I've no idea how this season will go. Our main issues last year were mainly a blunt attack and an average defence. Benteke should score goals for us and that will help. Firmino? Simply no idea if he will perform, looks a good player. Ings? Will give 100% and run like fuck, probably get 8-10 league goals. Origi will take time to adapt to the PL. Have we sorted out out attack problems with the above? The best we can say is maybe. Sturridge getting and staying fit helps enormously of course.
Defensively I am anxious. Clyne is a good player and improve the right side definitely. Mignolet was awful for the first part of last season, truly dreadful but then improved and played some excellent games. Which one will we see this season will have a huge impact on how we perform,that hasn't been discussed much but Bodgan seems to be a reasonable number two. And that's all. Hope the GK position doesn't hurt us this season.
Centre backs seems to be a straight fight between Sahko and Lovren. Lovren is Brendan's buy, Sahko aparently wasn't. Seems Lovren will get the nod to start the season. I think he is a poor defender. He is rash, lacks pace and reading of the game, is awful in a one on one situation which will happen a lot this year and when he gets turned he looks like he is running in water. Sahko reads the game better, has good pace, is aggressive and "front foot" as well but has the ability to get back. He does do something stupid it seems in nearly every game and his style makes you shit yourself every time he has the ball although his stats say this is needless as he is actually very good in possession (especially the slide rule pass to sterling and Coutinhio last year). Moreno at left back getting caught up the field will expose Lovren time and again as it did last season so Gomez may well help if he lives us to his pre season potential abut it's still not an area of the team you would consider solid or strong.
Lucas will be the only genuine holding midfielder now that Allen is out for a while. I do not think Lucas can maintain a consistent level of performance in this role to offer the protection our defence needs. He can go from sublime to absolutely anonymous from game to game and we simply cannot afford that. Like Lovren, when he gets turned he looks like he is going backwards and in the position he plays that will happen, see Stoke away horror show for perfect example. Allen was similar last year, good then bad in equal measure, end of last season this was an area I felt we desperately needed improvement but it hasn't happened.
To me centre back and defensive midfield are the two glaring weaknesses in the squad at the minute and I do not think they have been addressed this summer. We are overloaded in other areas, attacking midfield for example but we are definitely short at centre back and DM.
Good teams will be able to score against us, that is the crux of what I am saying, we are not difficult to score against and although we may well score more goals than last year, a lot more I'm hoping, we are going to lose games because of gaps at the back.
I think the buying has finished for the summer and desperately hope we have enough to dominate weaker teams and get the majority of out points needed against them.
I'm not convinced we have addressed the key areas as aggressively as we could have and think if we had we could have challenged for the title rather than the top four we will this year.
Better than last year? Yes, almost certainly but in my opinion could have been so much more.
Anyway, can't wait to get started, best of luck Redmen everywhere, 100% behind the manager and team from here on in.
