Evan Ferguson, Goncalo Ramos & Kane

Yeah Frimpong looks promising, albeit I think he has a bit of improving to do defensively. I think KWP is more balanced and polished technically. Frimpong looks a really strong carrier but not as good a passer.

It's a very small talent pool for RB at the moment.

I wouldn’t mind KWP as well if we were getting rid of Dalot and AWB. But I really think we need to prioritise a right back that has some end product and will consistently provide attacking support for our right winger, whether it be Antony or Sancho. They both struggle without that support from the full back, and I’m not sure using the midfield to create overloads would help as much as having a full back going on the outside would.

Yeah we definitely need our RB to support the attack and their flank partner better. I'm hoping as well that we can really start imposing ourselves further up the pitch and pin more teams back for sustained periods next season, something that will hopefully help the likes of Antony and Sancho and the attack as a whole. It'd be nice if we controlled the middle and final thirds better and had a defence and GK able to control a greater area at the back.

Yeah definitely, that’s been my biggest problem with the team. And why I wasn’t happy with the summer window. Biggest difference to this would be getting a new keeper. But we still need to improve our pressing from the front and defending counters. That’s why I think Rice, or a player with similar attributes, and a right back would be really important. But whatever we do, we have to drop De Gea. I’m at the stage where I’d rather start with facking Weghorst and a top keeper than De Gea and Kane, he’s that much of a negative.

Yeah we're still too open, with players too spaced apart and sometimes not willing to appropriately track to defend in transition.

If we're able to push further up the pitch and remain in a higher area, that should help us in being able to better press and deal with counters as we'll be more on top of the opposition in more focused areas.

I'm sort of coming round to Rice. The protection him and Casemiro would offer would be phenomenal but I think we'd have to compensate for the lack of real craft in midfield in other ways.

Yeah we need to let De Gea go. I don't think some people realise just how big a problem he is.

Yeah people haven’t even realise he’s not a very good shot stopper anymore.

Agree with the rest of your post, especially about compensating for craft in midfield in other ways. I think Casemiro has proven to be a better passer than people realised, however, having had to take more responsibility. May well be the case for Rice playing in a better team. Plus I think just being able to play more compact would help anyway as we could have a lot of the players playing closer to each other, so shorter sharper passing should cater for some issues, as well as improving our positional play - we’ve suffered from a lack of coaching this season due to the amount of games in such a short period of time.

A top keeper, Rice and an attacking right back would allow us to defend with five and attack with five in different ways as well. We could have the right back high with Shaw playing deeper, or we could have say Dalot and Shaw coming into the midfield with Eriksen coming in at times to get on the ball and push up onto the striker when needed.

I think ETH would like having that tactical flexibility, but none of this can really be achieved without getting a new keeper. So hopefully that’s the first player that comes through the door in the summer.

Considering that, I’m not as bothered about the striker we sign as I am those positions. If we get those areas right I think we’d score a lot of goals with any half decent striker, Rashford, Bruno and whomever contributes from the right.

I'd seriously be considering Toney if this suspension wasn't hanging over him as I think he's got a good mix of abilities and would be a good compromise between Kane and Osimhen.

Yeah hopefully with extended time on the training ground will give Ten Hag the chance to refine some things and iron out some flaws.

Yeah I think Casemiro has surprised a lot of people with the quality and range of some his passing this season. It's retention where he's lacking and I think that'll be the case with Rice as well when playing against sides who apply good pressure although Rice can at least carry his way out of trouble at times.

To go back to the point about being more compact, it'll help with counter-pressing as well so losing the ball might not be as costly for us.

Agree with all that.

Any of them would be quite expensive for a McTominay understudy tbf.