Our system detected that your browser is blocking advertisements on our site. Please help support FoxesTalk by disabling any kind of ad blocker while browsing this site. Thank you.
Jump to content
 Share
MPH

How would you improve the team in January?

By MPH, in Transfer Talk

Recommended Posts

frany104

frany104

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, jeffschlupp said:

Apparently before Milan signed Simon Kjaer they were looking at Aleksandar Dragovic, who wants to leave Leverkusen. The price is £8.5m or a loan deal.

 

If he left on decent terms (and he was just arsey with Puel for dropping him) I would take him again for 6 months if it means we get Benkovic a dozen games on loan somewhere. He and Evans were the only two players that ever looked comfortable playing next to Harry Maguire.

 

I can see something like that being our only bit of business - I'm not so sure any loan will be for a young(er) player because the ones like Rugani, Demiral, Todibo, Kehrer etc. who may have been on the market are seemingly not anymore. And the club will not sanction a big fee in January - we've spent about £2m over the last 2 windows; and only ever spent more than £6m on one player when in desperation (Ndidi as Kante replacement; Kramaric for survival goals).

 

And on the winger front - we wanted a striker in Jan 2016, and then it turned out Leo Ulloa had balls the size of planets. We wanted a CB in Jan 2017, we got Wague, and then Yohan Benalouane morphed into Paolo Maldini at the Calderon. Oh, and then we signed some half decent lad from Hull that summer.

 

Given we don't purely need numbers out wide (just quality), I think it is best we take the next four or five months to line up some proper targets and get them done in a much more favourable market. In the meantime, it's a battle between the other four to not be the one to be shipped out the door.

I do agree that we shouldn’t be signing players for the sake of it and we need quality, but the club have had months to plan for the Jan window. It’s not like it’s a surprise and it’s been sprung on them. One quality winger would transform this team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gerard

Gerard

Posted
Posted

I think we might reassess on Thursday after the Burnley and West Ham game whether we do some business. 

 

A couple of wins and other favourable results around us might mean we'll go with what we have unless a deal we want sits on our lap. A bad return from the Burnley and West Ham game might kick our arses into gear to get some reinforcements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jeffschlupp

jeffschlupp

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, frany104 said:

I do agree that we shouldn’t be signing players for the sake of it and we need quality, but the club have had months to plan for the Jan window. It’s not like it’s a surprise and it’s been sprung on them. One quality winger would transform this team.

You don't think the club have been planning for months? It's common knowledge the club were already planning for the summer of 2020 before we'd even got the Tielemans deal done - we are not West Ham.

 

Which quality winger is available in this window? As I say, let's look back to past windows:

1) 2017 (Ranieri second season). Everyone said one quality CB was an absolute must given various injuries (Huth in particular) and Morgan's form. The options were not great - Wesley Hoedt of Lazio I remember was one that was quite heavily linked, and he was so shite that Southampton laughed him out the door. We ended up with a stopgap, a cover option in Wague, who probably would've just benchwarmed had he not done his shoulder at Millwall. The club then continued in their recruitment strategy, and quietly got a deal done in the background for Harry Maguire, ready for the middle of June and straight into a full pre-season under Shakespeare. Now granted - we did sign Wilfred Ndidi in that window too, but that just shows that if the player is indeed available, then we can do a deal. But in all likelihood anyone who is playing well for their club is at a club that wants to keep that player, and mostly those players don't itch for moves in January when they might have a shot at silverware or success with their team in the following few months.

 

2) 2016 (title winning season). Some of you were having absolute kittens that we hadn't signed a striker on deadline day. Loic Remy? He became a world beater, of course he did. Mame Biram Diouf? Is he still at Stoke? We could've sorted a loan but the club felt they had enough with Leo Ulloa. Leo comes in against Norwich, scores a crucial goal. Comes in against West Ham, shows balls of steel. Comes in against Swansea, channels his inner Ibrahimovic. We won the league by 10 points, happy days. Now we all know what happened in that summer, but Musa and Slimani were the club's targets for a long time and they could get neither in January. Waiting allowed us to get them, however shite they were. 

 

3) 2018 (Puel first year). We need a number 10, they all cried. We didn't get one. We took the next few months to select our targets for the summer. We paid £25m for Maddison. That one turned out badly too!

 

etc.

 

It's not about planning, because even those that have plans struggle to implement them. If the £50m is yours, are you paying that for an out of form player, say Cengiz Under now, or are you waiting 6 months and having the pick of the bunch?

 

A big, big risk to chuck such a huge portion of your revenue at a player you aren't fully convinced by, which is ultimately what you'll get with anyone you sign in January.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
frany104

frany104

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, jeffschlupp said:

You don't think the club have been planning for months? It's common knowledge the club were already planning for the summer of 2020 before we'd even got the Tielemans deal done - we are not West Ham.

 

Which quality winger is available in this window? As I say, let's look back to past windows:

1) 2017 (Ranieri second season). Everyone said one quality CB was an absolute must given various injuries (Huth in particular) and Morgan's form. The options were not great - Wesley Hoedt of Lazio I remember was one that was quite heavily linked, and he was so shite that Southampton laughed him out the door. We ended up with a stopgap, a cover option in Wague, who probably would've just benchwarmed had he not done his shoulder at Millwall. The club then continued in their recruitment strategy, and quietly got a deal done in the background for Harry Maguire, ready for the middle of June and straight into a full pre-season under Shakespeare. Now granted - we did sign Wilfred Ndidi in that window too, but that just shows that if the player is indeed available, then we can do a deal. But in all likelihood anyone who is playing well for their club is at a club that wants to keep that player, and mostly those players don't itch for moves in January when they might have a shot at silverware or success with their team in the following few months.

 

2) 2016 (title winning season). Some of you were having absolute kittens that we hadn't signed a striker on deadline day. Loic Remy? He became a world beater, of course he did. Mame Biram Diouf? Is he still at Stoke? We could've sorted a loan but the club felt they had enough with Leo Ulloa. Leo comes in against Norwich, scores a crucial goal. Comes in against West Ham, shows balls of steel. Comes in against Swansea, channels his inner Ibrahimovic. We won the league by 10 points, happy days. Now we all know what happened in that summer, but Musa and Slimani were the club's targets for a long time and they could get neither in January. Waiting allowed us to get them, however shite they were. 

 

3) 2018 (Puel first year). We need a number 10, they all cried. We didn't get one. We took the next few months to select our targets for the summer. We paid £25m for Maddison. That one turned out badly too!

 

etc.

 

It's not about planning, because even those that have plans struggle to implement them. If the £50m is yours, are you paying that for an out of form player, say Cengiz Under now, or are you waiting 6 months and having the pick of the bunch?

 

A big, big risk to chuck such a huge portion of your revenue at a player you aren't fully convinced by, which is ultimately what you'll get with anyone you sign in January.

You seem to be contradicting yourself. I fully expect the club to be planning for the window so we should be going all out for THE player we want. However you have listed examples of tenuous links to players before. All I was saying was that I agree with you in that we should be targeting a player of quality and someone we have scoured and believe is a good fit to improve the starting line up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dahnsouff

Dahnsouff

Posted
Posted

I find the whole winger-want a bit weird. Does not look like we want one really.

Seems like Brendan wants them coming inside not outside.

The "wingers" job is now the full backs job :blink:

 

My bad if Winger is being used a wider attacing midfielder / inside forward type jobby

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ric Flair

Ric Flair

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

I find the whole winger-want a bit weird. Does not look like we want one really.

Seems like Brendan wants them coming inside not outside.

The "wingers" job is now the full backs job :blink:

 

My bad if Winger is being used a wider attacing midfielder / inside forward type jobby

 

The majority of " wingers " in this era are inverted. We need that mercurial left footed right winger to do what Perez cant do.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dahnsouff

Dahnsouff

Posted
Posted
Just now, Ric Flair said:

The majority of " wingers " in this era are inverted. We need that mercurial left footed right winger to do what Perez cant do.

I am just old and moudly I guess, Albrighton is a good old winger lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Muzzy_Larsson

Muzzy_Larsson

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

The majority of " wingers " in this era are inverted. We need that mercurial left footed right winger to do what Perez cant do.

It makes the Perez signing all the more weird.  A player, who done fairly well in a counter attacking side, who looks most comfortable playing off a striker and looks like a square peg in a round hole out wide.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing but looks like a boo boo spending that money in the summer on Perez and not a genuine wide player/inside forward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mabrah

mabrah

Posted
Posted

I like Albrighton for his work rate and desire. He can cross a ball too, though he looks to do it a little too often (imo) without actually seeing if there's anyone there. I think that's a part of his weakness too (his thinking isn't flexible enough, and I really don't mean that harshly) I think he is also prone to almost panic like hoofing - and the odd wtf moment. He makes up his mind to do something (e.g. get the cross in) and seems to stick to it, even when a situation changes and a better option might appear.

 

But, yes, in a tight spot, he's the kind of player who can motivate by example.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ric Flair

Ric Flair

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

It makes the Perez signing all the more weird.  A player, who done fairly well in a counter attacking side, who looks most comfortable playing off a striker and looks like a square peg in a round hole out wide.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing but looks like a boo boo spending that money in the summer on Perez and not a genuine wide player/inside forward.

Although he hasn't set the world alight here, I get why Rodgers went for him. Perez topped the stats in 18/19 for forward pressing and winning tackles/interceptions high up the pitch. This was crucial to our style of play that worked so well for us up until December. He also wanted a Son type player who could play out wide or up front. He got 13 PL goals last season playing mostly wide right and drifting inside so on paper the signing made sense even if a little surprising. Time will tell if he can be a real success here, his versatility is an asset even if I do want more from a wide player given Barnes is still massively finding his feet on the other side. Perez could be afforded to drift in and out of games if there was a strong and reliable winger on the left but to have them both doing what they are doing for a team with top 4 ambitions in the long term isn't feasible. Barnes is the one who I think will be afforded the time and effort to grow in to the player we hope and think he will be, which means Perez really has to step up now or risk being mostly a sub player. We need to go and get a consistent wide player.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dahnsouff

Dahnsouff

Posted
Posted

In light of where we are, think I was wrong, Jarrod Bowen is not the type of guy. Just does not have the requisite pedigree in this or comparative league, and although he may get there, we (fans) seems not to want a project.

 

Lets take over the Sanchez loan

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...