Was watching Everton and wondered how old Barry must be by now and just wondered what others thought about the future of our midfield.
We have our first choice pair of Yaya (32) & Fernandinho (30) with prefered backups Fernando (28) and Delph (25 - soon to be 26).
You would imagine Yaya would be first in need of replacing and also the most important. He would probably be able to stick around as some form of deep lying player but unsure if he would be happy with that role.
Fernandinho is a player who relies on his athleticism and does a lot of running so there is a risk of age catching up on him however there don't appear to be any signs of that yet. I think Delph is more than capable of replacing him as a like for like.
Lastly we have Fernando who after a not so great start has slotted in nicely and done what we expect him to do which is break up play and play it safe. He has a good few years left in the tank and would most likely keep the role he has now in the future.
So over the next few years we are going to be looking for a Yaya replacement as one of our main concerns which brings up an interesting decision. Yaya is one of our best players with no real like for like replacement in the world yet at the same time he provides us with a defensive weakness when played in a midfield two. Its a trade of which for the most part favours us. This leaves us with the option to replace him as like for like as possible and continue to play the same way we do now or bring in a more rounded CM and depend on our forwards for that little extra creativity.
For me, a player in the same role as Fabregas or Pogba(?) would allow us to play as we do now without a huge difference in how we play. A player more focused on going forward than helping defend too much.
A more rounded midfielder along the lines of Ramsay or Verratti who still are creative yet puts in a good amount of running / defensive work would in my opinion provider us with a more stable midfield for games when we are not in complete control.
Not saying those are the players I would like to bring in but felt it was something interesting to think about as eventually Yaya will be replaced and wondered what others thought about it.
We have our first choice pair of Yaya (32) & Fernandinho (30) with prefered backups Fernando (28) and Delph (25 - soon to be 26).
You would imagine Yaya would be first in need of replacing and also the most important. He would probably be able to stick around as some form of deep lying player but unsure if he would be happy with that role.
Fernandinho is a player who relies on his athleticism and does a lot of running so there is a risk of age catching up on him however there don't appear to be any signs of that yet. I think Delph is more than capable of replacing him as a like for like.
Lastly we have Fernando who after a not so great start has slotted in nicely and done what we expect him to do which is break up play and play it safe. He has a good few years left in the tank and would most likely keep the role he has now in the future.
So over the next few years we are going to be looking for a Yaya replacement as one of our main concerns which brings up an interesting decision. Yaya is one of our best players with no real like for like replacement in the world yet at the same time he provides us with a defensive weakness when played in a midfield two. Its a trade of which for the most part favours us. This leaves us with the option to replace him as like for like as possible and continue to play the same way we do now or bring in a more rounded CM and depend on our forwards for that little extra creativity.
For me, a player in the same role as Fabregas or Pogba(?) would allow us to play as we do now without a huge difference in how we play. A player more focused on going forward than helping defend too much.
A more rounded midfielder along the lines of Ramsay or Verratti who still are creative yet puts in a good amount of running / defensive work would in my opinion provider us with a more stable midfield for games when we are not in complete control.
Not saying those are the players I would like to bring in but felt it was something interesting to think about as eventually Yaya will be replaced and wondered what others thought about it.