Our "Scattergun" Transfer Approach

[RichieS]

I've read an awful lot (since it's all gone wrong, at least) on here and in the press about how last summer's transfer approach was "scattergun" leaving us with an average and unbalanced squad. I confess that I am one of the many people who couldn't believe what was happening when we were spending the Bale money and could only foresee good things for this season. Ok, I was somewhat wrong there but I'm still baffled by the aforementioned accusation as to me there was a very clear plan to our transfers.

We start with a small analysis of AVB's system and how he deployed it (with much success) at Porto.

As we know, it was a very clear 4-3-3 with the front six usually consisting of the following:

------------Fernando------------
-----Guarin-------Moutinho-----
-----------------------------------
Hulk-----------------------Varela
--------------Falcao--------------
​

As we know though, modern football is concerned more with roles than positions, so a quick reminder of those is in order...
Fernando - DM. Protect the defence, win ball, pass simple. When attacking, drop in between the centre backs allowing the full backs to get forward.
Guarin - Box to box midfielder, defensively sound while offering attacking threat.
Moutinho - Playmaker. Take ball from less technically able players and make things happen, either through passing or by carrying the ball forward.
Hulk - Inverted wide forward. Drift inside as much as possible to support the striker and offer a goal threat.
Varela - Inverted winger. Stay wider but seek to offer more creativity than the battering ram on the other side.
Falcao - No.9. Make space for others with clever running. Loiter in and around the box. Score.

Now, consider the midfielders and forwards that we ended last season with:

Sandro
Huddlestone
Livermore
Parker
Dembélé
Holtby
Carroll
Lennon
Bale
Bentley
Sigurđsson
Falqué
Townsend
Adebayor
Dempsey
Kane

Out of that lot, the closest we could have got to the Porto system was probably:

-------------Sandro-------------
----Dembélé-----Huddlestone--
-----------------------------------
Bale-----------------------Falqué
------------Adebayor--------------
​

Not bad, but hardly going to set the world alight (especially with uncertainty over Sandro's return and Bale's future). Not only that, but the backup is far from stellar (Parker in place of Sandro? Livermore for Dembélé? Dempsey for Adebayor?)

So let's consider the transfers:
Out
Huddlestone - Good passer of the ball, but not overly creative or quick thinking. Reasonable sale for good money.
Livermore - Jack of all trades, master of none. Passable backup to either Sandro or Dembélé but certainly possible to improve upon. Reasonable loan/sale for good money.
Parker - Had seemingly lost the plot. Great bloke but needed to be improved upon. Reasonable sale for good money.
Bale - Ultimately unavoidable.
Bentley - Would anyone have kept him?!
Dempsey - Decent player who scored a fair few goals but doesn't really fit the system. Reasonable sale for good money.
Carroll/Falqué - Reasonable loans for first team football.

So what were we left needing?

1. A quality box to box midfielder to rotate with Dembélé (who we knew would miss games through his hip injury).
2. A quality DM to rotate with Sandro (who had an extremely serious injury).
3. A quality playmaker with the ability to both pass and drive forward with the ball.
4. Wide players to fulfil both the a) Hulk and b) Varela roles.
5. An intelligent penalty box striker to replace/rotate with Adebayor who had had a stinker of a season.

And what did we get?

1. Paulinho - A nailed on Brazilian international starter. Best player at the Confederations Cup.
2. Capoue - Those on here who watch Ligue 1 were extremely excited about this signing. Few doubted his quality before his injury.
3. Eriksen - Pretty much the most highly rated young playmaker in Europe with another (Holtby) in reserve.
4. This is where things alter slightly. Presumably due to the availability of players, the roles switched flanks and we bought in a) Chadli and b) Lamela. Some were underwhelmed with the Chadli signing but when you consider his physical attributes and positional abilities he fits that Hulk role very well. Lamela was one of the most highly rated young players in the world and had just top-scored in Serie A. Very skilful and creative, he fits that Varela role perfectly.
5. Soldado. Knew where the goal was. Runs well. Scored goals. About the best we could have hoped for.

Suddenly, we're in a position to field:

------------Sandro------------
---Paulinho--------Eriksen----
--------------------------------
Lamela------------------Chadli
------------Soldado------------
​

or in the worst injury crisis:

------------Capoue------------
---Dembélé---------Holtby----
---------------------------------
Townsend------------Sigurđsson
------------Adebayor------------
​

I am surely not the only person that can see significant improvement there, not only in personnel but also in suitability for the system. Hardly "scattergun".

I think Baldini did an overall superb job. The only mystery is why AVB didn't practise the system that he preached now that he had been provided with the personnel.

Re: the defence. If AVB didn't fancy Caulker, why not replace him with Romania's captain while making a profit? Only 4 CB's you say? Capoue had played perfectly well there in the past. The only problem was LB, but how did we know that Jan was going to be such a gimp about being asked to play there? Rose had just had a pretty good season on loan at Sunderland and had earnt his chance just as Walker had done before him. I'm in the Naughton-supporter ranks and think he is more than adequate cover for Walker (who rarely gets injured or requires a rest anyway).

 

[Jamturk]

"The only mystery is why AVB didn't practise the system that he preached now that he had been provided with the personnel".


excactly this and why Sherwood doesn't try this.

 

[idontgetit]

I've read an awful lot (since it's all gone wrong, at least) on here and in the press about how last summer's transfer approach was "scattergun" leaving us with an average and unbalanced squad. I confess that I am one of the many people who couldn't believe what was happening when we were spending the Bale money and could only foresee good things for this season. Ok, I was somewhat wrong there but I'm still baffled by the aforementioned accusation as to me there was a very clear plan to our transfers.

We start with a small analysis of AVB's system and how he deployed it (with much success) at Porto.

As we know, it was a very clear 4-3-3 with the front six usually consisting of the following:

------------Fernando------------
-----Guarin-------Moutinho-----
-----------------------------------
Hulk-----------------------Varela
--------------Falcao--------------
​

As we know though, modern football is concerned more with roles than positions, so a quick reminder of those is in order...
Fernando - DM. Protect the defence, win ball, pass simple. When attacking, drop in between the centre backs allowing the full backs to get forward.
Guarin - Box to box midfielder, defensively sound while offering attacking threat.
Moutinho - Playmaker. Take ball from less technically able players and make things happen, either through passing or by carrying the ball forward.
Hulk - Inverted wide forward. Drift inside as much as possible to support the striker and offer a goal threat.
Varela - Inverted winger. Stay wider but seek to offer more creativity than the battering ram on the other side.
Falcao - No.9. Make space for others with clever running. Loiter in and around the box. Score.

Now, consider the midfielders and forwards that we ended last season with:

Sandro
Huddlestone
Livermore
Parker
Dembélé
Holtby
Carroll
Lennon
Bale
Bentley
Sigurđsson
Falqué
Townsend
Adebayor
Dempsey
Kane

Out of that lot, the closest we could have got to the Porto system was probably:

-------------Sandro-------------
----Dembélé-----Huddlestone--
-----------------------------------
Bale-----------------------Falqué
------------Adebayor--------------
​

Not bad, but hardly going to set the world alight (especially with uncertainty over Sandro's return and Bale's future). Not only that, but the backup is far from stellar (Parker in place of Sandro? Livermore for Dembélé? Dempsey for Adebayor?)

So let's consider the transfers:
Out
Huddlestone - Good passer of the ball, but not overly creative or quick thinking. Reasonable sale for good money.
Livermore - Jack of all trades, master of none. Passable backup to either Sandro or Dembélé but certainly possible to improve upon. Reasonable loan/sale for good money.
Bale - Ultimately unavoidable.
Bentley - Would anyone have kept him?!
Dempsey - Decent player who scored a fair few goals but doesn't really fit the system. Reasonable sale for good money.
Carroll/Falqué - Reasonable loans for first team football.

So what were we left needing?

1. A quality box to box midfielder to rotate with Dembélé (who we knew would miss games through his hip injury).
2. A quality DM to rotate with Sandro (who had an extremely serious injury).
3. A quality playmaker with the ability to both pass and drive forward with the ball.
4. Wide players to fulfil both the a) Hulk and b) Varela roles.
5. An intelligent penalty box striker to replace/rotate with Adebayor who had had a stinker of a season.

And what did we get?

1. Paulinho - A nailed on Brazilian international starter. Best player at the Confederations Cup.
2. Capoue - Those on here who watch Ligue 1 were extremely excited about this signing. Few doubted his quality before his injury.
3. Eriksen - Pretty much the most highly rated young playmaker in Europe with another (Holtby) in reserve.
4. This is where things alter slightly. Presumably due to the availability of players, the roles switched flanks and we bought in a) Chadli and b) Lamela. Some were underwhelmed with the Chadli signing but when you consider his physical attributes and positional abilities he fits that Hulk role very well. Lamela was one of the most highly rated young players in the world and had just top-scored in Serie A. Very skilful and creative, he fits that Varela role perfectly.
5. Soldado. Knew where the goal was. Runs well. Scored goals. About the best we could have hoped for.

Suddenly, we're in a position to field:

------------Sandro------------
---Paulinho--------Eriksen----
--------------------------------
Lamela------------------Chadli
------------Soldado------------
​

or in the worst injury crisis:

------------Capoue------------
---Dembélé---------Holtby----
---------------------------------
Townsend------------Sigurđsson
------------Adebayor------------
​

I am surely not the only person that can see significant improvement there, not only in personnel but also in suitability for the system. Hardly "scattergun".

I think Baldini did an overall superb job. The only mystery is why AVB didn't practise the system that he preached now that he had been provided with the personnel.

Re: the defence. If AVB didn't fancy Caulker, why not replace him with Romania's captain while making a profit? Only 4 CB's you say? Capoue had played perfectly well there in the past. The only problem was LB, but how did we know that Jan was going to be such a gimp about being asked to play there?

My thoughts exactly! Although the lb issue is more criminal that you give credit for.

All AVB had to do was play 4-3-3, get a passer on the ball in the deep, getting goal scoring wide forwards supporting the striker and we were rosy.

The thing is he never intended to do it. From day 1 at spurs that was never his attention. Sandro, Dembele, Siggy is a good cm3 we could have played from day 1, albeit lacking some passing skills. From January: Parker, Dembele, Holtby. Perfect balance. Nope, no interest from AVB.

He wanted to play the same way as Mourinho. A highly athletic 4-2-3-1 where the middle two just win the ball and give it to the forwards and leave them to get on with it. The problem is that only works when you have World Class game changing forwards

 

[Shadydan]

Great post.

Really strange that he didn't put a marker down from day one and start playing this formation in pre season, that way we could have acclimatised to the system and the players may have found it easier to bed in.

 

[gp13tot]

Always felt that the media criticism of the signings is nothing more than dumb groupthink by dumb journos. Yes the squad is unbalanced but the signings are not the reasons for our struggle particularly as our English players are poor. Much of it is shockingly bad decisions at management (both) and boardroom level. Amazing not one journo has done more on this. It was deeply frustrating when they were harping on about no summer signings starting against narge but 4 of them were injured!

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

I've read an awful lot (since it's all gone wrong, at least) on here and in the press about how last summer's transfer approach was "scattergun" leaving us with an average and unbalanced squad. I confess that I am one of the many people who couldn't believe what was happening when we were spending the Bale money and could only foresee good things for this season. Ok, I was somewhat wrong there but I'm still baffled by the aforementioned accusation as to me there was a very clear plan to our transfers.

We start with a small analysis of AVB's system and how he deployed it (with much success) at Porto.

As we know, it was a very clear 4-3-3 with the front six usually consisting of the following:

------------Fernando------------
-----Guarin-------Moutinho-----
-----------------------------------
Hulk-----------------------Varela
--------------Falcao--------------
​

As we know though, modern football is concerned more with roles than positions, so a quick reminder of those is in order...
Fernando - DM. Protect the defence, win ball, pass simple. When attacking, drop in between the centre backs allowing the full backs to get forward.
Guarin - Box to box midfielder, defensively sound while offering attacking threat.
Moutinho - Playmaker. Take ball from less technically able players and make things happen, either through passing or by carrying the ball forward.
Hulk - Inverted wide forward. Drift inside as much as possible to support the striker and offer a goal threat.
Varela - Inverted winger. Stay wider but seek to offer more creativity than the battering ram on the other side.
Falcao - No.9. Make space for others with clever running. Loiter in and around the box. Score.

Now, consider the midfielders and forwards that we ended last season with:

Sandro
Huddlestone
Livermore
Parker
Dembélé
Holtby
Carroll
Lennon
Bale
Bentley
Sigurđsson
Falqué
Townsend
Adebayor
Dempsey
Kane

Out of that lot, the closest we could have got to the Porto system was probably:

-------------Sandro-------------
----Dembélé-----Huddlestone--
-----------------------------------
Bale-----------------------Falqué
------------Adebayor--------------
​

Not bad, but hardly going to set the world alight (especially with uncertainty over Sandro's return and Bale's future). Not only that, but the backup is far from stellar (Parker in place of Sandro? Livermore for Dembélé? Dempsey for Adebayor?)

So let's consider the transfers:
Out
Huddlestone - Good passer of the ball, but not overly creative or quick thinking. Reasonable sale for good money.
Livermore - Jack of all trades, master of none. Passable backup to either Sandro or Dembélé but certainly possible to improve upon. Reasonable loan/sale for good money.
Bale - Ultimately unavoidable.
Bentley - Would anyone have kept him?!
Dempsey - Decent player who scored a fair few goals but doesn't really fit the system. Reasonable sale for good money.
Carroll/Falqué - Reasonable loans for first team football.

So what were we left needing?

1. A quality box to box midfielder to rotate with Dembélé (who we knew would miss games through his hip injury).
2. A quality DM to rotate with Sandro (who had an extremely serious injury).
3. A quality playmaker with the ability to both pass and drive forward with the ball.
4. Wide players to fulfil both the a) Hulk and b) Varela roles.
5. An intelligent penalty box striker to replace/rotate with Adebayor who had had a stinker of a season.

And what did we get?

1. Paulinho - A nailed on Brazilian international starter. Best player at the Confederations Cup.
2. Capoue - Those on here who watch Ligue 1 were extremely excited about this signing. Few doubted his quality before his injury.
3. Eriksen - Pretty much the most highly rated young playmaker in Europe with another (Holtby) in reserve.
4. This is where things alter slightly. Presumably due to the availability of players, the roles switched flanks and we bought in a) Chadli and b) Lamela. Some were underwhelmed with the Chadli signing but when you consider his physical attributes and positional abilities he fits that Hulk role very well. Lamela was one of the most highly rated young players in the world and had just top-scored in Serie A. Very skilful and creative, he fits that Varela role perfectly.
5. Soldado. Knew where the goal was. Runs well. Scored goals. About the best we could have hoped for.

Suddenly, we're in a position to field:

------------Sandro------------
---Paulinho--------Eriksen----
--------------------------------
Lamela------------------Chadli
------------Soldado------------
​

or in the worst injury crisis:

------------Capoue------------
---Dembélé---------Holtby----
---------------------------------
Townsend------------Sigurđsson
------------Adebayor------------
​

I am surely not the only person that can see significant improvement there, not only in personnel but also in suitability for the system. Hardly "scattergun".

I think Baldini did an overall superb job. The only mystery is why AVB didn't practise the system that he preached now that he had been provided with the personnel.

Re: the defence. If AVB didn't fancy Caulker, why not replace him with Romania's captain while making a profit? Only 4 CB's you say? Capoue had played perfectly well there in the past. The only problem was LB, but how did we know that Jan was going to be such a gimp about being asked to play there?

Can't rate this post highly enough. It's good to know there are some posters on here who don't just regurgitate the shit they read in the tabloids.

 

[kaz Hirai]

Agree with OP

i still believe the signings are good, only soldado may struggle unless we really start playing like a Spanish team

 

[RichieS]

Thanks for the support dudes.

Edited the OP slightly to expand on my views on the defence.

 

[TheSecretNonFootballer]

Bang on. I could understand why we signed each of them and could see how it would give us the ability, in theory, to have 2 players for each position that could be interchanged as and when was necessary without having to make major changes to the gameplan.

We had a period without Sandro and Capoue, Eriksen and Chadli had spells out and Lamela died so I would say that injuries definitely caused problems but, as others have said, even when they were available they still didn't get picked. Doesn't make a great deal of sense.

In there is a wonderful team just waiting to blossom. It's a pretty young bunch and just needs the right guidance.

 

[jezz]

Let's see how many tabloids are writing the signings off next season.
Most players take a season to settle and they know it.
Let's just hope Tims not in charge next season or they will be sold.

 

[RichieS]

Bang on. I could understand why we signed each of them and could see how it would give us the ability, in theory, to have 2 players for each position that could be interchanged as and when was necessary without having to make major changes to the gameplan.

We had a period without Sandro and Capoue, Eriksen and Chadli had spells out and Lamela died so I would say that injuries definitely caused problems but, as others have said, even when they were available they still didn't get picked. Doesn't make a great deal of sense.

In there is a wonderful team just waiting to blossom. It's a pretty young bunch and just needs the right guidance.

This all day long. For the love of G(h)od, we need to not make any silly sales this summer.

 

[shelfboy68]

Let's see how many tabloids are writing the signings off next season.
Most players take a season to settle and they know it.
Let's just hope Tims not in charge next season or they will be sold.

You may find that a few will have left by next season.

 

[TheSecretNonFootballer]

You may find that a few will have left by next season.

I think most would stay if told by the club that they're genuinely part of the plans and I think that they pretty much all should be. Jan and Paulinho are the only ones I see pushing for a move.

 

[strader]

Good work Richie Son.

Now i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Nit saying we will pull down trees but we have a capable first 11, and solid squad depth which needs someone to guide and lead them to glory.

imagine a LVG, tactical, leadership, swagger. Well don't care if its LVG, but we have the tools in house to build a mansion and not a shed.

 

[TheSecretNonFootballer]

This all day long. For the love of G(h)od, we need to not make any silly sales this summer.

On the plus side, we've looked so shit that I doubt many of their values have gone up so we won't sell at a loss.

 

[strader]

You may find that a few will have left by next season.

All depending on danny boy next move.

 

[Shea]

That is a really good post

The only part I disagree with is the notion that we were right to leave the squad with Rose as our first choice LB and Vertonghen as cover

I always thought this was suicidal and I never thought Rose good enough to be our LB regardless of his time at Sunderland

Other than that minor disagreement I really can't argue with anything the OP says and it is a truly excellent, well thought out and well reasoned post.

 

[shelfboy68]

I think most would stay if told by the club that they're genuinely part of the plans and I think that they pretty much all should be. Jan and Paulinho are the only ones I see pushing for a move.

Possibly although in Jan's case he can fuck off I've gone right off him his body language and attitude stinks shame as I used to rate him as for paulinho yes I think so.
Trouble is we don't want to much being shifted or we will be in the same shit as this year.

 

[shelfboy68]

All depending on danny boy next move.

Always

 

[TheSecretNonFootballer]

Possibly although in Jan's case he can fuck off I've gone right off him his body language and attitude stinks shame as I used to rate him as for paulinho yes I think so.
Trouble is we don't want to much being shifted or we will be in the same shit as this year.

Yeah, I've been rather disgusted by Jan's demeanour this season and don't really care if he does one. We certainly shouldn't be looking to make a lot of changes but when do we ever do what we should?