Mahrez and Keita both play wide and in their most successful seasons their standout attributes were dribbling, beating their man and goalscoring. Keita is certainly quicker and stronger. But far more similar players than either is to Barkley surely?
Lamela (and Barkley, should we sign him) can take on that role, although not yet to the same standard that Eriksen plays it.
That's the kind of depth we need to be able to compete across 4 comps, would love to add Barkley and Mahrez. (they can both beat a man too, something we don't really have too much of atm)
We are never actually signing both of them in the same window. Unless somebody is sold in that window. 6 AMs in a Pochettino squad is way overkill.
Signs are that we want Barkley and a pacy wide forward though.
I really don't know if he can. Nobody has seen Barkley understand the defensive work of a midfielder. Long ways to go before he is a CM, if ever, IMO.
I completely understand why we would want to sign a forward who can cover for Kane and slot in at AM. That makes sense, but it's a whole different type of player. Knowing the financial restraints of the club, knowing how Pochettino actually doesn't really enjoy rotating his 9 most preferred players, and knowing the wages of Mahrez & Barkley: 6 AMs, one of which maybe can almost fill in for Kane, I don't think that would happen at Spurs this summer.
We don't, though. We can play with three, but we are more and more often not, reducing further the amount of playing time. 5 is the perfect amount of AMs.
You are banging on about how useless Lamela will be, maybe you are right and it's a fair point. However, that still doesn't explain how we are going to afford the transfer fees and wages of those two players. I can't remember last time we signed two high profile PL experienced, salary intensive players for the same part of the team.
