More Needed
The window has been okay but I think we need more before it closes in order to challenge for trophies.
Broadly I am happy with our recruitment and I like the players that have come in. It was always going to be challenging to sell as many players as we needed to *and* fill the squad holes which have been dogging us since Ange Postecoglou’s arrival. The errors of previous windows have taken some serious work to undo. It’s been a valiant attempt, but to my mind four significant holes still exist: back-up goalkeeper, left centre-back, left back and number six. I also think our wide options could have been enhanced differently.
I think Wilson Odobert is a really promising player. My reading of the situation is that we tried to sign some more ‘first team ready’ wingers (including Pedro Neto) before moving down the list and landing on him. I really, really like him as a player and think between him and Mikey Moore, we’re pretty well future-proofed. But I do think his signing makes the early loan of Timo Werner questionable. What we really need in the squad is players that specialise in one-vs-ones in wide areas. Werner is arguably closer in profile to Brennan Johnson and Son Heung-min. Replace Werner with, say, Brajan Gruda (who Brighton signed for £25m) and suddenly the squad seems more well-rounded in its skillset.
I like Werner, but I think we rushed into that one and it is probably not the best use of a squad space.
What if we sign more?
As it stands, we’re probably not naming Fraser Forster in our Europa League squad. Any more signings and we need to pick another player to miss out. I think that could be Ben Davies.
Gray’s flexibility
People like to throw around the idea of Archie Gray playing as a number six to solve that particular problem and I think that’s pretty reasonable since that was a position he was used in in pre-season, and he did play a handful of matches at six for Leeds last season (albeit in a double pivot, not a single pivot). But I think (currently at least), it’s a poor profile fit for him. And I’d also like to point out that it is largely a position that is new to him.
Perhaps the club see him as a six in the long-term, but I think if they do it’s either hopium — because the six market is bad — or just banking on his versatility. Which, you know, he’s hella versatile so may not be the worst thing.
I think Gray is an exceptional young player and will do a good job there if asked. Against teams we’ve got camped he’ll be absolutely fine. For example, had he played against Leicester, I’ve no doubt that his passing would have been more crisp and ambitious that Rodrigo Bentancur’s; he’s naturally more keen to play forward and to slide the ball through gaps to more advanced teammates.
Some background to his youth career. In the PL2, Gray was playing as a central midfielder or attacking midfielder, even occasionally as a winger. At central midfield in the pivot he was alongside Darko Gyabi who you might know from partnering Alfie Devine sometimes at Plymouth Argyle – Gyabi was the six with Archie box-to-box, using his engine and athleticism. At the Under-17 Euros for England he played on the right of a midfield four or as the box-to-box midfielder alongside Manchester City’s Isaiah Dada-Mascoll who is a centre-back cum defensive midfielder. Gray has been mostly unfamiliar with playing in defensive midfield.
To me Gray at this stage of his development is a bit like Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (and Declan Rice as I’ve said previously) in that he’s very good when facing play and not so good at turning with the ball when he’s not facing play. I think that was illustrated really clearly in pre-season against Bayern Munich — Bissouma coming on totally transformed our build-up play. I also think that that is the top most important quality in our six. I’m very open to reviewing this and changing my mind as he develops more in this role, and I think it would be amazing for the club if he could develop into the role, because it’s a rough market.
I do think Gray could add useful depth at both left centre-back (given exceptional pre-season performances there) and even left-back. And, obviously, he’s extremely competent at right-back. From these positions he can see more of the pitch ahead of him and it allows him to use his obvious strengths.
So which positions?
I think, given the lack of quality available in the six market, we have to focus on left-back and left centre-back in the remaining week. There were some suggestions that we might try to cover off both positions through one signing, but as options dwindle that becomes more challenging. So we probably need to pick one. Pick the one that you think Ben Davies does the least effectively, Ange. I really, really like the idea of signing Rayan Aït-Nouri. I think he’s on a level with Destiny Udogie quality-wie, and he also gives us the option of using him as a winger.
And then goalkeeper — I mean, if Guglielmo Vicario gets injured for any length of time I will be extremely concerned.
We keep being linked with players that you’d say would most likely slot into the number eight role in Ange’s midfield – Conor Gallagher, Jacob Ramsey, João Gomes. I think after watching the Leicester City game this made more sense. Upgrading the technical quality in that area of the pitch would allow us to play faster both in terms of seeing the pass and executing it. And I think these players all get about the pitch reasonably well, so there’s clearly a signal that we don’t want to lose that ability in the front-foot press and in defensive transition.
Without additional enforcements now, I think we will lack the depth to challenge on multiple fronts. Of course, we have the January window. But by then we might have fallen too far behind in the league.
And, as a little bonus segment…
Analysis of the goal conceded vs Leicester
Bit of a throw-back, huh? I’ve seen a lot of fingers pointed at Cristian Romero. In this secnario, Romero is being Romero, and I think you just have to take the bad with the good. The context of the game at the point of conceding the goal is that we’re coming under severe pressure, the crowd are up and we’re struggling to ‘cope’ with that. Players are looking shattered all around him – Brennan Johnson makes a tired clearance, and then looks knackered when losing a duel when trying to win it back from said clearance. Romero has seen this and also Udogie lose a couple duels in the moments before and (rightly or wrongly) has taken it as his responsibility as a leader to take control of the situation. So he absolutely sprints out to join Pedro Porro wide to try to stop the ball coming at source. Incidentally, notice (clip here) that Pape Matar Sarr sees the danger but doesn’t go back with Bobby De Cordova-Reid, so if the ball comes in accurately he has a tap-in. When the ball does come in, Romero absolutely races back to regroup and he takes his positional cue from Micky van de Ven’s position (again, rightly or wrongly). In my view he probably over-compensates.
Sarr — who had correctly previously dropped in to cover Romero albeit too late — sees Romero coming back and takes that as his cue to move up a line. It’s all zonal play, players taking positional cues from one another. Personally, I think Sarr should stay where he is, goal-side of De Cordova-Reid. I think Romero should stay goal-side of Vardy. I also think Van de Ven is slow move towards Facundo Buonanotte when Udogie goes out to Abdul Fatawu and if the ball was played into Buonanotte and he got a shot away we’d be criticising Van de Ven. If the ball is played into De Cordova-Reid initially and he scores we’d be looking at Sarr. If the ball comes into De Cordova-Reid from the second cross and he scores that, we’re all looking at Sarr again.
That’s not to say Romero’s defending is good, it’s more to say that collectively this is a defensive failure and when you only analyse goals rather than everything you can create disproportionality. In this instance, everyone is furious with Romero – another day his front post movement means he blocks the cross at source and we are praising him (or, frankly, taking the action for granted because it’s what we’ve come to expect).
