Magic Lamps

Sure that midfield we had 10 years ago would have kept anyone we are linked with or have atm on the bench. But football has changed. Midfielders are not as much allrounders as essien, lamps or ballack were but rather have more tactical responsiblity, have to read the game more, cover more ground and make the team tick rather than deciding games themselves. Wingers and fullbacks/wingsbacks on the other hand score and create more, participate more in the game. Also cbs are now more important to build up play. Probably because of the shortage of such incredible all-rounder midifielders, some responsibility has been shifted off them onto the players around.

perfect sigining for them, replacing Xabi Alonso, him and Vidal will be dynamite together. Hopefully Kante+Bakayoko can outfight and outwork those two if we face them.

Those bookies never learn do they. Punters will fancy those excellently long odds on us. Yes, the Mancs are favourites, they will sign and sign and like last season theat will disrupt their squad and make it hard for the team to settle. I believe Pep will still struggle with their horrendous defending at times andMourinho has lost his only reliable goalscorer in Ibrahimovic. None of their arsenal of strikers is a consistent scorer, so they will again have problems winning enough. I think despite their unlimited funds we can still win the league if we make the right signings like replace Costa adequately, upgrade the wing backs, Bakayoko seems to be in the bag and is a defnite upgrade on Matic and a proven CB might not harm. James or another left footed winger might be a good luxury signing.

That is one tough start. We have not such a hard start for the last 10 years. However, if we manage it without major spoils we will have a nice run-in when the CL elimination fixtures begin next year.

massive downgrade from Bego and not homegrown. We really should use the second GK spot to ge tthe homegrown quota up. Caballero is not a bad keeper but error prone and too short. Without having reasearched I can remember 3 games where his errors cost his team points. As Malaga keepr vs Real when he let a tame Benzema shot through his legs, 2015 when they lost 4-1 at Spurs he cost two goals with horrible positioning and he should have saved Hazards shot when we won 2-1 at the Bridge.

I think his point was that this is the last year everton will get serious money for him. Next year they have to sell him for a cut-price fee as it will be his last sumemr transfer window prior to his release. so if they do not want to miss out on like at least 40m they have t sell him this summer.

I will miss that guy too. and I have been doing so for the majoirty of 2017. Yes he used to be a brilliant striker for us. But I guess all good things have to come to an end. I wish him well and hope China money turns his head.

Alright mate, then I misunderstood you. I also think he is quite decent at carrying the ball and can still get better.

So there is a general consensus here that Lukaku is an average footballer albeit a decent athlete and great goalscorer. For 100m. Even though we will never pay that for him, he will be madly expensive as Eerton know there are not many young strikers with his kind of goalscoring record out there. And that is actually the reason why players like him, Morata and Belotti are quoted at these rdidiculous amounts. For 100m we can get 3 strikers of his quality with similar goalscroing ability. Just go down the scoring charts of the top leagues. Lacazette, Gomez, Modeste, Aduritz, Werner.... not that much of a drop in quality and the board knows that. Lukakus is probably very much a finsihed product. But in their eyes that is not an argument against Lukaku but one in his favor. 20-25 goals per season for 6-8 years if managed correctly. The predictability in this is the charm for the people in charge, managers value nothing more than predictability in their investments. 100m for 120-200 goals, seems like a decent deal. With Rom back we will flat-track bully all the weak sides over and over again and that will win us the league on more occasions than not. Certainly Rom will not lead us anywhere in the CL, strikers who prevail there already had a much better all-round play and technical ability at 24 but so what. It is not that we will work wonders in the CL in the next few years anyway. You can reproach the board for lack of ambition but they are obviously trying to steady the ship. All in all, Lukaku will not be a catastrophy but if this is 100m invested the best way I am not so sure.

why does everyone make him out to be kind of the lukaku of midfielders? How on earth is 184cm/6ft big? That is like average height in urban Germany for men in their 20s. And he is not really muscular either. Decent build but how does that translate to ball carrying ability?. When you are shit on the ball you can be as big as you want you will get dispossessed every time. maybe he is able to transalte his athleticism into ball carrying ability and functional strength but that is a different story. Size for sure should not be the argument to buy him.

why should Juve even sell him? He is vital for their system and they are in no need to sell. . Given their strong position 50m € sounds about right.

this. He is about the same quality. Stronger and maybe a bit quicker but far worse technical and just as ponderous on the ball. Other than Arsenal I think we have a lot of strong players who are not as good technically, so they can use him much better than we do. Also with Kolasinac not being an upgrade on any of our starters and the loanees returing, we have more than enough cover for both his positions, LWB and CB. Still I like those old-fashioned combative strong guys who always give it their all on the pitch. Will be a joy to see him in the PL even though in the wrong colours.

Well I am not someone no to admit an error. That record looks pretty decent. That is indeed a decent record. May you please provide us with the time range this sample was compiled of?

sry i meant anderlecht

well taken goal, composed finish in tight space. What a difference from the player we saw at the beginning of the season where he put his foot through every ball he would get hold of.

Lukaku deal makes no sense whatsoever. His development since joining Everton has been exactly as expected when he left. A perfectly linear trajectory. He has always been like this, at Anderlecht, WBA or on his loan spell at Everton. Scoring multiple times against small sides and disappearing completely against the big ones. There is no way he justifies that fee and I am not confident at all that he will good enough to lead the line against top teams. Physically, he can dominate almost any defender in world football but a skilfull centre back will still nullify his presence completely. He was up vs 1,68m Philip Lahm when we were 2-1 up in the UEFA Super Cup against Bayern. He was brought in for Torres to hold the line and keep high balls from. He could not even win a throw in and produced nothing but turnovers. In the shootout he delivered one of the worst pens in history. He is still very much that player.

This whole Lukaku theatre is so ridiculous. For months he has been like "Hihi, I know ehre I am going, but I won't tell you". So childish.

You hear this a lot from him but actually I can't imagine. He has scored 34 goals this season. 34 goals coming from some kind of left wing/hybrid striker position those are CR7 kind of numbers. how can you be inconsistent when you produce this kind of ouptut statistically? The few times I saw him he was immense, I mean balon d'or candidate amazing, scoring out of nowhere and dribbling around like hazard.

That is a good point, but didn't we prove we are good against the small sides that park the bus this season still? Various sides opened up to us, even smaller sides, even at the bridge. I think we have had the multiple opportunities for fast breaks every game. Actually our strategy in those games has been inviting the pressure on. When our first, early line of pressing failed, we usually retreat all players behind the ball and defend in numbers. This forces the opponent to get numbers forward to have any attacking impact and not be badly outnumbered on the flanks and this is where we are most dangerous at. Also Mahrez has the ability to score goals out of nothing when he is on fire. Pedro and Hazard can do so too, but when one is injured or marked out of the game we struggle to create chances. mahrez surely is not the only option and not without risk but a left footed goal threat definitely adds something to our play.

You are right, Matic has a knack of scoring cracker goals every few years. That is fine for highlight reels, but I prefer central midifielders who score double figures of ugly goals every season over players who score only a nominal amount of goals no matter how beautiful those are. His performance in the 1-0 win at City in 2014 is one of my favourite memories of that season. His physical battle with Yaya was thrilling and he dominated that midfield. His 2014 was amazing. If he were stil that good, I would be adamant to keep him, but his performances have deteriorated so much since then, I am still rubbing my eyes how such a talented player has become such a useless beanpole in minimum time. That being said...

I actually don't. He is competent but nothing too special. There are enough options of his quality out there. I am confident Antonio and the board will pick the right one.

I took some time, to watch a few match highlights of this Tolisso guy. He seems to be a very tidy player. like a box-to-box mikel. Not very physical. neither big, nor fast to strong, but with decent aerial ability for someone so small. He is a very technical, a decent playmaker, intelligent passing even though he could work on his precision. Upgrade on Matic for everything except height. Also he does not seem like a particularly avid tackler. I am a bit worried over his size and physicality. We already got one tiny player in the middle in Kante. I am a fan of having at least one big man in midfield to not get physically dominated like we did by Wanyama, Dembele and even Xhaka this season. Someone who has the physicality, the intelligen, the skill, can provide goals and assists. Like a prime Ballack, Vieira or Lampard that would be perfect. I always hoped RLC could be that player but he probably will never be

that surely will not be it. Far too basic. but I like that black and yellow one, even though we always got either white, black or yellow away and third kits. I would also like some more colour in our away kits. Have we ever had a red away kit? Red is the pensionier colour and woul also be effective for achieving maximum contrast with blue-clad opponents.

So it is pretty certain now he will remain another year. I hope we sign someone who can challenge for the striker position. For at least one half of a season it is a crap feeling relying on him to score goals. Apart from the 2009/10 season we did not really have a player to score significantly more than 20 goals in the league. As long as Lamps, Mata and then Hazard provided a goal threat from midfield, this is not too bad, but I would feel much more at ease if we had a striker in the ink of Kane, Agüero or Sanchez, who can make chances for themselves, score consistently over the season and do not have a significant dyscrepancy in their scoring behaviour in big games and not so big games.

The thing about Mahrez is that he perfectly fits our system. Our way of counter-attacking is similar to Leicester's in their title winning season based on risky balls to the wings, relying on them to cut dribble at high pace cutting inside and then having a striker playing off the shoulder or an overlapping fullback as alternative. If and that is a big if he can replicate his title-winning form he would be great left footed compliment to Hazard. We have been crying for someone who can run with the ball and beat players on that left side for ages.