These last few weeks have proved to me that are short of top 6 quality in depth in these key positions with no obvious candidates coming through the academy. All successful teams are built on a solid defence and although we started the season virtually error free at the back, a couple of injuries have exposed a weakness in our squad and have cost us valuable points. My question is do we go all out to buy a top class Keeper like a Shilton for instance, or a back up for Boruc?. Shilton was worth several points a season and very rarely made errors and turned us from a good side into a very good one. The same applies to the central defence, Lovren and Fonte have been solid together, but one injury to either and suddenly we look vunerable. I'm very happy with our Midfield and Attacking options and there are several promising youngsters in the pipeline in those positions, signing a big name would potentially block the way for their development.
Maybe CB... what's astori up to these days?! GK no. Boruc is up there with the best in the league. We don't need to replace him just cover. To that end its either young understudy (which you could argue we have) or experienced keeper who doesn't mind benchwarming.
We shouldn't break the bank for a keeper, no. They're mercurial as a species, and there's very little guarantee that a top keeper will remain a top keeper, especially as our style isn't for all of them. Boruc does very well, and while we could use a backup, I wouldn't commit a tonne of money to replacing him at this time. As for CB, we need another good one, I agree. If they can cover left back, that's even better.
This season is not the be all and end all of everything. Better to take this as a good season and spend money properly in the summer...no need to panic in January.
I'm with Schad regards GK. I feel like CB is one area that we can improve the first team. Fonte has been excellent alongside Lovren, but Lovren is key and without him we are much weaker. A creative midfielder would also be high on the list. A wide player would be nice too. I don't see us bringing in players to strengthen our bench. They'll be brought in to contest first team positions, which will of course strengthen our bench and our first team. Edit: Just realised I went off on a bit of a tangent and wasn't particularly making reference to the January window. In January I think we're most likely to bring in a creative midfielder or wide player.
Replacing Boruc half way through the season would be madness, but it'd be hard not to get excited about Akinfeev. If the Astori rumours start up again I'll be annoyed.
No harm in looking to improve the squad, but no cause to panic buy and end up with a turkey, if there are suitable players that can be regarded as an investment by all means bring them in, but break the bank, no thanks, no need.
No, we shouldn't break the bank. We should be able to get by until the summer when Artur returns - he is a top keeper. On the CB front... yes, we do need another. But it's not something I feel needs to be urgently addressed in the forthcoming window. Certainly not worth breaking the bank over. In the summer, spend another £8m-£10m and find us a partner for Lovren!
Back up keeper, nice to have. Decent CB needed more. Free scoring striker a must, let's spend whatever it takes. Otherwise we will not concede many but we will not score many & this is a must if we are to progress.
A free scoring striker like somebody who's scored 47 goals in the last 99 games in two of Europe's top leagues you mean? Not that simple to do that with no pre-season etc.
Well yeah, we need back up. But a successful CB partnership isn't something you'd be in any hurry to break up imo. You want consistency in your back four, while the rest of the team can be continually changed to adapt to differing demands, if you have the squad to do that. Edit: In other words, our squad has quite a nice balance but we have been unlucky with injuries.
Perhaps I shouldn't have used the emotive phrase, "break the bank", as people have latched on to it...I don't mean spend beyond our means, but certainly try to get in real quality. Keepers and Defenders are generally cheaper than Midfielders and Strikers and you could get top quality for £10m or less (look at Lovren) and we could certainly recoup a lot of any net spend by selling Gaston, who clearly has no future here under Poch and has been superceded by academy products.
Yeah I honestly think it could prove to be a step backwards buying a CB who replaces Fonte. Keep that partnership together. Individual quality isn't as important as chemistry.
