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HalfTimePost

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Everything posted by HalfTimePost

  1. HalfTimePost
    I'd really like us to go and get Obite Evan Ndicka from Frankfurt. 22, left footed CB with only a year left on his contract. Very good in the air (97th percentile for aerial duels) his big selling point. Be like getting a younger Hause with more talent and without the rapping. Sort of linked to Spurs, he even makes the WhoScored team of the season so far for The Bundesliga too. Being left footed he'd be ideal to replace Mings long term and young enough that Ming's still would have a large role. Would probably need more of a ball player next to him though, which is perhaps where it falls down as Mings is the one art the minute who does more of the passing currently. But maybe next to Gomez it may work. I'd still like us to look atMaxcence Lacroix too though. Lacroix-Ndicka would be a lovely pairing to build a spine around for years to come but no premier League experience at CB would be highly unlikely
  2. HalfTimePost
    If he was available and actually possible for us to get, Jesus would be a bit of a no brainer really. Well drilled, good age, would suit our system well and also he's not going to be so incredible that we ruin Watkins and can't get chances for Archer. If we want a truly top level striker - that's not Jesus - but honestly we aren't likely to attract a top number 9, we'd need to find the next Drogba/Rooney/Kane etc and that comes with big risks (Wesley) and young, up and comers aren't what Gerrards after. Jesus would be a best-of-both-worlds, we get a player that fits, allows other players good opportunities and Gerrard & Purslow get a household name. Ings + £10m to Brighton for Bissouma, Jesus in for £30m. Winner.
  3. HalfTimePost
    If only we had other RB and LB options that we hadn't weirdly loaned all out. Anyway, Hickey is the obvious target here as he can play both until he naturally overtakes Digne and KKH can compete with Cash at RB
  4. HalfTimePost
    It comes in waves for me, at times I'm dreading it, wasting money on Liverpools 2016 team and losing out on exciting targets to Newcastle who play the role of Man City to Lerners Villa and ruin the NSWE-era, who eventually give up the spending as they see their money wasted. But then other times.. I'm very excited, there will be a lot of movement which makes for an exciting transfer window, we know we'll have big ambitions, with great owners and a manager who - for all his faults - will be able to attract better players than we could have previously. It'll be a very interesting window for us, with some big targets and big money. Which is about all you can ask for as a fan whilst there's no football being played
  5. HalfTimePost
    I sort of agree. In general, you get nowhere in this league selling your better players, particularly to opponents. But if we raised £70-80m odd selling Luiz and McGinn? Using that to put more technical ability, physicality and a bit of nastiness in our midfield around Ramsey? I could understand the thought process. I love John and I really think Luiz can turn out to be a special player, SJM in particular I think is so important to the dressing room too. But I could see why we'd consider it. Bissouma and Kondogbia for example - with Ramsey -, we become much better at winning the ball than with Luiz at 6, we are better at retaining it than with McGinns sloppy passing. And Ramsey can be the main driving force linking midfield and attack, rather than all of Luiz, McGinn and Ramsey wanting to play that role as it's the one they're all best at. I do still think we'd rue losing Luiz eventually but if he won't sign, he has to be sold this summer. And I think Gerrard loves McGinn too much to allow him to be sold - and I don't want to see him leave either. We do also need to remember Ramsey will burn out and will be inconsistent for a couple years. Keeping one (say McGinn) but making them a rotational player would be ideal. Ramsey Bissouma Kondogbia With McGinn, Nakamba, Sanson and hopefully Chuk in rotation would be great. With Tim pushing for Nakambas place, and AJ eventually wanting McGinn or Sansons, we'd have a decent midfield for a few years, of course changes would happen, but there would be a plan at least.
  6. HalfTimePost
    Possibly yeah but there will always be rotation there and was a lot of talk about both Bernardo and Sterling maybe leaving last summer - may well kick up again this summer. Although anticipate a lot of that was because they believed Jack would take more of their minutes than he has.
  7. HalfTimePost
    When they sign a striker he'll become a huge player for them. If they get Haaland, Jack will love playing with him as it'll force Pep to slightly adapt his style. With no clear 9 or Foden as a False 9, it's pure Pepball, throw a big name striker in there and it'll ever so slightly tweak and will help Jacks game massively
  8. HalfTimePost
    Thing is when you finish 15th, many of the instant-impact players who are both good enough and the right age are probably going elsewhere, aiming for Europe as a minimum or may not see us as much of a step up. I know you weren't suggesting them as signings but Haaland, Mbappe and Rice all fit that criteria. ESR and JWP also. It's important we don't waste this summer chasing players that won't come here anyway. We need a strong finish to show these hypothetical players that are on-the-up that we are too. Alternatively the 'proven winners' or instant impact players we'll be able to sign will have to be 30+, likely on the way down hoping to rejuvenate their careers (Coutinho) or get a last payday or last chance for a shot at the Prem. They may still work out beautifully (who'd have thought Thiago Silva would've been so good for Chelsea) but more of a risk regardless
  9. HalfTimePost
    Weird one. You'd have thought the negotiation had already happened and we knew what the deal was. Assuming it's not BS, suddenly renegotiating may open us to risk of losing him. But gotta do what's right for the club. I kind of assumed we were in a 'we know the money, just a 6 month run at deciding whether it's a deal or not' situation. Interesting to see how it goes
  10. HalfTimePost
    Anyone know how he's getting on in Cheltenhams eyes? They lost 3-0 today, all the goals coming in the first half, AJ was booked too and then hooked at half time. Was he merely a casualty of needing a change? Sky had their system down as 442 Diamond, him at the head, so might just be a casualty of a new system proven to be a disaster..but could also be a genuinely bad performance from him
  11. HalfTimePost
    My thoughts exactly. So many overestimating what we can do from our current position when someone like Newcastle are similar with vast amounts more. A lot underestimating them
  12. HalfTimePost
    I wonder how much of it is because he himself was such a good example of what a traditional captain should be, I wonder if he internalised the made up importance of captaincy. He's unlikely to find an example like himself in modern football with pretty much any club. Few and far between and he shouldn't chase that player as he'll likely alienate good, useful players in the hunt for a quality he simply wont find
  13. HalfTimePost
    I can understand the thinking but Gerrard talking about it publicly isn't needed. Could easily have just quietly changed it in the summer. Or, if they really wanted to acknowledge it publicly, Mings has already said earlier in the year he initially struggled with the responsibilities of it alongside his own game - could easily have him say he requested to be taken off at the end of the season to focus on his own game. Third option is to just sell him and have it not be a problem, but that seems drastic. Just no need to make a public issue of the captaincy in an already tumultuous and difficult season. Lots of options to deal with it later and without debate or questions
  14. HalfTimePost
    Centre back is the one I'm most interested to see Gerrards plans. A change is clearly needed but I'd be loathe to lose either Konsa or Mings. Prior to chambers coming in it was conceivable that we could buy someone like Gomez and they could compete with Konsa. Similarly, it'd be expected to have more competition for Mings next season. I can't see us though having Gomez replace Mings, he can be good but not sure that's a sure fire upgrade, which is what we need if we deprioritise Mings. So Gomez - if it's him - probably replaces Konsa, and as we've only just got Chambers and we don't need 3 RCB/RB players, Konsa would be sold and not sure I'm ready for that yet. Mings or Konsa get sold imo and one stays. Konsa has more of his career left and can develop further. Mings is our only leader and very underappreciated. Is either of: Gomez-Konsa Or Mings-Gomez That much better than we have now? I'm not sure we can beat say Newcastle to Botman as they've been after him for a while, that seems a certainty to happen...so do we replace them both? De-Vrij - Gomez? Sell Konsa and keep Mings as backup with Chambers? I'm interested to see what happens and I expect to be simultaneously excited and disappointed for losing someone. Hause, I think leaves regardless
  15. HalfTimePost
    Maybe, but they were destined for the drop following years of underfunding and mismanagement. None of our fans had Newcastle as a team to watch out for this year. Buendia, Bailey, Coutinho, Ings are all capable of winning or changing games. They're the richest club in the world. They're going to be making signings like that a lot. This is what we wanted others saying about Villa with Buendia, Bailey, Ings, Coutinho and our chase of ESR and JWP. It's also true of Newcastle now. Since the window closed Newcastle are 3rd for points earned behind Liverpool and Spurs. It's justified. Please read my post again. I didn't say this. This is the crux of it though. We haven't made the most of our envious attacking talent. We actively gave up competition in defensive areas and struggle to improve our midfield. All of those things would be fine if we were seeing improvement on the pitch with what we do have, but we aren't
  16. HalfTimePost
    That's true, I think as Villa fans sometimes the fear can set in as we've seen it before. For me, the similarities between Villa with Lerner and the rise of Man City with their stupid amounts of money and the subsequent cutbacks by Lerner are quite stark with Villa with NSWE and the rise of Newcastle and their even more stupid amounts of money. Somewhere deep within me I'm worried that if we don't crack it in the next 18-36months then the taps get turned off and we immediately become Everton (previously known as 15/16 Villa) I'm sure that's hyperbolic, and I know that too. On a good day I'm more sensible and level headed. On a nervous day, all the eggs of NSWE's reign are in Project Stevie G and a group of 30yo ex-Red Scousers... Even if I know that's not actually true
  17. HalfTimePost
    There's worlds of difference between what Howe has gotten out of that Newcastle squad and what Gerrard has gotten out of ours. Yes he should still get a transfer window but hundreds of £ms? I'm not so sure. Howe wouldn't have ideally spent £110m+ on Dan Burn, Wood and Trippier. He has made the absolute best of a bad situation. Gerrard hasn't had anywhere near a good enough impact to our team. It's more talented than both him and Smith have gotten out of it. Director of Football may need a change but should still be trusted over a head coach imo. Long term strategy > short termism every time
  18. HalfTimePost
    Hickey, Gomez, Kondogbia, Bissouma, Coutinho, a Striker and a backup GK (assuming Olsen is of) Would be an unreal window and a decent mix of early/mid 20s players and more experience. I would like to think we could get somebody who is more of a known quantity at CB than Gomez but in the context of that window, it'd be insanely good. Depends who we lose though but think there are a couple players I'd rather not lose that I could get on board with if that was our window and they weren't going to be right for Gerrards plan anyway (Luiz, Sanson, Bailey all in that category, although think to lose Bailey we'd need to add another attacking midfielder like Madueke)
  19. HalfTimePost
    Yeah, think he'd bea really smart signing for us. Still think we'd need an improvement elsewhere in midfield too but think if he comes in with somebody like Bissouma then suddenly our midfield is very very different and we can still get minutes to the youth. One older head in midfield is fine and probably needed. If we add 5 29/30yr olds, I'll be feeling a bit different but Coutinho & Kondogbia with some 24-26yo signings in CM, CB and ST would be a good mix
  20. HalfTimePost
    Kondogbia would be a nice name signing. He's having an OK season playing around half the matches for Atleti. Not a standout by any stretch but he'd improve us. He'd have to be one of two midfielder signings for me as he's going to struggle to play 38 games at Prem pace after playing less often for Atleti. That said, some of the nasty streak from a Simeone side in the Villa would be perfect Ideally, I'd like to see us go younger and maybe more ambitious for Tchouameni, but that's unrealistic. Kondogbia would show again we can attract those higher names, be great for Iroegbunam to learn from too. Kondogbia + Bissouma would be a big change for our midfield and would allow Ramsey, Iroegbunam and Chukweumeka too still get good minutes If it was just Kondogbia to come in, I'm not sure we'd see the step change we'd want from our midfield.
  21. HalfTimePost
    To be honest I think Watkins would be plenty fine if we had a top level inside forward alongside him. Watkins looked great last season for the most part, he didn't really have the best partnership with Grealish but it worked. And Grealish was more of a creator anyway even if he did score a decent number of important goals. I really feel as though to get the best out of Watkins it would need to be one of Buendia/Coutinho and one speedy player who is direct and can score goals. That player should have been Bailey but it hasn't worked out. Effectively, we need: - a creator to make chances (alongside a creative midfield 3 too) Buendia/Coutinho - Watkins pulling players out of position and popping up with 12-15goals a season minimum. - To find the next Son/Mane/Salah. Put one of those three players in our team and we reach the next level and Watkins would be fine for that. Obviously, those players improve any team drastically. But if we don't want to play that way, if we want to have 2 #10s creating then Ollie needs to be working as hard as he did last season but also needs to be great at holding play up, beating players, out muscling defenders and bringing those #10s into play in positions they can work their magic from. The trouble is, those players are few and far between. We've only really had Benteke at Villa in my recent memory who got anywhere close to it and his career fell apart afterwards. You're effectively looking for Lukaku, Kane, Drogba, Rooney. It's not realistic imo.
  22. HalfTimePost
    Sell Ings and Davis, keep Watkins and Archer. Buy someone of top quality. No idea who. Darwin Nunez is the trendy name but I haven't seen him play enough to know whether he'd revolutionise our attack
  23. HalfTimePost
    I'd rather get Antony from Ajax than Madueke if we're getting yet another attacking midfielder
  24. HalfTimePost
    Lukaku was back to being a world beater in Italy too last season. Very different players but neither are as good for the Prem as they are over there. Tammy is a very good goalscorer, misses some chances yes but scores a lot. His general play isn't enough for the Prem though and comes at a high cost. He's like Darren Bent in a way. He's better off staying in Italy, I'm sure he'll get back to the Prem at some point though, score a lot of goals but never make the jump to being a regular starter for a Top 4/6 side. And he won't sit on the bench (good for him) or he'd have stayed even longer at Chelsea. He'd actually be great for Newcastle as they can make him starter now and when he's not good enough for them in 2 years they can shift him to Everton or similar and he can start the process all over again.
  25. HalfTimePost
    No chance he gets the sack. If he loses 11 in a row, yeah ok maybe.. but that's not going to happen. All those saying 10 points or he goes are on crack. That's 3 wins and a draw. So 4 losses. He's just lost 4 games and isn't in danger. It'd have to be something like 3 points. A win Vs Norwich and 6 losses. He's our manager next season, 99.98% certainty
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