January Transfer Window - 2022

[VillaFaninLondon]

21 minutes ago, useless said:

Whenever I've watched Brighton this season I haven't been overly impressed with Cucurella, technically looks good, but never seems to make the best of the good positions he finds himself in, doesn't seem to have a great final ball. Is he another one of these players that people overrate just because he plays for Brighton.

Edit: I've just looked on a Brighton forum and their fans seem to like him a lot so maybe I've just caught him on not so good days.

That's mainly because Brighton's strikers are pants and don't make good of any of the crosses he puts into the box. His crossing is much better than Targett's for sure. 

[hippo]

44 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Quality post!

I think some fans need to let go of favourites because if we do want to be a top six team then we could see a number of them being replaced.

Depends who we bring in as replacements. If we are replacing them with Liverpool fringe players - I'd rather stick with what we have.

These aren't a bad group of players by any stretch.

[useless]

I think this idea that Brighton's only problems is that their strikers aren't very good is a bit over played, it's not just their strikers, they aren't very good in the final third as an whole, often you will see them trying to over complicate things taking too many passes, when I watch them often it seems that they're a team that think they're better than they actually are. Even their fans will tell you that this season they haven't been creating as many chances as last season.

[hippo]

Just now, useless said:

I think this idea that Brighton's only problems is that their strikers aren't very good is a bit over played, it's not just their strikers, they aren't very good in the final third as an whole, often you will see them trying to over complicate things taking too many passes, when I watch them often it seems that they're a team that think they're better than they actually are. Even their fans will tell you that this season they haven't been creating as many chances as last season.

Once again a team playing out very slowly from the back struggling to score goals. Not sure why it surprises people any more.

[useless]

We aren't going to be looking to replace Mings or Konsa any time soon, they're too important as individuals and as a partnership, to replace them would pretty much cost us most of our transfer budget, so not sure what the point would be, when that money is needed far more urgently on other areas of the team. What we might see happen is Hause upgraded, with the potential for that upgrade to challene Mings and Konsa, but doubt we will be looking for an outright replacement.

[skarroki]

Regarding replacing our whole team to get top 6/4, see West Ham 

[nick76]

46 minutes ago, hippo said:

Depends who we bring in as replacements. If we are replacing them with Liverpool fringe players - I'd rather stick with what we have.

These aren't a bad group of players by any stretch.

Completely agree, not only that but we may think a player upgrades us but then doesnt fit.  We need to plan well and then have some luck.  Yeah it's a good bunch who seem to get on well.

[sne]

43 minutes ago, skarroki said:

Regarding replacing our whole team to get top 6/4, see West Ham 

Tbf out of their regular starters Soucek, Bowen, Fornals, Dawson, Benrahma, Coufal, Zouma (Lingard) have all been brought in during the last two and a half seasons.

Edit: They've also manage to keep their Grealish in Rice. So far...

And honestly I'll be really surprised if they finish better than 7th or 8th this season. Which is still really good.

Edited December 29, 2021 by sne

[jacketspuds]

1 hour ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

I think there's no question if we want to break into the top 6 or heaven forbid the top 4 most of the team will need upgrading.

 

Other than Martinez I can't honestly say anyone else is top 4 standard. Konsa is a very good defender but is a little bit overrated on here as he also makes mistakes. 

 

In terms of who could we get that are better CBs than our current ones, Gomez could well be (I don't know how good he actually is because anyone playing alongside VVD would look good). Botman at Lille has been linked with teams like Wolves and could be an upgrade on what we've got (he was outstanding last season when they won the league and is only 21). Otherwise it's up to our scouting team to find them. Mings and Konsa definitely need a quality third defender to compete with IMO.

Botman is a good shout. Already a winner at 21 with Lille and can only get better. In terms of Top 4 standard players, I really hope that Bailey can become that. It wasn’t that long ago that he was linked with Liverpool and Man Utd.

Just typical that he has been injured for most of the season.

[villabromsgrove]

We still have several players who need to improve their individual decision making. Silly errors are costing us points. Wrong decisions in both boxes happen too regularly. Part of our scouting process and signing criteria needs to cover a player's footballing IQ.

[sne]

Been really flimsy links to Attila Szalai and Pau Torres before this Joe Gomez rumor started after Gerrard came in so that the club is interested in bringing in another CB seem likely. Especially since Axel is a loan and Hause is either gone in the summer or 4th choice level if we extend his contract for a season.

[The Fun Factory]

1 hour ago, sne said:

Tbf out of their regular starters Soucek, Bowen, Fornals, Dawson, Benrahma, Coufal, Zouma (Lingard) have all been brought in during the last two and a half seasons.

Edit: They've also manage to keep their Grealish in Rice. So far...

And honestly I'll be really surprised if they finish better than 7th or 8th this season. Which is still really good.

I will be amazed if Rice stays for long.  It will be another Paul Ince situation.

[KangarooVillan]

2 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Other than Martinez I can't honestly say anyone else is top 4 standard. Konsa is a very good defender but is a little bit overrated on here as he also makes mistakes. 

I mean what’s the goal here? The only CBs I can think of in the top 6 who aren’t good for a mistake time to time are Thiago and Diaz. Maybe Rudiger and haven’t seen enough of Varane.

The rest of them, including Maguire and Virgil are well capable of a mistake.

[villabromsgrove]

3 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

I mean what’s the goal here? The only CBs I can think of in the top 6 who aren’t good for a mistake time to time are Thiago and Diaz. Maybe Rudiger and haven’t seen enough of Varane.

The rest of them, including Maguire and Virgil are well capable of a mistake.

Any player can make a mistake. It's  the regularity of avoidable mistakes that concerns me.

[a m ole]

34 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

I mean what’s the goal here? The only CBs I can think of in the top 6 who aren’t good for a mistake time to time are Thiago and Diaz. Maybe Rudiger and haven’t seen enough of Varane.

The rest of them, including Maguire and Virgil are well capable of a mistake.

Until This season Rudiger has been rife especially in a 2, and Varane was absolutely awful, 2 or 3 huge mistakes, in the Newcastle game.

Edited December 29, 2021 by a m ole

[Vive_La_Villa]

Absolute madness to think Mings needs replacing. Please find the club a defender that never ever makes a mistake and is happy to join us.

[Villaphan04]

22 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

I'm gonna say it quietly here, but I really don't think either of our starting CBs are very good. I think Gerrard should be looking to upgrade at least one of them soon.

 

I think the problem is that you can probably group arguably 8/10 midtable PL team's center backs and they're all going to be around the same level of quality. It's the problem when the scum 6 can just come and take the best players 

[VillanousOne]

Well if Axel's loan gets axed so he can go to Napoli and Hause only has a year left then we really need to sign another CB soonish.

[Tayls]

Re the CB argument, in my view you don’t change the Mings/Konsa partnership, certainly not at this point in the season. If it is to change at some point in the future then I expect it to be for a player who is absolutely better than what we have currently. 

Additionally, and this is just my view on things, I think CB is one of the most difficult positions on the pitch. You are literally the last line of defence before your goalkeeper, and when you have some of the best attacking players in the world against you every week, it makes things even more difficult. At the moment, in the Premier League, I think the level of attacking talent is far greater than the level of defensive talent.

Finally, I think the errors being made by the two should be looked at properly. Again, we see their mistakes as the last men back, whether it be a misplaced pass, or letting a ball roll under their foot or whatever. I bet though that out of 100 occasions, their margin of error is less than 10%. yes it can cost us games when the mistakes are made, but I think we need to get some perspective here. 

[samjp26]

Just saw a journalist on Twitter say things are progressing with Hickey. Saw a reply asking about Joe Gomez, to which the journalist replied that Gomez is likely going to Real Madrid.

Of course I thought “oh, it’s a troll account” but no. Joe Gomez is going to Real Madrid!? Wtf