with regards to further incoming signings. Roker Report done a great article on this last week http://rokerreport.sbnation.com/201...ing-together-poyets-sunderland-transfer-plans He has spoke about wanting 3 goalkeepers - Mannone, Pantilimon and Pickford He has also said he wants a 23 man squad that has 7 defenders not 8 with 1 of them being able to play in a couple of positions along the back line so that extra player (in his 23) can be a midfielder - well we have Jones, Van Aanholt, Brown and O'Shea.... the versatile defender would be Vergini with his ability to play CB & RB. A second left back would be in there and that will be Alonso if we can get him. As for the last spot well it is obv. it would of been Ashley Williams if we had persuaded him to come but who now? Maybe Van Dijk at Celtic with it being known that we had him watched last week. Onto Midfield and Gus came out after the Hartlepool Game and said that after losing Ki, Gardner and Colback he wants a couple of midfielders. We were linked with Banega earlier in the summer and lately Rodwell on loan but anyone could have a guess who they will be as nobody really knows. One could even be Alfred N'Diaye who has travelled with the squad to Portugal. Moving further up the pitch and onto the wings. Well it looks like Rodriguez will be the 5th summer signing for us and the last spot in the squad would be a versatile forward who can play in all 3 forward positions and that man is Fabio Borini if he does come. 1 GK - Mannone 2 GK - Pantilimon 3 GK - Pickford 4 RB - Jones 5 Utility Defender - (Vergini RB/CB) 6 CB - O'Shea 7 CB - Brown 8 CB - ????? (Van Dijk?) 9 LB - (Alonso) 10 LB - Van Aanholt 11 CM - Cattermole 12 CM - Bridcutt 13 CM - Larsson 14 CM - Gomez 15 CM - ????? 16 CM - ????? 17 W - (Rodriguez) 18 W - Johnson 19 W - Giaccherini 20 Versatile Striker - (Borini) 21 CF - Altidore 22 CF - Fletcher 23 CF - Wickham Mavrias, Watmore & Ba will all be on the fringes
Imagine Rodwell is one of the CM's Agree with Mavrias/Watmore/Ba being used in Cup games and if needs be
yeh I rekon you are right it is a shame what has happened with Ki whatever that is as he would of been perfect (as we seen for a large part of last season) Gus always talks about how you have got to take care of the football and that is vitally important in the cm. We need 2 CM's and 2 gd ones just a shame Ki won't be one of them
The cm position is the biggest mystery and most important. What I would give for a real one. CB is right up there too. Notice our attack will have barely changed if we leave it at borini.
Agree, thought Ki was part of the reason for our massive turn around Also thought his link up play was sublime Would like to have went for him, him and Rodwell would be a next level midfield for us
I personally am not a fan of Fletcher of Altidore and I would be a bit surprised if they score more than 10 between them this season. 1 of them needs to be moved on with a 10-15 goals a season striker brought in but I cannot see that happening until January at the earliest.
Catts, Bridcutt and Larrson + one other... I know a lot of people don't rate Larrson coz he's supposed to be good at set pieces, but hell, he's put in one hell of a shift for both Sunderland and Sweden. If Alf proves himself as a tough central mid we have enough (for a battle - we need Catts plus an equivalent). Central defence needs freshening/back up...
