robsblubot

Wow you went back a few years there buddy. Claiming football remains the same? where do you see makalele player lifting silverware? Because when I watch the top teams in the world their DMs are indeed exactly the player you mock above. 😆 isn’t Bellingham exactly what you describe? Isn’t Rodri more of what you describe? Isn’t Rice that also? His attacking numbers show exactly that. Why so quick to dismiss the possibility that the requirement to win the league again is indeed going for the positional play? Yes I wonder about it.

yes, Gallagher is certainly the mid with most freedom esp when Enzo does not play. I just don't see Caicedo having the skillset needed to thrive when moving into these contested areas, it takes a different type of player more in the mould of Enzo. What he did at Brighton might have been important at the time we signed him--now I rather just take what I see from 31 appearances. My main concern is that the role in question, the deterrent as you call it (aka ball-winning mid), does not even exist in the team that wins the league every year.

"Very good stats." that's not the discussion here. 🙂 I'm pointing out the skill side of his game, esp in attack, which was the *specific* point I was replying to.

FWIW, I've heard of him for a while likely before he even signed with the Neymars. Regarding the bit about, "I think nobody should sign him until we see the player in the first team." I'm afraid that ship has sailed esp now with Endrik.

https://www.sofascore.com/player/moises-caicedo/987650 or do you only use stats when it suits your agenda? welcome to find any piece of data that corroborates your view of Caicedo's game. I will definitely take a look and consider it as new data, as it may contain something I missed.

Agreed that he should be improved on if we want to go for the league, but reckon we are so far from that that I really don't see any urgency in replacing him. I think we have a pretty obvious winner as to the best system for the PL; Liverpool disrupted that a bit, but in the end, the consistency of the positional play (aka total football) just works in long championships as City demonstrates. Our squad has a lot of direct players esp in attack. Noni, for ex, has been improving the teamwork side of his game, but he's still a very direct player. Mudryk ... never mind. Jackson fares better as he can shield the ball well enough, keep it at pace, but also not a possession-oriented attacker at this time. That leaves Palmer, who is unsurprisingly good at keeping the ball -- having come from city. Gallagher is not a possession maestro either -- far from it. Enzo is perhaps the most suitable midfield player for that system, which made the early idea of moving him to a CAM position really bizarre to me. Yeah, so I think we are stuck with this direct way to play for a while regardless of manager choice.

I don't really see what's controversial about Caicedo's game. He's got 2 assist in 31 appearances and 0 goals, with at least one of the assists in a 5x0 win. Any way you look at his numbers will show the very same thing: he's a very good ball-wining mid, but lacks contribution in attack and possession. We all have different takes as to how much he can improve that side of his game -- never seen a drastic improvement on the skill side myself tho. They all show the same thing--here's one: https://www.sofascore.com/player/moises-caicedo/987650

Suspect that "the project" takes away too much power from the manager's hand as in who to bring in and all that. They really a yes-man who will only coach the team, which is what they've been going after. This is another aspect of the project that scares me a bit: imagine that a manager with the same philosophy of Pep becomes available; how would he be able to tweak the squad to his possession style for example? That'd demand selling and signing new players even if of similar quality, for the different characteristics.

Yeah I have big disagreement regarding strength in depth and experience, but I'm not against many of the bets made by the club esp in attack where finding established quality can be really difficult. Also, ending the season with a single striker is really unacceptable at this level. Had jackson picked up a knock or 2 and the situ could've been really difficult. We also have too many injury-pone players, most of which was entirely avoidable (Fofana made no sense whatsoever). Hard decisions ahead of us.

I don't disagree, but that's really not what I'm talking about. I'd not even be against getting a new #1 and having Petrovic as an option. Goalie selection is notoriously tricky. Which was signed as the starter? What promises were made to his agent/player then? What does the Goalkeeping coach says about each? Team form, esp defense can drastically affect the confidence and performances of goal keepers. It can be very different having to stop open shots vs ones where half of the goal is well blocked by the D. Finally, it's really easy for managers to lose all goalies by making changes too quickly because it takes several matches to build an average. All goalies make mistakes, so you have to be patient with them -- more so than with other positions. Personally I choose to give any manager credit when the right selection is made; whether that's due to injury is really besides the point. I'd once again warn about projecting current form to next season esp if we get anything more than just PL + cups.

Not to mention set pieces: when set pieces were off, it was all down to Poch. Now that we've been doing better, it's the players eh. What we think matters little tho; bet the club owners have been reassured by the current form.

Craziest thing I've ever read around here. 😆If a manager would switch goalies every time one makes a mistake clubs would need about 10 reserve goalies lol. Notoriously difficult position to make changes.

I honestly don't think they are that different, but agree that Petrovic is the better goalie. Reminder that when Sanchez became available again, the manager chose Petrovic. In normal situations the starter would always come back. It was his decision to stick with Petrovic.

And you don't know how well Sanchez could have been playing. Petrovic wasn't great when we were struggling. Do you really think Sanchez or Petrovic are that different, or that it would matter a whole lot which played in a 5 nil win? 🙂

Disagree. Player go in and out of form during a long season all the time. Projecting the current form to a different time, or simply assuming this will be the norm next season would be a mistake. Perhaps some of the injured players would be performing well too? bet Carney would be able to do a lot more than Mudryk, for ex. We shouldn't take away the current form from Poch; player selection is only one aspect of it. Noni in particular has been doing the teamwork tasks really well of late. There was a prior game where he switched off and we ended conceding, but he's evidently listening to the manager. If when we lose it's the manager, and when we win it's down to the players, then no manager can ever win with us.

I hear you and I think some of it is just the forum effect: hyperboles to make one’s point create controversy. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle eh. I remain suspicious of “the project” because I simply have not seen it work at a big club ever. Now of course the club can make specific adjustments in the summer. I suspect they will have to make hard decisions regarding injuries too. I would not make the mistake of projecting our strong end of the season towards the next season—speaking from experience. Adjustments are necessary. We played little this season… PL and cups. speaking of which, Noni should be a good rotation option right now. The fact there is literally no one else to play there scares me esp if and when we get some Europe.

Sure but the weaker players will hurt your chances. Germany 14 was pretty rounded team and had good options on the bench. Argentina had Messi and number of strong players who were unknown then like our Enzo and Alvarez, macalister too. The big WC winners have the know how and a lot of strength in depth. Sometimes they lack quality, but the depth is usually there. smaller countries like Belgium and Portugal always struggle with the depth part. I knew that Ronaldo wouldn’t be enough for Portugal at the WC for example.

Hehe spurs will get smashed. The same way we clicked at the end they have switched off. in Brazil we call it, “virou o fio” as in the fitness levels started a descending curve which is affecting all aspects of their game plan. there is no recovering from this. Good for them there aren’t many matches left eh.

Can only really speak about the game I really paid attention to, Brazil vs Belgium quarter finals in 2018; yes, Eden played well, pulled good counters against one of the weakest RB Brazil has ever employed (he played in the Brazilian league at the time ffs), but it was KDB shooting from afar that won the game. 🤷‍♂️ https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1296533/Live/International-FIFA-World-Cup-2018-Brazil-Belgium Ah yes, KDB was MotM in that game for most people (and sites), myself included. Belgium never became a top tier team despite having a few top tier players in their "golden generation." you really need 11+ elite players to win a WC and Belgium never came close to having that IMO.

Not a morning person here, so if you hear from me... the account was likely hacked.

My point being is clear, let him settle, give him time and get the team to understand the system properly, he will cook. He is able to control games which he did several times at Brighton. If anything, it was when we went to possession football, when Kante sometimes did not look as effective and I thought sometimes especially against teams with low block, I preferred seeing Jorginho and Kovacic together. Can totally buy the former (enforcer), not so much the latter (dictate tempo). Still hope you are right tho. Still think that the leap from "he's a total baller" to WC is a bit tougher than we make it out to be eh.

I did not watch Kante at league 2. Someone did tho. That person saw real potential, which I don't see in Caicedo. I digress tho. Let's just assume, for argument's sake, that Kante and Caicedo both at 22 were about the same level. That really does not mean a whole lot, because that last leap that Kante did is the rarest of them all. That should be self-evident given the ridiculously small number of truly WC players in the game. That's precisely the reason I don't really believe the strategy the club is employing--I suspect they might have miscalculated the odds. Going back to eyeball/pub guesses, I admit that's what they are, Kante had one extremely underrated quality (to most) which was his control of the football at extreme pace. I don't see anything like that in Caicedo; I don't see anything special about his game. Yes, he's physically rounded (not high balls tho), but he's quick and aggressive, and that's about it. The difference between Brighton and City is that one makes a number of different bets to strike gold (WC player); while the other waits until they make that rarest leap, and then sign the ready WC player they need to beat everyone else. Sorry, I really don't see an upside in our current strategy.

yup and tbf to Caicedo, if we remove the price tag from the equation, he's a decent potentially good player. Of course we overpaid big time, but that's our modus operandi these days eh.

Yeah I think he lacks more than a he physical aspects actually. One could argue that a WC should already look pretty impressive at 22. honestly eyeballs only here, he simply lacks skill. He’s pretty lousy past the midfield line, for ex. Why "past the midfield line is different"? it's more contested and there is less space to operate--better players thrive there.

Heh I know right?! Some people really get attached to the players for some reason. players come and go there is no fucking loyalty in the game. They usually last a little longer than managers, but they always go. I highly recommend meeting a professional football and actually talking to him; their mindset would look strangely familiar to us grinders 😆 there is nothing special about caicedo. Kante used to do what he does 10x better. Imagining that because he’s young he will get to WC is just wishful thinking. The truth is that none of us know that, we just have guesses. Mine is that there is no evidence to support the case caicedo will be WC one day.