Are we stronger now?

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I'd say it's a resounding yes.

Santon was injury prone, jonas slow and Cabella ineffective.

I honestly think Mike has delivered on his promise.

I'll hope for more of the same during the next window or two.

Overall... I'm happy.

 

Not much and it's important to remember the likes of ba, cabaye, ben arfa, santon were not replaced in previous windows.

 

Anyone else spot the SSN cock up?

 

But it is still progress mate.

 

Gini's pic over Mbemba's name and vice versa? Ameobi/Carl Cort springs to mind...

 

We better be stronger, or its going to be a long haul through to the next window.

I think we are as it happens, but, it could have been better.

 

In one.

 

I am not convinced this is a stronger squad, we needed a real goalscorer for this season, the 2 red cards have done some serious damage already, I was looking at some stats for the last 4 matches, we have only had 17 shots either on or off target in those matches, to put this into perspective the 4 teams currently at the top of the premier league have a combined total of 173 shots on or off target, by club it is Man City 48, Crystal Palace 43, Leicester 34 and Swansea 48. Flying mid-fielders, playing possession football, tight defence and team spirit are all well and good but without the goal getter it's all a bit ****ed, considering the lack of investment over the last 2/3 years we have not moved forwards in the way other clubs have even with this transfer window,squad depth is as ever an issue along with the quality and continual on pitch disciplinary laxity is going to hurt even more.

 

The signing of Mbemba instantly made us stronger!

 

Two steps back, one step forward.

 

The defence was a shambles last season and signing 1 defender isn't good enough. The worst move of the window was the bizarre decision to extend Coloccini's contract and keep him on as captain. 2 problems perpetuated, not rectified. The midfield and forward players should be good enough to cause problems to most teams but that's down to McLaren. I think we'll be in the top 12, maybe top 10 but it will be a slow burn for the manager to stamp his mark on the team and get them playing well. The overall spend from Ashley (our club's money) is commendable (for once) but I'll be convinced he's a changed man over the course of several transfer windows, not one. The business done this window is just the first step in starting to repair the damage done in the previous 4 or more windows where very few players were signed. At least it had better be.

 

I think were much better off. If we had started the season against watford, west brom, and bournemouth and won all 3 we would be reacting totally differently. Yes I agree we never replaced some top level players, but I at least think we will put on a show this season and finish 7th.

 

Stronger? ..yes but not hugely so.

That said iam content with the new founation's that have been put in place. ..The coaching staff totally revamped and the new signings are a quality step up from the cheapo journeymen bodies we have been signing this past 4 odd years

Next 2 windows will be the proof or not of where the club's goals and ambitions lie.
This is going to be a 12 -18 month project. It's too early to judge effectively whether we have done ...'what was needed' ..but the signs aren't too bad ....as yet

(Plus any club that signs mbemba is doing summat half right at least)

 

I agree that we are better off than last season as we certainly have more depth but think that we will be able to gauge how much better by the end of October when we will have played a good mix of the top teams, the expected mid-table teams and the anticipated relegation strugglers. We really need to get the card count down as we don't have enough depth to be missing key players and Mitrovic needs a serious talking to in that respect. While I think that Ashley has put his hand in his pocket this was necessary as he had severely reduced the value of his asset by selling off better players over previous years when good bids came in and not replacing like for like. It was telling that there appeared to be very few offers for our current squad. The late interest in Perez was just panic from Spurs when they realised they might miss out on Berahino, but Ashley is to be commended for not going ahead with this. Two years ago he would have taken it but I think he has made promises to McLaren and will stick with those while he feels McLaren is getting things back on track.
Additional spend in January I think will probably come about if we are up there challenging for 8-10th or languishing down in 15-20th. Anything between those and he will tell McLaren to make do.
Did we spend the money available wisely? I would probably have replaced one of the two midfielders we bought with a defender (probably a good quality left back) and maybe switched the other for a deep-lying midfielder with vision and passing skills. We don't seem to have the balance we need in our midfield. For me they fall into the following categories:
1) ball winners - Colback and Tiote
2) holding midfielder - Anita
3) box to box - Sissoko
4) supporting the striker - De Jong, Thauvin, Wijnaldum, Perez

Colback was good last year when it was mostly about defending but his strength is to win the ball off and lay it off to someone. At the moment that someone is the one I am not sure we have as Wijnaldum is playing further forward and Anita doesnt have the range of passing required. This means that our full backs are going to be extremely important in providing the outlet and I just don't see Haidara doing that and Janmaat's passing at times also leaves a lot to be desired.

Striker-wise I think we brought the type of striker we need but remains to be seen whether Mitrovic has the temperament to be actually spend enough minutes on the pitch to be an asset in the Premier League.

 

In my honest opinion putting the signings to one side for a moment we are far stronger, we have the absolutely massive and crucial advantage of having a competent manager and coaching setup, which will automatically raise the standards throughout the club, whether that be first team, fringe players or grass roots level. we have a refreshed playing philosophy which is hopefully being instilled from top to bottom, to ensure any new signings and any talented youth players can come into the current system and know exactly what is expected of them and their roles should be. Not like the in the Pardew/Carver days of throwing them in and hoping for the best or punting long balls at them hoping one would stick.

We are at a massive advantage that we are looking to play good football and to compete for something, this raises morale, and a happy camp is more likely to be a winning camp.

We are still 2-3 signings short of a team that can REALLY kick on but we have the footprint of a very decent side, but the biggest downside is that we have to strongly rely on minimal injuries as our squad is still small and although IMO full of quality still lacks experience and depth.

In terms of actual signings I'm over the moon with Mitrovic, hes a player we've cried out for since Carroll, a strong, aggressive, great in the air CF type, he needs to calm himself which I'm sure will happen in time with enough work with our staff.

Wijnaldum looks like hes is going to be fantastic also, early signs even in games when we've been hugely under the cosh are that he is a quality player and will score a lot of goals for us, looks to be able to read the game well and is a player who can make things happen.

Mbemba, particularly against Arsenal looks a great acquisition, reads the game EXTREMELY well, seems strong in the air (barring Soton game) and has the pace to make up for the little that he lacks in positional sense, I really do think we've finally found quality CB.

After an extremely promising start the jury is out on Thauvin, and I wanted to give Cabella a proper chance under a proper manager but it wasn't to be and already Thavin looks physically more suited to the league and to be be quite honest has done more in one game (albeit against lower league opposition) than Cabella did in the entiriety of last season.

We are still a little weak in certain areas (Colback, Haidara) but hopefully McClaren will spot these problems early on and attempt to rectify them.

 

Someone mentioning Anita not having the passing range of Colback? Hes far superior to Colback technically and often switches play, plays through balls to wingers and is far quicker and crisper at recycling possession, my favourite player of the season so far, hes flourishing in Mc Clarens system.

 

I think we are a touch stronger overall. Clearly we still have issues defensively. We have made a start. Personally I think we have taken a strange approach in that we haven't built form the back which all the top managers suggest you should. Sort out your spine too. We've probably got enough to stay up, whereas last year (despite some crazy predictions of top 10 from some), I think you couldn't be sure of that.

So 12 months on, slightly stronger.

 

I think the we need to specify than when ?

If it is than the end of last season, then clearly we're much stronger. Much better manager. Much better partner to Colo. Gini and Flauvin are more useful than Jonas and Cabella. Don't know if Mitrovic is an asset yet or not. End of last season we were relegation favourites. I am now fairly confident that there are three teams worse than us.

Are we stronger than the beginning of last season ? A bit.

Have we replaced Ba, HBA etc (as Panthro asks) ? Not really.

Are we stronger than say 4 seasons ago ? Not at all.

 

I think that this question is impossible to answer at this stage of the season.
The new signings are all well and good.
However the more significant change is the change to the coaching staff. The full effect of this change is not going to be seen until the end of the season. It's possible that the new coaching staff are going to get the players we've retained over the summer playing better than they were before so we could be stronger than we realise.

Edit: The new signings are all good acquisitions reads better than what I initially put

 

Couple of comments above strike home for me - Colback seen as a ball winner, and Anita enjoying his best spell so far; this is where patience is needed as we will have a holding midfielder most of the time. As it stands, Colback was last season preferred to Anita in being the distributor of the ball, rather than the winner of it, and those habits haven't changed enough. Is he a good enough ball winner? Not sure - but he's technically some way behind Anita and has to either work out or be told his role. For me, a fit and firing Tiote solves a real problem and I did feel that we could have done with buying a DM on top of the CB and LB we craved, as Tiote's been unreliable for about 10 months or more.

So, yes, we're stronger, it's now about McLaren and how he can make this work. Too many players don't fit the system we've been trying and instead we need to think about shifting the balance a bit. We currently play two DM's too deep, with neither renowned for tackling. Get Colback deeper, make him the DM, or swap him for Tiote and go three in the middle, with Anita and probably Wijnaldum alongside. I'd probably persevere with Sissoko on the right, as Janmaat's so mobile up the flank, and Thauvin left as he works a tad harder and can stay a bit wider, both either side of Perez for now until Mitrovic finds his feet. We need to adapt the play as well, as we don't have Costa/Austin/Drogba playing up front just having a target man doesn't work. Hence why I'd go three in the middle.