Ranking our Squad - 8 Tonali

[Rich]

1 minute ago, JT24 said:

Aye, he’s top 3. 

I’ll fight you.

 

The concept of Tonali > the reality of Tonali.

[JT24]

Just now, Rich said:

I’ll fight you.

 

The concept of Tonali > the reality of Tonali.

The worst thing you can do to me is vote to give me 500 extra points. You don’t have the bottle. 
 

Bellingham, Pedri, Tonali (just kidding before more people jump on this). 

[andyman]

Muhammad Tonali. I had to 

 

[Rich]

1 minute ago, JT24 said:

The worst thing you can do to me is vote to give me 500 extra points. You don’t have the bottle. 
 

Bellingham, Pedri, Tonali (just kidding before more people jump on this). 

Already gone for Mike.

[Oregon_Geordie]

Class act, but still to hit top gear and consistently - B+

[Smal]

when you look at how rare it is for our midfield to actually control a game I really don’t see how you can put any of them in a world class bracket, like. Bruno and Tonali have the potential to get there but they’re miles off at the moment imo.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

B. Does he get in to a Real side now? Though it's a limitation in the wording again. Questions about him playing for "any side in the world", but also probably unfair to call him a level below elite 

[Troll]

21 minutes ago, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

B. Does he get in to a Real side now? Though it's a limitation in the wording again. Questions about him playing for "any side in the world", but also probably unfair to call him a level below elite 

 

    The problem with the definition of world class is that only a handful of players in the world get into it, so when you only have 5 scores to pick from it limits the options.  Realistically, only Isak gets in.  It lumps the rest of the players into a couple of ranks with not enough to distinguish them.

 

 Someone like Murphy fits the definition of a C in the OP exactly, but there's no way Sandro or Bruno is only one rank better than him, or that Joelinton is the same rank.

 

 

 

Edited 22 hours ago by Troll

[Cf]

Just because Messi is an A doesn't mean players who aren't as good (i.e. pretty much all of them) can't be an A too. There's obviously a spread of ability in each grade which is fine. 

 

Unless you want the poll to read

 

100

99

98

97

96

95

Etc

Etc

 

And still I guarantee you someone would rank someone as 86.5 because he's not quite an 87 but he's not an 86 either. 

 

As far as my intention with this scale is concerned I see no issues with people thinking Sandro is an A even if I don't quite agree with the ranking myself

[Lush Vlad]

2 hours ago, Smal said:

when you look at how rare it is for our midfield to actually control a game I really don’t see how you can put any of them in a world class bracket, like. Bruno and Tonali have the potential to get there but they’re miles off at the moment imo.

I still think that is as much a system thing as it is our personnel in midfield. Well, that and in a lot of other areas. We have players who are bad on the ball.
 

We never look set up to ‘control’ a game or dominate possession. We don’t look much good at it when we do. 
 

Viva la chaos ball 

[Lush Vlad]

I feel like I am hating on the guy. When I’m really not, as I think he is top drawer. 
 

But based on what he has done here. I think an A grade for him is a bit mental. He’s had what, 2-3 good games when he was played as an 8? Then we switched him to the more central role, he looked quality, along with the whole team improving off the back of this, along with some other tweaks. 
 

He’s recently had some fairly iffy, well below par games (Liverpool, City, Fulham). Bournemouth to a lesser degree. So it feels like we’re saying he is one of the best in the world at his position. Based on roughly a 10-12 game stretch of him looking very good? 

[Smal]

24 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

I still think that is as much a system thing as it is our personnel in midfield. Well, that and in a lot of other areas. We have players who are bad on the ball.
 

We never look set up to ‘control’ a game or dominate possession. We don’t look much good at it when we do. 
 

Viva la chaos ball 

 

agreed to an extent but as you probably know I think there are more ways to control a game than just having lots of possession. When we are really good, at our peak, we control a game without the ball and I think that’s what Eddie sets the team out to do. So in a way we do go out to control games, it just doesn’t happen very much, sadly.

 

Obviously it’s not just on them, but if the likes of Bruno and Tonali were A-tier midfielders they wouldn’t be getting battered by Fulham and Bournemouth, or not even getting anywhere near a midfield of Gravenberch-Mac Allister-Szoboszlai.

 

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Smal

[Lush Vlad]

1 minute ago, Smal said:

 

agreed to an extent but as you probably know I think there are more ways to control a game than just having lots of possession. When we are really good, at our peak, we control a game without the ball and I think that’s what Eddie sets the team out to do. So in a way we do go out to control games, it just doesn’t happen very much, sadly.

 

Obviously it’s not just on them, but if the likes of Bruno and Tonali were A-tier midfielders they wouldn’t be getting battered by Fulham and Bournemouth, or not even getting anywhere near a midfield of Gravenberch-Mac Allister-Szoboszlai.

 

 

 

 

True enough. I’m also not after meaningless possession. We are already quite good at that along the back 4   
 

I suppose the way we end up going quite direct and involved in fairly hectic games. Which usually see us at our best, are what I was alluding to. Kind of hard to exert control in games like that. 
 

We’ve done the low possession, counter by going direct really well at times. Spurs at least twice in recent seasons. Arsenal a few times to a lesser degree. City, even when we’ve not won.
 

But I often feel in games we lose our way somewhere. Then really struggle to

regain momentum after looking so good for 20 minutes, a half, an hour or whatever.  
 

It’s like the players have switched places with different people or something. I think that’s when individually certain players technical ability really breaks down. Along with the system being neither here nor there. As a team we look really disjointed and chasing shadows. I’m not sure it’s always on the midfield. Although somehow, they always look the most overrun. 
 

I think in time as we get better players across the board. The team will evolve just due to having more complete players in the team.
 

I also think Howe will make tweaks. We definitely have to be mindful of certain players and their limitations and I think he manages and masks those. I think this thread alone so far has shown that the team is greater than the sum of its parts. 

[McCormick]

Should do just fifa style ratings at this point. For me Tonali’s an 84 and so is Bruno.
 

Dubs- 73

Pope- 78

Burn- 78

Schar- 80

Botman- 82

Livramento- 79

Tripper- 76

Hall- 82

Joelinton- 81

 

So far…

[Andy]

He's been a B for us so far, but it's worth noting that he's playing a role that is probably a bit more uncomfortable to him; I'm sure he'd prefer to be more box-to-box but he's taking one for the team in sitting as the "6" since he's apparently the best of our lot at it. 

 

I'd like to see a proper DM come in next season to unlock him. 

[Shearergol]

3 hours ago, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

B. Does he get in to a Real side now? Though it's a limitation in the wording again. Questions about him playing for "any side in the world", but also probably unfair to call him a level below elite 

In rotation, he does.

[BlazeT44]

A-/B+ for me.

 

World Class is top 3 or 5 in his position in the world. He's not that IMO, but I think he walks into most Premier League teams.

[buzz]

B

[Dr.Spaceman]

[Dr.Spaceman]

Real Madrid would have subbed him by now I reckon

[TheBrownBottle]

5 hours ago, Rich said:

There’s no way Tonali is a top 10 CM in the world, surely?

He isn’t. 

[TheBrownBottle]

B for me

[The Prophet]

On 25/02/2025 at 13:16, The Prophet said:

Tino is still learning the game. For his age, he's defensively excellent. Going forward though, he definitely needs to develop his game.

 

Unfortunately on the socials he's joined the list of players that folk absolutely love to get stuck into after a poor performance. Thankfully Barnes will be back soon to take some of the heat. 

 

Yuuuurs.