I posted a comment over on Gunnerblog in response to a poster who claimed the team needed a complete overhaul. I had said that we only needed one or two players to be competing for the title, if they were the right players, he rejected that claiming the gap was too large for tweaks to fix it. I wanted to share my reasoning:
Look back to last summer, where United had just finished their third season in a row without the Premiership, and never looked like getting close to Chelsea. They then sold their top scorer, and flourished without him, after being written off.
I truly believe we only need a couple of signings to challenge for the title again. They need to be the right signings, which does not necessarily mean big names, but my point is that if you sign the right two players, you can extract more than two players’ worth out of a team, if those two players complement the rest of the team and make the other nine raise their game.
With me so far?
To take a simple example, imagine us last season without Cesc, but fully fit otherwise. Say we signed Cesc at Christmas, and he flourished after that. Not only would his individual contribution add the value of one player, but he would extract the best out of others, e.g. Henry’s fine runs would be rewarded by the pass they merited.
In that way, you sign one player but improve more than one player in your team.
That’s what I mean by subtle improvements. This team does not need an overhaul, it is a puzzle with a couple of crucial pieces missing. It isn’t the wrong picture.
Feel free to agree or disagree, I welcome all comments.
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