OneMoSalah

Be another good few seasons of backwards and sideways if Maresca sees out his contract though 😂 I don’t think we will see much change, like with Arteta at Arsenal too. Who without a fit and firing Saka look pretty toothless playing that style. Now that the dust has settled a bit. In reality, it’s not something a club of this magnitude should’ve ever been aspiring to be competing for. Yes first club to win all 3 European competition trophies, can’t take that away from us but if you had said when BlueCo took over, say 12-18 months after winning a CL, Super Cup, CWC etc that our first trophy since then would be the Conference League - we’d all be quite deflated. Lets be honest. Particularly after a £1.5bn outlay. It is good for this group to get the monkey off their back after the result last season in the Carabao final with the “billion pound bottlejobs” thing but will it change much? Thats the question. Still have huge concerns about the quality of a large % of our squad. And huge concerns about the direction of recruitment and the actual manager himself which need answered. This summer will probably answer a lot of those questions. Sancho & Delap aren’t exactly brilliant first steps either in the market (squad players at best). At the end of the window things will maybe be clearer, lets hope so, but generally still think next season will be another slog if we keep insisting with this utter guff, inflexible style of football and 3-4 years down the line recruitment. I mean 3-4 years is going to come and the first guys signed with this strategy could be off somewhere else, sick of waiting…. maybe not but again, who knows. Its a short career all players don’t want to wait 3-4 years to win something hugely significant.

He looked very very capable playing as an out and out fullback under Poch though, like he was easily one of the much much better performers we had all season round. Don’t think anyone here would disagree. I don’t think that player isn’t still there, I really just think it’s a tactical thing with this manager which he either the player adapts to or the manager is more flexible when he plays (Cole Palmer also made comments about backwards/sideways which I think can definitely be interpreted about the tactics and philosophy more than an off day). Also whilst he was poor in the final, I think Betis had highlighted that right side and targeted it as whenever Gusto appeared inside when we had the ball, Ez Abde was cheating essentially, not following in & waiting for a turnover to exploit that space. And that pass into him or following pass by him was intercepted a lot in the first half. A lot of opportunities for moments like that came from Gusto, Caicedo & Chalobah giving the ball away when building out.

Yes but Henry was one of this generations best players who could do virtually anything 🤣 Where as Gyokeres scores a bulk of goals having run 25-30m virtually unopposed onto a long ball or goals in which the standard of defending is absolutely diabolical to the point I reckon Jackson would score 30-40 goals in Portugal in that Sporting team. Look at Darwin Nunez & Jackson Martinez in the past also. If no big club gets a deal for him done in the first 1-2 weeks of the window that will tell everyone exactly what they the big clubs really think of him.

Delap deal agreed and Sancho signing permanently… really? Which ex Man City youngster we signing next? 🙄 Would love us to go for Eberechi Eze this summer but hes actually really good so we probably won’t. Plus he’s 26. So probably too old. Also not surprised Gyokeres isn’t priority for us (no shit sherlock), Arsenal (Sesko #1 target) or even Liverpool by sounds of it (probably feeling the burn from signing Nunez from Benfica still). Portuguese league is very flattering. He will never score half those goals in a more competitive league.

First 45 minutes he was fantastic I think, without a doubt best player on the pitch and Betis’ best in the whole game. Forgot how good he was really, slalomed through us in the first half at ease, basically impossible to get the ball off, little drop of the shoulder, flicks here and there but great choice of pass also. Imagine him and Hazard in a team together in their pomp…. would need 2 footballs.

Would be better if he was playing out wide as opposed to tucked infield all the time. Just limits his (& Gusto’s) game a bit I feel. Gusto has struggled immensely with Enzo’s tactic's - not surprised one bit. Big season next year, Reece has to stay fit and justify his big wages. Starting every 2/3rd game when fit isn’t really enough for a player of that calibre unfortunately but good to see he’s got some more regular minutes since coming back. Just hope he can sustain his fitness, thats the main issue. He needs to improve on this, but he also has been thrust into that role far too early IMO. Sometimes watching him when he first broke through, he looked like he was going through the motions and didn’t push himself. He seems to have that bit between the teeth now but he also has to become a lot more vocal and demand that from others at times. It is clear people respect him in the squad but with that he has to own it and demand more. He still strikes me as too nice. Will be honest Enzo Fernandez as captain is a joke for me, isn’t worthy of the armband at all. Looks like he half arses most games. And when games are tough he is the first to vanish, first half tonight was even more proof of this. If Madrid offer anywhere near the money we paid, take it and run. Good quality on the ball but he is never going to not be a liability without the ball.

Super useful? How exactly? If he hadn’t had that game against us in December, I doubt their would be a clamouring on here to sign him. It’s like the Torres, Benayoun, Meireles effect all over again. Reports saying long standing interest also are very strange - why didn’t we try signing him from City then? Like Palmer and the fullback kid O’Reily…. cause its nonsense! We’ve needed a CF for years and he’d of been cheaper than Nico also, so yeah not buying long standing interest reports at all. His last 2 PL goals were the beginning of April v Wolves on the 5th of April & Bournemouth on the 2nd of April. Before those he hadn’t scored since goals v Villa on the 15th of Feb and Southampton on the 1st of Feb. Prior to those, his last goals were against Fulham on the 5th Jan and us on the 30th December. If his playing style isn’t particularly suited to a heavy possession based team - lets be honest its not at all - and his goal return isn’t consistent then how would he be “super useful”? I am yet to see one thing that indicates he would be an improvement on what we already have (and that says something cause Jackson is beyond average). The whole point of signing a CF is to have someone who can do the business to limit us relying on a Jackson/Delap/Guiu. Throwing in another kid who isn’t ready to lead the line for an aspiring CL level/title winning club is just pointless. May as well sign another project CB and project GK whilst we are it. You said it yourself in another post he isn’t striking fear into any of the big boys - thats the sort of player we need.

Suppose it’s not about playing well in finals, only about winning them but wow, don’t we make it difficult for ourselves, fucking hell. First half and second half polar opposites. Maresca needs his head checked after naming that starting 11….. a lot of improvement is needed when we jump up to the CL though, from players and the manager both that is for sure. No more inverted fullbacks please 🤯🤣

Perfect farewell hopefully yes….

Was difficult to hear but he had yeah. Because Nico was down. ooft 3-1

Ref blew the whistle though. Bookable offence to kick the ball away after whilst has been blown…. Jackson is literally a make a wish foundation winner. He has to be. What the fuck was that.

Sancho for Neto and not Madueke….. then bringing on 2 of your normal back 4 who should of started. All when your 1-0 down. If you wanted signs that Maresca is fucking clueless, there you go.

Isco rolling back the years, sliding past Fernandez and Caicedo as if their both not there. If anyone offers even close to what we paid for Fernandez we should take it, Isco isn’t particularly rapid but he looks like Usain Bolt in comparison to Enzo. Absolute passenger and don’t think he’s played any sort of meaningful or progressive pass yet…. Gusto playing as an inverted fullback and that space he’s vacated being targeted is 100% on Maresca. He’s done this all season with James also. Gusto and James so much more comfortable and effective in wider areas. Less said about Nico, Noni, Pedro & Cole the better - non existent.

101 as to why Inverted fullbacks are a idiotic thing. Gusto and James both suck balls there.

Has been like this since Boehly and BlueCo took over. And now seen as we are shopping in youth development and bargain categories we will get linked with every random player under the sun.

No he wouldn’t he’s fucking useless 🤣

I remember the days we used to take the piss out of Arsenal’s dressing room photos for finishing top 4 🤣

Not just him, all of the attacking players are struggling but what do you expect from this style of football… 70% possession, backwards and sideways first and foremost every time. He drops so deep rather than stay in the pockets/between the lines. He either needs to stay put and be a bit more patient and trust that they will find him or Maresca has to encourage these guys to play forward quicker.

In reality we limped through second half of the season to get top 4. Lot of results went our way in other games. Unless he changes his philosophy and stops trying to be too clever with players like Caicedo & Reece playing in unnatural positions then he won’t last another season. Personally would have been happier if he leaves after the tinpot European final. He just doesn’t get the culture of the club (neither do BlueCo) or have the right personality or credit in the bank to get away with what he says. He is an insufferable little cunt most weeks pre and post match. Even today his presser afterwards saying he’d tell folk to fuck off because of complaints about lack of experience etc. We fell off the wagon partly because we don’t have people with experience and knowhow to see games out and get over the line when we are not playing well. A blind man could see that.

Not having that at all. Firmino’s role was probably extremely underrated in terms of importance to that team. Similarly to Benzema’s role at Madrid with Ronaldo and Bale. He wasn’t just making up the numbers or a average player doing a job, he was a pretty good player and essential to that frontline working as it did under Klopp. Jackson doesn’t have the braincells or quality to do anything remotely close to that here. He is more like Darwin Nunez than Firmino 🤣 Delap also don’t see it, he is a more classic style CF I feel. Not sure if he will make that step up purely because his game is nowhere near as rounded. How do you think he’s gonna fare against teams that sit in with 10 men behind the ball? At Ipswich they play a lot more direct and on the transition more. His game is nowhere near that rounded or technical enough to play here.

Balance the books? He cost us £30m when we signed him 😂 He is not the type of player we need…. if we sign him and don’t go after a more established and experienced CF this season then we need the brain scan 😂

Precisely. Even Tibo when he came in and replaced Petr after being on loan in Spain back in 2014, he made a hell of a difference to us. And Petr was still at a pretty good level then too. Whatever happened and resulted in us ending up in a position where Courtois wouldn’t renew and wanted out was one of the biggest transfer blows we’ve had in recent history IMO. As you mentioned, his performances at Madrid, he has been the difference for them in several big big games.

I think throwing could be world class around after 2 seasons in Brazil is a bit overly excitable. Plus as you said if he settles in and develops correctly. My money would 100% be on Maresca playing that brain dead fucker Noni at every opportunity ahead of him next season. Regarding Estevao, Kendry Paez seems to have fallen flat off the face of the earth after folk thought he would be along the same lines of the next big South American superstar when we paid whatever for him at 15/16. So nothings a given. I do think Estevao looks very talented, for sure but lets see when he gets here. Brazilian football is a pretty dogshit league for players who are well advanced beyond average. If Estevao is in the squad or not… or at Strasbourg on loan for a year or two to acclimatise to European football, who knows. His stats are good in Brazil but was the same convo regarding Andrey Santos coming into the squad and being involved based off his games in Brazil, then he barely played and went on loan to France. Does Maresca see a place for him? Has he mentioned him at all? Look at how many club signings he fucked off because he didn’t want them from the get go. And will see the same again with some guys come the summer.

Sky Sports reporting its very likely he’s safe regardless of how the season ends. And that the owners think he is not a million miles away from achieving the goals outlined to him. If true, my dislike for BlueCo & sporting directors is at a new high. Idiots.

Eh why would he of left Man City to play 1 season in Spain and move back to the PL again 😂 Was well known he didn’t like England because of the weather also. What a horseshit rumour. Signed for £82m to move back to England after 1 season 🤣