Soccer

On Tuesday 31 May 2011, Senthil Kumar wrote:

> Just out of curiosity where do you think the transfer kitty needs to be
> most spent on - as in which positions?

A top quality pacey wide-man. Which side is open to debate. If you'd asked me
at Xmas, I'd have said a left winger. But Suarez seems to favour that side of
the pitch (although he's also great on the right) so now I'm not sure.
Possibly wide right. But we definitely need a man who can go for the byline,
stretch packed defences and feed in the sort of crosses that Carroll will
turn into goals.

At Xmas I'd also have said that we needed a left full-back. But I've been so
impressed by the lads who've come out of the academy and I'd hate to see them
just relegated to permanent reserves. Bizarrely Glen Johnson's game also
picked up when he switched sides, Flanno and Kelly have the right side
covered, so we may be okay at full back.

The conundrum is the centre back position. Carra's career is on the wane but
the whole defence seems more together when he plays and I'm convinced that
youngsters who came in benefitted from his presence. I think the stats show
that we tend to get better results when Agger plays (but I stand to be
corrected on that). However you never know when he's going to be fit. Skrtel
was shocking in the first half of the season but picked up enormously after
Kenny took over. But which Skrtel will turn up next season? And then there's
Kelly and Wilson. Both are centre backs but they are young and it's a
position where experience brings enormous benefits. I think I'd cash in on
Skrtel and Soto. I love the attitude of the latter but if there's a cup game
against lower league opposition I'd prefer we gave Wilson or Kelly a run out
at centre back. I think we can do better than Skrtel and need someone who is
an improvement in the air.

We probably need another striker to replace N'gog. But the second half of the
season showed that we can score goals without FT, Carroll has yet to show us
what he can do and then there's the likes of Pacheco.

Other than that I hope we don't go for too many signings. I think we need to
offload a fair number of players. But I'd prefer that we focussed on quality
rather than quantity in the transfer market and used the youngsters coming
through to fill out the squad because I think the changes Rafa started at The
Academy/Melwood are now bearing fruit.