inferring this, but I disagree. I want a squad where everyone wants to start and thinks they should. Then they have to fight to get a place and fight to keep it. Without that, we can have complacency or stuck with a player out of form.
This is an argument to spend a substantial sum and replace one of Bednarek/Stephens, though, not an argument to sign a backup. We let in too many soft goals because our first-choice pairing, while much-improved, still isn't really good in the grand scheme. But if we think that one of those two is not up for it, then we probably ought to find them somewhere to play regularly.
