Shak

It's not shoehorning him anywhere, it's the recognition that he's about to turn 33 and expecting a player that age to cover an entire flank for 90 minutes and not quickly get burnt out is just fanciful. If Trippier was 27 years old this wouldn't be a conversation. But he's not.

Very interested to see what the plan is, I just don't see us paying such big money for a 2nd choice RB, no matter how good as prospect we think he is for the long term. My guess is we'll see plenty of Trippier at LB, playing that more restricted role in terms of getting forward. At his age it's just not really feasible for him to be the wing back every game for a team regularly playing twice a week. Perhaps LB will be more manageable for him as it's less demanding physically in our system. I'm sure there'll be plenty of games where Trippier will play RB with Burn or Targett at LB but I'd hope that Livramento at RB and Trippier at LB will become the first choice full back pairing sooner rather than later.

Had a look at this before and if transfermrkt is to be believed he's played more and been more productive when played on the right. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/federico-chiesa/leistungsdaten/spieler/341092/plus/0?saison=ges

Anybody able to find me two tickets together for Everton v Fulham on August 12th for a decent price?

I think Tonali and Bruno will start in CM for sure. Joelinton will either take the third spot in midfield or play LW. I think Anderson is fighting with Barnes for a starting position in the first game, possibly with Gordon too if we see him as a LW.

I teach English as a foreign language and Brazilians will usually say "I have a doubt" in situations where a native speaker would use "I'm not sure", even if they are pretty high level students.

He clearly meant at the back like

Feels like the role that Willock plays for us is where he's got the best chance of making it as a top player, really great to see he's come back in such good condition and ready to go. I know short term it would be exciting as fuck if we went out and spent £500m on building a squad full of world class players but the likes of Anderson and Miley coming through and contributing would be so satisfying.

I'm assuming we're going to evolve beyond the current system though? I guess the type of LB we bring in will tell us a lot, I assumed the defensive LB setup was out of necessity rather than design but maybe Howe wants to stick with it as it does allow us to push more men forward from CM with one of the fullbacks staying back. But in my above scenario where Joelinton, Barnes, Almiron and Gordon are the primary wing options, it's not exactly the most crafty set of wide men we could have, is it? Feels like having a LB who does on that side what Trippier does on the right really helps mitigate that, which is why I could see us going for a proper attacking LB. Would be kind of weird, having fullbacks whose best attributes are their ability going forward and wingers who excel at defending.

If Anderson genuinely is ready to play for the first team then maybe we don't need another wide player? Anderson and Willock fighting for the LCM position, allowing Joelinton to play LW more often... with Gordon and Almiron being options on the right? (Obviously we have a number of player who can play a number of positions but I do think you should always have a primary position) Miley also looks like he could be the 6th choice CM behind Willock, Anderson, Bruno, Tonali and Longstaff. Mostly sub appearances and starting cup games. If we don't have to spend on another attacker... I'd love us to go big on a LB. Theo Hernandez links earlier in the summer resurfacing would be tasty.

What sort of complete bullshit are you up to for this new football game? Tracking character login times and cross-referencing them with posters or some shit?

Aye, you've really established yourself nicely as the forum creep

Oh fuck off and get a practical username you big tart.

We lock registration. Open up another forum as a sort of proving ground for new posters. Anyone who isn't a complete whopper, we bring them in.

Who was the last new poster who turned out to be anything other than shite?

Be absolutely fucking hilarious if we did sign Frimpong instead

I appreciate the solidarity. I'm willing to do some sort of Thelma and Louise style ending for us, so long as the gorge is completely ablaze.

Haven't moved off this stance at all.

Aye, much of the above is why I don't really like the idea of Gordon playing on the right. Think ideally we get a left footed RW who is going to play quite narrow and operate in a lot of the spaces a #10 would normally find themselves in while Trippier bombs forward and provides the width. Almiron is actually pretty well suited to it, but you'd want someone who offers more as a passer to help with what you've mentioned. The ideal signing for this would probably be Raphinha but Barcelona not landing Messi or Guler likely killed off whatever slim hope we had of getting him. I'd also have loved us to get Guler ourselves... but as I recall you don't really rate him, Ikon.

Think our front three need to work their bollox off out possession so there's more need to rotate. Hard to see any of our attackers playing 90 minutes on a Sunday and then doing it again on a Wednesday in the CL. We need another winger IMO. Went into the summer needing one and we've sold one and brought one in. Chiesa loan to buy just seems such a good idea

I think we're a player light on the wing, personally. Barnes, Almiron, Gordon and Murphy is not a good enough group for us to be competitive in Europe and challenge for top four IMO. One more (on whatever side we don't see Gordon playing) and Murphy being pushed to 5th choice winger would look vastly better. I get that Joelinton can play LW, but if that's the plan then it leaves us looking a bit light on options in CM. Don't think we'll see Isak on the left to start games, more something we only do when we're chasing a goal. He'll be the main man at CF. Wilson will get plenty of games giving Isak a rest and will be a fantastic option off the bench either seeing games out or chasing a goal. Our style of play means we need quality depth more than most IMO and I do think we're light. A couple of injuries to key players and we could get very stretched. I think we're fine to go into the start of the season with the present options so I wouldn't be surprised to see another wide man be something that we do late in the window rather than a priority. Maybe Howe has confidence that Murphy and/or Anderson are going to be able to play a lot and contribute positively, if so then maybe it's not a need. If love to see Anderson go on loan and start every game in the Championship but maybe we think he's ready.

One thing that was interesting with the PGA v LIV court cases in golf was that ultimately the PGA were willing to settle because years of legal battles was just looking like such a fucking expensive prospect over the coming years. Most people seemed to think the PGA was in a strong spot... but when your opponent has almost unlimited resources it quickly starts to look daunting. Personally would like us to keep building slowly enough but if the likes of Liverpool and Spurs are going to be cunts I'd find it pretty funny is deciding to just go nuts and spend years and hundreds of billions challenging FFP in the courts.

Was such a good career move by Mudryk going to Chelsea instead of Arsenal.

I didn't think much of Ottoman's posts at first but he's right. Go back and read them again but CAREFULLY this time. Really think about the words. They're excellent posts IMO.

My point was that we basically have 8 players I have any confidence in to rotate between 5 starting positions, Ritchie doesn't add to that at all.