MotoMkali

Any talk of a quiet January could still mean anywhere from 20-35 million could be spent based on our summer spending. That would likely be on 2 players probably a striker and a winger although I would also like another central midfielder who is a big physical presence with decent ball control and passing. We really lack a proper enforcer in the centre we have nakamba who is a good ball winner but we need someone to win headers and rough up smaller midfielders and make them scared to come into their territory. As I have said before I think sander berge would be a perfect fit. Big strong lad with decent skill on the ball and can run for days to help take the burden off of mcginn. Plus it gives us more options in midfield with substitutes as he can play as a defensive midfielder as well so we can bring off whichever of our midfielders is more knackered and bring on either conor or Luiz. Again kessie from AC Milan could be a good signing or eggestein (although I suspect he would be too much). We have a very small midfield with conor being our tallest central midfielder some extra size would not go amiss. Hopefully they also bring more off ball movement as well to help us keep the ball better and make us a stronger team.

Well what I'm saying is he played as a false 9 and won awards in that position got quite a few assists and goals and contributed to Brugge's success. We are playing him as a target man without much support from his teammates and he rarely receives the ball to feet. To me it makes sense he is struggling and can't seem to get into great form because he isn't playing in the position he is used to. Also wesley started off his footballing career playing as an attacking midfielder and got moved to striker so I suggest his natural position would likely be closer to a CAM than a target man ergo false 9. On top of that when we have played him as more of a false 9 we have had success like against Norwich.

For me our problem is off the ball movement both offensively and defensively. We struggle to keep the ball because we don't show for it which leads to us being predictable and giving the ball away cheaply. Deffensively we don't press as a team and unless they are the one going to the man with the ball we remain very static.

Just because we play someone in that role doesn't mean it is their natural position. That would be like saying Hutton is a left back. You can't complain about a player being crap and then say it is his fault for not being played in the same way he was at the club we signed him from. Besides wesley has had significant contributions to 8 of our 15 goals from open play which is pretty good. I hope nobody was expecting him to be Benteke. I wish he was as good as Benteke was but when Benteke played for us he was one of the 5 best strikers in the league behind suarez and aguero and on par with vardy and Kane. You can't expect every player to be that good and at least wesley isn't Joe Linton.

Think we desperately need another all action midfielder preferably one who is large and strong as well. We are currently getting overrun in the middle and we need another player to help stem the tide. Ideally the should be good on the ball but work very hard. Someone like sander berge from genk would be ideal. They won't be in Europe come January and he may look to leave at that point. You have also got kessie from AC Milan. Essentially I think we need a young and more physical ander herrera. Hopefully it should take some running weight off of mcginns shoulders so he can play for longer before he starts crawling around the pitch.

Yet Salah has consistently had an injury problem. Has been injured already this season. A lot of players aren't that durable so we don't want to risk players like engels or mings who could be said to be injury prone playing 40+ games.

Get real unless you want a serious injury the days of playing every game are over.

He has contributed to 4 of 11 goals in which he hasn't scored or from open play. That is pretty good grealish probably has got maybe 7-8 of 13 which whilst better is not ridiculously better and shows wesley has contributed to a lot of our goals.

No that is completely wrong. A false 9 used to be that. That is not the case anymore. Messi was a striker he played as a false 9 for 5 years and probably had the best stretch of football ever. Firminho now is a striker but plays as a false 9. It is just a term for a striker who drops deeper and helps link up play.

He has contributed directly to 7+ of our 17 goals which is pretty good and considering 2 of them were from set pieces where could contribute he has contributed to 45% of our goals from open play Edit 8 forgot about his holdup play for el ghazis goal against everton

Wesley is not a target man and the sooner some of our fans realize that the better. Seriously how hard is it to understand that when wesley receives the ball to his feet 9/10 he keeps the ball and often helps create good chances. And 9/10 out of 10 if you randomly kick a ball to a defender on the other side of the pitch of course wesley isn't going to win it. I still haven't seen a long ball from open play that I think wesley has a prayer of winning and probably 60% of the goals kicks are so poor I don't think he could win them either l.

The problem is off the ball movement and the lack thereof. Mcginn is emblematic of that problem. To me the main difference between Jack and John is off the ball movement jack is better on the ball and John is better defensively but they sort of cancel themselves out. Jack's movement creates so much space for everyone around him to thrive. Mcginn remains quite static which means it is easy to mark him which means it is easy to stay organised which means it is hard for us to score. If mcginn had half as good movement off the ball as Jack we would probably be top 6 right now. It would help us offensively because we would create more and defensively because we would have more of the ball.

Wesley 100% is. A false 9 is a natural position now it is a hybridization between an attacking midfielder and a striker and seeing as wesley said that when he first started playing football professionally he was an attacking midfielder I would say that is the very definition of a false 9. They need to drop deep receive the ball to their feet and have good movement around them. Without that 2nd part it doesn't work which is why Liverpool struggle without Salah because his off the ball movement is the best in the prem and It drags defenders all over the place. With us all 3 of our central midfielders are quite static and don't show for the ball trez and el ghazi are inconsistent and aren't great at moving off the ball. Wes has looked good when Jack is playing closer to him because Jack forces players to move around him which creates gaps which wesley can pass through. Our other players need to do it more and it is honestly our worst attribute and why we struggle to keep the ball as much as we do.

Look mate I just call it how I see it mcginn has what 78% passing percentage this year which is only a little bit better than Wesley's but everyone complains about his passing ability. Also the fact is mcginn just simply doesn't come short, once Jack moved into the free role mcginn sat a little deeper and for me was the main reason we beat Norwich. If you look at that game mcginn is barely involved in the goals because with him sitting deeper it does a couple of things 1) declutters the final third of the pitch which let's grealish and el ghazi drive into the empty space and force mistakes by opponents, 2) because he is a good player it forces a midfielder to sit on him once again giving more space in the final third 3) McGinn is available for the pass which in itself does a lot of things - nakamba can now pass forwards backwards left and right, our right hand side has support from a central midfielder, someone in central midfield can pick the ball up deep and beat a man creating time and space for other players. And just to be clear I don't think mcginn is a bad player I just think his positioning hinders us when playing out from the back or creating a good chance in the final third instead of standing off and making runs in which forces a midfielder off of the 18 yard box and if he gets past them can drag 1 or 2 defenders out of position. This leaves a lot of space which attackers can exploit. Hell even a simpler way to view it is with Wesley's first goal against Norwich where most of our players stepped outside the box dragging the entire Norwich back line with them because they were moving the centre halves lost wesley and a good ball found him in on the 6 yard box of we all stayed crowding inside the 18 yard box that ball would have been easily cleared because the defenders would have been organised and in position. To score unless it is a moment of magic you need to destroy an opponents organisation and constant movement does that and standing on the 18 yard box makes it easy to mark you out of the game. Again mcginn isn't the only one who does this but he does it the most often and is probably our 3rd most creative player behind grealish and el ghazi (mcginn is better than el ghazi but I think el ghazi is more likely to create a goal scoring opportunity for himself or for another) and if mcginn can't create we or at least give others a better chance to we will struggle which is what we have done against most teams except Norwich and maybe Everton after mcginn swapped sides with grealish which forced him deeper because wes tends to drift left rather than stay in the centre.

You are right. We never press as a team it makes it very easy to pass around the player who has gone to win the ball.

I think the problem is mcginn. Let's face it he is a box to box with some skill put not much passing ability. Yet he plays like a number 9 who can't move and to be honest absolutely destroys us. He is out of position when we lose the ball and he makes it 5 times harder to keep it by never being available for a pass. He revives the ball 35 times in a match. He is a key player and a central midfielder he should be averaging in the low 50s instead for 10 - 20 minutes of a game iniesta wouldn't be able to find him with a pass let alone nakamba. It means we either hoof it or pass it out wide which tactically sound to teams catch onto and exploit like adama traore did like 5 times against us. We tried to play some 1 2s with target traore nipped in won the ball was now past our left back and it led to mings' foul and their goal and 3 or 4 really good chances jimenez fluffed. We were lucky it wasn't an absolute beat down seeing us lose by 4 or more goals.

Or instead of hamstringing himself we can do several things to mitigate his flaws. 1)keep the ball better through off the ball movement as it stands we are a very static team especially mcginn. Whilst this may seem like more work jogging off the ball is easier than sprinting to close someone down or sprinting to get back. Our best passages of play this season have involved good off the ball movement like both of Jack's goals. El ghazi and Wesley spread out and directly across the back for draggin them back freeing space for them to run into Wesley making a run in behind so Jack can find an easy 1 2 with el ghazi to create time for a pretty finish against Norwich. 2)sub him off earlier- we are struggling to keep the ball late so we should bring on either Luiz or hourihane who are both good passers of the ball so we are little more comfortable in possession so we aren't stuck at the back constantly pressing which again is tiring.

Very funny. In case you haven't noticed nakamba cleans up the mistakes and whilst yes mcginn has to defend if he isn't doing that what is the point in playing him at that point he is just a worse hourihane because he can't take great set pieces takes many ill advised shots and is much worse at passing especially picking out quality long balls like hourihane did for both el ghazi goals in the playoff final (great ball to adomah pass back to elmo great cross) and el ghazi goal against Burnley (great long ball to Gilbert meh Cross excellent finish).

In my opinion Jack can't play as 1 of 2 central midfielders plus we weren't playing nakamba at that time either. Mcginn wasn't playing as a central midfielder and if you watch the games he was almost always standing on the oppositions last man which would explain why Jack was so isolated in those games.

Grealish was fouled by lamela. However the ref didn't give it. Obviously there should have been a call for that. It was one of the reasons why he stopped attempting to take people on earlier in the season. However to me mcginn hurts most of our moves he rarely moves off the ball unless it is a run in behind he never comes short and positionally he is very poor which costs us as if the ball is on the left or right we have to attempt a relatively tricky path across the pitch to switch rather than playing 2 or 3 short ball if mcginn was in the correct position. I feel like I'm not necessarily explaining myself very well but of all the players who have played every game (when available) for us mcginn has been the worst except for maybe Heaton (I think he has generally been poor for us this year he has made some cracking saves but he seems very hesitant which has cost us points in several games). Simply put although mcginn is a great player he plays wayy to far upfield and is too static. If he solved these problems I think we would be doing a lot better especially because it means that our build up play would be smoother rather than just passing it to our full backs or wingers every time in easily interceptible (which wolves read and if jimenez had been firing could have put us down 3 or 4 by half). We need to play 4-3-3 not 4-2-4. Either way we mcginn shouldn't be playing as a striker when he is playing as a central midfielder even if he is supposed to be an attacking midfielder.

Except Jack was actually good at the start of the season he wasn't really taking players on but he was still involved in everything we did with his passing and movement and was a key part in all our goals. McGinn has been poor since and including the brighton game. On top of that he really needs to be subbed earlier in games and deans decision to not doing that is really costing us. Mcginn is an energy guy he is good when he can outrun players but once that is gone he is honestly pretty crap which is why once he can't run he should be off the pitch not risking himself with injuries or cards when he isn't adding anything to our game and is often hamstringing our attack and defense with his lack of mobility.

Plus if I'm being honest mcginn has been a liability late in games and has probably contributed to us losing more points (along with smiths refusal to sub him off) than anyone. Once you get past 60 minutes he is too tired to run so he can't close down anyone or beat his man he is essentially worthless because let's face it aside from his pass against Brighton he isn't great at passing (part of the reason he gets so tired). So he loses the ball and he can't win it back. Especially if it is high up the pitch he struggles to get back and defend for example wolves after playing a hospital ball to Taylor (another example of poor passing) he jogs back as traore effortlessly beats Luiz and straight up stops running 30 yards from goal in a position where if he continued to track back could have easily got between traore and Jimenez and or the goal and made his life at least harder to play the ball. On top of all this he is positional very poor and when we are attacking it leaves us with a massive hole in the middle of the park because our rcm decided he should play upfront negating his best ability dribbling and drawing fouls in transition. I have only watched 2 games live this season (I have watched all the others on TV or stream) but in those games it was clear to me that we were stuffing on the attack because our players mainly jack weren't getting the support they needed. I watched the Everton game and Burnley game so both alright results however I also think we should have put both games to bed and for me against Everton mcginn and trezeguet were the worst players and whilst against Burnley mcginn was decent I though at times he was crippling the right hand side of the pitch (because he was leaving them isolated from support from the Middle but dragging a centre half over between them and the goal) which is why it is no surprise that both our goals came when mcginn wasn't on the right hand side of the pitch. It left so much more space for guilbert and el ghazi/trez to exploit and create good chances I.e el ghazi goal or trez's cross. Now this may seem like I'm bashing him for bashing hims sake and I'm not saying he is crap but the minute the clock turns 70 and mcginn is still on the pitch (and it is close) I generally right off the game as loss this season because we can't keep or win the ball because he cannot close an opponent down and he loses the ball really easily. I think in future games we should play with 2 defensive midfielders with mcginn as one of them in the hopes that he decides to play a little bit deeper and support the rest of our midfielders. On top of that he has had 34 shots and only scored 3 goals a lot of the shots have come from outside the box in alright positions if he hadn't chosen to shoot it is really hurting our chances as well. We are wasting chances in good positions on long shots that either miss or are straight at the keeper.

To me he doesnt play deep often enough. He is very good if you play the ball to his feet and playing it back to someone else. For a player of his size he has excellent vision. When we have played well he has actually dropped deep more often allowing us to create freely because it drags a defender out of position or gives us an extra man in midfield and allows you to overwhelm the defense. It is what barca did once they moved Messi into the centre.

Top 2 wesley can deeper and received the ball playing his partners and wingers in behind.

Because with a three at the back you need fast and strong centre halves but it is very hard to get multiple of them. Look at man City after 2 injuries.