communicate

How is he defensively? I only watch his YouTube highlight he does carry the ball forward well. I am actually more surprised that United did not sign him,because I heard they are looking for a midfielder. Pogba - N'Dombele Matic Pogba can just stay up high and let ndombele carry the ball forward.

I don't follow Dortmund enough to know about their youngster but yes they are really good at producing and developing youngster. But I don't know whether they develop them from academy or sign upcoming from Bundesliga. Don't get me started on CHO. I have spent a whole year explaining why as much as I think CHO is super talented. If one of your winger is Hazard and the other side need to be good defensively. And as CHO has shown in the later part of the season when he was a starter, his output is not better than Willian. Nope signing Willian and Bakayoko make sense. They are signed to be starting 11. The same with Alonso, do we have any bright youngster at left back? The problem is player like Zappacosta and drinkwater. This is where you definitely need to use your arcademy if you have any that is ready.

Don't get me wrong they are fantastic but in epl where the league is very competitive (a relegated side can even sign player like schurlle) , it is very hard to so. Like you said if they turn out to be fantastic you will reap all the benefit if not this is where it differ big time. With Ajax, they probably will still stay at top of the league. In epl you can easily drop to 10+ and even close to relegation. For me, I always like academy and youth product for rotation player. If they turn out to be fantastic then it is even better. The problem is with player like Ampadu. Last year he was our 4th Cb. Which mean he won't play enough games. I much rather him go for loan to get playing time.

But playing in a weaker league allow them to keep their model for long time. Imagine doing the same thing in epl, you can easily get relegated. For me I like having our youth going on loan and get back when they are ready like what Otherwise, they can get stuck on the bench and never develop properly

My biggest concern is not whether he "can" play as double pivot but whether he will be effective there and whether he will be our starter. For me kova - kante are my no 1 midfield option for double pivot. Bakayoko to back kante and maybe jorgi for kova. It is obvious that Barkley and mount will be our no 10, maybe even pulisic too.

Any video on Jorginho playing double pivot? I found one on barella against Greece and that is pretty obvious a 3 midfield rather than double pivot

I have just checked Italy lineup in nation league to see how Italy use him in double pivot but Italy play with barella - Jorginho - veratti. That is more of 433 rather than double pivot

As much as I praise Jorginho last year I don't see see him in double pivot. His passing range is not great and he is not exactly mobile. Last year, he was asked to sit in front of Rudi - Luiz - azpi That make sense, he can get the ball and move it side to side. In this double pivot, he is asked to pick up the ball and bring the ball forward because the two fb push up high. That is not exactly his strength. The way we build up remind me of mourinho. I remember very well in United he ask matic to drop to the backline but not between the CB but on the left side, I can see him asking kova to do exactly the same and let him bring the ball forward.

For me watching yesterday especially lamp 4231, it is a typical 4231. With narrow wing. Watching yesterday game you can see the amount of time Kennedy and Pedro got the ball between the line and combine with either no 10 or Giroud. Willian and Pedro will be fine playing this role but will CHO be good as narrow wing I don't know. Sarri played him very wide and ask him to beat player one on one which is his best strength. Billy I thought played extremely well as one of the double pivot offensively. I can see kova playing this role next to Kante/Bakayoko. Ruben is also an option but he need to get fit first and get better defensively. It does mean that Jorginho is the odd man out. Our right back also need to get better. Zappacosta is just bad and Azpi is not really good offensively.

Our general play offensively I thought quite poor. Michy and Tammy did not work well together. Hopefully this 442 diamond won't be part of our main formation. Never big fan of it

After watching the 1st half. Mason Mount looks quite good. I like his movement and his passing. Tomori looks good but against this opp it is almost impossible to judge anything. Both Tammy and michy are poacher so they don't work well together.

He looks good so far but it is very difficult to judge. Our opp is not physical nor fast

Mount looks good. I like that pass but I don't like 442 diamond

Does it mean the only youth player that will stay in full camp will be mount, Tomori, and Tammy? (I don't count Ampadu as youth, he was our 4th cb last year)

I don't know. I want to see how we look like without hazard for extended period of time. Hazard was our best player, our top scorer, and our best creator. Usually when you lose your best player, you use the money to strengthen multiple position on your team. But in our case we got only pulisic, a far inferior player.

If this is true. Rodrygo and vinicius can pretty much kiss their career goodbye if they stay in Real

I think it is more important to know what is his best position. As much as I like versatile player, it is important for him to have a settled position.

Fair enough. I don't count CHO, ruben and ampadu as youth though. They were part of first team last season. Need to watch how mount, Tomori and James play. I watched Tammy two years ago with Swansea. He need a lot of work

It is funny reading this forum. I kept hearing we should play youth player. One pre season game and it is change. Only ampadu is good enough. Ampadu was part of the 1st team last year so he is not exactly youth player

For me there is nothing to worry about attacker option because we don't have much choice. It is very simple. CHO won't be ready for a while. We have only puly, pedro and willian as winger. Not sure there is major difference in term of how we will play using any of them. The same with our cf option, Tammy and michy are both more of a poacher whereas Giroud is a typical target man. Not sure it will affect our game that much playing any of them.

Yup you are on point. Not really big fan of wwc. The gulf of quality is too big. The problem with the other team is that usually they don't have a complete team whereas US has good player in every position.

Don't get me wrong. He actually meant it. But like I said it is easy to say that we want to play fast. I don't think Sarri said let's play slow football, his Napoli team played one of the fastest tempo in Europe. I want to see what Lampard has in his sleeves. Kante as holder will help against transition but Jorginho as holder hell us play against press.

Nah. Lampard say that every manager say that they want their team to play with full of energy but he said it, it was just talk. I love that he said that. It is easy to say let's play fast, the key is can your team do that. Do you want to play fast by being more direct which mean you will lose the ball more. Can you handle the other team in transition. Our transition defense I thought last year was horrible. It was better under Conte but we played with 3 cb plus two destroyer in front of them

I think it depend on what Frank want from his no 9. If he want a target man, I have no idea who else. If he want a speedster, we can go for Timo werner.

Lol It looks like there are tons of anger on Lukaku