Joshua Wilson-Esbrand

He might not be a starter, but he will be on the bench and be a rotation option which is all I ever wanted.

Anybody who expected him to be first choice LB had too high expectations.
 
If we don't buy a left-back then this season could be his breakthrough.

Looks like Cancelo's our first choice LB and our second choice RB and that puts a huge amount of pressure on him to stay fit and in form.

Luckily Walker's pretty solid but if he were to get injured or suspended it's either move Cancelo or use Stones at RB.

And if we have to move Cancelo to RB, or if he gets injured or suspended, we can maybe use Ake or Laporte at LB.

So apart from JWE, all our full-back cover means taking someone from our centre-back pool, and reducing our options in the middle. We've got four great CBs but we saw at the end of last season the horror scenario of them all being injured to different extents. Only playing two of them at any one time should help avoid that.

I'd like to see Josh stake a claim for the second choice LB spot. Give him the early rounds at least of the domestic cups, a run out in the last match of the CL group stage if we do well enough to have already qualified for the knock-outs, and give him a few 20/30 min sub appearances in the league.

That should be enough to give him a bit of experience, make the mistakes he needs to make to learn, and show if he's got what it takes long-term. Assuming he does, we can use him more for rotation in the league as the season goes on.

Unlike the rest of our defence, he won't be at the World Cup, so he could be crucial cover in the second half of the season.
 
I believe he should be given the chance to play backup for the same reason Foden, Palmer and McAtee have all had chances.

If you don't believe in your academy, it's a waste of resources. We've had the Guardiola style taught through the ranks for 6 years now, eventually you have to trust in the system.

I would love nothing more than to have a "cantera" the way Barca and Ajax have had that creates these brilliant players with our tactics imprinted.
 

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