MotoMkali

3 hours ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Thats why I wanted it, if De Bruyne has 22, then thats more impressive for Jack.

Sorry that stat is a couple of games old he currently has 29. Wayyyy more than anyone else. 

17 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

It's absolutely vital we stay up this year. Another 100m next season would be healthy for the books.

Also i think should we stay up the strategy will change. We won't see 10+ players coming in. I'd imagine it might be something like 3-4 big money signings of like £15-20m+ per player.

This summer was a huge rebuild job. We would just need simple surgery next year to take us to the next level of becoming established in the PL again.

I'd like to see if we can put in cheeky offers for the best players from relegated clubs maybe buendia on the cheap or something like that. 

4 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I think it's vital we win the next game. It's unlikely we will get anything from city and Liverpool. Wolves away isn't going to be easy either. 

Testing times.

Against City or Liverpool we should either rest our players and the other we should go for broke. I'd go for the win against City but rest Jack, John, wes and mings against Liverpool. For me we need to have players fully at the ready against wolves, Chelsea, Leicester and United as for me they are all winnable games.

4 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

Firstly Luiz is nothing like McGinn, or Grealish.  He is a sitter who can shoot from range and likes to spray the ball around the pitch.

Playing more defensive players like Luiz over Hourihane won't work. It just allows City to get more bodies forward and gives the less to think about defensively, and If city have a weakness it's in defense.

We will need to get the ball forward quickly, isolate their defenders and put them in one on one situations. Pace terrifies them (with the exception of Walker), so Trezguet over El-Ghazi for me. They all are a smallish team, so Hourihane's delivery could also be effective. Might even switch to a diamond to get Trezguet in a position to exploit his pace even more, reign in McGinn (less forward runs) and play Jack at the head of the diamond.

Disagree with your analysis of Luiz. From what I have seen his skill set is a fusion of Grealish and mcginns. The passing of Jack and the ball winning and shooting of mcginn. He just isn't quite as good at any of it as them. But he is a lot more well rounded than either of them. The best players are all specialists in 2 or more aspects of the game. Luiz is not a specialist though. It is why he has so much boom or bust potential though. 

4 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Wow, thats a great one.

Its interesting to see the one that includes top 6 too.

It doesnt include 'the top 6' No Chelsea, City, pool, ars, United or spuds. Debruyne has like 22 chances created

On 07/10/2019 at 10:28, MaVilla said:

Quick question, why do you do a  touch count specifically for Hogan and no one else?

Probably the only one with it available for

2 hours ago, New_Hope said:

Hey mate....you are not reading what I am saying...there is no way we got given more money than the winners of the premier league for winning the championship playoff!! 

As winners of said game, you are guaranteed the 100 odd million because even if you are relegated again, you will receive this amount in the form or parachute payments.

Also, ever heard of 'offsetting'??? Many businesses do this.

I believe the difference in money you receive for TV rights between a season in the prem and championship is about ~80million pounds. 

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

I look at that and then think of a correlation between goals scored and being shit

how have Watford only scored 4 goals when those 3 players alone have created 34 chances in open play? (hopefully its because deeney has been shit) Norwich something similar

great that jacks top, im sure McGinn and maybe big wes are near the top of the charts for shots which is probably why but then only 5 teams have more goals than us, only Leicester out of the other 14

McGinn is 6th, wes and El Ghazi tied for 23rd and Jack 30th.

15 above Jack are from MU, MC, Che, Liv, TOT, ARS

55 minutes ago, Stuartc445 said:

Hopefully it doesn't need to change hopefully Norwich was just the start.

But what do you suggest if we don't go from strength to strength just stay with the same formation and hope that it works before it's to late.  I don't think Smiths like that to be honest if Smith is as good as we all think / hope he is then he should be training the team in more than one formation.

If it's not working then it'll have to be the weakest performing midfielder whoever that maybe or there is another way, we could always try to move McGinn further forward and put him alongside Wesley and be more fluid with our formation where he drops back into midfield when defending and goes up front when on the attack.

What was happening for the first 6 games of the season and didn't work at all because we had a a massive whole in Midfield. 

3 hours ago, zab6359 said:

I disagree I think he was a steal at the price we paid and has done well, the reason he may seem average to you is because he hasn't been called upon that much due to being behind a decent defense I expect the shots to rain in against Man city and Liverpool and expect to lose both games and reckon in at least one we will have our arses handed to us, I'd like our best keeper in goal for as many games as possible this season.

He would be a steal if he didn't keep making school boy errors. The penalty against bournemouth, the cross against Burnley, a 30 yard race for the ball against spurs where he has kicked it straight to their player, not coming quick enough for the ball against Norwich. 

5 hours ago, Keyblade said:

It's Newcastle and 2 others imo. If they're Norwich and Sheffield United so be it, but I rather it were dross like Southampton (who became useless also-rans after selling all their players) and like Watford or Burnley. I hope teams that try to play good football stay up as opposed to clubs who just play the percentages to stay in the league.

Burnley won't go down. They are simply too good. They are probably the best team outside the top 8 or even better because of how crap United, spur, arsenal and Everton are. 

1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said:

I find it a bit odd that we’re talking about him going to Man City or abroad next summer when he can’t get in our starting XI.

Not necessarily this summer, maybe next etc. 

5 hours ago, Keyblade said:

That whole analysis is contrary to what I see on the pitch. Yes he does a lot of defensive work, but it's not like we're being bombarded every game. And he's actually a pretty good passer (84.5% is nowhere near as bad as they claim). Do they get paid to write articles or something? Must have been a slow day.

Literally the third highest pass completion percentage last year was 86% but yes 84.5% very crap. 

Edit: this appears hostile but is intended to agree with you. 

9 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

That's what I said. When or if he goes back to City, he can then make his own choices like any other player at any other club.

But he cannot do that with us.

He absolutely can. Generally a player won't turn down a move like that but he can certainly choose where he plays even if we have to accept their offer he does not have to accept their contract. 

Just now, Keyblade said:

It's really remarkable. Reminds me of how good Benteke's English has gotten too. It took Christian a good few years to get there though and Wesley just a couple of months. Meanwhile, Aguero, going into his 10th season in the PL still uses a translator. Not sure what's going on there, but I guess he does his talking on the pitch.

Much easier for them. If they say something controversial the translator can filter it out. Less likely to get fined. 

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

It would not be for us to accept or reject any offer. Only City can do that. And only City can activate the buy back clause. His future is in City's hands, not ours.

His future is in his own hands. If someone was willing to pay 60 million for Luiz why would he agree to go back to city and not just go straight to them. The only reason city will have put it in is so they can offer him more money than anyone else because they would have an additional 30 million budget for luiz's signing. 

1 hour ago, AntrimBlack said:

City have a buy back clause, so he has no choice in that matter. After that, of course, he will be like any other player at any other club with regard to being transferred by City to another club.

He can refuse to sign a contract with them. The same way if el ghazi didn't want to join us he could have refused to sign the contract we offered him. Players have the right to choose their future and he would act in his best interest not in cities. 

4 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Whilst I agree if we were a top side we’d have better than Heaton, I think he’s a massive upgrade on Steer. He organises the defence, shouts instructions at them. Steer doesn’t do that

Apparently steer has been a lot more vocal lately in his cup games. On top of that I think he is more aggressive when coming for the ball which is important because against Burnley we should have got all 3 points and would have if Heaton had come for the cross. 

5 hours ago, TRO said:

Fwiw......a word of advice, don't try and fit in with them......they should fit in with us.

its not uncool to behave in a respectful manner.

We all love humour......but offensive and racist comments is NOT humour.

This is hard to tell whether it is sarcasm or not. He was making fun of the **** rascist clearings in the woods and not actually stereotyping nakamba. But if you are reading this I'm sure it is Marvelous

49 minutes ago, carewjust4u said:

 

They recently did something very similar with Angelino with PSV https://www.mancity.com/news/first-team/first-team-news/2019/july/man-city-sign-angelino-psv-transfer-latest-update

Granted they haven't sold or loaned him back out yet.

To be fair angelino is proabably their 2nd best left back and you know how the like having 2 quality players at each position. 

Just now, MaVilla said:

That header he missed though........

Turned around and saw it was coming at him. He was unprepared and just tried to hit it not directly at the keeper. He managed that but got a tad unlucky. 

7 hours ago, sne said:

I'd have Makelele as the GOAT in that position (can't really say on players before the mid 80's)

Fwiw Seedorf was much more attacking and not really a DCM, Edgar Davids fits the role better with Dutch players from that era IMO

I remember seedorf playing DCM for AC at the end of his career when kaka first broke onto the scene. Probably why I thought he played as a CDM. 

4 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Contribute when we're not playing well, it's that simple. He hides away every single time it gets hard. He's very consistent in everything he does, positive and negative.

He's brilliant at grabbing goals on the front foot, undoubtedly. He should have been brought on in the West Ham game, it was absolutely made for him.

I'd start him v Brighton definitely, we're looking good. He, Jack and Targett combining and switching around really well.

For a player like him it is hard to contribute when we are not playing well. He will contribute with set pieces but he isn't going to create for himself or get himself in to a position to play a player in on goal. He needs help and that will be down to Grealish, mcginn and El Ghazi. If we are playing poorly it won't be conors fault. He works hard defensively and puts a shift in. He isn't some kind of magical player who will be able to win us a game by himself but he will get you goals, assists and win you penalties. That is all you can recall ask for from your 4th best midfielder on the pitch.

The main question is whether the goals the assists and the set piece delivery is more important than Luiz's overall play and I would say yes. Luiz is a fusion of Grealish and mcginn but is currently not as good as either of them. When he is in the team he doesn't offer anything either of them can't do, except for top quality long range shots which hourihane will score more of anyway. I think hourihane will be more important until Jack and mcginn can add what each other is lacking goals for Grealish and assists for mcginn. Obviously Luiz has to be able to do both but less than conor to usurp him if that is the case. It can only really be a good thing to have 3 prem quality players competing for 1 spot. Either way let the games begin! 

Just now, sne said:

Makalele and Essien also amazing

Essien less so after his knee injuries.

 

Sadly I haven't been around long enough to know a huge amount about either of them. You know viera is the best CDM the same way you know cruyf was the best CAM ever. But when it comes fown to it the best CDM's I can think of aren't white. Seedorf is another and you have got players like fernandinho, John obi mikel (never brilliant but started for 5-8 years at what was the best English club at the time).

6 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I definitely see where you're coming from, it's always a little awkward seeing comparisons to completely different types of players. But can you think of any white defensive midfielders of recent times comparable to Marvelous? Maybe Gattuso? But Marv has got more technical ability than he ever had. Honestly can't think of any top white destroyer types in recent times, certainly not in the PL.

I personally think the Gana comparison is pretty apt. Kante not as much, N'Didi even less. Makalele is brought up a lot because as mentioned he's the gold standard for the position. Just like attacking left backs are the next Ashley Coles or goal scoring midfielders are the next Lampard etc. It just so happens that a lot of the best DMs are black. I don't think it's as lazy a comparison as say when every tall black striker is the new Drogba for example.

Best one ever is viera. The best one since him to do it in the prem is Kante and gueye was pretty great too. Obviously you would compare them especially considering gueye, kante and nakamba all have a lot more strength than their frame would suggest.