Keep saying it but the squad is decent, but needs a lot of work to be competing at the top table, especially in the back line where we are ok but that as good as it gets. Big amount of dead wood still here from the Ashley days and I haven't included the likes of Ritchie or Dummy in the below...
GK - Pope, Dubravka, Karius - Good set of keepers not much wrong there but if you want to be competing at the top you need a world class goalie replace Dubravka or Karius.
RB - Trippier, Livarmento, Krafth - Trippier and Krafth to go soon, Livarmento is a good RB with lots of potential and interesting to see where Ashby fits in when he's back from loan next season.
RCB - Schar, Lascelles - improvement needed here, Schar getting on Lascelles not quite at the level, both need replacing by end of next season
LCB - Botman, Burn - Botman is good and only going to get better, Burn is ok for back up but again needs replacing.
LB - Target, Hall - Again another position that needs immediate attention, Target good squad player but no idea what's going on with Hall. Don't think it's Eddie doesn't rate him but more to do with the transfer and clauses of additional payments.
DM - Tonali, Bruno - Class, no need to do anything here
RCM - Longstaff, Anderson, Miley - 3 local lads who are HG so probably not seeing the back of them any time soon but should all be squad players behind the other CM's
LCM - Joelinton, Willock - Class, no need for anything here either
RW - Almiron, Murphy - Happy with Miggy as a squad player but need to replace Murphy
LW - Gordon, Barnes - Don't see any need to improve here
CF - Isak, Wilson - If Isak can stay fit for a full season we'll be fine but need to replace Wilson ASAP, over the hill now and can't manage half a season regularly.
Realistically I think we have 7 first team players (Botman, Tonali, Bruno, Willock, Joelinton, Gordon, Isak) ready for where we want to be so need to bring in at least 4 and retain the better squad players (Pope, Livarmento, Schar, Target, Almiron, Barnes) and the local lads (16 in total). Trippier, Burn are probably the 2 past that group (18) that should have another season in them. Past that we need to replace a lot of the dead wood and bring in about 7 players to make a really good squad for next year. Think that will take a minimum of 3 windows (summer, Jan, next summer) probably more like 5 - i.e. the beginning of the 26/27 season. Who knows if our better players will still be here by then though...
Priorities for the Summer - CB, CB, LB, CF