KaKa

Even on a good night, Chelsea have embarrassed themselves with this penalty farce 

Doucoure is brain dead. Loads of options ahead of him and dribbling on the edge of his box. Just crazy.

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

How is Dyche seemingly under no pressure ? He’s absolutely shit.

They look like they average around three passes per possession before losing it everytime. 

That Gomes midfielder they have improved their build up a lot when he came on against us, but they never start him.

Pickford's arms have shrunk even further.

I would hate to be Southgate this summer.

The amount of English talent emerging is crazy.

Let's see what he does with it all!

16 minutes ago, Joe1984 said:

Do Man City have a buy back clause on Palmer? ?

What do you think the conversations about him are like back at Man City?

Looking a terrible decision to not give him more of an opportunity. 

Or do you think they just don't care anyway?

Anyone else captain Cole Palmer this week? 

5 minutes ago, gbandit said:

@KaKa when you going to concede on Beto?

I really liked Beto at Udinese, but this Everton stint has been rough so far. 

Everton's play is so terrible though. They can barely pass the ball and don't consistently create chances, and he is not someone you can rely on to score from a few chances or half chances a game. 

It won't work out for him at all in this Everton team with Dyche.

3 minutes ago, LFEE said:

What’s his finishing like? Wasn’t impressed with it against Real Madrid and obviously appreciate thats a small sample size. Looked good technically outside the box but not sure that’s worth anything to us.

Seems okay, though I've seen him fluff some decent chances, so I know what you mean.

He's similar to Isak in that he is really comfortable on the ball and quick for his height, and so can drop and get on the ball and run at defenders and create chances. It's my favourite part of his game.

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

The pass that Barnes put into Gordon for that blocked shot was a great sign. He could easily have just shot himself. Did he do it for Isak as well, when he stepped inside the defender and got blocked?

 

I'm not sure if it's the plan for the permanent front 3 but it's an extremely group set of players. 

Yeah, Barnes could have had at least 3 assists on the day. There was the one he played over the defence to Isak in the box but he didn't quite manage to get it under control.

Gordon does a good job of playing others in too, like he did Isak for the first, and when Isak drops and gets on the ball he can also create, as we saw him do for Barnes against West Ham.

Neither of them tend to play with their heads down and try to do too much when on the ball.

1 minute ago, TRC said:

I personally think the best option is to just use Wilson in Europe next season and 20 mins a game in the league. As injury prone as Wilson is if we give him a minimal load he shouldnt break down as much.

Ah, so I think the Sesko idea was based on Wilson not being around anymore.

If Wilson stays any other striker would have to be a younger, versatile type that is more developmental and doesn't have as big expectations on playing time.

6 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

I don't see any other option tbh. Nobody good enough is coming to be backup (even to someone as good as Isak) for anything other than half a season, a year maybe if they're young. This is why it's imperative that we're in Europe every year from here imo.

If we don't figure out a way to have another quality striker we are in big trouble.

A big part of making the Champions League was how well both Isak and Wilson played throughout the season, including the option of pairing them together at times.

We have to have a similar setup with a quality alternative going forward because Isak will miss games through injury.

10 minutes ago, Smal said:

not checked the validity of this but absolutely wild if true

Wow ... wouldn't be surprised if true.

The thing I like about this trio is they are all selfless players and capable of finding each other.

Be so interesting to see how it all comes together going forward.

2 minutes ago, TRC said:

I guess the difference is, he would be back up to a world class striker and we would not be rotating Isak unless he was injured or exhausted. Other teams rotate their striker.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think Isak is the type of striker to push that hard, as I could see him start breaking down if so.

When we've had both Isak and Wilson available, they were both being rotated quite consistently and both were firing on all cylinders. Could see a similar approach going forward if we had the right kind of options at striker.

2 minutes ago, TRC said:

Son will be 32 next season. As a CF he has his limitations as shown at the weekend. Especially when Angeball gets figured out.

Sesko isn't pushing Son out of the team. If he went to Spurs he'd start off behind both Son and Richarlison. He's still quite raw from what I've seen of him. Hugely exciting talent though.

1 minute ago, TRC said:

Started the last 4 CL games.

He wasn't a guaranteed starter for them over the season though, and he didn't exactly hit the heights for them.

It's a bit like Hojlund, who I like, shows flashes but could do with being rotated with a more established striker.

They are both very inexperienced.

9 minutes ago, TRC said:

=

He made 4 starts in the CL this year, if Spurs make the CL does he not start for them? 

He wouldn't automatically go in ahead of Son and/or Richarlison.

13 minutes ago, TRC said:

Yep, he's going to have his pick of starting for CL clubs, he would be fairly insane to come to be back up to Isak.

But this wasn't even the case at Leipzig. Why would he be guaranteed to start at CL clubs?

3 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Would Sesko come unless more or less guaranteed game time? He’s at the age where he should play most games to develop properly. 

 

 

 

If we make Europe he'd get a lot of game time, and even if we don't he still would if Wilson isn't as involved or leaves going forward.

He's still just 20 years old, and as I said before, isn't really ready to play week in week out at this level from what I've seen.

Isak isn't the sort of striker we want to be running into the ground at all, and so I think it would be a nice tandem, and he'd be very involved.

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

Be nice being able to have him rotate with Isak.

Yeah, I agree.

In many ways it would be ideal. I think it would work for him as he wouldn't have as much pressure.

7 minutes ago, Jack27 said:

I mustn’t get too excited but fucking please

Paid attention to this guy a fair bit this season.

He's quite raw and needs some developing. Unbelievable physical gifts and technical ability, but his movements and instincts in the box need work. Sometimes you forget he's on the pitch as he's not getting himself in decent areas at all.

Would be a nice addition to our mix of forwards to further develop though, as he could be a heck of a player if it all comes together.

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

His salary is likely to be much bigger than it would otherwise. Making him harder to shift if necessary. That's how the free transfer thing works.

 

If we give Kelly a £8m sign-on fee and a £4.2m per year contract over 4 years. That's a fair whack for a squad player and hinges the wage structure weirdly.

 

We've avoided doing that so far.

 

I think the free transfers have largely driven Villa having a bigger salary spend than us last year (I may have made that up). With Coutinho & Kamara surely taking up £15m in wages alone.

He's an upgrade on both Burn and Targett at left back. He would start there for us.

8 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

Kelly didn't start for Bournemouth because they know he's out the door and not a long term option. 

 

Injury prone I think is fair criticism, but he'd still be a good squad signing. To be honest I think he'd go straight in to start for us at LB.

They actually offered him a new contract to make him one of their highest paid, but he's apparently turned it down.

The news is we are the favourites and he wants to join, a lot of which is to do with Howe who took him to Bournemouth.

There's been interest from some decent sides, and he is sought after, but it looks like the Howe link might seal it for us.

45 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Kelly didn’t start for Bournemouth on Saturday, is clearly injury prone and is probably after a 10 million signing on fee, I’d rather give Dummett another year.

My God ...

Kelly is probably ten times the player Dummet is ... at least.

Let's assume that your £10 million signings on fee is correct, this is essentially his transfer fee, and is still a major bargain, that's how it works for free transfers. Not to mention that usually the signing on fees are paid over the players contract and so is not as big an initial hit financially. His salary is also not likely to be anything outrageous.

Yes, I agree he has been somewhat injury prone, but weighing that up with the value we'd be getting with him on a free, and how well he fits into the system as a more athletic and quicker version of that 3rd centre back/left back role Burn has been playing the last couple of seasons, it's a no brainer IMO with FFP being what it is. Callum Wilson was signed as an injury prone player, but overall I'm sure we'd all say it has been a well worthy signing.

With a deeper squad and more decent rotation options, hopefully we won't see as much issues with injuries going forward.

So happy for Alonso.

Cannot stand Bayern Munich and how they operate.

Of course they were immediately after Alonso too, the pathetic, desperate dopes.

Love that he told them to piss off and he's stuck with Leverkusen.