I Alisson comes back shortly, Matip stays fit, Gomez and Trent sort their defensive minds a bit, and Thiago comes back soon, we should be fine. Especially if we possibly get someone in January.
If the defense is a bit suspect though, we'll struggle this year.
More my worry now is CL. In the coming weeks we basically have 2 games a week, with only 2 fit CB's who both have histories of injuries. Surely they can't play every game for the next 2 and a half months minimum.
The worry is we have
THE worst defensive record in the entire league, since resumption of the PL in June. I don't mean that in an exaggerated figure of speech way, I mean it as a statistical fact. And that is with VVD in the side, who is our best defender by quite some distance. Clearly people wanted to chalk it up to us winning the league early, but our record so far this season is actually worse than post-lockdown 19/20 (even if you take out the Villa drubbing).
Now I don't know what impact losing VVD will have on our defence but I don't think it's controversial to suggest our record will only get worse, not better. Problem is, our starting point is already pretty grim. Trent and Gomez look woefully short of their best form, Matip is injury prone, Fabinho looks handy back there but probably doesn't have the pace to play a high line for us (which necessitates a change to our entire set-up).
We need to hope that:
a) Alisson is back soon and does not miss any other games for rest of the season
b) Trent and Gomez find some form
c) Matip stays fit (at least until Christmas)
d) we become more prolific/clinical (despite the fact we'll probably have to approach games more conservatively now) to cover up our defensive deficiencies
It feels a lot to ask. But honestly, the defence needed a lot of work before we lost VVD, so it's time for the coaching staff to earn their bacon.