The College Dropout

I think it’s easy to turn your nose up at PL players in favour of players abroad. I remember Fred, Xhaka, Felipe Anderson, Haller, Lamela, Werner, Jorginho were all meant to be the dogs bollocks. And they’re not. You look at Arsenals central midfield. Xhaka, Partey - adjust for football inflation. These are 2 £50m signings. Not the £10m cheapy abroad. Lokongo was even £20m. Phillips for £40m is a good deal.

IMO Cornet could play at a higher level. He’s struggled a bit with injuries too. Fully fit I think he could get 10-15 goals in this league. £17.5m is v. cheap. 1 in 3 goals for a new to the league player in a poor side is v. good. If ASM is worth £40m then so is Cornet.

I like Cornet. Played a lot as ST this season.

CB & goalie require certain physical gifts. But generally.. the more talented a footballer you are.. the further up the pitch you play.

Decent calculated risk that. Wouldnt call it a bargain. They are unlikely to get their money back. Less risk than James because he knows the PL and the pace of it and is used to English weather and to that profile of City. As far as I know his injury record is better too. I loved James as a player but he’s spent his whole career as a real luxury player and treated as a superstar elect. Glad we’ve not got him. I don’t want Dybala either on a perm deal.

Even though they play the same position (different flanks) I consider Vini Jr. a forward and Raphinha a playmaker/midfielder. When he's coming in from that left, Vini is inevitable. He can't be locked down for a full 90 minutes at this point. He can play 1 touch football to create opportunities in tight spaces, beat his man (or two) and shoot and pass/cross with his right or left. I think he shows more variety in his game than a Mo Salah and if he can continue to improve, he'll be better than Mo. I assume he'll be moved to the right next season, will be interesting to see how he fits in with being #3. I think his finishing has improved (I don't think his problem was finishing per se, just his composure and confidence). Left footed goals, dinks, he's perfected his Henry open the body and push into the far post. I don't think it's fair to say his finishing or his decision making is not very good based on his performances this season. Agree it's not in his game to create with vision at the moment.

Biggest difference is Ancelotti making him feel like a main man. Have you watched him much this year? Honestly, his finishing has been much better. A number of left footed goals too. He's come a long way.

Fancy him to destroy TAA again. This bump in quality started last season. Tearing TAA a new one was a big moment for him.

One of the most electrifying men in sports entertainment. 37 G/A this season. 21. I think he has another gear in him too.

Terrible on the ball.

Son signed a stupid contract until 2025 and he’s 30 in the summer. He’s priced himself out of a move and will spend his prime at Spurs. Kane did the same. Levy won’t let either go.

In these games against the big sides we've seen his limitations.

Belgium haven't underperformed as a whole. They've got to a few semi's playing good football on the way. But Hazard was the star man. Hazard was unlucky not to win Golden Ball he was that good imo. There's a lot that can be said about Hazard in the CL but WC18 is definitive moment in his career. KDB hasn't had that particular moment, it may never come but he's dazzled in the CL anyway. You keep talking about winning it. Playing really well is my only barometer. If Messi's Serbian - international football matters less. And you would consider playing well and pushing deep KO's as a similar achievement. Similar to Modric helping Croatia to a WC final. It's all narrative and myth building. Football has such fine margins and has an element of luck - those big moments really stand out when certain players consitently step up.

Wilson can't feature regularly for any side, let alone a top 6 one. Joelinton doesn't get into any top 6 teams. Be serious. ASM - won't open that can of worms. Schar - how many top 6 defenders can't run and can't win headers? Bruno's a good player - jury's out regarding top 6.

But it is. Thiago stands out. KDB stands out. Modric stands out. Because they are more talented players. Henderson can compete at the highest level in Klopp's particular system. But you wouldn't expect him to join many other elite clubs and be a top player.... because he's not that talented. He doesn't get the plaudits of most of his other starters at Liverpool.... because he's not as talented. His job is to bring out their talents. What's not a good metric to judge players by? The Messi argument was never true. He took his country to 4 major international finals before winning the 5th. He won World Cup player of the tournament. Also won multiple champions leagues. Scored in multiple finals and semi finals in that comp.

If memory serves, Ronaldo scored and assisted to get Portugal out the group when they were close to going out. Then he was the main man in the semi's scoring the opener and pretty sure he assisted the second. If they had a second Nani up top, i'm confident they don't win the tournament. But you knew that. Pepe. Fonte. Carvalho. Sanches. Quaresma. Ronaldo. Real difference makers for Portugal in that tournament. Pepe came back from injury and they stopped conceding iirc.

Moyes has a history of building really solid teams that compete 4-7 through organisation and team work rather than talent (Howe doesn't). He's also got the best out of his players (Antonio, Dawson), added real quality for good fees (Soucek, Zouma) & developed English players that could play the top level (Bowen, Rice). Howe's already getting the best out of these lads. This is their ceiling. Jonjo Shelvey can play no better and give no more than he has. None of them can sustain it for 38 games, i'm certain. Leicester played a 20+ goal a season striker on the wing and had a legendary PL winger on the bench the previous season. They then added a world class legendary CM to the team. Unless Almiron's a secret ST, I don't think we'll be able to replicate that. Only a handful of their players proved themselves to be genuine top 6 quality too. Who in our team would be comfortable in a top 6 side? TBF if any team has 4 v. succesful signings they'll climb the league considerably. But I think it's harder when you need genuine quality. I think Howe wants to play progressive football. We'll need an athletic team, with real quality and the right attitude. That will cost a lot of money for that to work imo.

Does that make sense to you? He doesn't stand out because he's not the most talented. He's a functional player and a great leader apparently. He hasn't stood out for England and he doesn't standout for Liverpool. Rightfully so, nobody thinks he's better than KDB and nobody really talks about his supposed top performances for Liverpool in the CL or England at the World Cup (I do remember people comparing his ET performance to Modric ) Like I said. KDB has graced the latter stages of the CL and performed brilliantly so that's not an argument. The Belgium critcism is fair enough but in all a small one. Someone brought up C.Ronaldo's WC record. But what does that mean? He doesn't perform in the big occassion? Nope - we've seen him be the difference in major KO matches many times. He doesn't perform for his country on the big stage? Nope - he was a key man in Portugal getting to 2 Euro finals and winning 1. You look at the whole.

When has Henderson been a standout performer in the CL or for England? These are bad examples. You have to look at things in full. Is CL performances (of which KDB has had many great nights, he was brilliant in that defeat to Spurs). League form. Consistency. Big matches. International record. Entirely discounting international football doesn’t make sense. But it’s not the be all and end all. before Messi won the Copa I found it weird that he didn’t get any credit to taking his national side to 3 Copa Finals and a World Cup final. That’s more than enough to say he performed for Argentina.

James Rodriguez has said he wants Liverpool to win the CL final because of his pal Luis Diaz. Not going down well with supporters of former clubs Everton and Real Madrid.

When did Crouch really perform in an international tournament? I agree Hazard has typically been the star for Belgium. I remember him being brilliant in defeat to France. I think KDB scored but he was also the man against Brazil too.

This good form has blinded people. A lot of it is down to good will, impetus, momentum etc. If we dont't get European football in the next couple of seasons, I would expect Bruno to want to move on if he's the real deal.

Would rather Tamaraebi.

Don't like signing players with bad fitness records. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Sign players who have been fit. Please.

Didn't dominate Serie A did they? That's the one criticism of Carlo. Not enough league titles. Only (I know) the 5 league titles across about 15 seasons at elite clubs. I know all the lads had fun playing for him though.