Sulberto21

19 minutes ago, hippo said:

Not this again. Most youth teams play a passing game to improve technique etc - the overall physical game is much in decline - but none the less there is a noticeable upgrade of physical presence when you hit first team level.  so really the notion of getting all junior sises playing the same way is nothing news - they probably do anyway, but its still a massive step up to first team level.

I would say are youth production line has been barely adequate for a number of years. But you have to be realistic - We are now in the toughest league in the world which attracts players from across the globe - the idea that you can have 5 or 6 such  players  in you reserve team isn't feasible IMO - At the moment we have Grealish who is a superstar and on the fringes we have Davis and Green, who whilst they may not cut it here would probably net us £3-4m a piece in fees 

 

Im talking about past regimes the use of a past tense verb , in this instance the word ‘had’ ,should make it very clear what im talking about. I wasn’t saying we will have 5/6 in reserve, my point about barca and real should have made that clear. We can make it a successful business with the odd player make it for us.

31 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

The first team, u23s and u18s all play the same formation, pretty much a 4-3-3. I think it’s a good strategy as it’s promotes continuity throughout the club. In my opinion, the club is producing players for the first team with the likes of Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Andre Green and Easah Suliman on the cusp of the first team, whether they make the step of cementing themselves in the first XI like Jack Grealish has remains to be seen

Formations don’t matter if they are implemented with hoof-ball . I was talking about the past anyway.

3 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

FFS

I remember the Arsenal game the same season boxing day when Zat Knight equalised. We out Arsenaled Arsenal. Totally dominated the game but we couldn’t score. If Cavani or Falcao had been wearing the claret and blue we would have won that game and I guarantee Arsenal would have been finished for the season. From that point I sort of knew that we wouldn’t get champions league and it was confirmed a week later when we signed Heskey.

So the younger players had Heskey instead of Cavani and or Falcao to train with.

All because MON lacked balls in the transfer market.  Lerner was backing him up until that point.

From what I understand he was offered to us along with Cavani but mon bottled it and chose Heskey. Yes you read that right. 

I don’t think Alli is overrated, he would probably benefit from having Grealish and or Foden playing with him. Alli likes to make runs in behind whereas the latter two like to receive the ball on the half turn and create havoc from there.  Alli is young so his form will dip and rise.

If Grealish takes to the premier League like we are all hoping then England will benefit too that can only be a good thing surely.

One of the major problems we have had is the fact that there has been no continuity between playing styles of the youth teams and the first team. 

Under MON our youth teams played football but the first team played hoof-ball. So when the youngsters came in they looked useless because they had to adjust to a different style of play. 

When Houllier came in the youth players actually fitted in because he wanted football played a certain way. Sure they made mistakes and we unfortunately suddenly went frugal with spending but that was a fault of MON who bought in the main - donkeys.

Now imagine if he had bought Falcao and Cavani instead of Heskey. As soon as Houllier comes in we would have had two world class players whom the likes of Albrighton, Hogg et al could have learned on the job with. 

Hopefully now the infrastructure and system will be put it in to place. It didn’t work out but I see what Houllier was trying to implement. Now hopefully Suso and Purslow can finally get that project over the line with the new Academy manager. (I forgot his name eek) 

Edit - in addition alot of La-Liga is awash with ex Barcelona and Real Madrid players who weren’t quite ready or Good enough for them.

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

 

Is a striker possibly more important for us than a keeper?

 

They are both equally important because without a keeper we would concede lots of goals and without a striker we would be one man short.

1 minute ago, Jas10 said:

I nearly threw up in my mouth!

If we’re going to buy crap we may as well buy proper crap. 

17 minutes ago, meregreen said:

Why do some people think players who aren’t quite good enough, are okay as squad players. To me a player in the squad is used to improve a situation in a match which is not going too well, or to cover for a players injury. Either scenario still requires a player good enough to fill that role. It does not help the team, having players on the bench who aren’t good enough to make a difference, and could end up making things worse. The only exception to this for me would be to help younger players in their development. Taylor certainly doesn’t fit into that bracket.

Mike drop. 

Instead of Sturridge, Austin, Benteke etc id rather have Zigic. His 1 in 25 will be more useful than those three. 

Sheesh Kebab !

His playing style/ movement reminds me of Nwanku Kanu. 

It’s around 6million or something last time I checked.

11 minutes ago, sne said:

Famously known for having very favorable release clauses on Football Manager over the years.

Always a good buy.

Edit : it’s Apparently £36 million lol.

As most have said we have options. He is a good player but I believe that the signings made are in response to the period without Jack last season so we don’t suffer if he isn’t fit or in need of a rest or two. 

Thankfully the refereeing is better in the prem.

Timo Horn is a good shout. His passing seems a weakness though. Amazingly we were linked with him in our disaster season of relegation. 

I believe that they will except us to sit back. I think we should start with Trezeguet and El-Ghazi on the wings. We should have an absolute blitz at them for the first 20 minutes. And subsequently against all the top teams we should try the same for the first 20. 

Ive noticed Man City do this in every game. Blitz and try to get three goals up. The bigger teams won’t expect us to go for it like that. 

I forgot to mention - Targett has a driven pass over 20-30 yards that will be a weapon for us as he pings it beautifully and this can change direction quickly for us. He isn’t no slouch either.

Re the 42:41 discussion above - his body position is wrong imo, a premier League player should be able to open his body up a little so he gives himself the options to go in either direction. 

However I hope he can show the Swansea level form as he will then be an asset for us. 

49 minutes ago, thabucks said:

If we could guaranteed get Phillips, Butland, Benrahma and a top class striker prospect.. would anyone sacrifice SJM for £50mill if Manure did I come calling ? I wouldn't  personally. Him and jack are Gunna be our heartbeat this season ...

 

£75 million plus De Gea, Martial and  Rashford and we might consider it for a second. Then say no.

On 24/07/2019 at 21:05, TRO said:

But good footballers in possession, usually do run aound a lot as well.

Hence he doesn’t benefit a Dean Smith team.

Brilliant goal, he showed better touch today. Once he relaxes a bit he should look better. 

I don’t think we should be paying any Villa player more than £50k a week. If they perform in the Premier League then they deserve the big bucks. 

I was happy with how Charlton played. They caused a few problems in the middle third. And they were able to get to our back line too. Im looking forward to see how Leipzig play against us as that will give us a better understanding of where we are.

Heskey helped his teammates. We chose him over Cavani and Falcao and righly so. His job wasn’t to score sitters it was to miss them. Champions league? Pah Heskey did his job and missed those chances but he bought other players in. Namely Arsenal’s and Chelsea’s And Everton’s too. They all finished above us after Heskey came in and did his job.

Hopefully Davis will do the same as his hold up play will definitely help. I’m sure he can do better than Heskey - he doesn’t even get in to the positions to miss the sitters. 

On a serious note my frustration with Davis is apparent with what happened today at around 03:00 minutes in. He does brilliantly well holds off a few defenders after receiving a sharp ball in. Lays it off. And trots towards the centre (which is fine) we eventually carve out a chance with Elmohamady crossing it in. Davis should have been busting a gut to get on the end of it instead he was toddling along on the penalty spot.

His touch and control are very very good. His attacking instincts as a striker are not. Luis Suarez has excellent hold up play. So too do other lethal predators. Yes he brings players in but Davis needs to start scoring more goals. 

On 25/07/2019 at 21:01, MaVilla said:

 

At around 05:00 im sure he skins that defender from Galatasaray we we’ve been linked with. He seems more intelligent than I thought and his ball control is good. The weight on some of his passes is very good. 

Naturally the Premier League is way harder but it could be a good one this. 

18 minutes ago, Wezbid said:

"Taker zat, Mr Gwegowee!" 

By heck I can see why the womanzzz love him. Any bloke willing to put his thumb in his mouth is going to get all the girls.