robsblubot

Agreed. Needless to say that some of these young players won't cut it--regardless of how much money was spent. Club will need to be smart on finding out who is who, and then act swiftly to get back to being competitive. Good luck to us all! Considering the squad (as pointed out above), yes. Honestly, watch any mid table side and think whether our (available) attacking options are much better than theirs. I certainly don't think our options are better than top 5-7 tho. BTW, "equal" means there is no advantage, despite club size and investment made. And if we take youth into the account, that translates into a disadvantage, which is what we see on the pitch.

For the record, I think Poch gets far more rights than wrongs and I think he's 100% correct in being conservative with the shitty roster he's been given. This roster is not elite PL regardless of manager quality or style. Grass is always greener and switching the manager is always the "magical solution" for every problem at the club.

yup and also so much quality up front... even coming from the bench. Taking Salah aside and they still have Nunes, Diaz, Jota.... it's crazy compared to us atm.

Liverpool is cruising against Burnley, but VAR is tough opposition.

It's not a number for me personally. I see certain things from players which have different weights. Ball control, for example, if pretty fucking high in importance for me, so when I see players struggling controlling the football well that's also a big fucking red flag for me. It's hardly the first time I've seen Conor taking a few extra touches to control the football, show too much of it, or having a poor first touch. Perhaps the fact he's been one of our best player shows exactly the (poor) level we are at? 🤷‍♂️ Would he be a starter at Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Tottenham, or even Newcastle? can't see that myself tbh.

and I don't understand how that point isn't self-evident. 🤷‍♂️ Bear in mind I'm not arguing that his decision was not a very bad one -- it was. I'm arguing that players would respect a great solo play as opposed to a teamwork play where a player gets greedy at the end. To emphasize, Jackson, Broja, and (to a lesser degree) Palmer were awful; Sterling was literally playing alone esp in the first half, and we are here discussing Sterling's poor decision. That's exactly the problem with this roster IMO. Sterling is the only attacker we've got! 🙂 Well Nkunku will make it two... hopefully.

Did you watch the highlights by chance? It was a solo play by Sterling. Nobody passed him the ball, he took it. Teammates would definitely be super mad if it was a linkup play and he failed to pass in that situ. Regarding Palmer, he's young so it's understandable, but he needs to work on his consistency as every young play do. He was pretty poor against Wolves.

yeah could be... he is certainly not without his flaws otherwise he'd be still at City eh. I do think he worked harder at City... more like what he was doing pre-fuck up in the first half. Like for us, he has moments of City intensity and desire, but only moments. TBf to him, right before the fuck up, which was his solo play anyway, he did provide a nice lobbed pass to Jackson who inexplicably could not control it.

He was pretty scary (bad) against Wolves tho. Looks like getting a replacement shouldn't be too hard.

No question about that. One important reminder was that it was a solo effort: he was the one who high pressed, stole the football, and made the run. He was the one player playing at a high intensity in attack. Jackson was having trouble with the football and Broja did not show up for the match.

Interesting to see folks complaining about Sterling. He did fuck up a couple of times (the one on one for ex), but he was also the only player in attack performing well in the first half. He assisted maybe 2-3 times and his teammates simply could not control the football. Scary game from Jackson, Broja, and Conor for me. If this is not a VERY one-off, then they simply aren't good enough, I'm afraid. If one did not have a stake in the game, it was a match between equals where the home team won. 😢

Was our best attacker by far in the first half until the fuckup on the one-on-one w/ the goalie, which TBf was his play; still he had to pass the ball to 2 open players next to him. Perhaps he does not trust his teammates? I mean it did look, esp first half, he was playing alone at times.

This is the absolute worst I've seen from him, against Wolves. There is no excuse for the amount of times he simply misscontrolled the football. I hope this was a one-off, because otherwise he simply isn't anywhere near good enough.

Surprised this thread is active today. Thought we had player performing WAY WAY below even PL standards against Wolves. I mean players having trouble controlling the football is not something that should have to be taught or develop at this level.

Fair enough, but once again it's a completely new squad--also something some of us warned about early on. It's only natural for a manager to try to secure the defense first. That (tired) Newcastle side we beat is what 2+ seasons playing together w/ few changes? Disagree there: tight control between Mudryk and Salah is worlds apart. When I see the ball bounce off Salah's shins when he makes tight cuts and he ends up with the ball at the end, that's control... not luck. It's luck if it happens rarely, but it happens consistently with him. He also routinely makes quick change of directions while in control of the football (like Eden did) whereas Mudryk mostly runs in a straight line. Anyway that's what I see. I can dig up that post where I actually comment on Salah's tight control while a Chelsea player--recently (like early season) reposted it in the Chelsea transfer thread. 😃

Honestly, I don't see all that ability. I see a very pacy player, w/ great acceleration, who can dribble long and that's about all I see tbh. That's enough to make a good player if he does develop as it's been discussed. For a WC player you need that tight control of the football in tight spaces, and I certainly don't see that in his game. At times he shows too much of the football when making runs and loses possession. Other times, his first touch isn't good enough and he loses possession. The defensive side of his game is non-existent, which IMO is one of the reasons we see more defensive backlines from Poch. So, improving as a player will help him make better use of his assets (esp pace), releasing the ball more quickly and knowing when not to go for the run. As mentioned before, he need to participate more and not switch off so often. He's definitely improving, albeit slowly like you said, so that's encouraging. Right now, with all players available, he should be no more than an impact sub to hit the opposition with pace esp when the opposition is providing counter attacking opportunities. Yes, he'd be an important player for a smaller club, but we ain't that--despite the weak roster.

Feel the same way about his overall play. He's very wasteful, which is a hard thing to withstand at this level. Maybe he will become employable eventually, but in the immediate future I'd stick with the clearly better players esp with Nkunku back. I do feel he's a player for smaller team though, where he can make full use of his pace.

New goalie? 😅 I mean it's not like Sanchez was doing so great before.

Thank you Trippier. 🙇

Classy Palmer pk

hope so, but ☝️ plays a part

Well they did play Europe so they couldn't possible do another 30min with their starters.

This is a fairer scoreline esp from the first half. We were not particularly playing well now, but we gifted them a goal in the first half, so it sounds about right to me.

Gifted goal and Mudryk scores lol

Gusto is a starter... was just getting back I think. Did Maatsen contract get extended?