Lotus

My heart did skip a beat a couple a times tonight with this lad…. Happy for him, obvs. Fantastic character and all that but, ya knaa…

Hugo Larsson. Malmo CM. 18yrs I think, 6’2. Runs all day, decent pace and strength. Great passing. Gets stuck in. Would think he has a high ceiling. Kind of looks like a Rodri lite atm but he is still very young.

When you watch a highlights video of Maddison he does genuinely look like exactly the kind of player we should be after.

I’ve come to think we’re using Botman as a player to occupy the main oppo defenders at corners. Botman rarely ever makes a run. He just wrestles with a CB or 2. I’m guesstiing other players are to meant run around him and make use of the space. It’s not happening though.

There was no way we were priced out by Leverkuesen so it has to be we’re looking at someone else.

All 3 of our available CMs are out of form imo. Willock is not suited to playing deep. JL inexperienced at it and Bruno is either broken and/or exhausted. Isak and Wilson are our most effective players atm. Don’t think we look at all balanced with them both on the pitch though. We can’t outrun the opposition anymore, legs seem to have gone. Need something tactically. Obvs I don’t know what. But carrying doing what we’ve been doing all season but doing it badly just because it’s ‘our identity’ is folly imo.

None of our defenders are particularly good in a 1 vs 1 situation. Would say Botman is the best the 4. If we get exposed multiple times in 1 vs 1s we’ll lose.

If you think of all the people just off the top of your head whom you know are c**** in football. What are the chances she’s the biggest of them? Very small, if you’re struggling.

I agree. Problem was Targett looked worse off the ball. His passing was crisp though.

We were kind of lucky to get a point. We can’t keep it tight at the back at all anymore. It looks to me now that our defenders are not individually playing well. We are relying on our midfielders and wide forwards to sprint back and flood our box with our own players to crowd out attacks. We’re so leggy now we’re wither not doing it or getting back to late. It’s just so easy to get at us atm. Before people bring up our defensive record I’ll say, our trend over the last 16-17 games has been the other way. The numbers don’t lie.

Think he’d struggle in the Prem.

Hard to call. I think they need a win rather than a draw. We can't keep a clean sheet atm so they could fancy themselves to get something from this. You'd think their best bet would be on the counter. We over commit to the press in midfield, they go direct, we've no real pace at the back, try to put is in trouble. From our perspective, I reckon we'll have plenty of the ball. Will need patience and guile unless they completely fuck up. Lots of one twos around the box and some clever movement. Can see an argument for either Isak or Wilson. Not sure about ASM though (if fit). If he was to move the ball quickly and make some darting runs behind the FB it would be perfect (like Miggy earlier in the season).

I guess the flip side of that is Maddison is older and Mayne more expensive/wages.

That's a tricky one. I wonder if our perception of BL players has been adversely affected by the Chelsea signings of Pulisic, Werner and Havertz? Fwiw, I'm pretty sure I said at the time that Werner was a very risky one. Apart from pace he doesn't have much else that raises him significantly above the average player to have justified his price tag. Havertz has got quality but it's not working out at Chelsea. Lots of potential reasons there though. Also Joelinton. As a forward, I think we can consider him a flop. If we're being honest. On the other side you have players like Son, De Bruyne, Firmino, Konate, Matip and Guendogan. I'm trying to keep this to current or very recent players rather than going back to Ballack, Mertasacker, Kompany, Can, etc. The BL is definitely a lower level than the Prem. Munich and Dortmund apart. It's a bit slower so quick players can look better there. But I'm not so sure it's a high risk league to buy from if you do your research and the club culture the player is moving to is supportive and has a good management team to help the player adapt and develop.

What would people prefer if it was one of either: Maddison Szoboszlai ?

We’ve been definitively become more susceptible to the counter. Credible threats, very good chances and goals. Think we need to be a bit more savvy about over committing . Tricky balance.

I think we had 12 clean sheets out of 20 prem games. That’s remarkable and the bedrock for our success and fantastic goal difference. We’ve been leaky for a few months now. We’ve also been smashing a few teams so I guess it’s swings and roundabouts. I’d rather win 3-0 than 4-1 though, etc etc. It’s just quite clear we’ve become prone to conceding the odd goal (or routed by Villa). Don’t know if it’s fatigue, bit of poor form or we’ve been sussed a bit. Still…

I think we’ve had 1 clean sheet in the last 15 matches. I’d very much like us to return to our former defensive fortitude. The Geordie catenaccio. I miss us just shutting teams out.

Enzo Le Fee also looks super tasty. Small but very agile and very skilled. Great vision and had very good defensive stats.

Pacier than Bruno albeit smaller. Think he’s a very clever player. With and without the ball.

Caquaret makes more sense in my humble opinion.

Re: Brighton. Even better and even less likely

Think he just lacks a little match sharpness.

Think 2 starts in 4 days will be a bit much.

Hope Villa get 5th (or 4th with us getting 3rd…..won’t happen though….). Great for the league if some different teams get into the top 6. Would like Arsenal to win but I think they’ve thrown it away.