Magic Lamps

That was a stonewall penalty. Travis takes out Sterling and only catches the ball two seconds later

Really like that lineup. Badia back, RJ starting and Caimehdo gets a pause. I hope Mud is fine tho.

Probably an absolute dud which would mean Potter&Lamps were right not playing him. Mind he is still only 20 so we might yet recover the money spent on him

17.5 indeed would be worth a punt but we don’t need any more overrated flavour of the month littering the squad. Also he is probably too old to fit into boehly ball If Jackson stays fit I can see him scoring 10-15 goals in all comps. Sure he needs more time to become a reliable goal scorer but nkunku back could alleviate some of the pressure . broja really does not look too promising. He is all pace and power and 0 brain or awareness. I like his attitude but his finishing is meh.

It’s really funny how Guirassy‘s reputation has recovered. During his time at Köln he was known as the worst finisher in Germany. The amount and quality of chances he wasted was legendary and puts Werner, Havertz, Jackson and Lukaku to shame. Ok maybe not Lukaku but still. On the one hand it shows how short ppls memories are but also two things are possible… a mediocre striker can always hit a purple patch down the line or a serial choker can become a clinical striker. Personally, I would not touch him. We have been linked with so many flavour of the month strikers once they hit a good spell who just fell off a cliff weeks later (Belotti, jovic, piatek, lacine traore, diakite etc.) IMO there are only two types of centre forward you can trust to be starters for a top club. Either those that are the epitome of clinical finishers, who were literally born with unshakable confidence, unerring positioning, the ability to score goals from half chances, Mishits , deflections, gk errors or undetected fouls. This type of striker has become increasingly rare as fewer teams are willing to sacrifice a runner for a fox in the box. Then there a strikers who are so polished in their overall game and offer such valuable link up play, create chances for teammates, make space for attacks and drag defenders out of postirion that they can go months without scoring but are still valuable to the play. Guirassy and also probably Toney fall in neither category so we should probably stay clear if they demand a starting spot. Toney is also too expensive to ride the bench. i honestly believe if we get Nkunku back to full fitness and Poch manages to tweak his system to accommodate both, NJ and Nkunku, we could have on of the best strikeforces in the country.

We were tactically excellent. All their chances came from stupid mistakes from our sides while we carved them open a lot. They did not really create anything apart from that 2nd goal. All their possession was trash, we completely waltzed them in midfield. With either a proper striker or goalkeeper we win this comfortably. Best performance of the season for the first 70minutes for me

Calling players names like this is just ugly. I think we should not get ahead of ourselves here. He may be a terrible footballer but it is not his fault modern coaches all try this ‚bait the press‘ bullshit and have the goalie act like prime beckenbauer as Libero. I Hope this shit dies. I don’t really understand how anyone would think this guy is starter material for us but surley at some point Poch has to see the light and play Petrovic. Slonina has conceded 24 goals in 9 games with a hat shit team eupen btw. Not sure how ready he is

I am not even that shocked bc I never expected us to win a big match with this group - inexperienced, naive and ravaged by injuries, even 2-0 up. Even though Arsenal never looked threatening we were never comfortable. Sanchez missed about every punch and was terrible all game, one time chasing saka down to the corner flag, then bumping into our own defenders. Not his first erratic game. He was always gonna cost us again. Then Caicedo, who rightly should get praised for dominating Jorginho and rice but he also has a handful of turnovers every bloody game. All went unpunished today but two where very close to our box. He has to stop those. He is noweher near a 120m player but has shown some promise, no excuse not to cut the crap.

I rather have this learning experiences in a season we don’t compete than later on as well. Also there clearly is progress. Conor, Mudryk and Palmer are making strides in their development. But one thing is worrying. We still don’t make any progress in terms of maturity in front of either goal. Palmer was gifted a 2nd and could just have taken one more touch. Madueke and Nj looked completely useless. We can’t develop as a group as long as not everyone gives it their.

Honestly expected us to lose once Sanchez telegraphed that pass. Just not good enough. With any half decent goalie we win this comfortably. I was on the fence but big Rob has to ride the bench at most. Give that other new gl a chance. What tragedy. Such an amazing game up to that point. But honestly we should have closed the deal ourselves before. Palmer and nic not clinical enough

Good first half. Both teams look a bit rusty and shaky but Arsenal had 3 massive defensie errors and we at least capitalized on one. Cucu looks quite decent in his natural and best position. His only real strengths are tenacity and 1 on 1 defending, so man marking Saka is probably an absolute gift for him. gallagher running the show in midfield. Enzo is alright but still one of the worst shots ever. caicedo has to cut out those erros in his game. He is a turnover machine with his wayward touch. Palmer looks an absolute gem. Not only his goal but also his movement. His final pass needs some polishing still. Sterling and Mudryk, their usual erratic but busy selves so no suprrise here. Not gonna score but at least put in a shift defensively. It is a shame all our CBs bar two playing are injured. We have to start parking the bus properly if we still lead late in the game. Arsenal do not look like scoring but we are always good for a calamitous error.

It’s sickening how many injured players w heave while Arsenal have basically almost the whole squad fit

Problem remains that with Jackson also missing games bc of Afcon we would be without a striker for a month every two years. They are also very similar in terms of playing style so not sure if paying a huge sum for a striker for the umpteenth time is the way to go here. It sounds comical but by the crazy standards we have set ourselves, 90m or even 120m would actually be reasonable for a healthy Osimhen if he continues to perform like last season and started this one.

With Jackson, Broja and obviously Nkunku all out who do we even play as striker? All of our remaining attacking options suck as false 9 or have never played there. Our best option would probably be to park the bus for a 0-0 if we really can not field a striker here.

Read again. Obviously mount was overall the better player for us so far and has achieved more but mount never nailed a position down, he was always a makeshift winger which is not his primary position and he never was consistent. His all round game was always too poor defensively to warrant him a place at his natural position. I also wrote that Conor os about to do it not that he already has

As visible in this video and evident in his last few matches that Conor has done something few footballers have achieved. Improving his ability on the ball significantly relatively late. Compared to last season his close control and dribbling is so much better. Still not pristine but way more assured. Despite inferior talent he is about to do something RLC and Mount have failed at. Nailing down a position and performing consistently in it for us.

Poch can’t have less than 2 players out of position. Palmer ist not a winger. Why not Mudryk who should be firing after his debut goal and bring the ever frustrating Sterling back? Well we should win this in any case. I just hope the penny has dropped for this team finally

They are not “rich” like some sheiks tho. They may have 300bn something assets under management but that might not mean jack for us. Those assets belong to their clients and they are obliged to invest them in a fiduciary manner. They can not simply invest it all in our club. Some of the asset management companies I have worked for have trillions of AUM, yet if they had ever invested in a football club it would only be as a small portion of their overall asset allocation within some speculative portfolio. However, I agree with heir logo would look dope on our kits and they surely would be able to cough up a hefty sum for that sponsorship.

It is such a myth that Enzo ever was good at shooting in competitive matches. A myth so stubborn it even enticed Poch to disastrously push him up to no 10. His fluke goal at the WC is his only international goal in 25 games and last goal for over 30 matches at competitive level for a reason. He is a miniscule number of goals for Bentica at already parlous Portuguese league . His majority goals he scored at teenagers vs part timers in Argentina where he has ages on the ball. I woudl expect any professional player to bang them in in training or training-like conditions. Pinning our hopes at him improving his shooting magically is foolish. It is only bc we overpaid hopelessly for him and he has that lucky WC title that people think he is Zidane regen when be barely is a slightly more physical Jorginho

What I like about him is that he is a bit like an old fashioned no 10 who has his head up and looks for the pass forward but can also dribble and make space with a bit of skill. But he also has a little bit pace and extra height which will makes him more suited to the modern game than a 90ies style 10 like eriksen. He also has this nice shooting ability from mid range. What he is missing is a bit of strength and finishing from other ranges but he is young enough to iron that out. While I don’t see him as an absolute future world beater I can also not see him flopping. He will either become a decent player for us or if he remains streaky, there will be enough PL teams looking for experienced homegrown talent with a bit of extra skill& flair.

Travelling Asia rn so had to wake up middle of the night and go back to sleep afterwards but for once got rewarded. We saw good parts esp that the lads did not let their heads drop after missing those early chances, Conor, Colwill , Disasi and Palmer with overall good performances , Muds first goal but also the usual negatives with Enzo’s terrible shooting, the usual injuries and we still looked wasteful. Mind this is only Fulham. We disposed of them like we did of Luton. But there will be far sterner tests. All those last few games were mostly vs teams we should be bossing anyway, so just not scoring vs them is not something we should look at and say ‚hey we are 3rd team by xG‘. Similar the game today. The trend is upwards, but let’s not forget all our wins were against teams we should beat mandatorily comfortably.

Yup still looks insanely fast but also still keeps his head down too much. We saw both his stengths and weaknesses yesterday. His early Chance where missed that open net is a prime example. Great run and dribbling to create the Chance but lack of composure. I think he will be great together with nkunku but too similar to jackson

Isn’t an LW exactly that, an attacker? I want talking about Mitoma in particular but the concept of which he might be an example

Tbf id much rather spend 100m on a quality attacker who could actually transform our offense than on a Dm. Our midfield is bang average with or without one season wonder Caicmehdo.

Tbf if he is older than Sterling and hardly inspirational. Could well imagine him becoming an absolute dud here like most attacking players. Ppl would have rightly been frustrated had we signed trossard and Mudryk might well be banging them in for Arsenal In a cohesive attacking team, set up and settled club structure . not that our transfer strategy is utter bollocks but Arsenal are in completely different situation so copying their transfers would not have helped either. Again, the problem with Mudryk again is not only his actual ability and talent but his mental/tactical level for his age. If he was 18 he could still become a world beater. But he played in fkin Ukrainian league in the most critical years of his development. can’t even blame the player cos he clearly works hard in training. he might still have become a decent winger if we had not spent 80m on him and asked him to deliver straight away.