robsblubot

yup the most likely scenario is that we end up paying about 250k/week or so. Can't imagine a big club making a big investment for a player who's been as inconsistent and disinterested as Sterling. Frankly, he looks unfit to me.

I agree with you that Sterling is a lot better than Mudryk actually. there is something off with him tho: it feels that he is sitting on his contract. His talk about getting back into the England team is bizarre to say the least.

We can always ask his agent nicely whether we can stop paying them. 😆

Not a great lineup by Spurs... yes, they can click and play well, but boy that's not a talented squad.

Well that's the strange part: he seems pretty happy doing the dirty work and running his socks off for Argentina. 🤷‍♂️ Still, from what I heard about Maresca, we should expect drastic changes going forward.

Maybe, but I don't think we have that information just yet. He's been mostly employed in a more advanced position, where any player would have less time of the ball. A CAM also needs to play with his back at the opposition goal at times, and he's better doing the b2b. The new manager employs the positional game, so I expect a lot of changes in the next matches. There have been reports stating that he has asked to play in a CAM role; if so, the club/manager should dissuade him of that idea, and if not possible sell him.

Yes he's struggling, but first touch, being slow, all could be because he's playing in a very contested area with very little time one the ball; he needs to be thinking about what to do before applying the first touch. He plays very well as a CM for Argentina where he's an excellent tackler. Move Caicedo do CAM to see how he'd do eh. Was Conor good at CAM? He was pretty bad too.

Regarding last season, that was in a very direct and counter-attacking style which is vastly different from what the new manager does (which is the reason he was hired). He was also used in the toughest matches, and was rested during the easy ones... stats are fun. Enzo was bought as arguably one of the best CMs for huge money, at least on the young side. I don't understand why he plays as a CAM for us, so that's a problem the manager has to sort out. He's far more skillful than Caicedo, and I think he will play a much bigger part this season knowing what the manager seeks in terms of characteristics.

Saliba is indeed very good. I'm not a big fan of Gabriel tho. Yeah, Rudiger remains the best CB for me and VVD is still a pretty powerful figure. Thiago Silva was already done last season, now he's very much Brazil level. Calafiori looks to have a very high ceiling in the ball-playing area, so I do see him a bit differently from other options.

Agreed on Arsenal and City; in fact if Kai retains his form from last season they may be a stronger contender yet now with a top CB. Kai is a good fit for them because they have many goal scorers in the squad (don't require a super high xG striker). On United, I don't actually like when rivals play poorly and still find a way to win matches. That suggests quality, which in their particular case was strength in depth. They have a lot of players to gel in same as us, so they may improve quite a bit during the season.

Agreed. I don't trust Fofana fitness for obvious reasons, but we have enough cover even if breaks again. We seem to have missed on the better CBs anyway, esp that one ball-playing CB that Arsenal snatched up. Aside from striker, I'm extremely disappointing seeing Sanchez starting for us again. If Fillip cannot play ahead of Sanchez wtf was he signed?! It was good to not have to see Mudryk try to play football tho. He can learn to play footy watching Neto at gameday or at practice.

Only plausible explanation. 😆

Yes. And yet Enzo is a super energetic and dedicated CM for Argentina. He just does not have the attributes to play CAM and is always on the ground complaining on minimal contact. Nkunku as a LW goes into team balance, and relates to our discussion about a player who left (who shall remain unnamed 🙂). Nkunku, Jackson, Cole means that we cannot press at all. Granted, Maresca probably thought that this was not the game to press high anyway, so he opted for pace, but it was just too easy for their backline to carry the ball with these players IMO. I can totally see Neto being slotted on the left and then Nkunku and Jackson will dispute #9. BTW, Nkunku looked really poor today.

Heh that's just game talk/rant esp when losing comfortably. Yeah Kova was a bit more involved than Lavia, so better yet for me. I do understand being cautious with Lavia tho.

Yup. Sounds like an agent play alright. They are likely sitting on the contract and don't want to move. Sorry for necroing this, but I will never understand Messi vs CR7 comparisons as they are completely different players who thrived in different positions. Personally Messi is one of the best players I saw in my life, and I saw Maradona (to a lesser degree), and Ronaldo (9) before and after he lost both knees: before he was more like Messi (he was everywhere on the pitch), while after he was more like CR7 as he became more of a pure, and yet skillful, striker. He really wasn't. Eden was always a bit of a one-trick pony, even if a fantastic one. He also struggled too much in CL: you really can't find a great performance from him in the later stages of CL, while Neymar had plenty. Neymar has more skill and creativity, and is also a better finisher too. Eden was better at dribbling and had more pace, but ultimately a less complete player for me. They were both very similar in one regard though: even if for completely different reasons, their lack of dedication reduced them as players both in quality as well as longevity.

Nobody was "shitting on Caicedo" lol Much less on Enzo -- I actually though Enzo had good moments esp finding Cole in some long balls. The bar is high here--higher today against the best team in the league. "solid" in what exactly? did not give the ball away? I think he was OK until getting skinned by Kova. If Caicedo was a 7.5-8, what was Kova then? For me Kova was an 8, while caicedo a 6 (closer to a good 7 prior to Kova play). I honestly don't know what he did today that helped us so much against City, which would've warranted a 7.5-8. Lavia looked much better on the ball as well. I daresay that if Caicedo were a City player, he would not play in midfield and rather be adapted into a more defensive position.

It's hard to know how these players will behave in the away games, but I do expect, given the options, that we will be able to apply pressure at all times when playing at SB. We simply can get fresher legs of about the same quality in the second half, which is something we were direly missing last season. Yeah even a Striker of the same level would help getting him more focused. Speaking of which, the weird part is that the first goal was more about mentality and nothing else. Regarding Alvarez, agreed as a striker option, except that Alvarez had the quality to play as CAM (as he did many times), and I don't see that quick and smart passing in Jackson's game at all.

And Napoli's love for Lukaku will be gone as well. 😢

I see Alisson's best years behind him; yes, a bit soon for a goalie, but that's what I see (I see him a lot for Brazil). So, them getting a promising goalie as well as a quality CB is worrying given the strength of their squad. They still need a mid tho. Reports from Brazil state that Brentford is signing gremio's 18yo winger Gustavo Nunes for somewhere in the 20m. He looks like a really interesting player, but one who needs yo take a step like Brentford before moving to a big club IMO.

I still can't understand Jackson at all. The good: in his ruled out goal, he was in a great position considering where the shot was coming from and City's D was slightly asleep letting him be. He comfortably gets to the ball after the rebound and applies a good finish. The ugly: he's fucking OFFSIDE during the entirety of the play! It's not like the D moved at the right time which caused him to be offside; their D never moved and Jackson just lazily stayed offside the whole time. WTF?! I can imagine Maresca wasn't too happy with that (as well as the weird second finish) given he replaced him with a 18yo who hardly touched the ball in 30min of play.

I wonder if having a squad this deep does not make it easier to push players out; I mean to avoid litigation, for ex. You can keep a group of players training separately simply for reasons of space in the facilities. Maybe I'm just looking for a silver lining. 🙂

Yeah I’m not a huge fan of Caicedos game in general, so I usually need a bit more from him. He was doing better by the end of last season tho. honestly I’d rather see Lavia and Enzo there. Always go with the more skillful players until balance stops you heh.

CBs were decent. Fofa a was a bit all over the place and was ball watching in the first. gusto had a poor game as did caicedo—need a bit more than huffs and puffs at this level. Cole should get used to the new normal: he’s a known star and tight marking will be always ther. honestly Cuccu and Lavia were the only outstanding performers for me. and yes, frustrating to see Sanchez in goal once again.

Should Enzo have been taken off? I prob wouldn’t have done that given the best passes esp long balls were from him. Would have him moved deeper instead. Cole was well marked, often double marked, so could have tried moving him to AM and moved Enzo deeper. Enzo is one of the best CMs in the word which is the reason we paid so much for him; he should be used as such.

Way too comfortable a win for city to take many positives from this match.