Our old mate Phil Neville thinks that all we need to challenge for the title is a class goalkeeper.
He says that De Gea at Man U has won them a number of matches this season with his outstanding performances.
Not really sure I see where the 'title challengers' comes from. If we win 3 of our last four games and lose the other, then we simply match last seasons league tally of 79 points. Still miles off the top of the league and still no evidence we can sustain form for 9 months of a football season. We'll see.
We also don't need depth. Chelsea don't have deth and are 13 points ahead of everyone else. Same back 4 whenever possible. Matic a mainstay. One decent striker. Hazard and Fabregas in the team always when fit. They have top drawer in every position, not three jack of all trades swapping around every week. This is my concern. How does AW tackle his squad? He made a massive blunder in signing Welbeck because we didn't need squad filler, we need(ed) top quality. It would harsh on any of first XI to be replaced by a top drawer signing (except maybe Ospina - but even he has done little wrong).
So how does AW pick his positions to strengthen? And how will he justify to Coquelin if he spends £25m on a DM? Awkward position to be in.
What we don't need is more filler. We need one or two absolutely top drawer players who go straight in at first choice, regardless of how good our current player is in that position.
I'm thinking:
- Cech (and screw over Ospina).
- Schneiderlin (and screw over Coquelin - Schneiderlin is simply slightly better regardless of the form Coquelin is in
Other than that, i'm at a loss. Are there any top drawer centre forwards available? Lacazette maybe but not entirely sure he has done enough to warrant being a first choice striker and we have enough second choice strikers already. Ramsay and Ozil are not wingers and Walcott has gone AWOL so we could do with an absolutely top drawer winger. I'd take Di Maria off United for £30-40m in a heartbeat and play him in his correct position. Di Maria, Ozil and Sanchez would be deadly.
Other than that... hmm... tough one... too much filler and not enough killer.... although the filler is all 8/10 good. The hard part is just replacing 8/10 good with 10/10 top drawer without pi55ing off the 8/10 good players.
