OneMoSalah

Yeah I think Palace would take him. But they will struggle to buy him unless they sell Zaha to raise funds to buy more expensive (fee and wages) players imo as opposed to maybe going down the path of the loan market and free signings. I think most PL teams excluding City, Liverpool, ourselves and maybe Spurs will struggle in the market when it opens although bar City and maybe ourselves if we buy smart, I doubt they will all spend a lot anyway on multi players. The financial hit Covid will have had on these clubs with smaller revenue such as Palace, West Ham, Southampton etc will make things difficult for them to recruit imo.

Valenica links seem odd as rumours have it basically anyone in their squad is up for sale. Due to the whole situation with Covid and income. I dont think theyd ever be tempted into a loan to buy option for Kepa. Loaning him seems pointless too he has shown he is good enough and with a better defence and organisation I think we will be alright, as we have seen at times this season already.

Getting Oblak, Alaba, Rice, Havertz on top of Werner and Ziyech would be great but it is extremely unrealistic imo.

Its all well and good saying that but in these tope squads even if player X or Y is the captain and vice captain you need more than just 2 leadership figures. You look at any successful business or sports team or whatever and they are littered with leaders. From Amazon to Google to Facebook to Liverpool to Man City to Bayern Munich.... Obviously we had Cech, Brana, Cole, Lampard, Ballack, Drogba, Terry, Carvalho back in the day who were leaders and big personalities regardless of the manager. Football has changed in a lot of ways but even with Conte being here or Jose again, he had Courtois, Cahill, Luiz, Costa, Cesc and Hazard to a lesser extent we still had those sort of players but we also had Jose and Conte too. Liverpool have got a great squad but if you look in it there are a lot of people who have been captains/vice captains at club or NT level or worn the armbands there or at former clubs in spells. Van Dijk, Henderson, Milner, Robertson, Wjinaldum, Lallana, Matip IIRC, Lovren. There is a mixture of leaders there, with different qualities and ways of being leaders. Some can lead through example and some can lead by being vocal, there are various different leadership types and qualities that make leaders up. Not just in football, in business, in engineering, in science, in whatever. We need a few more leaders in and around the squad, we had an influx of talented but less experienced youngsters and lost Eden, Gaz and David, 3 senior players at the club. The coaching side has to try and compensate for this lack of leadership more imo and drive these guys on a bit more until we can add a few guys or some of these players develop into leaders. Its not just a matter of you are born a leader or you cannot ever be one. Leadership is a quality that is developed. The staff can push players on this also. There are many different things in sports psychology that can be utilised to improve mentality and help players push through the barrier and become leaders in whatever way they can. Be it being more vocal like Jorginho (I have also seen this with Kepa since he arrived, as a GK he is extremely vocal anyway but more so compared to Tibo and Cech imo) or leading by example like Azpi does imo of lead by making the difference when it matters most (Drogba and Cech back in the day).

On top of the other reasons I doubt we will sign Oblak, I really do not think 2 seasons after spending 71m on a GK we will go and spend 90m on one. Particularly when there is the possibility of Onana being available at nearly a third of the price and the possibility that even with a better defence Kepa could still be good enough. Last season showed that he is a good GK and say 9 games this season wont change my mind that he is solely the issue. Plus if we did spend 90m on Oblak, what happens to moves for a LB, Havertz and a CB? We will not probably not be able to move everyone on that is surplus to requirements because of Covid, which is going to affect/influence a lot of clubs into not spending unnecessarily or on players that aren’t particularly good value for money. I mean I do feel we will struggle to offload the likes of Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Batshuayi. As well as them it will be tough to move on potentially 2 LBs if the reports are true, a 71m GK as well as a handful of other players likes of Moses, Miazga, Baba and Zappacosta. Realistically I think Zouma and Jorginho may be the only two players we can realistically sell with ease in the summer as Spurs are really keen on Kurt and Juventus are always going to be linked to Jorgi although they just signed Arthur and have a plethora of MF options. But even then they are two guys who have been regulars this season and I think the club would rather not sell them as opposed to many of the others who arent involved with the squad. Yeah we have the deal for Morata coming in and Pasalic too as well as bonuses from Eden’s deal but we have already spent 40m on Kovacic last summer, 33m on Ziyech and 52m on Werner this summer already. Even with Romans belief that the club can find value for money in the market in this situation I doubt we will be spending another 250m+ on Chilwell, Oblak and Havertz. Without even thinking about a CB also. Its just unrealistic to expect this. Hence the likes to Onana and Telles/Tagliafico who would all be considerably cheaper and more attainable have also been constantly linked.

With all the restrictions he has in terms of being very very limited player, I can't help but wonder if he would of fluffed some of the chances Giroud did last night and ones Abraham has as well. I think his finishing is maybe his only saving grace. Definitely needs to be moved on though.

Even if Alaba wants Spain move I dont see why we dont just push him because for 36mn that is a bargain. Although I have always thought hed prefer a move to Barcelona if he were to leave Bayern

Playing in a more counterattacking orientated Dortmund team probably helped that where as Hazard was afforded more of a luxury role at Lille with that regards and they were more a possession based team particularly his final season. Theres nothing wrong with that but weve also seen games (ie under Jose when Atletico put us out the CL) where Eden let his man go and it didnt help. Pulisic will get a bit mire of that freedom eventually I do feel but we have try and be a more proactive team like City or Liverpool where they do the pressure in packs very quickly after losing the ball and not sit off chasing fullbacks for instance.

Exactly. Also he isn’t just limited to going sideways and backwards but the difference in terms of the options we had when players had the ball in terms of passing options from earlier in the season to now is a big difference. You cannot always pass forward if the options have been shut off or there aren’t as many as there could be but people seem to think that Jorginho is usually always the reason as to why.... Rodri at City very much does a similar job but they’ve got the players who will move off the ball into clever pockets or run in behind and create problems for others as well as creating space where you see the likes of De Bruyne or Silva pick it up and have real time in these sort of half spaces. Jorginho is never going to get 10 assists a season for instance that isnt why he plays there. He controls the game and if our other midfielders/attackers were more productive this wouldn’t be an issue. Same with Rodri at City although his role is slightly different but their fans wouldn’t dare focus on ‘he isnt creative’ enough because there are others there to do that. Also tonight I was impressed by little things I seen from Todd Cantwell, most times he received the ball he was aware of if he was marked tightly and always was shaping or opening his body so he could go forward with it into space or an opening. It may only seem like a little thing but that is what I used to like about Barkley when he broke through at Everton. Kovacic is capable of it too. There is more problems than just Jorginho in this team. The lack of urgency and movement when we get up the pitch is alarming at times, as well as the finishing. Whats he meant to do if he gets it standing around the middle of his own half? Punt it 50 or 60 metres in behind a defence to Giroud who very rarely runs in behind teams as his strength is playing to his feet and getting guys closer to him to play off that? Or Willian who again prefers to come short? I wouldnt say he plays it safe but when he has to he does yes but just look at the difference from the start of the season to now. We had more willing runners and more unpredictability in attack, now we really dont for whatever reason (same as what Sarri did perhaps, try and keep more men in better positions so we are more stable if we lose it?). I mean If Pulisic doesnt do anything or end up on the end of a low centre/cross in the box from Azpi or Alonso or Giroud doesn’t score from a ball across the 6 yard box, where else is the goals going to come from? The bulk of our chances were centres from our fullbacks, some which were into promising areas, or from corners.

True maybe his working back helped him out but in attack at times he looked like he was more than contempt to slow it down as well as the fact maybe the movement wasnt there also. totally agree with the point about Ruben, think next season he will be better but he also has to try do a bit more at times. Hes another guy who can ghost past players but he didnt do it very often today.

Maybe he wasnt great or hasnt been in games since the restart but I think it is a similar situation to that period under Sarri during the winter. Everything was so slow today infront of him and there wasnt any real clever movement from the attacking players or Ruben/Ross when he came on (although he did grt a bit higher up more frequently than Ruben) to get in behind Norwich or between the lines. There didnt seem to be any real idea of how to break them down bar keep moving the ball from side to side and rely on the fullbacks crossing, which they did provide some half decent crosses that weren't taken advantage of but again its predictable and pointless if your not going to finish those chances or at least flood the box a bit more. Kovacic was steady enough in the middle tonight too but think he could have done more to take some of their MF players out of the game by asking for the ball off the CBs or Jorginho and spinning anyone tryna put him under pressure, he has done it in phases and his ability to retain the ball in tight areas indicates he should be looking to do it more frequently. Think we also missed Mason as well if I am perfectly honest but he has played a lot this season so can see why Frank maybe didnt take him on. I really get the impression Frank doesnt fancy Jorginho though. He would much prefer Ngolo or Billy there.

Says it all when our best chances really came from crosses from fullbacks. Ruben, Ross, Willian did nothing of note. Too slow in attack but the options weren't there either at times, lack of movement in and around Giroud meaning the likes of Willian would slow the game down to go backwards. Positives: -3 points -managed the game ok -clean sheet (Kepa more or less a spectator) -decent defensive showing -didnt concede many big chances -Reece, Azpi and Alonso put some decent crosses into decent areas where you would ideally want a CF/winger/3rd man runner to come into. Negatives: -boring and pedestrian through the middle -too many safe passes in final third -no real willingness from any MF players to get into the box regularly -poor finishing I would be interested in seeing who had the most touches today, I would imagine Azpi/Alonso will be right up there ahead of all of our attackers.

Honestly would say its worse than with Sarri at times. At least you knew we wouldn’t be too bad at playing out and getting to the final third with a bit more urgency and clearer patterns by the players but with the likes of Barkley and Willian (who has been one of our better players since the restart too) it is far too much for them to create something out of nothing. Plus bar Pulisic, really we dont have many guys willing to run in behind or play quickly which is a problem in itself and that includes Giroud as well who isnt mobile enough to be a big threat in behind teams in these scenarios. Werner and Ziyech should help us in this case but again, Franks persistence with someone like Ross is very frustrating he looks as if hes had the instinctiveness and creative side coached out of his game a bit and seems more of a safe player now a days. Subbing a fullback for a fullback is a poor decision in my opinion. Benitez-esque. Although tonight our fullbacks have really done alright and created the bulk of our half decent opportunities that youd feel if we had someone else like the likes of a Raheem Sterling or a proper top CF we would have more goals.

Giroud... not having much luck 🤣 another half decent ball in

True but again if he could show this sort of performances more often than not he would be very handy to have around the squad to make the numbers up as a backup/rotation option. Still undoubtedly better than Emerson. Alonso seems to have a decent connection with Pulisic when hes on the left. Obviously has his flaws but most of our defenders do. Most of his crosses tonight have been alright. Few blocked as well.

I think Atletico are building another good team though and will be much better next season compared to earlier this one. Felix has really started to up his game and is looking more like the player he was at Benfica. Plus theyve got the experienced heads still and Oblak is one of them, I doubt he will be looking to move. As nice as it would be to get him here. Thomas probably the most likely to move from Atletico this summer.

While that is true most of the time tonight he’s been one of our best players, picking good positions when we are attacking and has been very solid defensively.... if he played like this every week he would have a real chance of staying.

Good play down the left again. Giroud is having one of those nights though, could of had a hattrick by now. Zouma also should have done better with his chance. Willian and Ruben have been incredibly disappointing but Alonso, Pulisic, Kovacic and Azpilicueta all doing well imo.

Alonso has been unlucky with his final ball, defenders blocking him well but he is always in good positions. Pulisic also unlucky with that chance Krul made a good save. Hopefully get something in next 5 before HT.

Think Lindelof has really improved with Ole tbf. Was never overly keen when we were linked with him at Benfica but has improved a lot since in the last year and a bit. Joachim Anderson is a very decent player. Done well in Holland with Twente and Italy with Sampdoria and now progressing again in France.

Must admit I am eager to see how Cantwell does, really interesting young player. Also Buendia who has looked decent for them but think hes on the bench? they started well but think we should be looking to win comfortably. great ball by Alonso there

Thats workable then. I think we will struggle to offload everyone that is surplus to requirements on loan but if we can move say 3 or 4 on it isnt too bad. Suppose Pasalic is already going to remain with Atalanta and Morata will sign permanently at Atletico Madrid too. Kenedy has been mooted to sign for Getafe on a permanent deal too.

Hopefully get a result. The pressure is on, never ever thought playing Norwich would be a pressure game for us but its more to do with the fact United and Leicester dropped points in games you'd expect them to win. We cannot afford to drop anymore this season. Hopefully we see a big change attitude and effort tonight because that Sheffield United game was a joke. Like we were going through the motions or on holiday already despite the fact nothing is certain about the CL. Another loss and there will be more questions than answers imo, about Frank and about the squad. I think a poor end to the season will bring on a lot more media speculation as well about how we had managed to go from what was it, 11 points clear of the others before 2020, to struggling to get over the line.

Max of 6 players loaned out surely? Doesnt mean we will necessarily get rid of everyone I think there will be a few who rot in the reserves for a while.

I doubt we will sell 11 players in one window. Plus isnt Kenedy’s contract expiring this summer?