Delphinho123

2 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Are we being overly ambitious and setting ourselves up for disappointment? 

Of course. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

1 hour ago, wilko154 said:

With a baby on the way I now wish I had never entered this thread...

Your life is about to change!

1 hour ago, WallisFrizz said:

CB and wide attacker for me.
 

Watching up play out from the back terrifies me. Coaching will improve that (and hopefully Carlos will return in good form) but I would like to upgrade our defensive options. 

For once it’s nice for midfield not to be the priority.

We aren’t great at it, are we. Do you think Cash adds to that problem? Is he good enough on the ball to play out from the back or could we improve there?

1 hour ago, turvontour said:

Would he play on boxing day if Argentina got to the final? Usually youd have a couple of weeks break after a major tournament, especially playing all the way to the final.

Yes. Have you seen Robin Olsen play?

We’d play Martinez with a broken leg over him.

What are our priorities in terms of position in order to improve? I’d go.

Wide attacker
Forward
Centre back
Right back
 

7 hours ago, ozvilla28 said:

I have been impressed with Nathan Ake doesn’t play much at city , but his quality

Very good player. 

18 hours ago, bickster said:

Since Musk has taken over Twotter, what appears in our company account timeline is very different. Today its the American Actress and the English Prince. I couldn't give a f***, neither could the company. Now we do follow a few news outlets so you expect it from those sources and its all usually ignorable but its the sheer volume of tweets from sources we don't follow that are now in our timeline makes it pretty useless as a tool

My timeline is full of tweets from accounts I don’t follow. What’s with that?! This is exactly what Twitter is not supposed to do. 

1 minute ago, MWARLEY2 said:

2 world class saves. One to his left one to his right. Never got near the others but had done his job. 

Big personality in the big moments. Never crumbles. Thats what concerns me more than his actual 90 mins goalkeeping ability. Its the ability to come up with the goods in high pressure situations that will attract the big teams. Thats 2 tournaments in a row he has won a shootout for argentina.

He is going to become a superstar in Argentina now. 

We will have to fight off interest for sure . But that will be easily done. 5 and a half years left on his contract means it will be a huge fee needed. Upwards of 75 mill. 

 

 

 

Exactly. How much was Kepa again??

How much he worth now?

1 hour ago, burchy said:

Mr Lange, can we go for this guy from PSV please  

 

Let’s wait for @messi11 ‘s seal of approval before jumping into any would be transfers. 

15 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

Honestly, i dont think he has "dropped off".

i think the problem is that our first 2 years or so in the PL, including the Championship, we played a bit more back to front, with lots of running around and chasing balls, with less expectation to retain the ball or progress the ball in a technical way.

I think in a direct back to front style of play he does ok as a no.8 or a no.10 as it suits his own style, as he is ok-ish in a few positions, where the players around him arent of a particularly high quality.

The other thing for me is that as:

1) We have slowly improved our players, McGiin was ok with poorer overall players as he could do a bit of this, or a bit of that to an "ok level", but now he isnt as good as a well rounded/specialist number 6 or 8. (Kamara/Luiz/Donk), as they can do what he does but much more also.

2) With the slowly improved players, he also isnt as good as our more specialist/technical 10's or forward line (Bailey, Coutinho, Buendia, Ramsey etc)

3) In a less quality team, he is a decent shout in a direct style for 6, 8 or 10, but not when you start to get some quality in those positions and start to play more technically.

4) added to point 1, 2 & 3, we are also now trying to play more technically, which is also now exposing his weaknesses that may not have been quite so obvious in a direct style with less high level competition for places, he isnt technically gifted at all, or overly intelligent on the ball, he actually hinders possession play imo.

 

So yeah, anways, i dont hink he has gotten "worse" as such, i just think as we have improved as a squad and are trying to play in a more technical/intelligent way, he is now competing for spots against well rounded players or specialists, his limitations are becoming more and more exposed, and his strengths less played to, which in turn makes him look "worse".

I do agree that he simply isnt a good enough player now for us.

Very good analysis and all fair points. You could be right. 

15 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

And Borja Baston trying to ridiculously win a header that another player (can't remember who) was about to win anyway, ended up losing it and that led to the Engels error.

It really did. What a cameo!

Somebody said it in the Brighton friendly thread and it rings true. I think he’s a worse player now than when he joined. I genuinely do.

He looks unfit, slow, lethargic and doesn’t affect games at all really. He’s ok at running around and tackling people and I actually think he’s suited to seeing out games if we’re leading, but that aside, I think he’s regressed and he’ll be a bit part player from now on. Somebody we bring on with half hour left. 

I think he needs a move. Id be surprised if he wasn’t thinking the same. He has a value and I think we need to try and achieve that value in either Jan or the Summer. Whatever that figure is.

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Peppa pig in German mate

My little un has the rona

Hope he/she is better soon

Did anyone else manage to catch Teletubbies at 4.30am this morning? Really good episode. 

5 hours ago, VillaChris said:

I thought we were done when Spurs did us last minute...another game we were leading but didn't believe we could win and eventually lost to Son 94th minute goal.

Just shows what can happen when you add a bit more experience in your team with 20/21 as we were generally far better seeing games out when winning.

That Engels mistake still haunts me. And probably him. Effectively ended his career here. 

6 hours ago, mrchnry said:

Gunishment? 

Superb. 

QPR may as well sign Gerrard and be done with it. 

10 minutes ago, TRO said:

I love JJ.....but,

To improve, he needs to stay on the ball a bit more.

He has a tendency to lose possession too easily, in dangerous positions to the team, to be rated much higher.

I think it’s something, he can improve on, some tweaks and he can be up there, with the best....He is not far away.

You could be describing Buendia here. I think Ramsey looks after the ball much better.

Ramsey and Bailey are hugely important to the way we play. He'll be a loss in our system. 

Nicely worked FK! Mad OG. 

Just now, est1874 said:

Well, that was very poor.

I'm going to drop a truism here and say that teams who can't play out from the back really shouldn't try to play out from the back.

We're not going to stop doing it. It's painful to watch and it will cost us more goals, but that's the way it's going to be. 

Just now, MaVilla said:

well that was crap defending, wth was chambers doing there.

'Here we go mate, have a goal'

Chambers has been very poor this season tbh. I really thought he was hard done by not to play more but he's been very bad at times lately. 

McGinn is such a passenger in our set up. He's the worst player on the pitch by a mile.