GK
Jordan Pickford*
Joel Robles
Maarten Stekelenburg
RB
Séamus Coleman [+]
Jonjoe Kenny
LB
Leighton Baines*
CB
Ashley Williams*
Phil Jagielka*
Ramiro Funes Mori
Brendan Galloway
Mason Holgate
DM/CM
Morgan Schneiderlin
Muhamed Bešić
Idrissa Gueye
Tom Davies
Gareth Barry*
James McCarthy*
ACM
Ross Barkley*
Davy Klaassen
Wingers
Ademola Lookman
Yannick Bolasie [+]
Kevin Mirallas
Strikers
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Romelu Lukaku*
Well the window is open and it seems the best time to have a look at which areas we need to improve.
The GK area has been dealt with, hard to say if Robles and Stek will both stay at this point, but I think we can all agree that numbers wise and probably quality wise its probably all ok.
RB is a possible point of concern, Coleman is a long term injury and Kenny is a bit of a "gamble", we could probably do with a cheapish player here, just as cover, somebody with Premiership experience ideally, answers on a Cucu Martinacard.
LB is also a minor concern, Baines isnt getting any younger and might find the stress of Thursday/Sunday a little straining, I keep forgetting that Luke Garbutt is even a thing, will he be considered? Will Galloway? Hard to say here, ideally we need somebody else, unless the 2 players mentioned can do a job? Watch this space.
CB, we could do with another CB for sure, of course the boy Keane is likely to come in, do we need another 1? We would have 6 if Keane is bought, but question marks must be over Jags age wise and I suppose Galloway and Holgate also age wise, but of course the other way round, there is of course Pennington and Browning who I havent named in the above squad. Again I suppose its something to look at over the next 2 months.
DM/CM/AM, we have enough numbers wise here, but there is possible injury concerns over Besic and McCarthy, age concerns with Barry, again somebody else that would really struggle with the thurs/sun games, we might consider shifting a body out here and bringing in somebody else, but its probably the 1 area outfield where we are pretty stacked.
Wingers, Yala is blates goosed leaving us with only Lookman and Mirallas, Sandro is likely to come in and I know hes a "striker", but will be putting him in the winger section for now, lets see how it goes, Sandro aside I think we probably need AT LEAST another wide player, possibly 2 ideally, defo 2 "attackers", whether its 2 SS 2 wingers or a mixture.
Strikers, the spectre of Lukaku hangs over the club like a smelly rat exposed in the sun, Lukaku aside, we need currently 1 Striker, if Lukaku is to be moved on then we DEFO need 2 Strikers IMO.
Conclusion :
GK (tick)
RB (1)
LB(1)
CB(1)
DM/CM/AM(tick)
Wingers (2)
Strikers (2)
So I conclude we need between 5-8 new players, depending on sales, not including purchased from this date forth.