The general feeling on here, and from City fans on X, seems to be that we still need another 2–3 players:
- Left winger
- Left back
- Centre midfielder
There also seems to be a widespread view among fans that 8 players in the current squad are not Premier League level and should be moved on if possible:
- Bidwell
- Woolfenden
- Lati
- Kitching
- Eccles
- Raphael
- BTA
- Simms
There is probably around £25m of value tied up in those players, but the problem now is that they are on Premier League wages.
That is going to make it difficult to move many of them on to Championship clubs once you take both the transfer fees and wages into account.
The danger is that we end up stuck with too many Championship level players taking up around 30% of the 25 man squad and using up a significant chunk of the wage budget.
Realistically, we are not going to move most of them on in the next few days, so we could be stuck with quite a few until January or even next summer. That makes it a lot harder for Lampard and Austin to properly improve the squad.
If we are aiming for two Premier League level players for every position, there should still be another three squad places available. I would expect one to go to a third choice keeper (Wilson), with another midfielder (Eccles) and a third striker (Wright) taking the other two.
That leaves some big decisions for Lampard to make.
Lampard will probably want to keep Eccles because of his versatility rather than selling or loaning him out. Personally, I think that would make sense for now and then review the situation in January.
With KKH injured and MVE looking short of confidence, Eccles would give us better cover and competition at right back than Lati.
The striker situation is a bit more complicated.
Awoniyi looks like he will be the main striker, with Cherif providing competition. Given we have spent around £20m on Cherif, I would have thought part of that was going to be funded by selling either Wright or Simms, especially with both of them out of contract next summer.
If Simms is still here after the deadline, there is a real chance he runs his contract down, goes for a significantly reduced fee in January or leaves for nothing next summer.
Wright is obviously different because he is injured, so realistically he probably cannot be sold until January. With his contract also running down, his value is only going to fall unless he signs a new deal.
I would not be surprised if one of them gets offered a new contract simply to protect some value, and at the moment Wright looks the more likely of the two to stay as second or third choice striker.
Tactics
Since January 2025, the team has been built around Matt Grimes.
Lampard brought him in so we could play a certain way, with Grimes dropping deep, helping form the back three and dictating play from there. It worked and helped get us promoted.
But the Premier League is a completely different level and I do not think we can just carry on with the same system and expect it to work. That does not mean I think Grimes should be dropped or that he is not good enough for the Premier League. I think he is good enough, but I think he needs to be used differently.
For me, he would be better in a double pivot with Yirenkyi alongside him rather than dropping so deep and becoming part of the back three all the time. The deeper Grimes plays, the more his lack of pace and athleticism could become a problem when we lose the ball and teams counter quickly.
We saw Lampard make similar adjustments last season after the poor run in the winter. Torp came out, Onyeka came in, Grimes had more protection around him and both full backs stopped bombing forward at the same time.
That gave us much better protection when we lost the ball.
That is why I worry about the 3-1-6 build up we saw against Hull. I think Premier League teams will expose that far more easily.
For me, a 2-3-5 build up would make more sense.
You still get five players forward, but instead of having Grimes drop into a back three, you keep two centre backs behind the ball with the full backs and a holding midfielder in front of them.
That should give us a lot more protection when we lose possession without stopping us getting numbers forward.
Lampard is obviously not going to drop Grimes easily. He is his captain and one of the players he trusts most.
The challenge is finding a way to get the best out of him at this level without building the whole system around him in the same way we did in the Championship.
My biggest concern is whether Lampard will be ruthless enough with some of the players who helped get us promoted.
After what they achieved last season, it is understandable that there will be some loyalty towards them. But the Premier League is a completely different standard, and some difficult decisions are going to have to be made as expectations and standards inevitably rise.
Ideally, I would like to see players such as Bidwell, Woolfenden, Lati, Kitching, Rafael, BTA and Simms moved on as soon as possible. That would allow us to use the transfer fees and wage budget on players who genuinely improve the squad and give us a better chance of avoiding relegation.
- Left winger
- Left back
- Centre midfielder
There also seems to be a widespread view among fans that 8 players in the current squad are not Premier League level and should be moved on if possible:
- Bidwell
- Woolfenden
- Lati
- Kitching
- Eccles
- Raphael
- BTA
- Simms
There is probably around £25m of value tied up in those players, but the problem now is that they are on Premier League wages.
That is going to make it difficult to move many of them on to Championship clubs once you take both the transfer fees and wages into account.
The danger is that we end up stuck with too many Championship level players taking up around 30% of the 25 man squad and using up a significant chunk of the wage budget.
Realistically, we are not going to move most of them on in the next few days, so we could be stuck with quite a few until January or even next summer. That makes it a lot harder for Lampard and Austin to properly improve the squad.
If we are aiming for two Premier League level players for every position, there should still be another three squad places available. I would expect one to go to a third choice keeper (Wilson), with another midfielder (Eccles) and a third striker (Wright) taking the other two.
That leaves some big decisions for Lampard to make.
Lampard will probably want to keep Eccles because of his versatility rather than selling or loaning him out. Personally, I think that would make sense for now and then review the situation in January.
With KKH injured and MVE looking short of confidence, Eccles would give us better cover and competition at right back than Lati.
The striker situation is a bit more complicated.
Awoniyi looks like he will be the main striker, with Cherif providing competition. Given we have spent around £20m on Cherif, I would have thought part of that was going to be funded by selling either Wright or Simms, especially with both of them out of contract next summer.
If Simms is still here after the deadline, there is a real chance he runs his contract down, goes for a significantly reduced fee in January or leaves for nothing next summer.
Wright is obviously different because he is injured, so realistically he probably cannot be sold until January. With his contract also running down, his value is only going to fall unless he signs a new deal.
I would not be surprised if one of them gets offered a new contract simply to protect some value, and at the moment Wright looks the more likely of the two to stay as second or third choice striker.
Tactics
Since January 2025, the team has been built around Matt Grimes.
Lampard brought him in so we could play a certain way, with Grimes dropping deep, helping form the back three and dictating play from there. It worked and helped get us promoted.
But the Premier League is a completely different level and I do not think we can just carry on with the same system and expect it to work. That does not mean I think Grimes should be dropped or that he is not good enough for the Premier League. I think he is good enough, but I think he needs to be used differently.
For me, he would be better in a double pivot with Yirenkyi alongside him rather than dropping so deep and becoming part of the back three all the time. The deeper Grimes plays, the more his lack of pace and athleticism could become a problem when we lose the ball and teams counter quickly.
We saw Lampard make similar adjustments last season after the poor run in the winter. Torp came out, Onyeka came in, Grimes had more protection around him and both full backs stopped bombing forward at the same time.
That gave us much better protection when we lost the ball.
That is why I worry about the 3-1-6 build up we saw against Hull. I think Premier League teams will expose that far more easily.
For me, a 2-3-5 build up would make more sense.
You still get five players forward, but instead of having Grimes drop into a back three, you keep two centre backs behind the ball with the full backs and a holding midfielder in front of them.
That should give us a lot more protection when we lose possession without stopping us getting numbers forward.
Lampard is obviously not going to drop Grimes easily. He is his captain and one of the players he trusts most.
The challenge is finding a way to get the best out of him at this level without building the whole system around him in the same way we did in the Championship.
My biggest concern is whether Lampard will be ruthless enough with some of the players who helped get us promoted.
After what they achieved last season, it is understandable that there will be some loyalty towards them. But the Premier League is a completely different standard, and some difficult decisions are going to have to be made as expectations and standards inevitably rise.
Ideally, I would like to see players such as Bidwell, Woolfenden, Lati, Kitching, Rafael, BTA and Simms moved on as soon as possible. That would allow us to use the transfer fees and wage budget on players who genuinely improve the squad and give us a better chance of avoiding relegation.
