Kurt Zouma

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

My guess is that Frank feels he needs to hang on to both Kurt and Fikayo until Rudi returns fully to action. If Everton really want Kurt, maybe their best chance would be to offer cash plus a CB on a one year loan with an option to recall when Rudi is back.

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

33 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

My guess is that Frank feels he needs to hang on to both Kurt and Fikayo until Rudi returns fully to action. If Everton really want Kurt, maybe their best chance would be to offer cash plus a CB on a one year loan with an option to recall when Rudi is back.

An Everton CB? Yerry Mina has been disaster for them and Michael Keane is bang average. Zouma was probably their best CB last year. They are lacking CBs so loaning one to sign one wont happen on their part I would think.

For all the minutes Tomori will play, as I would imagine Andreas will be used in place of Rudi with him out, it makes no sense to retain both him and Zouma. If we desperately need to we can use Azpi at CB and go to the u23s to give us depth. If we want to give Zouma/Tomori and Andreas a chance to get regular minutes we need to go into the season with 4 CBs. For me, Rudi, Andreas, Luiz and Tomori is more than enough. Or if we loan Tomori, retain Zouma.

5 CBs is a bit excessive I think. Plus if we are really screwed use Aspi there as previously mentioned and go to u23s to make up numbers for the bench if it comes to it.

Squads bit bloated this year, in defence and in midfield. We need to get rid of a few players:

Keepers is fine.

-At RB either loan Reece James so he can play and retain Zappa/sell Zappa and retain Reece James.

-CB, as mentioned, maybe see either Tomori loaned or Zouma sold. Last year we had Rudi, Luiz, Cahill (basically frozen out), Christensen and Ampadu (who rarely played there as it was). 5 would be 1 too much, especially in an area of the pitch where you want settled partnerships. Having 5 and chopping and changing is a bad idea. All good teams are built on a solid foundation so I would like to think this is the first thing Frank will try and do is establish his first choice CB pairing and defence. Then give the other 2 guys a chance to show their worth in cup games and try work their way in. Plus not even mentioned the likes of Clarke-Salter, Trevor Chalobah etc who could be considered for that area of the pitch although not sure theyre at the level for thay yet.

-LB with Alonso and Emerson, we arent gonna see any changes there. Kenedy isnt a LB and I would hope he is moved on.

-Midfield is a bit heavy. Kante, Kova, Jorginho, Ruben, Ross and Mason are probably safe and wont be going anywhere. One of Bakayoko or Drinkwater has to go for definite, if not both. Still worried about how Frank intends on using Ross, Ruben and Mason because they all play the same position basically as the most advanced midfielder. 

-Wings are fine because we know who will be there and who wont be, or wont be when those who need to be moved on, are moved on. Willian, Pedro, CHO and Pulisic will be the 4 in the squad. 

-Strikers, not amazing pick but Giroud, Batshuayi and Tammy, look like the 3 we will be using.

 

[Magic Lamps 11,452]

On 22.7.2019 at 4:04 PM, OhForAGreavsie said:

My guess is that Frank feels he needs to hang on to both Kurt and Fikayo until Rudi returns fully to action. If Everton really want Kurt, maybe their best chance would be to offer cash plus a CB on a one year loan with an option to recall when Rudi is back.

We can not register players not even loanees i think

If Kurt wants to leave we should let him for the right price. 

We have more than enough cover for the position even in the absence of Rüdiger. Api can play there, Alonso too. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

On 23/07/2019 at 10:51 PM, Magic Lamps said:

We can not register players not even loanees i think

If Kurt wants to leave we should let him for the right price. 

We have more than enough cover for the position even in the absence of Rüdiger. Api can play there, Alonso too. 

Of course you are right. Stupid of me. Thanks for pointing it out.

It wasn't a totally serious comment mind. 

[RJBOfficial 8]

On 23/07/2019 at 10:51 PM, Magic Lamps said:

We can not register players not even loanees i think

If Kurt wants to leave we should let him for the right price. 

We have more than enough cover for the position even in the absence of Rüdiger. Api can play there, Alonso too. 

He’s our best pure defender why should we even consider letting him go?

[Tomo 21,681]

4 hours ago, RJBOfficial said:

He’s our best pure defender why should we even consider letting him go?

I firmly disagree with that, his positional sense is average and the timing of his leaps are often wrong. Yes he can make a good recovery tackle but there's a reason he's constantly having to take such extreme measures in the first place.

[Magic Lamps 11,452]

8 hours ago, Tomo said:

I firmly disagree with that, his positional sense is average and the timing of his leaps are often wrong. Yes he can make a good recovery tackle but there's a reason he's constantly having to take such extreme measures in the first place.

He is like a young Boateng, conoensating his lack of anticipation with pace and physicality. Those players tend to age badly. But i am happy that he has recovered fully fron that horrible knee injury in 2016. He still has a bit of time to develop his game reading abilities. Maybe one more seaspn with Christensen and Luiz will help that.

[Vesper 27,346]

On 27/07/2019 at 7:03 PM, RJBOfficial said:

He’s our best pure defender why should we even consider letting him go?

[RJBOfficial 8]

On 28/07/2019 at 6:20 PM, Vesper said:

Great mature response showing your high level of intellect 👍🏽

[MoroccanBlue 5,200]

3 minutes ago, RJBOfficial said:

Great mature response showing your high level of intellect 👍🏽

Because we are at a point where football has evolved where even CB’s need to be technically gifted. All top clubs have ball playing CB’s, and it’s actually embarrassing how poor Zouma is on the ball. I almost had a heart attack when Reading’s strikers were pressuring him. Reading...

[Vesper 27,346]

14 minutes ago, RJBOfficial said:

Great mature response showing your high level of intellect 👍🏽

always!

someone has to exhibit dichotomous tendencies on the board when it comes to a quick migration from deep cerebral pondering over to a flippant response

[Atomiswave 6,072]

Lets be honest he is not good enough for us....not if we wanna reach places. As back up he might be decent here and there but other than that I dont see much. I dont care if a CB can play the ball or not, as long as he knows how to defend and be at the right places at the right time.....be a rock. And he aint that atm.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

9 hours ago, RJBOfficial said:

Great mature response showing your high level of intellect 👍🏽

Don't care. Didn't even read the text. I just like the gif. 🙂

[BXL70 395]

Actuallty, he was quite good yesterday against RB Salsburg.

[Magic Lamps 11,452]

He was surely better than Luiz but he was ill positioned more often than not. And that aggressive striker Haaland really gave him a tough ride. I don't think we can afford to let him go but I hope that Rüdiger comes back soon and Christensen can fill out the Luiz role. But a zouma Luiz partnership is a disaster.

[killer1257 3,282]

Luiz is untouchable for Lamps.

[NikkiCFC 7,595]

20 minutes ago, killer1257 said:

Luiz is untouchable for Lamps.

I don't think so.

I think Rudi-Chris is first choice. 

[MoroccanBlue 5,200]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

I don't think so.

I think Rudi-Chris is first choice. 

 It’s been Zouma-Luiz for Lamps