Marcos Alonso

[Pizy 17,860]

He hasn't even kicked a ball yet for us and you guys are moaning. 

Just remember who we currently have at RB. Moving Azpi over there alone would be a huge upgrade and if Alonso can become a consistently good (doesn't even need to be great) LB that can link up with Hazard and put in dangerous crosses our team is much better.

Wait until he makes a handful of appearances before we start shitting on him.

[LAM09 6,547]

Depressing.

We can hope he improves amongst a higher calibre of player. Zabaleta is a name that springs to mind when we talk about someone playing at a lower level to then come to the Prem and become one of the best FB's.

No point in knocking someone before they have even kicked a ball. Price should be irrelevant in times were MASON is going for £10m+.

[Styles 9,790]

I'm not even hating tbh, just more frustrated that a player like Baba isn't given a fair shake.

[Pizy 17,860]

9 minutes ago, Styles said:

I'm not even hating tbh, just more frustrated that a player like Baba isn't given a fair shake.

I just think back to the last preseason match he played where, directly in front of Conte, Baba looked like a terrified pussy and played 2-3 straight simple forward passes out of play. He just looked completely lost. Like Cuadrado almost every appearance he made for us.

Conte wants players with balls and confidence. I'm just going to keep reassuring myself that at least he's clearly a Conte target. Have to trust his judgement with this guy.

[Styles 9,790]

2 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I just think back to the last preseason match he played where, directly in front of Conte, Baba looked like a terrified pussy and played 2-3 straight simple forward passes out of play. He just looked completely lost. Like Cuadrado almost every appearance he made for us.

Conte wants players with balls and confidence. I'm just going to keep reassuring myself that at least he's clearly a Conte target. Have to trust his judgement with this guy.

I didn't see that game but surely a player deserves more of an opportunity to impress than just the very FIRST GAME OF PRE-SEASON!

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Considering we needed a starting fullback, all I want is he is good enough for that. 

I dont mind if he isnt big name from big club, BUT the board had whole summer to bring in fullback. Whole summer. We all knew Iva cant play much longer.

And here we are. We signed Alonso. Fine. But the board, Conte or whoever is responsible for throwing 25m at him, they better know the lad is good enough to take starting spot on left side. 

If we bought him just for the sake of it, throwing 25m, Kenedy and Ake loaning out and limiting Aina chances, if we bought him just to be back up, who wont play much unless injuries occur, then the board can kindly fuck off. I rather see Kenedy, Aina or Ake as back up option then.

Im not saying he is good enough or not, Im talking about the principle why we bought him in first place. If board doesnt value him as starter, the signing was pointless.

[Pizy 17,860]

5 minutes ago, Styles said:

I didn't see that game but surely a player deserves more of an opportunity to impress than just the very FIRST GAME OF PRE-SEASON!

To be honest, he's looked like that nearly every time he played for us. He was often lost defensively and got caught out constantly. He did put in some great crosses but the PL just looked too much for him. It's good he's gone on loan and maybe he'll come back much better.

[Styles 9,790]

Just now, Pizy said:

To be honest, he's looked like that nearly every time he played for us. He was often lost defensively and got caught out constantly. He did put in some great crosses but the PL just looked too much for him. It's good he's gone on loan and maybe he'll come back much better.

But see this is the thing - all summer we heard that Conte is a top coach; he is a manager who really works with his players, great at tactics and setting teams up to defend properly. Why can't we expect him to actually coach and develop players? Baba isn't a 32 year old with no hope of improving. He is 22 and has proved himself capable in a top European league.

What was so bad about Baba that we send him out on loan and replace him with Alonso?

[The Skipper 20,593]

51 minutes ago, Styles said:

But see this is the thing - all summer we heard that Conte is a top coach; he is a manager who really works with his players, great at tactics and setting teams up to defend properly. Why can't we expect him to actually coach and develop players? Baba isn't a 32 year old with no hope of improving. He is 22 and has proved himself capable in a top European league.

What was so bad about Baba that we send him out on loan and replace him with Alonso?

To be honest, I commended the fact that we sent out Baba (don't think he's good enough unfortunately but he could work on becoming better) on loan but was expecting a full back who's much better. So someone like Fabinho for example, would've been a good buy. Alonso is sort of underwhelming but... hope he proves me wrong.  

[Barbara 15,149]

2 hours ago, Styles said:

Still can't understand why we let Baba go.

Because he was terrible?

There's a long way between inept in a league and finished product. IMO Baba always looked closer to the former.

We should have never let Luis go. At the end of the day that was the one big mistake we did. Now we'll hope for another Azpilicueta move any day in the future. Could happen with Alonso or not (as I said I don't know the guy). It would have never happened with Baba,no matter how long. Conte saw it and got rid of him because he devalued even longer by being an eternal backup player here (Aina obviously would be ahead in the peak order) or in the merry-go-round dance of loans. Rarely a player gets his price upped by loans... so I'm happy we got rid of Baba, not still over letting go of Luis and will wait to know how I feel about Alonso.

 

edit: damn, he was loaned instead of sold? FFS, it's not like he'll ever suit EPL and as I said, rarely a player gets his fee up while being loaned everywhere

[Jase 43,479]

4 hours ago, Styles said:

But see this is the thing - all summer we heard that Conte is a top coach; he is a manager who really works with his players, great at tactics and setting teams up to defend properly. Why can't we expect him to actually coach and develop players? Baba isn't a 32 year old with no hope of improving. He is 22 and has proved himself capable in a top European league.

What was so bad about Baba that we send him out on loan and replace him with Alonso?

To be fair, I think what this squad needs right now is an experienced and competent player, not a young player who's still developing and finding his feet in the league. That probably sound harsh but given the current state of our defence, we certainly need someone who can come in and do a job immediately. Now, I'm not saying Alonso is a great player but he knows the league and has developed himself in a league that takes great pride in defence and tactics - two things that Conte value highly and it says a lot that majority, if not all, our summer defensive targets were players from Serie A. Another plus I guess with Alonso is that he's versatile enough to play in different positions and having played and learned in a tactical-heavy league, one would think he's good enough for Conte to utilize and try out different systems.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Wishful thinking but maybe the club believe enough in our academy talents at LB (Aina, Jay Dasilva) to usurp Alonso and become a mainstay in the first team. Alonso then becomes a good squad player...

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

8 hours ago, Styles said:

Still can't understand why we let Baba go.

Why don't these supposedly top mangers want to coach & develop players any more? They just want finished articles.

We've sent out a player on loan and replaced him with somebody who by all accounts isn't an upgrade at all.

Because Baba didn't have the trust from manager ? That's the key.

Seriously I could read that we've signed one of the best left-backs in the world with serious offensive proficiency, reliable and with cool head under pressure and well we had that guy in Filipe but at the end it doesn't matter as he didn't have the trust from the manager. If Conte puts his trust into Alonso then it's better situation than with whatever left-back we could have signed.

 

[Gilvorak 3,734]

We fucked up not keeping Baba.

[Pizy 17,860]

38 minutes ago, Gilvorak said:

We fucked up not keeping Baba.

He literally can't be worse. 

[Jase 43,479]

Baba is now one of those players who gets better because we tossed him aside.

[Parky 739]

Bertrand, Luis, Baba and now Alonso with Luiz back. Fuck me our board is dumb as fuk sometimes..

 

[Gilvorak 3,734]

2 hours ago, Pizy said:

He literally can't be worse. 

Also had room for improvement while Alonso is the finished article at this stage of his career.