We pick out six Premier League teams who failed to address what could be a problem position in this summer’s transfer window. Will they live to regret their decisions?
One round of games since the transfer window closed on Friday seems like an apt time to start wondering if anyone made any glaring errors with their summer business, right?
Perhaps it’s a little soon, but plenty of fans were left disappointed as their club failed to sign anyone in a position where they felt there was a hole to be filled.
We’re here today not to start criticising any particular new signings for failing to hit the ground running at their new club, but instead to wonder if there were any potential oversights in the transfer window. Which Premier League teams overlooked a position they possibly should have reinforced, and might eventually come to regret their decision?
Here are six suggestions.
Chelsea – Striker
Yes, we’re aware Chelsea were closer to signing everyone in football than they were to getting nobody, but their failed, late pursuits of a couple of big-name strikers in Victor Osimhen and Ivan Toney proved they were after an improvement up front. Manager Enzo Maresca even admitted as much, saying a week before the window shut: “If we have the chance to bring in a nine that can help us and make the difference, then we are going to try.”
In the end, there was to be no further addition in the centre-forward position and Chelsea head into the Maresca era with Nicolas Jackson as the first-choice number nine. Two goals and an assist in his first three appearances of the season is a decent start, and that run of course included a 6-2 demolition of Wolves that suggested Maresca’s Chelsea have no problems finding the net. Only Manchester City (9) have scored more goals this season than them (7).
However, that Wolves game aside, Chelsea have one goal from 3.38 expected goals across two games against City and Crystal Palace. In other words, they still have it in them to be wasteful in front of goal.
Maresca seemingly doesn’t fancy Christopher Nkunku up front, Marc Guiu is highly rated but still only 18 years of age and can’t yet be relied upon, and João Félix has a lot of work to do to convince anyone in England he can lead the line for a big club after his underwhelming previous stint in London.
Equally, though, when you have a creator as exceptional as Cole Palmer, who can lay goals on a plate like he did for Jackson on Sunday, it doesn’t matter if your number nine isn’t an elite finisher.
Also, being in the UEFA Conference League is arguably a plus, as Chelsea will have at least six more games this season in which Maresca can try some new things out and give his back-up forwards a chance to gain some momentum and confidence. Time will tell if he comes to regret not signing a natural centre-forward to go straight into the starting lineup.
Manchester United – Winger
Manchester United sporting director Dan Ashworth this week explained the club’s decision to offload Jadon Sancho without signing a replacement. “We felt we had enough depth in that particular position to be able to cover it,” he said. “We’ve got four really good wide players, Jadon was a fifth, and it just enabled us to make that decision.”
There’s logic there. In Amad Diallo, Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony, United have four good players for the positions out wide, and there would have to be a pretty major injury crisis for Erik ten Hag to be out of options on either flank.
But there are reasonable questions to be asked about the quality of those options. Are they good enough for United to challenge for the top four and major trophies? Possibly, but there’s certainly a case to be made that this was an area of the pitch that United could have upgraded.
Amad is a very exciting youngster but has made only seven Premier League starts and has just 727 minutes of action to his name in England’s top flight, so it would be a risk to assume United will be able to rely on him too heavily.
Meanwhile, we all know how good Rashford can be – and there have been glimpses of that this season – but he was out of sorts for much of last term and hasn’t been properly consistent for a long while. In three starts this season, he is yet to have a single shot.
Alejandro Garnacho is another incredible prospect but, at only 20 years old, is understandably still inconsistent.
Antony is now fourth-choice and, well, looking like he could end up as one of the most expensive flops in Premier League history. He has only eight goal involvements in more than 52 hours on the pitch in the Premier League for United, and three of his goals came in his first three appearances. He has just two goals in his last 58 appearances for them.
Already this season, Ten Hag has appeared to lack quality attacking options on the bench. With his side either losing or drawing and chasing a goal, the United manager has used four substitutions already to make a change at centre-back. Antony, meanwhile, has been brought on just once, in the 90th minute against Brighton.
United also have a Europa League campaign to manage this season, so they might come to regret not having more quality in depth out wide.
Newcastle – Centre-Back
It’s tough to criticise Newcastle’s decision not to sign a centre-back too much given the main reason they didn’t was they couldn’t afford to bring one of adequate quality in. That is why they were priced out of a deal to sign Marc Guéhi from Crystal Palace for £70 million.
But there is surely a happy medium somewhere between spending a club-record fee and going into the season with only one fit senior centre-back. Especially when, in the first game of the season, that one fit senior centre-back got sent off and picked up a three-game suspension.
Newcastle at least don’t have any European football to contend with this season, but they are still concerningly light in central defence. Fabian Schär’s red card against Southampton left them with Emil Krafth (a right-back) and Dan Burn (who has barely played at centre-back since joining Newcastle) at centre-back for the next two Premier League games and an EFL Cup tie at Nottingham Forest.
Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles aren’t expected back from what are serious injuries for a long while yet – not until the new year according to premierinjuries.com – so it does feel like a bit of an oversight to have left themselves so short there.
They have come through this mini availability crisis impressively, still unbeaten and through to the next round of the cup, and they have Schär back for the next game.
But they are also going to remain close to another crisis in defence until at least January, and it could cost them dear.
Tottenham – Centre-Back
Tottenham spent a chunk of last season with second-choice full-backs Emerson Royal and Ben Davies playing at centre-back, with Micky van de Ven suffering a serious hamstring injury in the autumn and Cristian Romero unable to go more than a few weeks without getting suspended.
They signed a reinforcement at the back in January when Radu Dragusin joined from Genoa, but heading into a season with Europa League football and hopes and dreams of finally winning a trophy with only three natural senior centre-backs feels just a little unwise. Two games into this season, Van de Ven has already got injured and in their most recent game Spurs were just one injury away from Davies being needed in central defence again.
Tottenham played fewer games (41) than any other Premier League team last season, dumped out of both domestic cups early on and without European football, and they still suffered a dreadful injury crisis because they lacked depth so badly. That was at least part of the reason they conceded so many chances and had such a poor defensive record.
With potentially as many as 77 games to play this season (they obviously won’t play this many, but they are guaranteed to play at least seven more matches (48) than last season), they could well need more depth at the back.
Manager Ange Postecoglou has mentioned the possibility of new central midfield signing Archie Gray covering at centre-back if needed. Given he is only 18 years old, it is reasonable to wonder if playing him out of position is the best thing for his development. Spurs and Gray may have to hope they don’t need to turn to him at the heart of defence.
Everton – (A Fit) Striker
Everton underperformed compared to their expected goals by a significantly worse degree than any other team in the Premier League last season (-14.9), scoring 40 goals from 54.9 xG. The next worst in this regard was relegated Sheffield United (-4.1). In other words, Everton were by far the worst finishers in the top flight in 2023-24.
The worst culprit on an individual level was Everton’s main centre-forward, Dominic Calvert-Lewin (-5.9), who scored seven goals from 12.9 xG. Everton’s back-up striker, Beto, was the sixth-worst performer in front of goal, with three goals from 6.8 xG, an underperformance of -3.8.
One way of looking at these numbers would be to conclude that Everton deserved to finish even higher than 12th – which would have been their position if they weren’t given their eight-point deduction. Had they finished off chances anything like their rivals, there’s another world where they finished in the top half of the table.
The more pessimistic (or perhaps realistic?) view of these numbers would be to say that Everton lack top-level finishers, and the decision to head into 2024-25 assuming (hoping? praying?) that Calvert-Lewin and Beto will perform much better in front of goal could be said to be a little naïve.
Everton did sign Armando Broja on loan from Chelsea, but his move to Ipswich broke down because he is injured, and Sean Dyche decided to sign him anyway. He isn’t expected back for another seven weeks, so nobody should expect him to hit the ground running in Everton colours. It may be late November before he starts performing at anything like his best.
Our analysis before the start of the season suggested that Everton had the easiest opening 10 games of the season of every team in the Premier League, and Broja will miss that entire run when Everton need to pick up some valuable points.
Their start – three losses from three with only two goals scored – indicates they appear to be struggling in front of goal once again. Bringing in another (fit) striker might have been a good idea.
Manchester City – Striker
Okay, so City might be top of the league with a 100% record, and Erling Haaland might be threatening the record for the most goals in a Premier League season after just three games, but we’ve managed to find a negative in their season so far.
Haaland can’t play every single game in every competition, and City don’t have any direct replacements up front after selling Julián Alvarez to Atlético Madrid this summer.
It’s worth saying that Pep Guardiola is more than capable of changing things up and playing without a traditional number nine. It was only a few seasons ago that City won the title with the centre-forward position shared between eight players, with Phil Foden making more Premier League starts (10) in that position than anyone else.
But City are now more used to playing with Haaland up top, and the squad looks less set up to contend with his absence now that Alvarez has gone. Ilkay Gündogan has returned from Barcelona and could fill in as a false nine, and Bernardo and Foden are both possibilities there, too, so it’s not exactly like they have terrible options even if they would be out of position.
But would City be entirely happy with one of those three playing up front for an extended period given Arsenal‘s improvement in the last few years? Perhaps not.
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