Monday, July 27, 2009

Who next?

Dusting himself off following the rejection by John Terry, it seems that Mark Hughes has picked himself back up and got himself back in the game if today's reports are anything to go by.

Attention appears to be focusing back on both Joleon Lescott and Kolo Toure, with Toure the stronger rumour and the suggestion seems to be that a bid either has, or will shortly be lodged.

Jack has mused over the merits of adding one or both of the pair, and whilst Toure seems the likelier in terms of current progress, my own preference would be to add the one player - Joleon Lescott, namely because Nedum Onouha is a better player than either. A partnership between Lescott and Onouha also looks a stronger one than Toure and Onouha, two players of similar styles as opposed to the more rugged, defensive qualities of Lescott.

A point to make about bringing in multiple defenders is, that whilst strengthening is required, the rotation in defence is not as prevalent as in other areas (which is why we can carry half a dozen attacking players) and looking at the top sides in the Premier League, they are built on a solid, consistent partnership at the back, so carrying too many defenders is by far from an ideal situation.

vote it up!

1 comment:

simon said...

There hasn't been much discussion about Kompany in all this. I can't see that he and de Jong will play together in midfield in many games this season and he seems to be a pretty accomplished CB. I guess at the very least he offers back-up in the case of injury to any of our front-line CBs (whoever they end up being). Agree about Nedum, btw.

However, I wonder if Hughes' determination to buy players with Prem experience is holding him back from considering higher-quality, better-value defenders elsewhere in Europe.