Matt1892

I’ve said it before but I can see shower turning Gibbs-White in to one of the most impressive players in the league, potentially more than he has with Gordon.

I skipped watching after I seen the team.

How much is DCL realistically going to be sold for? £20 million?

I would rather go for Kudus over Bowen.

Not only was his pass out bad but no real effort in saving the shot either. We have passed the ball around better than we have most of the season but not created anything.

Scout report on Mamardashvili. https://footballtalentscout.net/2023/04/03/giorgi-mamardashvili-the-georgian-shot-stopper-fighting-to-keep-valencia-in-la-liga-by-shay-hicks/

Even if he isn’t amazing with the ball at his feet he is young enough to develop that side of his game.

Whilst I do agree with you, I can see why the fees paid for Hall and Livramento would have people think they are/should be closer to the first team than what is described. Minteh is probably a better example along with the South Americans we are linked to every window.

That Neuer video is underwhelming.

Iraola rotates him and Kerkez most games at left back. If you look at their games since the end of March where he missed a few games through injury he was sub, started, started, sub, started, sub, started, not in squad, started and sub.

Stats can be deceiving but I’ve watched quite a few Bournemouth away games live as they are easy to get tickets for, so that is what I am basing it off. He is a centre back that plays left back but that seems to be what Howe prefers, so it makes sense. I am not sure where you get that he has similar pace to burn from as he is significantly quicker, he is also composed on the ball and probably better on in the air than Burn despite being shorter. For whatever reason a section of the Bournemouth fans give him grief and go completely overboard with any sort of stray pass, yet when Adam Smith does it on the other side there isn’t a reaction. They also give Kerkez grief too for the same thing. So I wouldn’t read too much in to stats, especially as this would be the second time Howe has signed him so it won’t be a case of him not knowing what he is getting.

Kelly isn’t a poor footballer and is an upgrade on Targett and Burn in the left back position.

Howe definitely prefers players with Premier League experience, not that there is anything wrong with that in the main other than you pay a premium on that.

He trained with England this season as he was seen as an exceptional talent if I remember right.

Ramsdale is an upgrade on Pope though, as despite Pope being a better shot stopper that isn’t the sole function of a modern day goalkeeper, unless you are a club near the bottom of the league that is going to be battered for 90 minutes every week.

It was a compilation of about 60 goals conceded by him at Arsenal, including double figures of penalties. If people don’t rate Ramsdale then that’s fine, but when you have a compilation of goals conceded that are not even keeper errors, or are complaining about him being praised for saving a free kick, it suggests criticism isn’t exactly balanced.

I’m not sure how many of those are genuine mistakes, unless we are counting every goal conceded as a goal keeper mistake.

He clearly seen it late though, possibly due to a mix of the wall being so close and the sun which obscured his view.

They don’t need shot stopping as the main attribute for a keeper due to how good they are, they want someone who is good with the ball at his feet and quality distribution.

Raya is borderline elite with the ball at his feet, that is why they changed. He is perfect for the style of football they want to play.

The free kick is about six yards further out, meaning the wall is on the edge of the box instead of the penalty spot so you have that extra split second to react. Ramsdale’s reaction to seeing it late was to pull off a quality save. I don’t see why that would be talked down.

That was a great save.

I agree we have suffered badly at times this season but at the same time it can’t be blamed for all of our performance issues, especially when our results are generally good at home.

We haven’t all season though and need to accept that we are going to have injuries, like all clubs do. Tripper, Schar and Botman have played the majority of Premier League games and on top of that as a club we decided to commit a lot of money to 2 more fullbacks as priority signings last summer. So we can’t use that as an excuse for our poor away form that has gone on pretty much all season.

Somebody posted yesterday evening how we don’t seem to control games any more and to me it feels like we have moved from a team that could score and hold on to a 1-0 comfortably to getting pulled in to games of end to end football on a constant basis. We have suffered badly with injuries but it is our away form that has hurt us and will continue to hurt us unless we can dictate the play and tempo better.