Villa blogger Matthew Turvey takes a look at what players new manager Alex McLeish needs for his first season in charge, starting in goal and defence.

Earlier this week, Alex McLeish was appointed Aston Villa manager to a mixed response.

Now that McLeish is in the job and Villa fans, for the most part, have accepted the decision, ‘Big Eck’ will need to fill quite a number of spaces across most positions in the Villa squad.

So, in this first article, I am going to cover the areas of goalkeeper and defence. And, without a doubt, the first priority will have to be a goalkeeper.

With Brad Friedel leaving to join Tottenham and Andy Marshall or Brad Guzan unlikely to fill the role of first choice, McLeish will need to make a foray into the market for a No 1.

In all likelihood, his choice of goalkeeper will be from an obvious pool of names.

His main man at Birmingham, Ben Foster, seems the most obvious link, given as he is talented and comes from McLeish’s former club.

Add into that the fact that, barring Joe Hart, Foster would be England’s No 1, then you have a pretty solid choice.

Foster would be my pick, but the £10million vaunted price tag might be too rich for our £40million budget.

Beyond Foster, the likely candidates are Manchester City’s Shay Given, West Ham’s Robert Green, Wigan’s Ali Al-Habsi and Allan McGregor at Glasgow Rangers.

Of those choices, I would personally look at Al-Habsi as a good option.

Why? Given is good but getting on and would be out of practice, Green needs to get his confidence back from his England nightmare and we can’t risk him taking time and McGregor seems unlikely to leave Rangers.

With the difference Al-Habsi made to the Wigan squad when constantly under pressure, it seems a fairly obvious choice.

So, moving on from the goalkeeper, where next?

After a shaky season under the managerial stewardship of Gerard Houllier, the partnership of Richard Dunne and James Collins seems to not be as solid as it was when Martin O’Neill was boss.

Is this down to tactics or the players? I would it’s six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.

Certainly, Dunne and Collins are not able to play a Barcelona-style passing game and this is where they came unstuck under Houllier’s stewardship.

Under O’Neill, there were a lot more defensive players operating, so the pressure on the centre-backs was nowhere near as much as it would be under 4-2-3-1.

So the choice is simple – we either sell the pair and buy a more solid pairing that can operate in a more modern formation, or we go back to 4-4-2 based, counter attacking O’Neill-style football. I know which I would prefer and it isn’t 4-4-2.

To that end, we need at least one more centre-half from outside the squad. For me, we need to be building a spine of a team from back to front so, with a good goalkeeper and Darren Bent up front, we need a big central defender and a solid central midfielder.

Who would I go for as a centre half?  It’s tough making these kind of choices and they don’t come cheap, but I would go for either Blackburn’s Christopher Samba of Blackburn, Bolton’s Gary Cahill and Fulham’s Brede Hangeland.

None of these players would be likely to give much change out of £15million but, to build a solid team, you have to start with a solid spine.

Sure, Bent is a good striker but he can’t play all over the field and still maintain his goalscoring form.

You have to have at least four top quality players in a team for things to work. Without that, you risk the chance of losing possession somewhere from the back to the front. Assuming you want to play a passing game that is.

Putting these players in will prove to be a solid start to a spine that will help Villa progress.

Next week, I will be covering who we should purchase in the midfield and forward positions.

Until then, enjoy your weekend and here’s to a good season ahead.

You can also follow Villa blogger Matthew Turvey at his own site, http://www.astonvillalife.com.