The College Dropout

The players are already bereft of confidence. Rice has been so bad.

TAA needs someone to play Hollywood balls too. A proper LW, a striker going in behind or an AM going in behind. None Of the starting options provide that. Schars range of passing needs someone to make the Joelinton run. this is what I’ve been trying to say about midfield. From the little I’ve seen I think Wharton is best suited to that. You can play rice and Bellingham in there and it might work but I don’t think it gets the best out of either. Rice+TAA or Gallagher is not it. Kante and Pogba as a 2, I thought might not work. But Pogba’s distribution from deep was masterful and Kante is better with his back to goal and linking play than he’s given credit for. and they had runners on the wing.

We don’t have any unit bar the right hand Side playing with balance. The front 3-4 don’t work well together. The central midfield is a mess. The left hand side is a mess. Central defence looks suspect under pressure. Left hand side is completely broken. We would be better off with a mid table left back and Gordon. You can’t get the best out of Rice, Bellingham and Foden imo at this stage. You have to drop 1. Give me 11 players playing to their strengths over 11 big names who don’t.

I don’t think we have him. Wharton maybe. He seems to sit deep and distribute forward quickly. bellingham x Rice should be tried

Bellinghams not a conductor type player. We lack a midfield passer (that’s actually a midfielder)

Now he’s spoilt for choice in some areas so shoe horning them in weaker positions.

Spain playing players in their best position? Love that.

Lewis Hall

Yeh it was pants. I agree with that. Argentina started slowly at the World Cup too.

4 points from 2 games. It’s ok tbh.

He had a settled side then a lot of the key players fell off at club level or got injured. So he dropped nearly all of them. would’ve been better off playing Sterling and Phillips. That was at least a balanced side. Gallagher and Rice is his second choice CM pairing and it stinks.

We don’t have played in their right positions so you get disjointed performances.

Think the squad is over rated.

England with an unbalanced but talented squad. Fans with crazy expectations. ENGLAND IVE MOSSED YOU

Recoba is another fav. Not Serie A but Pablo Aimar

Liked Lehman way more than any other German GK. Error prone and a eccentric.

I read Shaqiri - nevermind me.

Didn't they win their first game in the tournament without him? He didn't even come off the bench. I don't think people realise what a solid result a draw was for Switzerland. 4 points now, through now in 2nd at the worst i think.

All lovely players. Lovely players.

Italy: Nesta, Pirlo, Cassano France: Zizou, Henry, Kante, Hatem Spain: Raul, Ramos Holland: Seedorf, Robben, Bergkamp Favourites not "the best".

I’ve had a massive love/hate relationship with Toni Kroos for a decade. He can be so bad off the ball it hurts to watch but he’s lush on it. Ozil I love even when he’s shit. True baller.

Martinez tried something similar yesterday tbf. I think it was removing an old man from looking pretty good. Midfield looked ropey defensively though.

I would say 6 - deepest CM. Keeps his position more. 8 - box to box CM. More licence to get forward and break lines. Against Serbia - Rice kept his position more in front of the defence and TAA was getting forward when he could. I don't think that works well. TAA isn't a CM and needs to have a simple game plan if he's to succeed at CM IMO. Sit in front of the defence and pass it forward. Off the ball stay behind the ball and try to win it aggressively at turnovers or foul the opp. I don't think he can do the off-the-ball stuff well which is maybe why he was told to get forward. NUFC don't play with a natural 6. All CMs often get forward (I guess they are meant to rotate). That leaves us susceptible to turnovers in midfield if the rotation is off - which we try to mitigate with athleticism in midfield to run back into position. Both Rice and Bellingham can do that tbf.

Traditional CMs. One sits more, one gets forward more.... 6 & 8. Rice is better when he has licence to get around the pitch and into attacking areas. His best form for Arsenal came when he had Jorginho or Partey playing a bit deeper next to him who are more passers and a bit more progressive with it. Bellingham's in Ballon D'Or discussion for not playing a more advanced role. I think they would make a good partnership but it's a partnership that doesn't get the best out of any of them. They would both rather more proactive roles. I haven't seen enough of Jude in CM to be sure - but I think that duo might lack a passer. I agree that's a good option, but it doesn't maximise 2 of our best players. I think potentially Wharton coming in provides better balance and put 2 of our best players in their best positions but would mean dropping a big name. Kane's natural game (not necessarily his best) is better suited to having Bellingham behind him than Foden. And Foden's never done it for England. Bellingham Rice Foden Kane That suits Foden most but doesn't get the best out of the other 2 in midfield or Kane. Wharton Rice Bellingham Kane I think this has 3 of our best players, in their most natural positions. But leaves out the best player in the EPL Phil Foden.

We are working on backfilling the older players. Burn is replaced at LB and CB with younger players already. Trippier's replacement is there. We are looking for Pope, Almiron & Schar replacements as a priority. I'd be happy to extend 2 of them. The rest are back-up players. I agree that if we were going to breach PSR we would've sold some players. We won't take the points hit. Us/Villa were only a couple points ahead of 5th - we can't afford to lose a couple points because we didn't want to sell Miguel Almiron quickly.