[BaggieSteve]

People here don't seem to notice / value how dominant that Gareth McAuley is in the air.

Obviously he will need to be replaced soon, because at 37, realistically he's already surpassed the age that most people can play to at this level.

But the difficulty is finding someone as good as him in the air. It's no surprise that we've pretty much dominated all of the set piece stats both defensively and offensively since McAuley came into the team and almost everyone I can think of is a downgrade in that department.

Evans is good on the deck and composed on the ball, but I think a McAuley type needed next to him. Curtis Davies and Evans IMO would be too lightweight at defending set plays, which is huge for us as we concede so many. Davies is a big bloke but can be bullied in the air. In actual fact McAuley scored at Hull away and it was Davies who was marking him - big Gaz bullied him for that goal.

So while I agree that he will need to be replaced soon, I think the task is near on impossible as Gareth is probably the best aerial defender in the league. A few years ago we were linked with Fazio, who is a similar type, but that ship has sailed. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone in this 'mould' who is currently available.

I think you're absolutely right and I'm sure everyone recognises Gmac's aerial strength. However, maybe you've identified the problem in not being able to name a replacement as he's pretty unique (we were looking at Lewis Dunk from Brighton and he seems a big bloke but I'm assuming that's off the table now), so that the solution may be not to replace like for like but to think differently. I'm not saying that Curtis Davies is the right replacement but I think he's very good. Not all successful teams in the Premier League have someone as big as Macaulay, maybe we move to smaller, more mobile defenders who are still good in the air but maybe not as dominating as Mac. I appreciate we would lose some advantages but we'd gain others; if there's no obvious replacement, it would be one alternative. James Chester anyone??