Probably being stupid on a Friday morning but who else do we currently have in the squad? Is it just Aribo and Smallbone for CM? If so we could quite easily sign 3 this window. I’d expect we would want 5 to give us some flexibility on playing a 3 man midfield and having some cover The issue as always will be who the “5th” one is and keeping them happy for playing time. If we do get Downes and O’Riley then you’d think they would go in ahead of Smallbone and Aribo. Could sign another midfielder who goes in ahead of them aswell which solves the “sign a 5th choice” problem
The “sign a 5th choice” or “sign an obvious reserve” has been an issue we’ve had for ages. Notably with a back up defensive midfielder. And goalkeeper. Spurs had it with striker. We also have Shea Charles in CM but you have to imagine we should be looking for a loan for him. He surely won’t get enough game time to develop
I was just responding to the comment that stated Reed was as good as, or better than, Downes. Signing the 3 of them isn't that mad when you think about it. Downes was here last season. O'Riley would be replacing Stu Armstrong. So it would only really be bringing in 1 new CM, which after seeing how poor we were without Downes last season, seems a good idea.
Oh yeah forgot about Charles. Ultimately it depends what is going to be Martin’s preferred formation. I’m sure we’ve all heard of wanting 2 players for every position, so if we are playing 3 CMs, like we did last year, then even 5 feels a little light. Anyway just wait and see. I think it will be Downes + 1 other coming in. I don’t think it will be O’Riley due to price and the seemingly extensive rebuild we are doing.
We currently have Smallbone, Aribo, Charles, Alcaraz and Lallana. - We have lost Stu, Downes and Rothwell from last season - We have gained Lallana I doubt we keep all 3 of Aribo, Charles and Alcaraz either so definitely room for another few midfielders to come in.
I don't think you can look at all of those players as "midfielders" to determine how many will come/go. Downes for example is a completely different player to Alcaraz or Armstrong.
I do agree. It's difficult to know if we will be playing the same formation or not in the PL and some players can play multiple variations of CM. I don't know what position you would count Lallana as now. Charles is in theory a DM option but Martin didn't fancy him in the Championship so he's not suddenly going to be that genuine second DM option in the PL. Just listing all our current midfielders really.
Yeah this to me seems the most logical/easiest way of doing it. Sign 2 or 3 who, to start with at least, are ahead of Smallbone and Aribo in the pecking order. Then we don’t have the problem of trying to convince someone to sign as 5th choice.
It’s all very well demoting Smallbone in this debate but l think it is unrealistic as he seems to be a favourite of Russell Martin
