brisbaneblue

Unfortunately I think these past 3 games will make the difference this season - we got 3 points from what should have been 9. Liverpool, Man U and Tottenham also dropped points on the weekend so I think this round has to go down as a big missed opportunity. If you add on those 6 points that we dropped, we'd be in 4th place with an upcoming fixture against Leicester that could possibly hoist us into 3rd, but instead we are languishing in 10th.

We are playing really good football 70% of the time, but perhaps not having the experience to close out games is a negative side effect of having young talent in the spine of the team.

I think you'd have to say that we have only 4, maybe 5 players in our starting XI that could be starting for a club like Arsenal or Man U or Chelsea, in Lukaku, Barkley, Baines, Stones and maybe Miralas

In relation to previous transfer windows, this was a relatively productive summer (I'd say 6.5 out of 10). Deulofeu was a smart piece of business, Lennon and Cleverley were handy pickups and keeping Stones was an immense effort.

But the way that these opening four rounds have played out, it seems like it is shaping up to be a bit of a weaker season for the premier league as a whole than usual. Within the 'usual suspects' for top 4/top 6 spots: Tottenham and Chelsea's struggles are obvious, Southampton are looking inconsistent and Arsenal, Liverpool and Man U have hit some bumps. This is probably one of the better seasons to challenge for a top 4 spot - just as the 2013-14 season was when Man U and Tottenam went through bouts of poor form and manager sackings.

I think in hindsight we might look back at this transfer window as a missed opportunity. Spending £15m or even Lukaku-like money on a central midfielder might not have been so reckless.

One further thing to note, these players contracts Are finished at the end of this campaign -

 

Hibbert

Gibson

Kone

Oviedo

Osman

Pienaar

Stanek

Conor Grant

 

Some serious dead wood there. Kone and Oviedo should be re-signed, Hibbert and osman offered coaching contracts.

Pretty good timing, this would have to cut off a fair chunk of the wage bill.

Wouldn't resign Kone and would sell off McGeady and Naismith. After that, a quality up and coming strker would be needed and then I think everyone else could just move up one position in the peking order.

Comments? Additions? Corrections?

GK: Howard, Robles, Stanek

RB: Coleman, Hibbert, Browning, Holgate

CB: Jagielka, Stones, Funes Mori, Galloway, Browning, Pennington, Holgate

LB: Baines, Oviedo, Funes Mori, Galloway

DM: McCarthy, Barry, Besic, Cleverley, Gibson

ACM/CM: Barkley, Cleverley, Osman, Pienaar, Barry

RW/RM: Deulofeu, Lennon, Miralas, Kone, Cleverley, Pienaar, McGeady, Naismith

LW/LM: Miralas, Barkley, Deulofeu, Cleverley, Oviedo, Lennon, Kone, McGeady, Osman

ST: Lukaku, Kone, Niasmith, Rodriguez, McAleny

This season was always going to be tough because we spent the lion's share of our transfer budget on consolidating the squad from last season. With very few new faces in the squad I don't understand how anyone expected us to improve - especially given that key-position players in the starting XI are getting older - Barry, Howard, Osman, Pienaar and the like

I think whoever has the job for next season will have it easier as we now have most of core players tied down to long term contracts.

In my mind there are three main priorities in the off season -

1. Sign a Gerard Deulofeu-like player who can also play lone striker as cover for lukaku

2. Sign a direct replacement for Distin. An experienced CB who is still good for another 4 or more years a la Ryan Shawcross or Winston Reid

3. Offload players who offer us very little - Gibson, Kone, Alcaraz, possibly Pienaar

It's too late in the season to sack him now and I think he has the potential to do the right things in the off season.

Lack of depth at the back seems to be our downfall again. Without Distin and Coleman, we look frail as anything.

Tony Hibbert is past it, Stones in no right back and Browning is untested. We really needed a solid plan B for Coleman before the season started. Hopefully we can add depth at the back come January - a decent RB and CB is on my wishlist.

Good news is international break is coming at the right time. A few days off gives us time for Stones, Coleman, Distin, McCarthy and maybe even Barkley to make recoveries. Villa, Burnely, Swansea, Sunderland, West Ham, Spurs and Hull are the next seven fixtures. We should be getting at least 4 or 5 wins from those fixtures.

Stones looks lost going forward and gets caught out on the counter. He is not a right back, neither is McCarthy. Real lack of depth at RB