We do. Three of whom were at the club when Jose arrived. If he didn’t know enough about their qualities (and weaknesses) beforehand, he certainly would’ve assessed them properly after working with them for a full season.
So, to summarize:
Smalling and Jones (and Rojo): fully assessed, he knew precisely what sort of players they were last summer.
Bailly: ditto, I suppose – but part of the picture with him is obviously that he’s young, not the finished product, etc.
Lindelöf: another young CB, not the finished product, etc. And like Bailly clearly not brought in to play the part of an experienced defence leader.
We can also add every fullback option available to him both then and presently (with the exception of Dalot): All of them were at the club when he arrived.
Point: At the end of last summer’s window Jose declared himself pleased (enough) with the squad and ready to challenge. Which means that unless he was flat out lying (to what end I can’t say), he considered his defensive options adequate (and that would mean adequate for a title challenge, no less).
The defensive options that are now – apparently – so shabby that we have to sacrifice our attacking game in order to protect the defence from being fatally exposed, are not new acquisitions (yet to gel, etc.) – they are the very same players.
Now, the obvious question seems to be this: if our defenders are sub-par (individually, quality wise – that’s the only excuse here, if they’re simply not working as a unit, that’s on the manager who drills them) to the extent that we can’t expect the team to string a few decent attacking moves together (an exceptional situation to be in for a club with our resources), then why the hell didn’t Jose prioritize to add defenders to the squad at a larger scale, and much earlier? I mean, what was the plan? Field a shite defence (injury prone, inexperienced, unreliable, whathaveya) for two full seasons – and then, finally, bring in a top class, experienced defence leader this summer – one player, who’d then elevate the whole unit dramatically? Doesn’t make much sense.
And – again – if the defence is that woeful, we have to conclude that Jose either lied (bizarre if so) last summer or that he misjudged players he’d worked with extensively something monumental.
None of this means that Woodward should play DoF, however. If you trust the manager to get it right, you back him in the market as long as this is financially responsible. You don’t go “we’ll gladly splash 100m on Varane – but we won’t buy anyone on your list”. That’s a football decision, ultimately, not a purely financial one.
