Jürgen all in on the "he'll be like a new signing" talk in the post match from Athletic Bilbao I see! That's not the most encouraging sign heading into the last month of the transfer window.
Claiming all of the following are like new signings:
Kent
Moreno
Milner (midfield)
Interesting that he's going down that route, leaning more towards there being no further signings it would seem. While I do agree with him with regards Milner, I don't think Milner is enough of an impact to our midfield as a signing he would have chosen. There's a reason why he converted him to LB and that's simply because he wasn't good enough to be one of our midfielders. He still isn't, if anything he's regressed under the strain of playing an entire season at full pace.
Kent, I get the point completely, he has progressed, much like TAA (although not at the same pace), I think if we keep Kent in the squad learning from the likes of Salah and Mane he will come on an enormous amount. He'll also be easily good enough to play the early rounds of both cups, he's a quality player in the making. Whether he'll ever quite break through ahead of those two ahead of him is unlikely but as an understudy to them I rate him.
Moreno has looked much improved this pre-season and there's the feeling that we're going into this year with him as number 1 rather than Robertson, certainly with those 2 competing with each other and personally I'm happy with that. There were loads of us calling for Moreno, even in his old form, to be given the role ahead of Milner. Our defence needs recovery pace, our width needs a natural left footer, he's a good fit for what we need, if those brainless mistakes could be removed from his game then he's got the tools, I'm just not sold they will be.
I'll be as forthright as I can be, going into the season with the current squad I think will see us come up short. I think injuries will catch up with us with the fuller calendar and in the end CB and CM will cost us heavily. I still think we'll make top 4 but progress in the league could easily be stunted by progress in the CL. I think Jürgen will ditch the league cup in priority for the other trophies and we'll do reasonably well in the CL, better than most expect is my prediction but the sheer number of games will take their toll and without decent cover in two crucial areas I think we'll hit a period where results will turn.
Get 1 CB and 1 CM and I think we can sustain our run and we wont win the CL but I think we'll get as far until we meet a real top side such as Barca/PSG/Bayern/Juve, we could be lucky and that take us far or we could simply be unlucky and get a group of death with 2 of them in. Also with those signings I think we'd go close for the league but I'd still make City and Chelsea favourites, we might beat one of them but overhauling both I think will be a step too far for this season. To truly beat Chelsea and City I think we needed our absolute top targets in Keita and VvD, then I'd have given us an even chance against them and Jürgen would have made the difference imo.
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