How many of those do you think we have so far and what depth do we still need to address in next couple of windows
Striker (2) - We have 1 if Martial is healthy he's one and we need one more, my guess is it will be Ramos as he was a 2nd striker last year and is a big rangy technical #9 just seems like that's what Ten Hag wants for this system. My guess is Martial stays for one more year at least, except his contract is out in 2024. Normally someone from Spain or Italy would offer us a decent sum for him and bank on him being healthier in his late 20s than early 20s, but those clubs don't seem to have a ton of money anymore. So my guess is he signs a deal for an extra 2 years and stays.
Winger (3) - Rashford, Garnacho, Antony, Sancho we're fine here, even have an extra as well as Amad, Pellistri and Elanga as young players of whom you'd expect one (Amad at the moment) to end up being enough quality and bonus for being left-footed.
CM (4) - Bruno, Eriksen, Sabitzer, Casemiro. Fred is probably a great 6th midfielder for an all-conquering team, maybe 5th. I think Sabitzer will probably stay and do well here and with one of Sancho or Amad as promising options as #10s, we might hold off on a huge CM signing this summer, apart from spending say 23M on Sabitzer, and just buy a cheaper young backup DM to be mentored by Casemiro and sell McTominay (because he asks to leave).
FB (3) - Dalot, Shaw and Malacia, we are one of those teams without an obvious 2nd RB playing CB or a quite consistent enough academy at this position to expect a backup for this spot (like Real Madrid for example), which is probably a sign of incompetence since roughly 1/3rd of the 30 or so English players who could play serious minutes for us are RBs. So we need a 2nd. Wan-Bissaka has been lately, but I think we'll sign a better attacking RB since Ten Hag is committed to Antony (whose best quality is retaining the space and cycling possession (like a strong on the boards hockey winger but with quick feet instead of strength) and creates good spaces for a RB to run into and create. Think of how great Reece James would be as our RB for instance? Not easy to find one like that, but it's worth spending some money on I think. Especially since the other RW options are also good at linking with fullbacks in Amad and Sancho.
CB (3) - Lisandro, Varane and we need a 3rd to replace Maguire. Someone right-footed and good in the air. Maguire is actually a decent fit he'll just want to leave to start somewhere and keep his England place and pride (and I think he enjoys playing) and like Wan-Bissaka, he's a Prem proven HG player and that means his floor should be a healthy 20M+. Lindelof is a 4th CB, and I say that liking his fit under Ten Hag more than most.
GK (2) - I think we have 1. De Gea is a decent goalkeeper but he's all wrong for how Ten Hag wants to play. But Heaton I think is underrated and can comfortably back up the new starter for another year or two before he ages out of doing that.
So, for this season, without Eriksen, we fall short at Striker, CM/DM and GK anytime the ball is not being actively shot at De Gea. I'm optimistic that Sabitzer will fit in well even if his best football was in more of a pressing setup and he won't have the sheer quality passing of Eriksen so we will have some games where we struggle to link play as well as we have, but we also will be a better team from minute 50-90 or at least 50-70 which mitigates things. So, if making moves is tough and we just keep everyone (including Sabitzer but not Weghorst) you'd say we're really only a Striker, keeper and DM short of a complete squad on paper, just need to pray Varane holds up.
