Magic Lamps

The chance has passed. Lockdown was the only time for athletes to take roids without a chance of being caught.

Welcome Kai! the best is: he is not gonna return to the NT. Instead he will stay in London and train with Frank for a full 9 days

Yeah poor Messi forced to being paid another 70m from a bankrupt club bc of a contract he voluntarily signed. players are so entitled these days. It’s Barca who made him the player he is.

Ziyech is the absolute antithesis to Willian who would always hang on to the ball and then always choose the wrong or least risky option. ziyech always takes risk and let’s go if the ball mich quicker and as a co sequence creates way more output. Havertz is similar but can keep hold of the ball quite well and also has considerably more raw end speed . we will be an absolute turnover machine but only in the final third with Ziyech, puli and Werner taking chances but in midfield Kanté, kovacic, Kai are all elite carriers of the ball. If Lamps can get the balance right we can be a devastating force. If not we will look super disjointed. But even then we should have the individual quality to get over the line vs low quality opposition

I really hope he doesn’t end up back in PL. would haunt us forever. French league would suit him nicely tho

So amazing how Marina milked them. 28 yo final year of contract and still one of the most expensive deals in football history. Real needed to give their fans a galactico big time and we exploited that ruthlessly

Actually I wouldn’t mind if the move breaks down. He is a great player but a luxury one at that. I think the position he plays is one we have covered. Also we need to tweak our system a bit to accommodate him. that being said the deal is done.

Worse than he is right now cos Kepa sat on the bench all match not saying much about him tho. Both Kepa and de gea are terrible. I would say Lopez, Simon and even Guaita are all better than those two

It’s just his natural movement pattern as a right footer to move in from the left. Officially we played 352 with same and Werner as central strikers with no wingers but wing backs. So no idea how more central you can play in that system as a striker. Anyway, The point is that Werner has often be dubbed to only be able to play off a bigger striker like poulsen as an inside forward or as a second striker. He clearly proved opposite today

He needed to complete the fitness test for the NT as the date for the medical in London will probably be before the next game on Sunday where I expect him to feature. Also he needs to practice with his German NT teammates anyway

He played clearly as central striker. The guys writing him off as sole no.9 probably just made their impression based on his pre-2019 performances. He has matured a lot last season. and works tight spaces much better. Has even improved his passing massivley in the last few months which was priorly his weakness

We don’t

Can’t for the life of me imagine a chunky Havertz he trains with German NT anyway

Probably for the better. Having played so much mens football, I doubt u21 footy can give RJ anything

I am not saying that the way he sounds has any relevance for his success. It is just that this signing has felt like the Drinkwater & Barkley ones from the very beginning and this corny interview very much adds to that. I obvoiusly hope he will turn out better. No one was talking about appearance tho.

Goalie confidence does not just come and go like for outfield positions. Esp at top clubs even Kepa will have quite a few clean sheets without having to make a real save. This does not build confidence. Keeper confidence builds of weeks of making crucial interventions and commanding respect from teammates and opponents. And a single error wil undo these weeks of success. I never praised Kepa and never will (as a player overall ofc) cos he is just a bang average goalie at best. If and that is a big if he gets going on form again we have an average goalie on good form, which is still a lot worse than having Alisson or Ederson or even Dubravka or Guaita on average form. Kepa is just one of thousands of poor goalies who were flattered by some decent form and once their confidence is shot are exposed as the average duds they are. In short, he is not just worth the hassle to get him back to form cos we will concede dozens of goals in the process bc of him with no guarantee of success. He is an average goalie even on top form bc of his average to poor natural athletic ability, his average two feet and his batshit saving/jumping technique, which a proper gk coach should have bludgeoned out of him early in his career, now its too late.

Our first epl game is just 4 days after the last NL game. There will hardly be any first team trainign with the whole squad together. So disgusting how int'l football is intetnionally harming the quality of club football by prohibiting any kind of meaningful preseason.

Maignan sure would be the better deal. Younger and better handling. Also not African. But he would be a risk as well. Mendy suits our play style slightly better with his aerial prowess and slightly better passing. We will get a capable goalie either way I think

It’s half their yearly turnover . still, imagine him in a midfield with kovacic and billy. Very lightweight but incredible technique. Will cut through parked buses like a freshly forged katana

Heard from Leverkusen fans they are already opening the champagne today. They are fairly confident they got the better end of the deal. 100m is max they could have got out of the deal anytime anyway so they are satisfied their management didn’t budge. The only way we could have gotten a few more pennies out of them is if we had dragged it on longer thus disrupting their preseason squad planning even more. Schick will replace Volland. Havertz will be replaced by the 17 yo Florian Wirtz. The remaining 75 will go into youth and development facilities mostly. Leverkusen are in a relatively healthy financial position thanks to the deal as their tiny stadium doesn’t generate much income anyway and they source most of their personnel from within

i would bite their hand off but i doubt we will be able to sell him for anything close this window. Also, I see us struggling to get enough of our deadwood shifted to just shift a fraction of our host of dregs. Then again it might be smarter to hold on to some of them and get better prices in a year or so.

Spox reported we would be wiling to part for 80m pounds. sounds more like it but i doubt anyone can pay that. maybe psg

I think that tall player statement was a bit of a smokescreen to take pressure of our players and distract from our shit tactics when defenidng set pieces. I think Jason's point hits the nail on the head. Aerial ability is a mix of height, physicality, leap and movement. Havertz for example is tall and has great leap but i dont he will help defending set pieces too much because he is very slight. On the other hand when Germany played Spain in the 2010 world cup we had just 2 players below 6ft and still managed to concede from a set piece with 178cm puyol somehow escaping players like mertesacker with a 20cm height advantage.

I hope he doesn’t need to quarantine after arriving -.-

Would Rennes be that much of a step up for Boga tho? Maybe we can renounce that sell on clause for Sassulo to command a lower fee to cut some deal for Mendy