Fair enough. I would like to point out though that competition for places between two keepers who repeatedly make mistakes and cost us games is hardly conducive to a strong squad. This goes to the core of what I'm saying. We have a big squad but not a talented squad. We need quality as much as we need quantity and unfortunately right now we don't have that. I also agree that we need to develop the kid but surely TAA should be third choice, not second? He's only eighteen, after all. Cup games are the place for him to get his experience while we have two top quality experienced right backs competing for the place. Would you feel comfortable with TAA playing for most of a season at right back if Clyne got injured, given his lack of experience? Perhaps you would, I wouldn't though. I'd actually argue that our strongest position for competition for places is Centre back. Klavan has been adequate cover and Gomez has first team experience. One's towards the back end of his career, the other at the beginning but both are back up for senior players. Wouldn't we benefit from that sort of arrangement across the pitch?
I'd agree, judging right now on what we've seen so far that the keeper situation is not ideal. However I'm prepared to give Karius longer in the hope that he'd return to his Bundesliga form, which there are small signs and I'm also encouraged by Mignolet's upturn in form recently. Fair enough he conceded on all 3 shots against Swansea but before that had looked an improved version of himself and had won praise from plenty.
In terms of TAA, yes perhaps he should be third choice but I'd also suspect that there are a lot players in our squad that could fill in there. Would I be comfortable in him playing there most of the season, depends which half of football against the manc's we're judging him on. First half hell no, second half yes
I haven't truly seen enough of him to be sure, but I have seen enough to see he's a talent and no issue with giving Jürgen the benefit on this. It's not cost us yet and TAA has earned some valuable experience I hope we'll reap the benefits of, so in terms of a gamble, I see it as a small one.
I agree in terms of CB, we have the best competition for places there and indeed Jürgen said he intended to start from the back. Would we benefit from that kind of depth throughout the squad, of course we would but that doesn't make our current squad 'suicidal' or 'bonkers' either. It makes it the first step after the first proper window.
As Jürgen said today, he didn't realise that we had to win the league to make people happy this season. I think, like most of us he had hopes of seeing us progress nicely, perhaps win a cup and be strong in the league but not really contenders given how far back, in terms of quality we were. This is why I also have issue with when Mick tries to defend Brendan's purchases because I think when Jürgen took over our squad actually looked at one of it's weakest points since FSG took over.
Now in my opinion Jürgen has taken Milner, someone I thought would struggle to get in the side and converted him into one of the better LBs in the league. He's taken a misfiring Lallana and made him look absolutely vital to the team. Re-introduced Firmino into the XI and he looks, to me, like one of the best players in the league. Lovren is massively improved, from a misfiring misfit I think he has a bit of his mojo back. Even Mignolet, a keeper I thought was completely finished, couldn't stop a bloody shot (granted didn't against the Swans
) to actually looking like he might be improving and then we add the players he brought in, the likes of Mane, Matip etc and yes I look at our quality, compared to last season, having improved massively and this is indeed reflected on the pitch. The issue I feel is that we've got within touching distance of the top and everyone is suddenly falling over themselves looking for what we could have done to actually push us over the line, well in truth we're probably further away than just that 1 player so we need to look further than that. What we should be doing is remaining positive that at least we're now heading in the right direction. CL looks like it could and should be returning and then we can rubber stamp the squad in the summer, but no it seems it's the right time to start firing shots and calling things 'suicidal' or 'bonkers', like I said I, personally find that ridiculous and uncalled for.