Biskitt

4 hours ago, M_Afro said:

Would people take Dean Henderson on loan for the season? He is a top keeper and it would give Tom time to prove his fitness. We could even loan Tom out to another club to get him back in the grove and ready for the following season.

Would be great but I get the impression he fancies his chances at becoming Utd's number 1, can't blame him with the way De Gea's been playing recently. 

I have no trust in Nyland at all so have no issue with loaning a keeper for the season whilst Heaton is recovering. Romero at Utd could be available, depending on what happens with Henderson/De Gea and I'd be happy with him 

Pep does seem to shit himself and overthink his team selections in these games. 3 at the back and no Mahrez who's been one of their best players this season? Playing against a team with a low block but doesn't have either of the Silva's on the pitch either?

This has happened quite a few times now but he doesn't seem to be able to learn from it either

According to whoscored, Benrahma was the best player in the championship last season ahead of Pereira and Eze. 

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/Seasons/7840/Stages/18673/PlayerStatistics/England-Championship-2019-2020

He's a really good player but he essentially plays in the same position as Grealish so unless were going to change formation, not sure how you fit them both in?

Buendia plays more on the right side and is defensively stronger so he might be a better fit for us although he doesn't have the pace we need and has never scored a lot of goals either

35 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Only if we can also get Veretout back.Get the gang back together.

It always pains me to look at our transfers from that season and how those players turned out. Gueye, Veretout, Amavi, Traore and Ayew were all signed for relatively cheap prices, all play for teams that are better than us and would get in our side now.

I just think the integration of them all without the structure of a strong core of established players ruined us, as well as the likes of the "established" premier league players we signed like Lescott, Richards and Sinclair being absolutely awful for us. Hope we don't make the same mistakes this year and try to sign too many again, we only just got away with it this season 

https://coupler.foxsports.com.au/api/v1/article/amp/football/liverpool-to-be-awarded-premier-league-with-plan-that-could-see-no-teams-relegated-for-next-season-report/news-story/04ec1185a7abc3e80ba00301a70f7c85

Quote

Liverpool is ‘likely’ to be awarded the 2019-20 Premier League title, with reports there are mounting fears it will be impossible to complete the season this summer.

Interesting article here. Essentially saying that one idea that has been discussed is that no teams are relegated and the top 2 championship teams are promoted creating a 22 team league with 5 teams relegated the following year. EFL cup would be cancelled for a year to fit the extra games in. Not sure if this will happen but certainly an interesting suggestion and one I'd certainly welcome!

https://twitter.com/FrenkieStats/status/1229887138902237185

(Sorry, don't know how to embed the video)

Such a unique player to have that height, speed and power but also the finishing instincts. If he keeps improving, he could be absolutely unstoppable 

Thanks for posting that interview, really refreshing to hear a footballer being so candid. Always seemed like a great lad on here and looks like nothing has changed since. Would absolutely have had him ahead of El Ghazi or Trez but appreciate those 2 probably cost less combined than he would and we desperately needed the squad depth

The way I see it is that Samatta will be first choice and then we have 2 options off the bench. Davies is great for those games were we are leading but need an outlet to hold the ball up, I know it sounds a bit daft but he's kind of a "defensive striker". Baston might be the player we bring on if we need a goal as he's probably more of a natural finisher and poacher than Davies (who struggles with that aspect a bit)

If its a free, I don't have too much of a problem as we can probably sell him to a la liga team for a couple of million if it doesnt work out 

34 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

They already have Yarmalenko Felipe Anderson, lanzini, and fornals. Loads of quality there. The problem with west ham is they need athleticism in the midfield, Haller hasn't scored enough, and their centre backs are a bit crap. They're still very much in danger of going down. As the actual problems still exist.

They've signed Soucek who is 6ft 4 and an absolute workhorse for midfield. He's looked a good player to me when I've seen him.

At least Bournemouth haven't done any business 

1 minute ago, Kiwivillan said:

Does he have Championship escape clause? Prefer what we've already got and McGinn coming back 

Not sure. I'd have like him as he's different to what we have already, he's 6'4, strong and gets round the pitch well. Wether he can get up to speed in the PL (hopefully not) is a question mark though

Soucek going to West Ham is a bit annoying, from the admittedly limited bits I've seen of him, he looks like the sort of player we could do with in midfield

Bournemouth winning tonight is annoying but looking at the match stats, they only had 34% possession and Brighton had 21 shots (8 on target), their keeper Ramsdale was MOTM too which suggests they are still quite vulnerable. Huge game! 

Ps Newcastle can **** right off

Konsa is the right sided centre back, he should be picking him up there, not Guilbert 

Newcastle linked with Ademola Lookman on loan with option to buy. I know he struggled a bit at Everton for game time but he's always some I've thought that looks to have a lot of promise. I think he'd be better than any of the current wingers we have too.

Great first half, totally dominated. They came out much better second half and we really didn't react well which is still a worrying trait we have. We still seem to lack composure defensively and sh** ourselves making clearances at times which just invites pressure. I'm still worried about how poor we seem to be in the second half of games too. 

Grealish was the best player on the pitch and Was had a really good first half, just hope his injury isn't too bad. Kodjia was awful when he came on, complete lack of of work rate and game management. 3 at the back seemed to work for us and definitely an option I'd like to see more of away from home.

Huge 3 points ans hopefully we can build on this.

Ps - VAR is a Cu**

3 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Yoshida.

1000%. Always thought he was shite, how he's been in a first team regular for so long is baffling 

I'm still in shock about that decision at the end, genuinely haven't seen anything like it. There was contact and it wasn't a clear dive so to disallow the the goal is a disgrace. 

Having watched both games, here's how I see it so far.

Goalkeepers - Fine. Mistake from Heaton cost us yesterday but confident he'll be a good player for us. Plenty of backups too.

Full backs - Elmo and Taylor have played ok the first 2 games defensively but are not particularly great getting forward. Target and Guilbert seem more forward thinking so hopefully we'll see them soon. Surprised neither have played yet which is a little worrying. 

Centre Backs - Mings and Engels look a good partnership so far and 3 decent players as back up, pretty happy with our options here.

Central Midfield - Not sure we've quite got the right balance yet but Mcginn, Grealish look like they can play at this level and I think Luiz can too once he's up to speed. Yet to see Nakamba and think Hourihane is a good squad player. Lansbury is probably 6th choice which I'm fine with. Think there are number of teams with worse midfields than ours. 

Wide Forward - Trez looks like he might be ok at this level and looks a threat, if a little raw. El Ghazi blew hot and cold in the championship so was concerned about if he could step up, still not sure he can and was hoping he would be more of a squad player this year rather than a starter. Jota has looked a bit off the pace in his cameos so far. Bit concerning that there's not going to be enough goals/creativity from these 3. 

Centre Forward - Quite concerned here. Wesley did a couple of good things yesterday but was still pretty quiet and touch let him down a few times too. Can he get up to the speed and physicality of this league? Davis is very raw and would ideally be 4th choice. Kodjia blows hot and cold but seems a more natural goalscorer than Wesley. Worried about where the goals will come from on a regular basis

Think there is some solid foundations in defence and midfield, just hope were not going to regret not getting another striker/wide forward in that most of us were hoping for

Really missing Hourihanes set pieces today, they've been woeful so far 

2 hours ago, penguin said:

I thought the same about Haller to West Ham.

Yeah but they are a much more established premier league club than we are (at the moment) and are also in London which is a selling point to players. Just can't see this happening at all

Absolutely no chance we could get Zapata imo, he'd have much bigger teams after him than us. Would love to be proved wrong though!

1 hour ago, LondonLax said:

I agree effectively signing a whole new team after promotion is a risk. The optimal situation would be to finish top of the league, keep the core of that squad together and add a handful of genuine quality to the mix. A bit like Newcastle's path a few seasons back. 

We did not have that option unfortunately and I believe the current strategy is the best possible approach we could have taken, given the hand we were dealt. 

If you look at the list posted earlier:

Signing fewer (but I assume more expensive) players on the right column would require keeping more players from the left column.  Of those players on the left I think we have kept everyone we would have liked to with the exception of for Abraham and Tuanzebe (who we can assume were not available to sign).

I think relying on more players from the list on the left (presumably Adomah, Whelan and De Laet? I can't see who else we'd be considering?) would have left us exposed at times during the season.

Whilst we have spread our transfer spend more widely than would be ideal under the perfect promotion scenario I think it has been necessary. In addition many of the players who have come in have previous links to either the manager or other players in the squad giving them the best hope of integration.   

I agree.

I don't have any issue with any of the players that we let go of, the obvious exception being Tammy and Axel but assuming they weren't available.

If the rest of the players on the left list were good enough to make the step up then why havent any other premier league teams taken them on frees? Id be hugely surprised if any of them are playing premier league football next year.

Whilst i'm slightly concerned some of the players we've signed won't be at the required level, I also dont think that signing 5-6 £25m players instead would have been that easy. Wether we like it or not, we are still a promoted club and will be one of the favourites to go down and that may not be that attractive to a lot of players in that bracket. Wages may be an issue too. 

One of the positives about the number of signings we've made is that at least we have genuine competition for places in nearly very position on the pitch now which can't be a bad thing. We also have some decent squad depth too now and actually own the players too

2 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Marvelous Nakamba and Baptise Santamaria would be the best named midfield football has ever seen. Get them both in.

It sounds like a pair of footballers from a "Toast of London" 5 a side team.

"Can you hear me Baptiste Santamaria" etc...

Now that it looks like our defence and midfield is pretty much sorted, I started having a think about our options at centre forward as I know a lot of people are saying we still need another option. I was interested to see what options our potential rivals this season have got in this area. Im not including Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth, Wolves or Watford for this purpose as I think they're teams that we should be challenging over the next 2-3 years, providing we can stay up this season.

Sheffield Utd:
Clarke
Mousset
Evans
Sharp

Newcastle:
Joelinton
Muto
Gayle

Palace:
Benteke
Sorloth
Ayew
Wickham

Norwich:
Pukki
Rhodes
Srbeny

Brighton:
Murray
Locadia
Andone

Burnley:
Barnes
Wood
Vydra
Rodriguez

Southampton:
Ings
Long
Adams
Austin
Obafemi

If our options at CF are Wesley, Kodjia, Hogan and Davis then how does everyone think we stack up against those teams? I think Kodjia is fine as second choice (and is probably on par with the other teams second choices) but a lot will depend on how quickly Wesley adapts. Interesting to see what happens over the next couple of weeks