There's still work to be tended to on the squad especially the right side but for people say we hadn't made improvements is wacky to me, Barry upgrade over DCL , DCL wasn't playing most games due to fitness and wasn't scoring when he did, dewsberry hall is upgrade over Doucoure overall especially when it comes to technical ability, jack graelish bolsters our attacking potency along with dewsberry hall and the permanent signing of Alcarez. I get its frustrating but there's a clear distinction between the previous regimes. Honestly just becomes tedious these discussions as the outrage factories burn their vitriol perpetually so I'm just going to wait till the end of the window to revisit this conversation , if the doom-mongers are correct I'll concede but won't know until then
There was a clear direction.... and then they tossed in Dewsbury Hall and
Grealish and suddenly it is a bit harder to see what the direction is again.
For me it is fair to have real concerns about the state of the right side. The options at right wing are
Ndiaye or
Grealish out of position, McNeil who hasn't played there a lot and has real physical limitations as a wide player, and maybe Alcaraz or
Dewsbury-Hall as a player who drifts around a bit. Two of those three styles of play require real attacking support from fullback. It just isn't going to threaten teams enough to have someone like
O'Brien who just doesn't make them respect the width. And then when looking at actual RB options it's paper thin.
O'Brien can do it even if he stylistically isn't ideal, but then it is nothing and O'Brien may be needed at CB. After that it's Patterson who is League One level maybe and well past it and unlikely to stay fit Seamus.
So if someone is sitting here saying they like the signings but can't understand the strategy all the way I do think that's fair. We've added good players mostly. Have we done it in a way that makes best use of the money we have available? Have we addressed all of the pressing needs? For me no and no which might create problems now and down the road even if the players are pretty good.