Kone scored a hattrick in one game so that is just nonsense plus he wasn't shot when he joined us. He was just unlucky to get a ACL injury plus he's far better than Niasse. Don't confuse him being awful with being awful relative to what we currently have. Valencia was awful but I would have him over what we currently have too.Kone was 6m and shot. Didn't have one good game for us and would rank alongside Niasse, except he didn't have the latter's drive.
Even with our current defense having aged 3-4 years since then, anything we have now is better than Alcaraz was then. Holgate is just as mistake-prone but will hopefully learn. Funes Mori is as injury-prone but miles better.
The fact that we look like we haven't practiced defending in 5 years is both down to Martinez and Koeman. Our current centrebacks are Jags, Williams, Keane, Funes Mori, Holgate. Alcaraz would not even play for the U23s.
The fact that neither Martinez nor Koeman bothered to bring in a decent back up striker to Lukaku is enough for me to write them off completely. The defense needs sorting, but how do you do that without bringing in a new player since it's october? I think Jagielka and Keane are our best current partnership, but with Baines being wildly underwhelming lately and the right side looking a shambles I'm not sure how you shore things up.
Again rubbish. Alcaraz was bought as a 4th choice backup. The problem we have now is we can't field two half decent CB starters. Funes Mori is injured. Holgate is rubbish - sorry I know he's a kid but just like DCL neither are ready and I doubt either will ever be for a premiership club. Holgate is just the 2017 version of Galloway.
Our defence is terrible but it is down to the players. We simply have gone from one of the best defences with Coleman, Jags, Stones, Distin and Baines to Dad's Army down to lack of investment in the defence from the board. I think they have thought due to the fact it hasn't been an issue for so long that these players had longer left. Now they have all gone to poo at the same time.
Martinez didn't have the money to bring in a decent backup striker so Kone was about as good as we could hope for especially considering we couldn't offer them game time. Koeman and Walsh have no excuses including last year.
Personally I don't think we can fix the defence at least without killing any kind of attack which is why home games will be key.
The game at Leicester showed this. First half we started with a reasonably normal attacking lineup. 1 holding mid, 2 wingers etc and were torn apart. 2nd half we steadied the ship but didn't look likely to score.
I think we are a poisoned chalice for anyone however I guess Big Sam has kept worst teams up although he has always had a goal scorer.