King Kante

To be honest Jason, I appreciate why you say what you do. As I said at the end of my post, the choice of favourtie CB out of the 4 we had last year is primarily down to personal preference, as I think it largely depends on what you look for in a CB. Whereas, myself and Tomo look for more 'soft skills' shall well call them, you look for more 'hard skills'. Lets put it this way, if we go Silva Zouma Silva Rudi Silva AC Silva Tomori Would there really be much net difference over a course of a season? My opinion is no, there wouldn't be. So, what this all really comes down to is what an individual prefers to see and them speculating how an extended run would allow for their preferred CB to get some consistency/develop.

I think if you look at Utd, they give their managers more time than us. With us, if you have a bad 4-6 weeks Roman starts getting twitchy with his trigger finger. Further, Utd are not too dissimilar to us with their squad make up - slight suspect back line, great collection of young players. That is why I would give them the edge. This said, I think it doesn't matter who is ranked 2nd and 3rd as I am certain he'll end up at City.

Owing to the AM game (followed by Utd) I am going to post three lines ups here to try and give my selection some reasoning: Soton Mendy Zouma AC Rudi CHO Kante Jorgi Chilwell Ziyech Mount Giroud AM Mendy Dave AC Rudi James Kova Jorgi Alonso Mount Harvetz Werner Utd Mendy Dave AC Zouma James Kova Kante Alonso CHO Werner/Mount Giroud *AC dropped if Silva is back for AM. Could possibly play as the LCB in the Utd game.

Real got another bail out for the Spanish Government or something? Real and Barca are absolutely buggered with their finances at the moment and can hardly pay the liabilities they currently have. Unless something drastic happens neither have the finances to pull it off. Further, Håland is Northern European with a father that only played in Northern Europe. It is unlikely he has that Latin pull that Barca and Real use to secure players from Latin America and the Med. At the time of writing only five clubs have the finances to pull him off and they are; Bayern, PSG, City, Utd and Chelsea. PSG can be ruled out as Håland is uber competitive, so unless they go absolutely mental on wages he isn't going there. Bayern probably can be ruled out too as they don't usually pay top dollar. That leaves City, Utd and Chelsea. Personally, I see him going to City, they need a striker, his Dad played there, their finances dwarf both us and Utd and they are currently top dogs. Utd are probably second choice as they have a more stable environment and also have very exciting young players. We do have a chance but I think it is unlikely as we are just so unstable, whilst Werner, Harvetz and Ziyech struggling so much is also not a great look.

I think what me and Tomo are getting at (and correct me if I am wrong Tomo) is that AC displays more high level CB qualities that either Rudi or Zouma. For me, I would categorise him being better at the following; 1) Reading the game 2) Positional play 3) Playing the ball under pressure His main flaws are physical and mental, which are more exposed when playing with players with the skill sets Zouma and Rudi have. In my opinion, AC's flaws are both more fixable than getting 26+ defenders to start doing what he does better. Further, Rudi and Zouma get a lot of praise from Chelsea fans for their recovery tackles/runs. However, whenever I see them I am reminded of Maldini's comment that 'if I have to make a tackle, it is because I have already done something wrong'. The Palace tackle last season is a prime example of this. Zouma made an absolute monster of a recovery/tackle but it was largely due to the position he took up initially that he had to make it. So, where one can argue that it is a great tackle, others can argue it is poor play and he has had to bail himself out in a very risky way. Personally, I am not sure AC has the ability to quite make the turn around Stones has because of how slight he is. However, like Tomo, I do believe if he isn't playing with someone who is getting caught out constantly from ball watching/being caught out of position he is likely to look a lot better as it will allow him to play to his strengths more and as his strengths are more highly skilled, he could end up looking a good to very good (note not elite) player. However, as I have always said about the Zouma/AC/Rudi/Tomori quintet, pick your poison, as all are flawed and who ever you choose is primarily down to personal preference in what they want to see from a CB.

Is he really? I thought he wad 185cm or something. If that is the case I agree we already have too many funsized/lightweight players. For me we need a CB, DM and CF this coming window and each one should be strong, tall and physical or at least have amazing heading ability and can boss people with strength and running (think Essien.)

Wow, you think Utd fans are worse than Dipper fans? The Dippers for me are by far and away the worst fans on the planet. Here is a brief list of things they have done: Got English teams banned for 6 years from Europe - also tried to say that the reason Heysel happened was because the Headhunters turned up as there were 'Cockney voices on the terraces' that night. Always bang on about Hillsborough whilst forgetting about Heysel. In 2007 they also robbed their own fans of tickets and stormed the gates in Athens then blamed UEFA for holding it at a 'Olympic Stadium'. Have been going on for the past 12 months about being 'World Champions' as if anyone in Europe take the CWC seriously. Brick visiting coaches constantly. Support players convicted of racism with T-Shirts. Always playing the victim in any circumstance. Fighting each other at the 'Title Party' when in lockdown. Creating fires in buildings in Liverpool city centre by aiming fireworks at them. Cry about being called 'Dippers' or 'Murderers' then then hold official fan parties where the band sings songs celebrating the Munich tragedy. The list is really endless. I could go on.

To be fair the majority of those players are either development players or players brought for development. The ones we should worry about are the following (owing to wages and fees paid): Batsh*t Kepa Baka Drinky Zappa Baba Emerson Barkley Moses Zouma Rudi RLC AC Tomori Kenedy Jorgi Alonso MVG *I have excluded Willy and Giroud as they're out of out contract. This is still some list but I think they are broken into categories. Cat 1 - Players that shouldn't be sold Alonso - If we continue with 343 I do not see any need to sell when considering our other issues as we will have to buy a replacement and we have bigger fish to fry than sodding about with this. As I have always maintained, Alonso in a 3atb system is a very handy player. 2 x of AC, Tomori, Rudi, Zouma - As a collective they are poor, however as CB3-5 options they're fine. Pick your favourites on who stays. My personal choice would be AC (best one to cover the central CB slot behind Silva) plus either Rudi or Tomori. Cat 2 - Players that are non-enitities due to injury/personal problems (likely that we are still paying 100% even when loaned.) Baba MVG Drinky (probably should be in the list below but I do feel he has mental health problems so I give him a slight stay of execution.) With these players, just accept the loss. Cat 3 - Players who are vastly overpaid and will become Bogrades (or can only be loaned with minimal loan fees or percentage of wages covered) RLC Batsh*t Baka Kepa Zappa Again suck this up and remember these players and how they were brought/given contract extensions when praising Granny as these players cost a total of £160m+ and over £500k a week. Cat 4 - Players that can still be sold for a profit/no real/small loss: Moses (if Spartak get CL - if not move him into Cat 3.) Kante (may belong in Cat 1) Jorgi (maybe needs his own category due to how limited his market is.) Barkley (needs to stay fit for the rest of the season, possibly biggest profit potential.) Kenedy (expect a loss but I reckon we can get a sale.) Emerson (wages save him. Could maybe belong in Cat 3.) 2 x of AC, Tomori, Rudi, Zouma The problem we have really is the Cat 3 players (and the Cat 4 players who could/probably will join them) as they are all players who were poor buys from poor scouting or vastly overpaid before proving themselves. It is Cat 3 which will ultimately handicap us as the cost of these players is ludicrous and cannot be offset by Cat 4. As for the development players/players excluded they are the cost of running a very good development programme and either still have time to develop or will not be serious costs.

I have maintained all along that of the 4 CB's we had last year, his reading of the game, positional play and passing ability is by far and away the best. Problem with him is his physical and mental game, however in a three that is not so much of an issue.

Problem is the CB market. Very few players about of the right quality and those that are about are super expensive. £100m in wages for 29 year old Alaba? £100m plus top wages for Gimenez? Take a risk on Upamecano or Konute and hope that they continue develop and do not stall like AC or Zouma? In my opinion, CB is the one position where age is not so much of an issue as long as the players still have reasonable legs and have been top players. With the other holes we need to fill (namely CF and DM) it may have to be a case of go for experienced older players and maybe try out Geuhi and Amapdu and see if they can develop were AC and Zouma stalled.

Nah, I do not think so, done as a first XI player, yes. However, Dave is an incredibly handy player for the back line and we should be looking to pull some James Milner sh*t with him. Essentially, he can play RB2/LB2/CB4 or RB3/LB3/CB5 if you prefer. Essentially, he should be our utility man for when we want to shut games down in the last 20-10 minutes. Players like that are really handy.

Personally, I do not mind Costa's antics, I think they are largely overplayed and a lot of it is to do with his upbringing growing up in a favela. I mean, firstly you have to accept what he thinks is 'normal behaviour' is going to be different to that of players who grew up in Europe and have been pampered to since they got swallowed up into a youth set up before they were in secondary school. I mean if you hear the players that played with him, almost all of them sing his praises which tells me he is probably a good teammate/bloke but just with a mercurial/anti-establishment mentality. Further, I personally like the dark arts of the game and hate widespread blandness of players today and especially how a certain segment also come out with empty platitude nonsense as they trying to build some sort of sainted/sanistised brand on InstaTwit or whatever. Me personally, I'll take a player with Costa's personality over any of those posers. That said, I fully appreciate he isn't the player that he was and that is enough to avoid. However, my initial post did outline him being an option if Giroud leaves in Jan which is fairly unlikely so it was more of a hypothetical suggestion than a real idea. Obviously, it is one that no one else likes.

This game has disaster written all over it. Wouldn't be surprised if Willian pulls out one of his four good games in the season in this one and Blood Clart Yang reverts to his peak powers for a game.

For real. Willian is incredibly talented but he is also incredibly frustrating and inconsistent. Anyone that cared to watch him for 10 games straight would've known that.

On his way out of AM in the upcoming window. If Giroud leaves for any reason, I wouldn't mind taking him back for 6-18 months. Sure he isn't the player he was but at the moment we need more cnut's in the team as we are too nice and what better cnut could everyone learn from?

Just thinking about January and I cannot see a big move i.e. Rice or Håland or something crazy. However, I wouldn't be surprised by a RWF who comes in as a rotation option. What would people think of Thauvin? He only has six months left on his contract, is 27 and has been really consistent since moving back to France. I reckon something like £10m would get him.

If Håland is a realistic target i.e. he is indicating he wants to come here, then I think this makes sense. Werner, Tammy and Giroud would be fine. However, if Giroud leaves we may need to get someone else.

Personally, I think it will, that or 4231 which is a possibility with Rice. However, I would still have money on 433 as 4231 would cause problems in that Harvetz, Mount and Werner would all be competing for the No.10 role. Kova would also slightly struggle for game time as he would have Rice and Kante in front of him plus a mixture of: Billy, Jorgi and Gallagher. From all the signings, it appears to me 433 is the idea. As that formation is pretty much best fit for the current core of thw squad which isn't going to change much. Only other one I can see if 442 diamond but as we haven't played it, I cannot see it.

I also do not think he will end up like Morata and he will end the season with decent numbers. Drogba's first season however wasn't as bad as some people make out, for sure he wasn't as great as he became but he did do a lot of donkey work that was really under appreciated throughout his career. The problem with his first season was more to do with cultural things like diving, expectations from a PL club for expensive signings and British culture vs French as it was clear he never wanted to leave France and only went as Marseille wanted the cash. The bigger problem for me is where he fits in a 433. For me, when Puli and Ziyech are fit he doesn't play in a WF position and I am not sure he can play the No.9 position, although this is preferable to LWF, as at RB he played off Poulsen.

Only way this happens is if the Tapas Pulis keeps his job.

You mean apart from that Ziyech one, where he allowed the ball to go right across goal because he didn't move his feet properly then had the ball slam into his face. That image where the ball makes impact with his face is one of the funniest pictures I have seen in football for years. Only Phil Jones tops that.

This is a good point and people should remember it. For me, this season isn't one where we are going to win the league, the Dippers unfortunately are still much better than us but being able to keep clean sheets even when not playing well is a promising sign. This season the games that have really annoyed me in the league were Soton and WBA as both those games involved ass clownery that was a trade mark of last season. I firmly believe if we had Mendy for those games we would've won both which would have us second behind the Dippers. We have also had two bad referring calls that have hit us, as we should've had a pen against Penchester Utd and in the Wolves game we should never have had that corner given against us (although tbf, against WBA Harvetz did handle it before the 3rd.) Either way, people need to keep in mind we are still 1-2 years away from being a top rank side and patches like this are going to happen. Of course, if we keep playing like this for 2 months or something then we may need to worry, but at the moment I am not too worried. Being able to defend properly is a big improvement on last season and the one before.

Well that wasn't good but we should be mindful that last season we would've lost that, at least now we can defend which gives us a chance to pull something like this off. Further, I will take a win playing badly than play well and get a draw/loss. That said, midfield is a real issue at the moment as we aren't keeping hold of the ball enough. Hopefully, Ziyech can come back in and help with that. Not going to beat up on any players today as I do not think that is needed right now. However, Emerson did ok when he came on and Silva was man of the match. Not a glorious victory but today was all about the points so I am happy to take that. Everyone needs to remember we're still a work in progress and this season will have teething problems at times, hopefully today is a turning point and we can start playing better once we get our wingers back.

The problem with this game is midfield, they aren't doing their job. It is way too easy to get the ball from back to front for Wet Spam. The problem is I am not sure how to fix it, CHO on for Werner?

I do not think SFL's job is on the line yet. I think for that to happen we would need to lose another 3 games on the trot or something. The last two games principally looked like we were suffering from fatigue, which is also true of a number of the other top teams bar Utd and the Dippers (and even then the Dippers drew with Fulham and had to be bailed out by a penalty.) That said, there are a few tactical/selection choices he has made which haven't made that much sense. First is starting Harvetz in both the Wolves and Everton games, in my opinion Kova should've started with Harvetz coming on as he is clearly out of form/suffering from illness. Second are the formations, I am a massive fan of 433 for this squad but not when we do not have any wingers. In my opinion, he should have gone 343 or 352 in both those games to push James and Chilwell further up the pitch and given the opportunity for Werner to play as a SS. Lastly, in the Wolves game it was clear we were out on our feet soon after scoring the goal. That for me means you have to put Jorgi on as he is the best at keeping the ball, how he didn't see this I am not sure but for me it was very obvious. Anyhow, I am not too worried atm as the league is very unpredictable and the squad is still very young/new to the league.