Defensive changes for next season

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Zatara

Zatara

Player Valuation: £100m
Just a few thoughts on the defenders:

CENTRE BACKS
Jagielka -- Captain and the strongest defensive player in the squad. Been a great player for us but when comparing him to 'The Best' in the league over the years he's not quite at that level. Also i dont believe he has the leadership qualities of a champion. Will be 34 at season start.

Stones -- Has been mentioned as a future Everton and England captain due to his confidence and calmness. Attracting the attention of the worlds top clubs and if he reaches his potential would be one of the greatest English defenders of the modern era. Will be 22 at season start.

Funes Mori -- Signed last summer for £9.5mil and seems to be first choice for Argentina now and our only senior left footed centre back. Has looked like a very competent all round player with an eye for goal but needs to fully adapt to the league still as his concentration levels lead to unforced errors. Will be 25 at season start.

Matthew Pennington -- Has been at the club for 10 years and was voted as Coventry City's young player of the year last season. Came in for us during the FA Cup and now on loan at Walsall in league one.Will be 21 at season start


RIGHT BACKS
Coleman -- Was considered as one of the best right backs in the league 2 seasons ago and signed for just £60k. Has looked very good going forward individually since then but hasnt seemed to develop an understanding with either Deulofeu or Lennon. Also seems defensively suspect in his positioning. Will be 27 at season start.

Browning-- Another player who came through the youth ranks and has been called the "best one on one defender at the club". Able to play either right back or centre back and looked quite solid in the handful of games at the start of the season before receiving a season ending injury. Will be 22 at season start.

Kenny -- Famously (along with Ryan Ledson) won the u17 Euros with England and was selected in the team of the tournament. Now on loan at Oxford where he is getting consistent games. Will be 19 at season start.

Holgate -- Similar to Stones in that he was signed from Barnsley and can play right back or centre back. Not had an opportunity yet in the first team. Will be 19 at season start.


LEFT BACKS

Baines -- Has consistently been one of the best left backs in the league up until two years ago when it seems that after a career with no injuries these have finally begun to hit him hard and impede his performances. Has looked a totally different player to his old self. Will be 31 at season start.

Oviedo -- Came to the club as cover/backup to
Baines and finally seems to be pushing for a starting role. However since signing for us in 2012 he has only managed 40 games due to consistently being injured. Will be 26 at season start.

Garbutt -- Really highly rated at Leeds and someone who was expected to take over the left back position from Baines. Looked good in areas when he has played but fell below Galloway last season and this season has been a disaster on loan at Fulham. Will be 23 at season start.

Galloway -- Looked fine last season when he came in for the last few games but then stepped up a gear and performed really well at left back. Clearly going to be a centre back in the future but seems assured at full back. Will be 20 at season start.

*Special mentions also to Callum Connolly who just came back from loan at Barnsley, rave reviews in our youth team, scoring goals and versatile.


THOUGHTS:

A-- We seem to have a lot of very young defenders coming through who are also being recognised at international level.

B-- We have two left backs in Baines/Oviedo who are now either playing with injuries constantly or just not able to string a few solid appearances in a row.

C -- We have no competition at right back which may be due to the ages of the defenders behind coleman as well as brownings long term injury.

D-- We have Stones who is still developing as a top level defender and Mori who is still adapting to the league. Additionally an ageing Jagielka who has now had two bad injuries this season now.

E-- The concentration levels of all the defenders seemed to improve when Howard was replaced by Robles but since the Chelsea match the poor positioning and loss of focus leading to individual mistakes has set in again.


DEFENSIVE UNIT
My question is this, if we happened to bring in a manager who focused on building the defence first as a platform for the team then what personnel would they see as being good enough next season to push for a top 4 place and what positons need to be strengthened to achieve this?

Bearing in mind we should have 2 players for each of the 4 positions who would they be and who should be sold or sent on loan to develop?

Currently we have this:

LB- Baines / Oviedo / Garbutt / Galloway
LCB - Funes-Mori
RCB - Stones / Jagielka / Pennington
RB - Coleman / Browning / Kenny / Holgate

What changes need to be made?
 

RB to challenge Coleman, maybe at the level of say Trippier when Spurs signed him.
At least 1 CB good enough to play week in week out.
GK - as good as we can afford/attract.

Jags is on the way out, like it or not, and don't want to get caught sleeping on the job the way we did with Distin. Need someone that is capable of keeping jags, stones or funes Mori out of the side.
 
Abertonian said:
RB to challenge Coleman, maybe at the level of say Trippier when Spurs signed him.
At least 1 CB good enough to play week in week out.
GK - as good as we can afford/attract.

Jags is on the way out, like it or not, and don't want to get caught sleeping on the job the way we did with Distin. Need someone that is capable of keeping jags, stones or funes Mori out of the side.
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Youre thinking backup right back -- how about the young defenders we have on the books already?

Also a top centre back to come in -- who would be the players to make way?
 

Zatara said:
Youre thinking backup right back -- how about the young defenders we have on the books already?

Also a top centre back to come in -- who would be the players to make way?
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I'm looking at it assuming Pennington, holgate, Kenny and maybe browning would go back out on loan. If any of them were/are good enough to challenge Coleman then we should give them game time between now and the end of the season. The type of back up I'm thinking is someone that can play at PL level consistently, if that is one of them then even better. I'm all for taking guys up through the ranks but it's not the answer if he's doing to vanish off the face of the earth after a handful of games ala Galloway.

For CB, if Pennington is out on loan I don't think anyone has to go. Four CBs when one is in his mid 30s isn't really a big deal I don't think.
 
Abertonian said:
I'm looking at it assuming Pennington, holgate, Kenny and maybe browning would go back out on loan. If any of them were/are good enough to challenge Coleman then we should give them game time between now and the end of the season. The type of back up I'm thinking is someone that can play at PL level consistently, if that is one of them then even better. I'm all for taking guys up through the ranks but it's not the answer if he's doing to vanish off the face of the earth after a handful of games ala Galloway.

For CB, if Pennington is out on loan I don't think anyone has to go. Four CBs when one is in his mid 30s isn't really a big deal I don't think.
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I think the problem is going to be keeping the players all happy.

Baines for example is a fan favourite and has already been dropped by England it seems for the euros. Lets say he and Oviedo are out for a game then we start Galloway again and he keeps his place after a good performance then i could see some issues with Baines.

If we played Stones and a new centre back together then we would be leaving the captain and also an argentina international on the bench. We cant really rotate central defenders and I would imagine Jagielka would demand to be playing as captain and also as he will be coming to 34 in august so would want to play. Mori also would need to play to get in the argentina squad.

So, i could see there being a fair bit of player disharmony there and also although on paper we would look strong, morale may take a hit amongst the senior players who are dislodged.

Its going to be quite tricky to bring in players i think without one or two of the "old guard" having their noses put out of joint.
 
Mikey_Fitzgerald said:
I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but we really should have gone in for Virgil Van Dijk while he was still reasonably priced

We missed a trick there, in my opinion
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Would have just meant we had him as opposed to Mori who could be very good next season after adjusting this season.

I think we need quite a number of changes than just swapping Mori for Van Dijk.
 

Zatara said:
I think the problem is going to be keeping the players all happy.

Baines for example is a fan favourite and has already been dropped by England it seems for the euros. Lets say he and Oviedo are out for a game then we start Galloway again and he keeps his place after a good performance then i could see some issues with Baines.

If we played Stones and a new centre back together then we would be leaving the captain and also an argentina international on the bench. We cant really rotate central defenders and I would imagine Jagielka would demand to be playing as captain and also as he will be coming to 34 in august so would want to play. Mori also would need to play to get in the argentina squad.

So, i could see there being a fair bit of player disharmony there and also although on paper we would look strong, morale may take a hit amongst the senior players who are dislodged.

Its going to be quite tricky to bring in players i think without one or two of the "old guard" having their noses put out of joint.
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But thats the issue with signing any players really unless its a position you dont have covered, like LM/W for us. Not saying its easy to deal with but I'd happily sell any unhappy player if someone is performing better than them in the team.

Seems to me that we desperately need a commanding centre half that will keep the defence in check and get his head in the way of crosses. If Jags or Mori can't then up their game to suit then isn't that their problem. No one is owed a place in the side.

Similary for Baines / Oviedo. I love Baines, but if he is injured or playing poorly and kept out of the side by a younger/another player who is in form then i'll take the form player every day of the week.
 

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