ZAPHOD2319

Players always look at these rankings. It might not be their primary reason or close to it, but the more positive things about your club a player sees over time, the more your club has value to them. Players are probably still being critical of what the club and its ambition are post Roman. This is one more thing that helps them see we are trending up.

This should help with recruitment of players that have several options. UEFA rankings updated.

It is, I could only see them buying for Strasbourg. It does show how wank Man United’s squad is. You remove Bruno and they just have a very good young CB

Yoro and Mainoo are about the only players from that squad I wouldn’t turn my nose up too.

Really avoiding making his player thread, no jinxes.

Delap is already recruiting.

That seems stupid low seeing how much GK are warranting and he was the best in the league last year.

It sounds like they will let him do both, just as we lose 5 players to the England squad. This was retweeted by Simon Phillips.

I was having Finals PTSD from our recent past at halftime!!

Only club that owns them all!!! So happy. This night is all about our club. it has been a very long day. Thank you for all the good vibes.

Thank fucking God. I had three mohs surgeries for carcinoma cancer and then plastic surgery. I needed this.

That source always says the deal is in the final stages with every Bundesliga player.

I think this is what we all fear what will happen in the PL. That strengths section may have felt like it ended quite abruptly, and that was purposeful. Because Ekitike's strengths did get me thinking: how useful would they be in a side that's not Frankfurt, that's not in the Bundesliga, but a less transitional league? Well, I watched Ekitike against Ferencvaros and St Pauli, two teams who sat off against Frankfurt. Watching Ekitike against these deeper defences not affording him as much space, often saw him stripped of his biggest strengths and exposed his weaker aspects. 🔴The main one of those being the tradeoff to his agility: Ekitike is very weak for a #9. He can get sent FLYING by even average-sized CBs. He knows this too, as he's always looking to avoid contact with these players. When he's dueling for a header, he's at his best leaping at the last moment rather than getting into a battle with a defender. Now, when he has space to exploit, this isn't as big of a problem. However, it does mean that passes being fed to Ekitike's feet, with his back to goal, tend to come straight back at you. He drops off the defender, races towards the ball, and plays a pass back to the receiver. He doesn't do much for progressing the ball, because he doesn't want to hold it too long. That's also because if a defender is able to get their body between him and the ball, the games up. Ekitike just never has the muscle capable of winning it back. 🔴Another strength of Ekitike's often disappeared against these sides too; his awesome dribbling. This season on average, he's completed around 1.9 dribbles p90 from 4.1 attempted. Now, take a look at the sides he completed 1 or less against and there's a common pattern. Wolfsburg, Bochum, St Pauli, Freiburg, Union Berlin: All of the sides in the Bundesliga near the bottom for pressing. Ekitike thrives on bursting into space. Rip that space away from him, and suddenly he's not quite as effective. I don't mean to diminish his qualities because he is a FAR better dribbler than most strikers, but it's worth saying I'm not sure how good he'd be as an out-and-out winger. Which is a question we DO need to ask, considering we have similar concerns over his fit as a ST for most teams. 🔴On that note, we must discuss his finishing. Put simply, Ekitike is unreliable in front of goal. Firstly, he's too reliant on shooting with his right foot. He can take shots with his left, but he clearly doesn't trust it; he's taken just 16% of his shots in his career with it. The result is that he'll get into situations where going across goal with his left foot would be ideal, but he instead goes for a tame toe-poke with his right. Oh, and speaking of going across goal, Ekitike is painfully inaccurate with his right foot in this regard. As you can see from Fotmob, he has missed a ton of chances from the right hand side of the box. He just consistently tries to smash it with his laces, but ends up hitting the ball with the outside of his boot and sending it wide. It's weird. Weird is also a word you could use to describe his decision-making when it comes to shots. Ekitike has a habit of trying to shoot unbalanced, on the turn, with shots you wouldn't even score on Fifa. He's also been shooting more from outside of the box of late - he's scored zero from 21 attempts - because he struggles to gain much lift when he strikes the ball. His shots from range are tame and low. The only part of his finishing I'm happy with is his composure. 1v1, he's a big threat, not only in terms of finishing past the keeper but also taking the ball round them and slotting into the goal. Nevertheless, it is absolutely not surprising he's underperformed his NPxG by 3.2 goals this season. And as a striker, that is obviously a major red flag.

PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS Wednesday 28th May 2025 Conference League Stadion Miejski 8 PM UK

Maybe I am just wrong, but for the same money spent, there seems to be much better options available? Maybe our sporting directors canned speech about the project only works on players that have not reached the top level?

Go get him!!

Haha Maresca post game conference he said; we are happy, Man City lost here, Arsenal drew here, Chelsea won here! So many people said that we will not get a result and Villa will be in the Champions League. They can all fuck off!! 🤣 Fair play to him, not one pundit picked Chelsea to win. Our away record is bad, 1 win and only 5 goals scored since January on the road. Thank goodness we were strong at home.

Woot!!!!! Top 4 and a chance to get the only hardware we don’t own in three days!!!

COYB KTBFFH

I have noticed this on social media and YouTube. I have not seen one pundit pick Chelsea.