What to do with our current squad

[Bluedylan]

It’s probably a 3 or 4 window job fixing this and that’s assuming we get the vast majority of it right which seems unlikely that we’ve got almost everything wrong.

New left back, new cover at left back, new centre halves, a genuine play maker, a pacy striker, decent wingers

It’s more a question of what we don’t need.

Pickford Coleman gueye sigurdsson Walcott and tosan. We’ve a 5 a side team and a sub with literally no star quality

We are at the stage where we need to prey that some of the young players come on leaps and bounds and fill some of the many gaps

Not sure I agree. I think the squad is better than you suggest.

Pickford, Coleman and Baines are all secure. I personally would stick with Keane, get him the right partner and just play him week after week to build a proper understanding. I think he's had a rough year, but is a good player and think we will see that in time. Kenny and Holgate are good prospects to develop.

Gana and Tom Davies are secure in the middle, and it would be awesome if we could put a proper playmaker in there next to them. Baningame and Klassen could provide good depth, and I still think we should persist with Klaasen under a proper manager.

In the attacking midfield positions, Gylfi and Walcott are quality, and then we have the chance to develop Vlasic and Lookman (again, hopefully under a better manager who understands their value and potential).

And then Tosun and DCL are good forward options, and we need another genuine first team quality striker to add to that.

I think there's absolutely loads to work with there. And if you signed the right 3/4 players in the obvious positions we need, you'd have a pretty strong squad to build with that could certainly push Arsenal for 6th.

[Lxxx]

Wonder what’ll happen with Mangala?

He'll probably get put out to pasture again

[Escla]

Not sure I agree. I think the squad is better than you suggest.

Pickford, Coleman and Baines are all secure. I personally would stick with Keane, get him the right partner and just play him week after week to build a proper understanding. I think he's had a rough year, but is a good player and think we will see that in time. Kenny and Holgate are good prospects to develop.

Gana and Tom Davies are secure in the middle, and it would be awesome if we could put a proper playmaker in there next to them. Baningame and Klassen could provide good depth, and I still think we should persist with Klaasen under a proper manager.

In the attacking midfield positions, Gylfi and Walcott are quality, and then we have the chance to develop Vlasic and Lookman (again, hopefully under a better manager who understands their value and potential).

And then Tosun and DCL are good forward options, and we need another genuine first team quality striker to add to that.

I think there's absolutely loads to work with there. And if you signed the right 3/4 players in the obvious positions we need, you'd have a pretty strong squad to build with that could certainly push Arsenal for 6th.

Agree with every word of that !

[TheRam]

The squad really isnt as bad as people are making out, it just isn't being used correctly.

To get back in the top 7 next year we wouldnt even need to sign anyone.

To challenge for 6th, a centre half, left back and a quality centre mid should see us mount a challenge to Arsenal.

To try and break into the top 4 will obviously take time, but it's easily achievable with our budget, the right manager and the right recruitment

[Ross]

He'll probably get put out to pasture again

Which may mean we take him again this time for a full season I’d have thought given our need for a centreback.

[Lxxx]

Not sure I agree. I think the squad is better than you suggest.

Pickford, Coleman and Baines are all secure. I personally would stick with Keane, get him the right partner and just play him week after week to build a proper understanding. I think he's had a rough year, but is a good player and think we will see that in time. Kenny and Holgate are good prospects to develop.

Gana and Tom Davies are secure in the middle, and it would be awesome if we could put a proper playmaker in there next to them. Baningame and Klassen could provide good depth, and I still think we should persist with Klaasen under a proper manager.

In the attacking midfield positions, Gylfi and Walcott are quality, and then we have the chance to develop Vlasic and Lookman (again, hopefully under a better manager who understands their value and potential).

And then Tosun and DCL are good forward options, and we need another genuine first team quality striker to add to that.

I think there's absolutely loads to work with there. And if you signed the right 3/4 players in the obvious positions we need, you'd have a pretty strong squad to build with that could certainly push Arsenal for 6th.

Some good points but I'm not sure when you pick the bones out of it what's left has enough quality in there. There's enough competent players who we can get an extra 30% out of under a different manager but even so we're relying on young players to kick on and it's not going to scare many teams.

The issue is we need 3 or 4 proper quality players to come into the first team and that costs a lot of money in todays market. I don't know whether Moshiri has another £100m+ to spend, bearing in mind the relatively low resale value of many of the ones we'd be looking to move on.

[kramer0]

I think you can make this squad watchable and pretty effective with the right coaching and the right additions. We have the foundation in place for a comfortable 7th place finish and some decent runs in the domestic cups.

Saying that, I don't even think the likes of Gana and Sigurdsson are good enough for what we really want, which is to be in the mix with the top 6 and in Europe every year. Only Coleman and Walcott are anywhere near that level right now and both of them are going to be in decline by the time the rest of the squad develops (Pickford, Davies, some others) or is rebuilt (a lot of the old, expensive trash we've bought post-Martinez).

Moyes, Martinez, Koeman/Walsh, and now Allardyce/Walsh have all played their part in letting the average age of the squad get out of control and, mostly due to the work of Martinez and Koeman/Walsh*, the quality has eroded as well.

We're in desperate need of someone who can identify cheap(ish) quality and players with genuine potential. Spending big on the best players from the bottom of the table and taking seemingly random punts on players from abroad is getting us nowhere.

* How did these two do so much worse than Martinez with so much money to spend?

[Shogun]

Couldn't disagree more with you in regards to Gana and Sigurdsson @kramer0

If a player like Kante can be a major contributor to two titles then there's no reason to believe that Gana isn't good enough for top 6. I know you have issues with him in an attacking sense and they're valid but a top 6 standard manager wouldn't place that sort of expectation or responsibility on him. Like we see with the role Kante plays at Chelsea.

Sigurdsson has gotten better and better this season and considering he didn't play a pre-season with us then that bodes well for next season. We didn't see it much this season because of how awful we are against the top 6 but he regularly made the difference in those sort of matches at Swansea by coming up with goals in the biggest occasions and we need a player to do that if we are to close the gap. The fact he's a technically talented player as well as a supremely hard-working one makes him a vital asset to a top 6 charge in my opinion.

I also don't see what Walcott has done overall. Fortunately he's managed to keep himself fit so far which was a concern but he's as invisible as Mirallas much of the time.

[kramer0]

Couldn't disagree more with you in regards to Gana and Sigurdsson @kramer0

If a player like Kante can be a major contributor to two titles then there's no reason to believe that Gana isn't good enough for top 6. I know you have issues with him in an attacking sense and they're valid but a top 6 standard manager wouldn't place that sort of expectation or responsibility on him. Like we see with the role Kante plays at Chelsea.

Sigurdsson has gotten better and better this season and considering he didn't play a pre-season with us then that bodes well for next season. We didn't see it much this season because of how awful we are against the top 6 but he regularly made the difference in those sort of matches at Swansea by coming up with goals in the biggest occasions and we need a player to do that if we are to close the gap. The fact he's a technically talented player as well as a supremely hard-working one makes him a vital asset to a top 6 charge in my opinion.

I also don't see what Walcott has done overall. Fortunately he's managed to keep himself fit so far which was a concern but he's as invisible as Mirallas much of the time.

Yeah, I expect a lot of people will disagree with me. To me, the fact that they’re two of the best players we’ve bought these past two seasons is symptomatic of everything we’re doing wrong recruitment-wise.

My thoughts on Gana are pretty well known. I think his ball-winning is somewhat empty in the sense that he doesn’t help us transition quickly into attack the way Kante does and that he isn’t helpful at all when the opposition gets men behind the ball. I think he’d be a good midfield rotation option to use against superior opposition but to me, he’s only a regular starter with a good, penetrative passer to partner him (and I don’t think we know how or where to find that player).

Gylfi is a little less obvious. He works hard off the ball, has obvious technical ability, and is pretty clinical when it comes to the finish or final pass. My issue is that he doesn’t get involved enough in possession over 90 minutes and that he’s content to float around the periphery of the match unless a chance pops up around the box. He’s a useful player when we’re not seeing much of the ball, less so when we need to control matches against inferior opposition (which should be 13/20 teams in the league).

This is part of what happens when you sign older players from the bottom of the table. The skills needed to thrive down there are, in a lot of ways, different from what we need to get where we want to go.

I should say — I think they’re both pretty good players and they’re effective in the right situation. I just think it’s all wrong that they’re two of our most important players (and that we spent such a ridiculous amount on Gylfi).

[Martip]

It's glaringly obvious the squad needs a major overhaul despite recent investment with money having been spent very badly.....

Imo we need 2 centre halfs, a left back, two midfielders, a winger and a forward.... I make that 7.

Keane is neither clever or mobile enough and needs replacing along with the aging williams/jags who have a combined age of 250. Despite this jags easily still our best defender.

Klassen, Morgan, Rooney are no where near the answer in the engine room for differing reasons.

Bolasie is just terrible....was at the derby and he literally made my eyes bleed with one of the worst performances I've seen live in many a year.

Up front I like tosans endeavour and drive but dont think he's got the quality to lift us to challenge the top teams as is not mobile enough. Despite this he has fook all to with so it's probably a bit unfair to totally write him off.

[Polledreng]

You can't blame Sigurdsson for the fee we paid - that's just ridiculous @kramer0 And have to say Shogun is spot on. Sigurdsson has shown so mutch more than Walcott. Have only noticed him in his first 2 games..

[arteta4spain]

I think the problem is, is that we're in sort of limbo in the sense that we're not a shit side and worried about constant relegation nor are we pushing the top six and we don't really have the recent record of hitting the top six or seven and players that we need might not be interested. It's a shit situation and it's a recurring theme. We do well (Martinez and Koemans first season) and then it goes to shit.
We can't sustain anything anymore the last time was under Moyes and the league was easier then.
If we'd found Moshiri then I think we'd be up there hopefully with Spurs and the shite, but now it's too congested and too many teams fighting for the same places. The perception of the leagues changed maybe ours need to. And in regards to that, the players we need might not come for a few more seasons yet. If you were a top drawer player or even a decent player and you were looking at us would you really wanna come here? 3 managers in a season. Inconsistency in the league, not been in Europe constantly, a failed and embarrassing europa league campaign. I just don’t think right now we’re an attractive option right now.
You can spin the stadium talk all you want the majority of players will be coming here now prob won’t be here when the walk out onto Bramley Moore.

[Martip]

We definately overpaid for gylf but I reckon with more quality around him affording more time on the ball he'd be a baller.

[Evertonian in NC]

Lookman just scored a really excellent equalizer for Leipzig.

[Juanito]

Lookman just scored a really excellent equalizer for Leipzig.

He should take Bolasie’s place next season.