I think we've targeted young players who will hopefully be ready for the Premier league in the near future. The likes of Hutchinson, Philogene, Jack Clarke, and Delap fit the profile. Southampton have seemed to have gone exlusively down that route of buying young and hoping they're Premier League ready. In theory, it makes sense - particularly in terms of investing to make profit to keep funding the team. Sides like Brighton, Brentford, and Fulham have been doing that really well for years. But those sides - and others in the Premier League 'middle class' - initially stayed up by hook or (in Forest's case) by crook.
I made the point elsewhere earlier in the season, but the Premier League is a much more physical league than it has been for some years. As a newly promoted club, you're going to go up against full-backs that are stronger and quicker than the Championship. You'll play Premier League defences that are taller than they used to be. And you'll come across sides that have at least one physical, mobile enforcer in central midfield. Young players - particularly those untested at Premier League level - tend to struggle - see Jack Clarke and Philogene for us this season.
As we're talking hindsight about our transfer business, what we probably should've done in the summer was to bring in at least one strong central midfielder and bought a bit more physicality to our defence. You'll struggle to get quality and value for money signing domestic players as a newly promoted side - that's where we should've gone abroad. Unfortunately, our scouting network isn't quite up to scratch yet. Cajuste is great on the ball, but he's not a scrapper. Morsy is a scrapper, but he noticeably tires after the hour mark. Phillips isn't physical and - when we're defending leads - has a habit of going missing. Jack Taylor isn't up to Premier League standard - yet (hopefully). If we'd save the money we'd spent towards Phillips' salary and brought in some Ligue 1/Serie A physical central midfielder - we'd be better equipped at defending leads (we've thrown away around 25 odd points from winning positions this season).
Looking at our defence with a more critical eye - Davis can't properly defend one-on-ones, Greaves is too error-prone at this level, O'Shea is solid but can't distribute the ball well, Tuanzebe is usually solid but makes at least one bad mistake every match, Woolfenden too slow on the ball, Burgess too slow off the ball, and Ben Johnson is arguably too lightweight at full-back. It's no wonder we've conceded as many goals as we have done. Although I get the Johnson deal was great value for money (and he played really well against Chelsea) - what if we'd targeted a more physical, mobile right back from abroad who had a bit of top division football experience under their belts?
If we get back to the Premier League over the next few years - I think we've got to massively expand our scouting network and sign some players that can add physicality and a bit of senior leadership to the squad. I think newly promoted sides these days look at clubs like Brentford, Brighton etc. and think 'if they can stay up playing that style then we can stay up playing that way'. Whereas those sides all needed one or two years to stabilise and survive in the Premier League before evolving their style to a more fluid, entertaining system.
