GK: Lloris, Friedel & Gomes
We have a world class number one, we have a suitable back up keeper at the moment, but this is for one season, another if we have to. We need to bring in a young ambitious keeper who can challenge Lloris for his spot.
After Striker, this is my main concern. Brad is a solid GK. He, under any circumstances, is not a sweeper keeper like Lloris. He can't play with the same highline we play with Lloris. I don't want to see Gomes in a Spurs shirt again. We need a young sweeper keeper. I don't know if any of our young keepers play similarly to Lloris.
LB: Rose & Naughton
Rose is on his way to becoming a great left back for a team trying to finish 5/6th, he is no way a league winning left back in training. He lacks concentration and has a fiery temper of every small man feeling the world on their shoulders. His little mistakes cost us dearly, within a couple of seasons these will be trained out of him, but he is not ready for where we are no, let alone where we want to be, and, he is first choice. Naughton needs to be sold and a top left back brought in making Rose back up. Someone who can go forward and have a final ball and still chip in with defense.
Rose has said that is he isn't first choice, he will leave. We don't have the money of Chelsea and City. We can deal with a serviceable, young, homegrown LB instead of a WC player at every position. So we either bring in a better LB and have Rose leave, are are in the same position in terms of depth. Naughton is a RB, Fryers is a LB. Fryers is the backup LB, not Naughton. Naughton is still only 24. He is a serviceable backup RB. Fryers is still very young (20) and has a lot of potential.
RB: Walker & Naughton
Walker has a great run for an athlete, but he seems to want to run then stop for people to acknowledge that he did something worth while, then give the ball away. As much as I love Aaron Lennon, Kyle has the same problem, no imagination of what to do when he gets himself into a good position, getting there is not the problem. With Naughton backing up two positions we are very bland for natural wing backs, the same as left back, we need to bring in a powerhouse right back to make Walker second string.
Walker needs to improve his end product and his positioning. He is a very good RB though. We can very easily deal with Walker as our RB. Naughton as a backup. Naughton has been solid at RB and a lot of worse at LB. Keep Naughton on the right and no need to sell him. I highly, highly doubt that a 23 year old who is a consistent starter for the English National Team will be okay being number 2.
CB: Dawson, Kaboul, Vertonghen, ChubbaChubs & Fryers
Vertonghen and Kaboul are our best pairing, when fit, I have no doubts at the back when they play, however... When we play any of the others here we play like a mid table team at the back. Dawson needs to be sold, he is a great player... for the likes of Fulham, Bolton etc.. He panics, he's slow and isn't comfortable on the ball. Great defense splitting passes though. Fryers is too young to even get a mention in a league winning team, needs to go on loan to gain experience. Chiriches is a player who likes to play the way AVB is wanting us to play, however I do not see him as the main to take us to the next level, time will tell if he gets his fish market license to work in London. We need to bring in two ball playing defenders who are quick in pace and are hard in the tackle that knock bother Kaboul and Verts to the bench.
Fryers is a LB, not CB. Used at CB because we didnt't have any at that point early in the season. I have no doubt when Dawson plays. I have doubt when Kaboul plays. Not because of his ability, but because of his knees. I don't know if he can give us 90 minutes. I don't know if he was the player of 11-12. I don't know how you, or anyone else, besides Dan, if Chiriches will "take us to the next level." None of us, besides Dan, have seen him play, enough. By all accounts he is a ball playing defender who is quick in pace.
AMC: Erikson, Holtby & Sigurdsson
I don't like Siggy, he has no end product. I'd sell Holtby and Siggy and bring in another world class player with Carroll playing more of a role after his much needed loan spell for development.
Holtby has played in a forein country for less than a year. He missed the whole preseason with an injury. He got thrown into a CL competing team without any time to gel or anytime to settle. I don't want to sell Holtby under any circumstances. I'd argue that Siggy's best attribute is his end product... He is good at set pieces, he has a rocket for a shot, he has an eye for goal, and his crosses are usually very good. If we have Eriksen/ "another WC player / "Carroll playing more a role," There isn't enough playing time for all three of those to be happy for one position.
AMR: Lamela & Lennon
I haven't seen Lamela play properly yet for Spurs, that doesn't mean to say that he is not a quality player, I'm just waiting to see how he blends into our team. Lennon was my favourite player last season over everyone, I believe moving from challenging for 4th and moving into the top 4 means that we need a player who can go somewhere as well as Lennon does, but be able to finish off the move with something, anything, a goal every now and then, an assist maybe, something?! But no, he just runs and runs, then starts again. We need sufficient back up for Lamela.
One of Townsends best attributes is his selfishness and his shooting. He is a RW player. He and Lamela are the RWS for the future, as I see. I like Lennon, and he can play a role for us against top quality sides with his defensive contributions. But I can't see a future here for Lennon. He has two younger players, both with better end product, and now AVB wants these RW's futher up the pitch playing a 4-3-3.
AML: Townsend & Chadli
I did not expect Townsend to have such an impact as he has already this season, although I do believe he should be curbed a bit in his enthusiasm, the reason being is simply because of the amount of stupid shots he takes. I think AVB has asked him to put Bale's shoes on to soften the blow of a like for like player that clearly isn't the same player. Townsend will be a much better player if he looks up for team mates before shooting, or if he's going to shoot, at least be in a position to trouble the keeper. I'm not so sure about Chadli, he's going to need a lot of time blending into the team then league. Do we have the time to wait for such a transition?
This is a transition year. We have 7 new players and 2 players coming in from loan spells that are playing major roles. We need Chadli to be good. He has been good, in my eyes. He has gotten some stick for not spectacular immediately, but he constantly is creating chances. He will be better than he is now, but he is good now.
CF: Soldado, Defoe & Adebayor
If we play with a creating AMC then either of these players will be good enough this season, the only reason the pair from last season were shit last season was because they weren't fed well enough. Look at Soldado, in his first three league games he wasn't given the ball enough by a creative man in order to attempt to score, let alone actually score. With Erikson playing the way he played, and that's not even a good performance from the man, we are going to get goals from our strikers, even playing Ade. If we are looking to get rid of Ade then I believe paying him off the £1m as it saves us money rather than letting him rot in the reserves.
Soldado is our number 1. I don't think Defoe's style is good enough for us to be number 2. I'd like to see Adebayor be our number 2 striker and having Defoe coming off the bench a lot looking for goals. By all accounts, Ade is off. Won't play again for us. I can't see Defoe being happy being third choice either. I think we need a younger, better striker. Maybe two if Defoe wants out after we bring in a second striker. This is my main concern.