Marcos Alonso

[Vesper 27,283]

2 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

Tierney will eventually outgrow and be fwr too good for Celtic and in terms of British players at his age, he is one of the best out there and also very experienced considering he's played over 150 games for Celtic and Scotland combined, winning trophies left right and centre as well as being an influential figure in the dressing room (already captained Celtic multiple times and also Scotland at a young age). Only because he's Scottish and playing for Celtic is he seriously overlooked. If he was playing PL club's he'd have as much hype as Luke Shaw had at Southampton who was considered one of the best u23 LBs in europe if not the best at that time. Easily. Celtic if they ever sell Tierney will get 30m or 35m minimum I reckon bevause he's the real deal. The whole the Scottish Prem is a joke thing is a bit of a arrogant statement, particularly for somebody who I assume doesnt watch it or makes quick based assumptions, the standards maybe not as competitive but its at least at about championship level and even then with the money difference the gaps not as massive as people think, I watch both leagues quite often and wouldn't say playing championship is that much better. SPL clubs play young guys, sure the academies aren't as good as PL or other European leagues but there's always young players breaking through, club's like Huddersfield dont even have an academy and won't be the first or last PL team to do this in the future because they can throw money at young players. I think playing at a Celtic or Rangers every week infront of 50,000+ fans in a competitive environment is perfect for developing youngsters, managers like Rodgers, McInnes, Lennon and Gerrard having huge influences on young players. Just look at guys such as Fraser Forster, Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama and Moussa Dembele have all moved from the Celtic in the last 10 years to club's and have very good careers (could argue if they were playing in Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal they'd cost double as much at least of what they did from Celtic). Its not all due to the SPL but Id argue Van Dijk and Wanyama could have played for a top 6 team before they all moved from Southampton to Spurs/Pool no problem at all. Moussa Dembele will be a regular French NT player soon and move on from Lyon eventually although he'd easily be able to play for a slightly smaller PL club then get a big move not long after. Also for instance, Charly Musonda failed in Scotland because he wasn't good enough when he did play in this so called "joke league" 6 months after people thought he should be playing in our first team under Conte. Even in the academies big teams are signing lots of hugely talented Scottish players with out fail every season, many who go on to never play and waste their careers. So the Scottish standard can't be that bad. The money is the only thing that holds it back, if the SPL was getting how ever many millions the PL get it would be the same lots of smaller club's spending big money. It's always the same though, European players are considered more appealing options to club's because they can buy ready made players instead of using youth. For me, the Bundesliga is the best league in the world in that regard because its the only one where every team has an incentive to grow their own players and also be competitive hence why Germany were so successful. British football has had the arse torn out of it with money. Million pound academies and nobody in the top 4 is bringing young players through regularly. 

I love Scotland, just not for footie. Maybe if Rangers get on level terms with Celtic again it might make for a decent Old Firm game, and I really do hope Hearts (I prefer Edinburgh over Glasgow any day) can take Celtic finally out, but the level of play and players in the SPL just isn't there for me overall. Only leagues I truly watch are the EPL, Serie A, and the Bundesliga. I will watch (only to scout) La Liga (unless it is a big 3 game, then I usually watch) and Ligue 1 (only to scout a certian player or maybe Lyon v PSG or Lyon v Marseille or PSG v Marseille) a wee bit. 

La Liga has almost no players I want who are truly available. Most I would love to have will never be sold in their prime.

The only established players who are actually available would be (besides Firpo and obviously, hopefully our own Kovacic) Malcom (huge mistake by our board and also Barca's, as he is simply not playing), LW Mikel Oyarzabal, AMF Carlos Soler, AMF Pablo Fornals, CMF Manu Trigueros (poor mans Cesc), RW Iñaki Williams, AMF/RW Rafinha (Barca are fuckers to deal with when its a player they rate, and they rate Rafinha higher than Malcom atm), AMF Pablo Sarabia, and CF Maximiliano Gómez.

BTW, I am not slagging off Tierney, the main reason I didn't list him is that he will be more expensive by far than all above except Firpo and perhaps RB Achraf Hakimi (if Real Madrid would even sell him).

Firpo is worth the extra quid over Kierney IMHO at LB. Atm I cannot say the same for Hakimi over Valentino Lazaro. That may well change but Lazaro is REALLY good too. I also rated Nordi Mukiele and Wan-Bissaka as great values.

RM almost never sell young players they rate, and when they do, it is for insane prices. Asensio is perfect example. £100m for him is NOT a great price, yet RM offers him up at that and acts like it is a monster bargain. He has regressed in my book, and is not remotely near a Hazardian level.

To sum it all up. I would be over the moon if we sold Alonso and Emerson and bought Firpo AND Tierney (or Ferland Mendy).

Same with Azpi (I can hear the howls now) and Zappacosta and buy Hakimi (for fair price) and Valentino Lazaro.

Azpi is 30 next season, and fullbacks age horridly. Marcelo (always horrid on defence) is now falling off overall at 30yo. Injuries also pile up much more easily. Jordi Alba is literally the only other WC LB over 28. Had someone tey to say Filipe Luís (33yo) was still! LOLOL. Go watch the AM v Dortmund game and get back to me.

 Fortune favours the bold, and all my picks play at high level (including Europe) and thus are hardly academy level dice-rolls.

I know we never sell all 4 at once we have now, but we really need to at least being in great young players who can eventually bench Azpi and especially Alonso. 

The way things are going I am not getting my hopes up, but I am nothing if not an incredibly stubborn bish, so I will keep on posting.

 

[nachikethas 1,149]

This guy needs to score goals!

[Johnnyeye 7,405]

16 minutes ago, nachikethas said:

This guy needs to score goals!

and defend too

[Clockwork 1,762]

He really is useless now that his Goals and Assists have ran out, which was always predictable. 

[NiclasCFC 2,582]

Great article on Alonso, shows how underappreciated he is on here.

 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/11541715/mnf-extra-can-marcos-alonso-adjust-to-left-back-role-at-chelsea

[El P. 1,354]

Bakayoko > Alonso

Get the f*ck out already.

[Special Juan 27,093]

There is a better player in my under 7 side.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Now that goals dried up, he realy doesnt offer much at all. 

Emerson also had great game recently. 

What will happen next? 

Sarri keep playing Alonso sadly.

[LAM09 6,535]

Now that goals dried up, he realy doesnt offer much at all. 
Emerson also had great game recently. 
What will happen next? 
Sarri keep playing Alonso sadly.

Zappacosta seems to be closer to the XI than him, so I'd take Azpi at LB for now.

[OneMoSalah 8,611]

He had a difficult game. So did Hazard. They didn't help each other out which is a massive problem, both want to come to the box, it just crowds the area.

I think there will need to be rotations in the next 4 or 5 games in key areas to prevent burning out players. Alonso has played non stop every week for 3 seasons now here, he needs rotation (said this last season) so does Azpi (again mentioned it seasons ago) because you can see with Sarri's demands of high full backs, overlapping, being really advanced and the regularity that these guys have had playing almost every minute for the last 3, 4 or 5 seasons, it's catching up with them, both are obviously fit enough to play the roles naturally but it must be physically exhausting playing every match every season. Also guys like Kante and Jorginho might end up having to be rested in upcoming games to try keep them fresh.

Pedro, Willian and Hazard again played a lot of games this season too maybe time to use Callum a bit more regularly to rest these guys around 60/70 mins in (although if taking Sarri ends up taking Eden off and gets anything like Conte got on here from certain members fuck knows how long he'll be liked 😂).

The rotation between Giroud and Morata has been decent enough, they've managed to play each other out of the team, playing a few games then getting changed, although through lack of goals or poor performances than a need for rest.... 

 

[Clockwork 1,762]

I am not buying he has been overused excuse, he plays once a week and was not called up for international break either. He should be one of our most rested starter.

He is not good, more than that I really hated his demeanor. For instance before he was subbed, there was a moment he was tugging for the ball, and was pushed out of bound. While the ball was in play, he was walking around complaining to the ref instead of focusing on a dangerous situation.  

[Special Juan 27,093]

He's just not dynamic enough, he plays the same way all the time. The best full backs take risks, not only do they take risks but they also are absolutely golden on the ball.

He doesn't take players on, he relies too much on his crosses and the goals he scores mask the fact he is a very average player.

[Vesper 27,283]

21 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

He's just not dynamic enough, he plays the same way all the time. The best full backs take risks, not only do they take risks but they also are absolutely golden on the ball.

He doesn't take players on, he relies too much on his crosses and the goals he scores mask the fact he is a very average player.

He had the worst crossing game I have ever seen at Chels from a fullback. Horrid!

[manpe 10,855]

4 minutes ago, Vesper said:

He had the worst crossing game I have ever seen at Chels from a fullback. Horrid!

Came close to some of the shit shows Bosingwa put us through with his "crosses", but not quite that bad yet  At least his high stray balls went past the first man...

[Vesper 27,283]

31 minutes ago, manpe said:

Came close to some of the shit shows Bosingwa put us through with his "crosses", but not quite that bad yet  At least his high stray balls went past the first man...

My last real memories of Bosingwa were at least a good ones, the 2012 CL semis and final! He came on v Barca when Cahill was hurt, then Terry was sent off and he played CB, then he started against Bayern and shut down Ribery.

[manpe 10,855]

4 minutes ago, Vesper said:

My last real memories of Bosingwa were at least a good ones, the 2012 CL semis and final! He came on v Barca when Cahill was hurt, then Terry was sent off and he played CB, then he started against Bayern and shut down Ribery.

Sure, Bos is a leg in that regard, but Benny Hill was still the soundtrack to his crosses

[BlueLyon 9,359]

17 hours ago, LAM09 said:

21 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

Now that goals dried up, he realy doesnt offer much at all. 
Emerson also had great game recently. 
What will happen next? 
Sarri keep playing Alonso sadly.

Zappacosta seems to be closer to the XI than him, so I'd take Azpi at LB for now.

Meh Zappacosta is just one of those safe short fix options..decently reliable but offers absolutely nothing extra. 

Emerson might be more raw at the moment, but his celining is still quite high IMO. Worth a risk in couple games. 

These safe options have to stop. I remember Mourinho at Real in 2012 when he shipped young, but clearly talented Carvajal out in favour of Essien to play RB. Lucky for Real, they got him back eventualy. We failed to do that with Kdb or Salah because of more proven safe options. I still fully believe if Emerson leaves to play regular football elsewhere, he will end up better than any fullback we had since Cole and Iva (Azpi excluded).

The club has to realize that we have to look longterm and try more risks or we will never improve. 

[LAM09 6,535]

Meh Zappacosta is just one of those safe short fix options..decently reliable but offers absolutely nothing extra. 
Emerson might be more raw at the moment, but his celining is still quite high IMO. Worth a risk in couple games. 
These safe options have to stop. I remember Mourinho at Real in 2012 when he shipped young, but clearly talented Carvajal out in favour of Essien to play RB. Lucky for Real, they got him back eventualy. We failed to do that with Kdb or Salah because of more proven safe options. I still fully believe if Emerson leaves to play regular football elsewhere, he will end up better than any fullback we had since Cole and Iva (Azpi excluded).
The club has to realize that we have to look longterm and try more risks or we will never improve. 

Emerson hasn't even made our match day squad in the Prem this season, so chances of that suddenly changing are minuscule.

Every man and his dog knows he's the best FB we have expect for another manager of this club.