I’ve said before this season is looking very like 2016/17, Pep finding out who can play his system and realising that a number of players can’t do it. At the same time a new manager getting a free run with an established team is probably going to win the league.
We need to buy in January to make sure of a top 4 finish. We desperately need a 6 and some athleticism in midfield. We could also do with a right back. We may have to gamble on the likes of Wright, O’Reilly and McAtee because it’s hard to see our midfield being worse than yesterday. Lewis and Foden may also need to be rested as Foden is miles off the pace this season and Lewis is really struggling to find a position.
This summer we’re going to have to move Walker, Gundogan, Silva and KDB which will be a sad day considering what they have all given to the club but the years seem to have caught up with them.
Viana is going to have a huge job in sorting the squad for the next five years or so. We have bought badly in recent windows, especially in midfield with the likes of Phillips, Gundogan and Nunes, plus we allowed Walker to stay too long. It was abundantly clear that we needed cover for Rodri but we balked at Guimaraes price. I wonder where we would be if we had gone for him.
I am confident that Pep will get a fix to get us through to January but we’ll need to be quick out of the blocks on reinforcements. We desperately need to get some form from KDB and get Dias back into defence.