manpe

Tbh Moses created our most dangerous situations yesterday, at least a few of his shots reached the post/goalkeeper/sidenetting. Crossing was poor as always of course.

It's not even a contest, the players you listed are serious professionals. Baka's technique is not on professional footballer level when I watch him, his level would be bad even for a goalkeeper.

Spot on! Give Conte the squad of City and I doubt they will replicate our shit performances. They would not be Pep-level good going forward perhaps, but they would also never be Chelsea-level bad either.

It's most likely intentional yeah. 3-5-2 in essence is a narrow formation and in order to stretch teams players are more further apart from each other. In theory it should create space, but in practice it often just doesn't work because we see bad passes, bad touches, no movement, no exploitation of space, no imagination, no speed, no technique, no quick ball rotation. We don't have a B2B CM to exploit that space, we are lacking a key ingredient. As a result our attack is outnumbered, predictable and toothless while defence is overkill solid. Deepest concern is simply lack of quality... Players like Alonso, Drinkwater/Bakayoko and Moses are not good enough to be undisputed starters. Whatever circle-jerk there is over Alonso's goals and shit stats "proving" him to be one of the best, he is not a good enough player and that is a god damn fact. Our bench is shit (Bats, Willi). Fabregas, as much as he brings, his role should start to be diminished soon. I don't know other solutions other than fucking BUY UPGRADES (not replacements) and don't scrimp.

The third midfielder needs to be a proper B2B powerhouse or our attacking play will suffer. You can see Bakayoko trying to do that, but he just plain sucks. Drinksy is more like a direct replacement to Kante, not really a suitable partner in 3-5-2. Can Barkley be the answer to our 3-5-2 woes?

Our players are too far apart from each other. Look at City for example, they always have at least 2 players near the player with the ball to start combinations and other players position themselves so that they could make through runs or runs into space instantly when the play comes off. We however? Hazard has to constantly switch flanks because nobody is close and open, we play 30-50m passes side-to-side because players are static, no one-touch plays and no sudden movements. We basically just resort to crosses because we have no creativity to break through any other way, and our crosses are with very low efficiency.

Bakayoko on, Hazard off

Superb lineup, couldn't have thought of better myself. Something we have been crying for for some time now, this better be good. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Maybe because it took effect now and half a season has been played already? Maybe they prefer it to expire in summer. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Get in! Well deserved. [emoji846] Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Posted a link earlier in Courtois thread where it was shown that De Gea's passing success is only about 55%! Compared to Ederson's ~87 and even Tibo's ~71. Could be because he's playing in a Mourinho hoof-ball team, but that's only an excuse... 55% is shocking either way, yet he gets credited for it while Courtois gets the stick. Go figure. EDIT: And though Ederson's pass completion (87.4 per cent) towers above other Premier League goalkeepers, Courtois' rate (71.3) far outweighs former Real target De Gea's (55.3).

I don't think he is playing any character or whatever. I used to think that, even if he did before, now I believe he is showing his true colours. It's pretty clear he takes a lot of things personal when he shouldn't, and taking things personal makes him act personal. He looks genuinely angry and frustrated, I agree with @Unionjack think the pressure from Real has followed him and kept on stacking.

Yeah, I thought Neuer had already revolutionized goalkeeping. What's so special about Ederson?

Yes, as I said I did not say he was automatically a bad player because of it, I'm aware of the prodigies that have come from Portugal. I simply said that showing superior numbers to players playing in tougher leagues doesn't show much in comparison to their qualities.

Yeah the honeymoon period, but it didn't last. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

I think so too, similar to how our 5-3 drubbing by Spurs was the beginning of his end here. How many implosions does he need to go through to understand that it is he who is doing something wrong?

I wouldn't call aerial contribution tertiary for a WB, rather secondary. It doesn't cover Azpi, because if the ball comes to Azpi's zone there is nothing a player playing on the other side can do. It balances the defensive line, yes. And I feel you are giving too little credit to Azpi, he's better in the air than his height suggests, I think he easily wins over half of his headers thanks to superior positioning and strength (f.ex. Lukaku was absolutely his bitch on 2nd floor). I'm not worried about Azpi's aerial play at all, but I sometimes am worried about Alonso's lack of speed and ability to recover for example. I don't disagree that he is "pretty good", our team as a whole is pretty good. But I want us to aim for very good, and that starts with reducing the roles of pretty good players.

Heard Can is joining Juventus this summer, he's out of contract. http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/11197163/juventus-offer-liverpools-emre-can-a-five-year-contract http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5238453/Emre-seals-agreement-principle-Juventus.html So that leaves only Keita, Lallana and Wijnaldum. Not good enough. However, there are rumours of them going for Strootman as replacement. http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/08/liverpool-talks-sign-kevin-strootman-roma-7213517/ https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/902054/Liverpool-news-Jurgen-Klopp-transfer-gossip-Kevin-Strootman-Emre-Can-Leon-Goretzka

Portuguese league, Matic was one of the best there, that says enough. Not saying he's a bad player, but comparisons like that don't show much.

Might be worth putting a bid on B.Silva in the summer then, or nobody wants him anymore? Meanwhile Arsenal continue being a feeder club to City.

Another garbage story lol.

They don't watch and scrutinize us every game. A lot of such opinions are formed from highlights or selective memory, and he grabs the highlight reels with his goals and free-kicks - absolutely tertiary characteristics for a wing-back, a good bonus. You don't hear many people talk about anything else but his goalscoring record for a defender when they praise him, they don't analyze his defensive or possession game, both of which could be much better and would contribute more in general than the odd goals.

Nah hopefully Conte can mould him into a solid CM, can't bench our most intelligent midfielder, Hazard and co. will suffer. Kante, Barkley and Cesc ideally. Drinkwater a perfect stand-in, Bakayoko just a squad filler.

Lol stay calm, we can't afford his wages if Hazard signs for 300K/pw.

It was said it was a solo session because most of the squad was in Norwich. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk