Latest developments from Elland Road suggests that Marcelo Bielsa is currently happy with the squad he has at his disposal, and the manager himself isn’t too keen on making new signings. However, he didn’t completely rule out on the possibility of January signings and claimed that if the club hierarchy feels that they need to add depth, he will consider it.
Bielsa was quoted as saying,”It will be very hard to add new players. But we will have four more players coming in January, Bamford, Brown, Berardi and Ayling.”
The four are currently out injured at the moment, and Bielsa would hope that they can contribute big time when they join the squad. When asked whether the injured players coming back from an injury would be enough, the 63-year-old replied,”Yes, [though] it’s only my opinion. The club can have a different opinion and I will take that into account.”
This recent revelation is contradictory to earlier reports as it claimed that the manager could look to add as many as three players in the transfer market. Something like that happening seems highly unlikely at the moment. Yes, the club might be getting some good options available after their comeback from injury but there is no guarantee that those players would hit the ground running straight away.
United have laboured in the past month or so even though they currently occupy the top spot in the Championship. There is hardly anything to choose between the top sides at the moment and a few poor outings could see them slip outside the top six. The squad is looking thin and a few players are playing out of position. Therefore some smart signings shouldn’t hurt anybody and the club should look to improve as their rivals will undoubtedly be strengthening in the winter period.
A centre back and a winger should be the two positions which the club can target in January as they are currently thin in those positions. The Whites might have waded through the injury period without dropping too much in the table but their opponents were not able to capitalise during that period. That might not again be the case when something like this happens.
Bielsa is often known to be keen on working with young players and it is likely that whenever the tough situation arises, he might look at the youth and reserve squad to provide cover.
It’s a good thing to trust one’s academy but a race to the Premier League might be nerve-wracking in its final period and one would rather have an experienced player in that situation over someone who is playing in his first senior season. Hopefully the club would make Bielsa realise that and look to strengthen further to make use of this good start to the campaign by making sure they have enough firepower to move to the Premier League.
