Solitude20

Careful, if you think we need a DM behind Bruno some Admin in this site will start giving you warnings.

And you sir get infuriated every time you think someone is talking nonsense? Probably the internet isn’t for folks like you. And you are an admin, so you should help create an atmosphere that encourages discussions. All I said is that Paqueta isn’t a substitute for Shelvey and that triggered the Karen inside of you, Jeez.

Wtf? Leave it to an admin to get triggered and infuriated just because someone voiced an opinion over a tactical discussion.

Exactly. Imagine how many more goals he would have scored if he was free to move up if he wasn’t tasked with more defensive responsibilities. That’s why it’s a waste of his skills to play him in front of the defenders.

It does not work like that. If you watch the games when Bruno played in place of Shelvey, you will rarely find Bruno press up. He was the least mobile of the three midfielders in such games in order to give balance. Imagine all of your three midfielders press up, who will stay at the back to support the defenders in case the ball slips by? You will have a very exposed midfield in that case, and that’s why all teams will always have a less mobile midfielder stay at the back more than others. Bruno did it a few games last season because Howe had to play with the players at his disposal. Now it’s a different story.

Bruno plays in a similar role to how Iniesta played. He can create, pass, dribble, tackle, score, and move well off the ball. Now imagine someone come and say let’s play Iniesta in front of the defenders. I mean, he can play there a game or two to cover for injuries or lack of substitutes, but it would be a waste of his skills to keep him there all season.

Bruno playing in front of the defence is a waste of his skills. He didn’t play there for Lyon and he does not play there for Brazil for a good reason. He does better roaming around and being an all rounder. There is no way this is his favorite position, and here goes my comment above. I think some folks here think all midfielders here are interchangeable and don’t realize how midfielders can play vastly different roles. . This is obvious when many folks here simply think “fast = good and slow =bad” for any position in the pitch.

What position would that be? And how is playing Paqueta instead of Shelvey going to help achieve that in anyway? note: in no way I am saying we shouldn’t bring Paqueta, and I definitely think we should upgrade on Shelvey, but those two players play completely different roles in midfield that I don’t see how it ne can cover for the other.

Sure, we may not need a designated DM, but we need at least one midfielder with a defensive duty. Back at Lyon when Paqueta and Bruno played together, Caqueret was the one who played that role.

How’s Paqueta going to be an upgrade for Shelvey? Shelvey is a DM who rarely moves forward and Paqueta is an AM who excels in the final third.

Just like what happened with Bruno. He literally came out of nowhere in the last couple of days in January.

Agreed. That’s the main reason why Arsenal sold him. Stats and numbers don’t lie. The guy can’t play in a possession based football.

I don’t get why folks in here are obsessed with having athletic/physical players in every role or possession even when those roles don’t need those qualities.

They are different types of players. Tielemans can play a defensive/holding midfielder or a central midfielder. He can play deep and receive the ball in front of the defenders, or he can play a bit more advanced to support our strikers. Paqueta can play more in the final third as an attacking midfielder or close to a second striker. choosing one over the other depends on the tactics Howe plans to play.

I see what others are saying regarding a limited spending of 80-90 million, but if that was true, then why are we splashing 40% of that on the least needed position (central defender). I get that Botman has the potential to be a world class defender in a few years, but if we are only spending 90 million, then shouldn’t we give the priority to other areas that we really need to strengthen? ( striker, right winger, or a CM).

Isn’t Joelinton a ball winning midfielder?

Sorry, it was a typing error. Just fixed it. I meant he was not given a good number of good scoring opportunities.

Actually, even his scoring ability wasn’t as bad as some people here make it sound. He scored only 2 goals, but his expected goal was 2.9 anyways. He was just not given a good number of scoring opportunities.

Agreed. Even a fair coin can flip heads 7 times in a row. Our expected points last seasons is actually 41.53, but we ended up with 49 points. That says we were a bit lucky, and there is no guarantee this would repeat next season.

Well he’s been flying since.

Yep, Dan and Eddie should just see his reply to that question and decide based on that. We are almost there folks.

Don’t forget Joelinton. I know how folks love him here, but he isn’t exactly known for his technical capabilities that help dictate play. Just look at how it’s difficult to sign excellent players just because we don’t play in CL. If we want to reach the top 5 in the next couple of years (new UEFA structure allows for 5 teams from EPL to qualify to CL), then we should look for better than Joe to be quite frank.

Didn’t he have a major injury in the second half of the season?

zebra then?

Agreed. The fact that we went back to him after 5 months and him still not refusing means this is going through.