Transfers: Positions to target

Despite the escalating rumours of another mass overhaul this pre-season, City are not in the position that they were last summer and a mass turnover is not essential. Whereas last summer most of the squad needed looking at, this summer three or four players in key positions would help push City onto the next level. For me, the priorities are the following positions:


1. A ball-playing central midfielder.

Everytime we play a well-organised team I come on here and bemoan our lack of incision. If a team comes to Eastlands and concentrates on frustrating City before unleashing their counter-attack, like Everton and Tottenham, then we have no one who can cut through.

Stephen Ireland has the passing ability but he is limited positionally. If he is playing in the free-role behind the strikers, he is fine - but give him some responsibility in the centre and his game shrinks with it. His lack of success this season, as much as anything else, has come from being in direct competition for Tevez's role.

When Hughes arrived at City he needed to address City's soft centre and this he did with the arrivals of De Jong and Kompany - but with Elano gone, Michael Johnson perennially injured, and Ireland off the boil, it has left City with no one in the middle who can pick a quick pass.

So, we play our best against teams who attack us, allowing the pace of our counter attack to wreak havoc - but as teams have become wise to that, we often struggle to unpick them.

A goal-scoring midfielder or a box-to-box player who can do it all should be the summer's priority.

Possible targets: Marek Hamsik, James Milner, Mesut Ozil, Fernando Gago, Lassana Diarra.


2. Left-back

There are already doubts about Bridge's performances when he does play but regardless of that, we cannot rely on him to be fit for the majority of a season. With all the added games that the Europa League brings, we will at least need a cover that Mancini can trust - his picking of Zabaleta there over Garrido and Sylvinho suggests he doesn't trust those two - and better, a player who can challenge Bridge's place.

Possible targets: Juan Manuel Vargas, David Luiz.


3. Centre-forward

After having an embarrassment of riches in the attacking department at the start of the season - all the pre-season speculation was about how Hughes could keep them all happy - we have now been left a bit bare.

Tevez and Adebayor are the only first-team strikers you can rely on to be fit. They are both high quality players, but neither of them are really box players. Adebayor, for all his height, shies away from aerial challenges and is much happier dropping deep and drifting wide, and whilst Tevez can never be said to shy away, he is also happier playing the deeper role. This leaves us with noone to profit from our wing-play - so a striker that can lead the line would be preferable. However, if not, we could still do with adding some genuine competition for Adebayor.

With Roque, as much as I think there is a good player hidden away in there, his injury situation has gone beyond a joke and whether he will ever be able to return to full fitness and form is a big question.

Possible targets: Gonzalo Higuain, Mario Balotelli, Fernando Torres (?!).


There could be the arrival of some surprises, but on top of these positions we only really need squad depth and competition. Jerome Boateng could take the right-back slot, for example, whilst challenging for his preferred central role. It is likely to be another busy summer with both ins and outs, but we shouldn't need too much maintenance this time round.