the_eristic

Cracked rib.

Jack gone. Tammy gone. Oh well. Sign midfielder.

On his way to Palace?

He broke through as an attacking mid, but he's become more of a box-to-box harasser over time. You can see his detailed stats over the last several seasons here. https://fbref.com/en/players/6e7f1353/scout/365_euro/Morgan-Sanson-Scouting-Report

Would certainly help massively with ball retention, and more experience would be welcome for that money. Injury prone, though, so would only go for a very short contact, which the player may not want.

Was about to say this. I think he's changed it up every single time he's taken one, which is really impressive. Definitely was not expecting the one yesterday, though!

Headed a ball from our box to nearly the halfway line at one point. Haven't seen anything like that since Laursen!

I reckon De Arrascaeta was an alternative to Buendia. Alvarez seemed to have a lot of interest from various clubs, now that River are out of CopaLib as of last week, maybe something will happen over the next few days? Regarding McKennie & Doucoure, assuming both adapt well to the PL, the latter would be a younger, potentially major upgrade on Marv for not much money, which we definitely need. McKennie, otoh, would be more like a straight upgrade on John McGinn in terms of his style and strengths. Is that what we need to spend big money on right now vs someone who brings different strengths we lack to the squad? As much as I'd like him here, I'm less sure.

If you look at his goals, I think only one was a long range shot. The rest (and a number of his goals at Brugge) involved either beating the offside trap or slipping behind/across defenders with slick diagonal runs. Saw it for his assist in preseason vs Walsall, too. Those runs being found by Emi10 + more physicality & bite to his game unsettling defenders (which we know he can do... if he doesn't lose control) and he could become a real asset, very different from Ollie or Danny. I'm all for giving him the opportunity to prove himself!

And I thought my Barry Manilow suggestion might be too old!

Club posted his first goal earlier today, making a clever run onto Jota's through ball. If only we had any players who could play more through balls...

I'm not too worried about another attack-minded player immediately unless Dean is fibbing about the severity/length of all these injuries... oh wait. I am very, very worried about ball retention in midfield, though. Whether CM or DM, if we don't pick up someone who can actually keep and use the ball better, we're going to have the same old problems. Just heaps unnecessary pressure on us for long spells of every match. Really hope there's some substance to the Rafinha rumour, even if just a loan.

Lived in Walkertown and Kernersville for the first 19 years of my life! What are the odds, ha!

Grew up just outside of Greensboro, saw pretty much all of my first shows there! ~20 years of life as a performing musician and guitar teacher in the South has, let's say, tempered my personal Skynyrd enthusiasm somewhat, though I have friends that have opened for them recently who say they still put on a killer show (and are much, much nicer than the guys in Molly Hatchet)!

release clause lol

This one got kinda buried in the JWP tumult. Are the links from anybody remotely reliable? Feels like a pretty random/unlikely one to make up, but who knows. He'd *massively* improve our ball retention, assuming he adapts to the PL (given he's consistently put up comparable numbers for very different sides in La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, you'd think he would). Just entering the second year of a three year deal, so any fee shouldn't be crazy. Wages might be, though!

That is incredible.

Ilaix Moriba supposedly available for as little as £13M now. Would definitely take that chance, get Lil' Louie on the case.

I dunno if it's Brummies or just this site, but I had to stay away for the end of the relegation season and a lot of the C'ship spell, as it had become the most depressing place on the internet.

Sanson picks up some goals but he hasn't been an attacking midfielder in the true sense of the term since he left Montpellier. At OM, he steadily became more box-to-box and took on more defensive duties, to the point where he was one of the top pressers in Europe when we signed him. Very much an all-action harrier. McKennie is a wrecking ball, with all the good and bad that comes with it. Wouldn't fix our passing problem, but would definitely add presence we lack and can play just about everywhere on the pitch if needed.

It doesn't make much sense, especially as we only paid, what, 5-6M for him? It's not like he's wrecking our books and we'll be paying a lot more than that for our next RB unless Kessler comes good. He also always seems to be making positive noises about the club and our players publicly, too, so you wouldn't think him unhappy or a troublemaker. I kinda feel like Dean just knew Cash better from the C'ship and decided that's his man.

I'm already mad we've thrown away our perfect season and are going to be stuck with a lousy 97% win rate.

If you look at their numbers respective to their single PL seasons, they're remarkably close. Cash a little better at passing, Freddie a little better at pressing, getting forward, etc, but overall incredibly similar. However, Freddie put up those numbers in ~330 minutes fewer and in an exponentially worse, unsettled team. Then, he went on loan to a bottom half side in France and smashed it. At one point, he was statistically the best performing defender in Ligue 1 (and has topped the tables in Europe's top 5 leagues for things like interceptions and tackles more than once in the past, which is presumably why we bought him). I'd love to see him get a chance in this (...hopefully still...) much improved side, think he might surprise people.

It is absolutely shocking. Our best passing central midfielder is Doug, who averages total passes in the mid 40s per 90, while literally everyone else is making 35ish or fewer, and to top that off, almost none are short/medium "building" passes, they're either long balls and switches (fine if your only gameplan is GET IT TO JACK ASAP) or back to a defender who has to lump it up because their midfielders haven't moved into a better position to receive the ball back and can't do anything with it reliably anyway. Bad enough to watch, but when you start breaking down the numbers it jumps out and slaps you in the face. It's so dire, it's warmed me to the idea of someone otherwise a bit uninspiring like Harry Winks, just because he'd improve our general distribution and control of the ball so much if nothing else, which would help others play their more natural games.

Great energy and aggression which were badly needed, but decision making still not there, as you'd expect from a kid.