robsblubot

agreed although typical early season... think only arsenal are firing in all cylinders now.

Tal Ben Haim raises his hand... 😉 (from post above) "Strikers work on service" yeah but only the bad ones.

I see folks focusing on the missing chances, but tbh I did not see anything crazy. Scoring 2 goals against the good team of Spurs should've been enough esp at home. Defending was piss-poor however.

Very energetic player perfect for the high press. I think he's very different from Chilwell, which is good of course. 2 quality players with vastly different characteristics!

What worries me about Auba is how his presence may hurt our pressing -similar to what happened with lukaku. werner was a diff issue. His pressing was excellent, but he never really improved his finishing with us and sterling was signed. if Auba wasn’t good enough for Arteta, he shouldn’t be good enough for tuchel given the same requirements regarding high pressing.

Yeah maybe a 2nd tier younger striker is the way to go atm. Like a Matheus Cunha, but he's now on united's radar - gotta act fast with young strikers. He's more like a classic 9, but also hard working. He's not going to get you the numbers first season, but could deliver good performances and act as a backup for Kai. At this point just hope 33yo Auba isn't being seriously considered.

His LB price is 10m, but his "striker" price is 50m 😉

My list would be similar with a few caveats. Dembélé I think is just too risky (guy is a bit of a diva like Lukaku). Lewa maybe at the right price, but *way* past his prime and a bit of a choker in CL. De Jong at the right price, but don't see him as an upgrade for us. Same with Marc... would rather spend in the striker pos for ex. Pedri, Ferran, and Gavi YES please! Raphinha too, but he's just joined them.

That thing inside you is not anger buddy. (Eat a salad)

Only players I'd want from Barcelona are the young ones who are likely considered unsellable.

Right but players with the right characteristics give you an edge in that regard. Arsenal struggled with "quality" but lazy players up front like Aubameyang, and will be (another prediction here) much stronger now with Jesus. Auba may be a lot more clinical than Jesus, and yet Jesus is the far superior player to me. Quality for me includes the right amount of work rate, teamwork, tactics, mentality -- all linked. I don't disagree with you. My point is that I don't think we are posed to compete as equals with those guys. When a top player can choose, they never really choose us. Haaland went to City for a reason. The only way we can get there IMO is by betting on hungry players like we did to win the CL.

I hope you are right and I can certainly see the expectation that Sterling will bring what he learned at City and do the same for us (high work rate so we don't lose much there). On the other hand, he may show a different demeanor as the star player now. Yeah maybe I am more pessimistic about the players we've been linked to, and I sure hope to be wrong TBH. Just don't see the type of signings we did before (Koulibaly was a weird signing to me)... IMO we need to bet in a few hungry players even if most of them don't come good.

All of our players are good players. They don't get to this level by being bad. I'm questioning the characteristics of them and how they will work together. City, for example, always has a plan. They buy specific players who can play in a certain way with specific characteristics. Yes, they fuck up once in a while (prob a shirt-selling signing here and there), but there is always a plan.

well, you may think that and I think you don't seem to understand why and how we won the CL. You would prob describe a lot of our players as "making wind" then. In my book, football is a team sport. Halland does not get "numbers upfront." He's a special player -- best in the world in his position. They already had a strong side which consistently outplays the opposition. We beat them with high work rate, and Werner played a part in that. BTW, I'm totally making a prediction. We shall see whether that's right or wrong. I think we will struggle for several years and our moves in the transfer market are starting to look like United right now: no plan just marquee signings.

I am not happy he's leaving, but understand it's going to be hard for him with Sterling as a starter. I'd still rather keep Werner and let Pulisic go. Fans are weird sometimes: this guy came in improved work rate, team chemistry, and helped win the biggest silverware there is. Who cares about individual numbers? We can't compete with city as equals they will always outplay and outscore us esp with the best 9 there is today. The only way to compete at this level is via teamwork and hard working at that. I suspect the new owner does not understand this well enough and we will struggle for a few years.

I think CR7 is done for as en elite player. Yes, he will score goals here and there due to his quality, but the ball will have to be played to him most of the time and that can be very costly at this level. Vardy at 35 is just too old as well -- esp for a guy who relied on pace as much as he did. Personally I was hoping for signings in the mould of Werner and Kai. Fofana does fit that tho.

Skillful and yet overrated player who plays for himself and does not press to save his life. Tuchel strives with team players, so Auba would be a pretty odd signing tbh.

No brainer for me. It's not about getting someone to replace him - we already have that for both rb and cb - the issue is how to get a better squad player than him. Folks downplay how hard it is to get someone who delivers at this level. He's also super versatile, which is just another bonus. Now, evidently he will not start games as often and be prepared to see him struggle a bit early season esp. Thought he still had pretty good games last season, just needed a bit more time to get going, which is normal for footballers past 30.

Remember seeing a lot of Alex Telles on this thread some time ago. Massively overrated LB IMO and now an official PL flop.

Zaha for Werner would be a huge downgrade. Really don't see anything in Zaha's game tbh and a bit lazy at times.

I think Sterling deal blocks that move as we'd have too much of the same thing. Unless Puli and/or Werner go. Even then, I think whatever "hunger" Neymar once had is gone, and he's going to spend more time injured than on the pitch. He's just not professional enough for this level. I think Hazard was a bit like that too, and folks still loved him here, but I don't think that type of player fits well in Tuchel's system tbh.

I suppose Barcelona making a statement regarding that. We will see wether their scouts and coaches are right or not in a bit, but the fact they went all-in for him is also information. Raphinha has also done well for Brazil so far and got a few caps already.

that means he's going to fail that right? I mean every doctor will tell the club there are no guarantees he will be able to play at this level 3 years from now. 😄

completely different players in different positions/roles as well as different stages in their careers.

That's the thing, his experience in PL is for Bournemouth level not city, or ours. He was also *way* behind the pecking order for a reason. While I don't personally see any ball-playing skill in him, I think they made a bet (given their CB issues) that he would improve and would adapt well to their possession system -- neither really happened, so now they are trying to push us to make a similar bet, which makes no sense given that it's no longer the same bet. It's really a question of "why him?" and why pay this much if he's so unremarkable? Wouldn't surprise me if this was tied to the sterling deal tho.