Martinus

Agreed a while back I would have disagreed but Kerkez has been excellent for a few games now. I suspect Robertson has asked to leave now given he wants first team football.

Bournemouth, Newcastle and City will all try and play. That will help us.

One thing to keep in mind with Schlotterbeck: for those concerned about Guehi’s heading success rate, Schlotterbeck’s is actually lower, despite being taller! Where he adds real value, though, is in his ability to progress the ball from deep, something we’re currently lacking.

He started the season with a back three, and it was well documented that Carreras was signed as a wing-back, not a full-back. Why he switched to a back four is unclear, but I suspect he was told to and that marked the beginning of his downfall. For the record, I’m not criticising Alonso for playing a back three. I want whoever our manager is to play exactly how they want, without any interference from Hughes or anyone else.

I think this is what happened as well.

But he hasn't had any success with it, why take the additional risk? When there is likely a much wider market in the summer with managers who have. I've no issue with him getting an interview I'm just personally stating he wouldn't be favourite for me.

I’m basing this purely on the number of posters saying “get Alonso in.” Surely you can’t deny that’s happening? At the end of the day, it’s all opinions, but personally, I’d choose plenty of others over Alonso right now. The reason is that he hasn’t won anything without playing a back three. I’ve no idea if he can adapt, but I don’t want us to be the test case. I prefer a back 4 with wingers. Just a personal view but if we are considering a back 3 then Conte's CV is significantly better than Alonso's.

Ancelotti, Enrique, Flick have all won more than one league title playing a back 4. If any of them are available this summer and would be interested id be picking them ahead of Alonso all day long.

Agreed but we have no idea if he can make it work with a back 4. That's the point. I'd rather we get someone in who has proven it time and again.

I just don’t understand why Alonso is being seen as some kind of silver bullet solution. This isn’t like when we hired Klopp, back then, we all knew without question that he would bring success. Alonso’s success so far has come using a back-three system, which is a style I’d never want us to adopt. Honestly, I’d prefer Alonso goes elsewhere and proves he can replicate his success at Leverkusen while playing a back-four system.

He is also seemingly a fan of a 3-4-2-1 system which I absolutely loathe and would hate us to play that formation.

No thanks.

Although Schlotterbeck is taller than Guehi, his aerial duel success rate is lower. I'd be surprised if we pursue. I think we are now going to have to look at the likes of Diomande, Silva and hope they are mature enough to be top class starters.

Genuinely don't see us signing someone better than Konate this summer.

We've been linked with Jacquet as well and he's off to Chelsea by the looks of it.

The amount of new players across the team required in the summer should mean we pay what Konate wants now to keep him.

We need two CB's (at least) a defensive midfielder, two wingers (assuming Salah is off which is likely) and possibly a left back if Robertson is off as well. 6 signings after last summer's spend seems unlikely. It's negligent the club are in this position when some of it should be being addressed this month.

Pretty standard for FSG though.

Konate and Van Dijk are one and two in the league for winning headers. I think the defensive setup is the problem rather than the players when it comes to defending set pieces.

Winning aerial duels is great, but what really hurts us is progressing the ball from deep, that’s where we struggle and Guehi is a lot better than Collins at that.

I wouldn't care if we had Bastoni lined up but we won't it will be Collins, Schlotterbeck or Mingueza. All worse than Guehi.

There are loads of centre backs but I don't trust us to buy a better one than Guehi.

Romano reporting Guehi to City is advancing.

Concerning we need to 'convince' him. Which probably means he's going to City.

I think we are likely going to need at least 2 between now and the start of next season with Konate likely off and Gomez as an unreliable rotational option. Van Dijks replacement probably needs to be the following summer as I doubt his contract gets extended again.