Solitude20

Maddison is playing well IMO.

So how good is he as a RW? I can see both of him and Barnes starting.

Exactly, it looks we are literally playing without a holding midfielder. All our three midfielders move up when we are trying to score and leave this massive void in front of our defense. Aston Villa is simply walking through that space without any challenge.

I think Bruno is drunk.

Fuck man, Gordon is killing it. He‘s literally everywhere.

Don’t think Barnes is starting either.

Trippier will still be our main RB for a couple years, so I guess he’s just a backup/rotation player. I don’t get the strategy though of signing Ashby last winter and then getting Tino 6 months after that.

Eddie was trying a new formation in the 1st half that happened to create a lot of empty spaces in midfield, and Aston Villa exploited those spaces, so IMO we can’t read much into Tonali and Bruno’s individual performances. Let them play together for a few games in our 4-3-3 and the we can judge their performance as a duo.

I think that’s irrelevant. We might intentionally underpay just to mitigate the incoming wave of criticism of how a PIF club sells to another PIF club for a massive price.

He’s quickly going to be one of our favorite players, isn’t he?

Yep, bad translation. She meant the decision making process can bypass the crown prince if the majority of votes went against him. That’s what he said and he gave an example for it.

Absurd? Remember the Johnny Depp vs Amber case? A legendary actor had his career ruined and everyone believed his wife right away, but then came his famous trial for which he came out as completely innocent and his wife Amber as the manipulative monster. This is just one example, it isn’t absurd or impossible by any means. People with borderline personality disorder or manipulative personalities exist. What is absurd is accusing Mendy or any other person with rape and ruin their lives for nothing. Rapists exist, and so do those manipulative liars who could fabricate a story to gain something. That’s why courts of law exist.

Or Isak should get 10 in that case.

Eddie did an interview on pre-season today, and he appreciated how versatile Sandro is, and he still hasn’t decided what role he is going to play in our midfield and it’s up to how things go.

How many times did he say “versatility”? It is clear he values that in a player.

Exactly, if we get 3rd in our UCL group and qualify for Europa League, and let’s say we get knocked out in the quarterfinals, that’s 12 games. Don’t forget that we got eliminated super early in the FA Cup last year, so we can add about 4 more games there as well. So that scenario means we will play 16 more midweek games! Yeah everyone in the squad will get their playtime.

I disagree, he sure scored more goals as a winger since wingers are more likely to score than CMs, but he is so much better as a CM than a winger. He is your dynamic, aggressive, ball winning midfielder. He even got a call from the Brazilian national team for that role. He literally makes your midfield more dominant of the game. Look at the best wingers in the world and they all have something in common, they all offer explosiveness and speed to the flanks in order to exploit any spaces there, and let’s be honest, Joelinton didn’t offer that as a winger. He played as a midfielder who drifted wide and near the touchline more than an actual winger. He didn’t make many runs that you’d expect from a winger. This is why Eddie is looking to buy a LW in this window, someone who can offer more dimensions to our gameplay(in case ASM isn’t available). BTW, I was hoping for someone who has more flair than Barnes, but let’s see I guess.

Yep, nailed it. We all remember how many frustrating games we had last season when we just kept wasting easy goalscoring opportunities. Eddie and the rest know what they are looking for. They know our biggest issue wasn’t creating chances, it was burying them. Barnes could fit right in and help us improve there. With Isak, Bruno, and Tonali, he can score more than at Leicester.

Wingback? That’s Allegri for you

If we are seriously after Diaby for 50m, then why did we get Gordon 6 months ago for 45m? Diaby is clearly the better winger, and they are of similar age. What’s the strategy here? Was Gordon always meant to be a backup? Then why spend 45m for a backup at a time when FFP is still limiting us. Or did Eddie see Gordon as the future left winger?

I disagree with that, why should we look at players who didn’t succeed after moving from the Bundesliga and come up with a generalization for all players who happened to play there first? There are many other players who came from there and turned out to be huge success: De Bruyne, Haaland, Son, Kombany, Gundogan, Firmino, etc. On the othet hand, we might find players such as Mane who played worse at Bundesliga. He scored seven goals in 25 league games. Or what about Hazard who flopped at La Liga after a legendary display at the EPL. Does that mean Spanish teams shouldn’t consider EPL players? There are many players who flop after a transfer for many different reasons, and so I don’t think it is logical to single out their original league as a primary reason by cherry picking players who happened to have failed here for various reasons.

Even if top 5 qualify for UCL next season, it will be more difficult than getting 4th last season IMO. Chelsea and Liverpool will most likely bounce back with their new signings/coach, and they won’t collapse like they did last season. Arsenal isn’t fucking around either, them getting 2nd last season wasn’t a one season thing. City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U, and Arsenal all have amazing coaches and elite squads. In order to increase our odds to qualify next season, we have to sign at least one or two top targets/1st team players and one decent backup. IMO, our coach is on the same level as those in the other top 5 clubs, but we need upgrades in a few positions to at least have a squad that is objectively in the same level as the others. RW, LW, and LB all need a 1st team upgrade, as they are clearly our weakest points IMO when it comes to creating scoring opportunities (here I assumed ASM to be injured for at least a few critical games). Of course, we won’t be able to do all of them in this window, so I am hoping for at least one of them to be done.

Yet you didn’t raise those concerns when we spent their money on those record transfer fees. Honestly I don’t get it, how can you have no issues with spending their cash to reach where we are today, enjoying their success managing the club so far, looking forward to their future investments, and getting excited by the transformation of the club under their ownership, but if their national team plays at SJP, it suddenly becomes a step too far and only then would their human rights record matter. I don’t get it honestly. To me, it’s all the same. You either accept all of it or none if it. I wouldn’t go and happily accept those links that directly benefit the club and draw a line against the links that don’t.

If they are going to play as an attacking midfielder, then I wouldn’t mind if we get either (Maddison or Szo). But if we are going to play them as wingers/wide midfielder, I definitely think Szo is the better option here . He’s more explosive and a better dribbler, and those traits are crucial for a winger who’s supposed to penetrate a low block.

And some of you were panicking and thinking PIF is supporting Chelsea over us