Defenders

[NewEnglandFox]

We've gained 3 defenders this window having signed 4 and only shifting out 1.

 

Personnel: Chilwell, Fuchs, Morgan, Evans, Maguire, Benalouane, Benkovic, Soyuncu, Simpson, Ricardo.

 

Callum Elder is here as well but with Fuchs and Chilwell I think don't think he'll be staying, especially since he's 23 and would take up a place in the squad.

 

Chilwell is the only U21 in the bunch.

 

Simpson has been told he's not in Puel's plans and Amartey is known to be cover.

 

What's happening?

[brucey]

I think Chilwell is now about 12 days too old to count as U21, so he also takes up a space in the 25 man squad.

[knitro]

I think what it says is that we'll play with 3 CBs sometimes, so having 5 (or even 6) on the team makes sense. 

 

RB: Ricardo, Amartey (Simpson goes)

CB: Maguire, Evans, Soyuncu, Morgan, Benkovic (Benny goes back to Italy or France)

LB: Chilwell, Fuchs (Elder goes to a Championship squad)

 

Loans can still happen down to the football league and of course other nations' windows are still open. 

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, NewEnglandFox said:

We've gained 3 defenders this window having signed 4 and only shifting out 1.

 

Personnel: Chilwell, Fuchs, Morgan, Evans, Maguire, Benalouane, Benkovic, Soyuncu, Simpson, Ricardo.

 

Callum Elder is here as well but with Fuchs and Chilwell I think don't think he'll be staying, especially since he's 23 and would take up a place in the squad.

 

Chilwell is the only U21 in the bunch.

 

Simpson has been told he's not in Puel's plans and Amartey is known to be cover.

 

What's happening?

We lost Dragovic, Huth and quite likely Simpson and maybe even Benny.

 

Not sure what the question is exactly?

[Unabomber]

1 hour ago, NewEnglandFox said:

We've gained 3 defenders this window having signed 4 and only shifting out 1.

 

Personnel: Chilwell, Fuchs, Morgan, Evans, Maguire, Benalouane, Benkovic, Soyuncu, Simpson, Ricardo.

 

Callum Elder is here as well but with Fuchs and Chilwell I think don't think he'll be staying, especially since he's 23 and would take up a place in the squad.

 

Chilwell is the only U21 in the bunch.

 

Simpson has been told he's not in Puel's plans and Amartey is known to be cover.

 

What's happening?

What’s the question? 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

I don’t know what’s happening but it’s exciting ??

[Guest Mickyblueeyes]

We needed all three. Benny is not first team material and Wes gradually has to be phased out with respect and a hero’s thank you departure next year. 

 

Good thing about snapping up two this year rather than 1 is it allows the new partnership to progress over a year before it becomes a mainstay. 

[RumbleFox]

Never got so excited about the signing of two defenders before.  We are massive.  X

[Merchant_Banker]

I assumed that we were planning for next year without Maguire. The young CBs will need a year to settle in, Big Wes is coming to the end of his career, Benny is not good enough and may still go before the end of August and if Maguire has another good season he is likely to move on next summer.

[StriderHiryu]

3 hours ago, NewEnglandFox said:

What's happening?

We have tried to build a balanced squad that can adapt to multiple different systems and that is made up of predominantly talented young players who are comfortable on the ball with a few experienced senior internationals / captains to sturdy the ship. We have arguably achieved that goal.

 

Puel's favourite system is 4-2-3-1 as used all throughout preseason. That system relies on forward thinking fullbacks, creative forwards that can cut-in and a genuine number 10. We have all those things and cover for all those positions with at least 2 players that can fill in all of those roles.

 

But now the squad is deep enough to try some different things. *IF* we wanted to play 3 at the back as used by Chelsea to devastating effect two seasons ago, we could do it with a pool of defenders that is deep enough to handle it. We could play a 4-4-2 diamond with two strikers up top and a number 10 behind. We could even go for some variation of any of the systems mentioned above.

 

We've also got one eye on the future. We've replaced ageing players now with promising young players who can probably make an impact this season but likely with an eye for next season.

 

We can better judge our squad 10 games into the season, but I'd say for the first time maybe ever that there has been a very clear strategy in terms of recruitment. How good the players we have brought will turn out to be, and how successful our strategy ends up only time will tell, but we have definitely executed on that strategy,