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Opinion: One area of the field that the Blues need to make high priority going into the summer

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Whilst we do have the position somewhat covered, I do feel that there’s still a little bit more that we can do to fix it.

Given that it seems highly likely that Jude Bellingham is going to depart the club this summer, that is going to free up some space in the middle of the park alongside Ivan Sunjic.

I have already written that I think Crowley needs to take more of a role in the middle of midfield, and as a result, that is probably going to leave a space out of the flank, a position that Crowley has found himself playing a lot of this campaign. If you take a look at the statistics from WhoScored, you can see that Crowley has done an OK job out wide, averaging 0.9 crosses per game, but with an overall pass completion rate of 83.4% and 1.4 key passes per game, he’s much more suited to playing centrally.

Looking at the other players in the squad, Jefferson Montero would have been a good option to have, seeing as he averages 1.1 crosses per game, but with him set to leave the club in the summer (WalesOnline via Reinaldo Romero), that option goes out the window. Whilst Fran Villalba currently leads the team in that category at 1.9 cross per game, his overall time at St Andrew’s leaves me to believe that he won’t exactly be the answer to our prayers.

Do Blues need to bring in another winger this summer?

Yes

No

I think we need to be looking at bringing in another traditional winger to complement Jeremie Bela, rather than someone who is just being shoe-horned out there for the sake of it.

I spoke earlier about Lukas Jutkiewicz’s future, and how his usefulness may decline because of his age, and if we are to get the best out of him, where he leads the division in aerial duels won, then we need players around him who are going to play to his strengths.

And bringing in a winger is probably going to be the best way to do it.

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