Brighton 4-1 Chelsea

[Reddish-Blue 2,225]

54 minutes ago, Strike said:

They have a much better squad than Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and Man United. 

That might be the case but they lost a key player to Bayern and they are light in midfield (just like us...the Kante & Reece injuries have left the rest of the team exposed in terms of work ethic).   

Arsenal are flying as their first choice midfield is all fit & firing, City have the best midfielder in the PL, United appear to have found some balance with Eriksen & Casemiro providing the experience.  Funny how we always looked a midfielder short incase of injury and the club decided it was better to spend 120 million on Fofana & Cucurella...

[Superblue 6,331]

I get the idea of not playing Zakaria to give us the flexibility to move him on in January, but I just hope we don't bomb Zakaria out in January for a short-term fix, that's going to leave us with another player we overpay for and in a year or two we're trying to move on. Alvarez for me fits this bill completely, he'd potentially offer a more solid base than we have currently in the midfield but I don't think his ability on the ball is at the required top level that we'd need it to be. 

Out of the truly top midfield targets, the only one remotely possible in January would be de Jong and that's completely dependent on him. There's been a couple of murmurings that he might be more open to moving now than he was in the summer but as usual with the Spanish boys you don't know whether it's just a club spin to the media to pressure him again.

The only other player I can realistically think of currently that I mentioned in the transfer section the other day is Konrad Laimer as his contract is expiring in the summer and we have been linked with him (although so have Bayern). If we got him agreed in January, there may be the possibility of convincing Leipzig to part with him 6 months early for a few million perhaps and also that might be where someone like Zakaria could possibly come into play if we could help broker him a second half of the season move to Leipzig to replace Laimer. 

But besides the above, unless we're able to pull a true rabbit out of the hat elsewhere, I'd rather we keep our powder dry for the summer. As a club, we have an unfortunate history in recent times of buying what might be deemed the "best available" at the time to fill a need and not being prepared to wait for something better to come along. That has to change from January onwards if we're going to rebuild this team in a proper manner.

[Reddish-Blue 2,225]

22 hours ago, Vesper said:

Conor Gallagher
Carney Chukwuemeka
Mason Mount 

plus

 
Cesare Casadei    
Harvey Vale
 

None of the players listed provide an immediate solution to our central midfield/pivot problems.   Gallagher & Mount won't survive playing in a pivot as they want to be on the ball higher up the pitch, not recycling possession/breaking the opposition's play in the defensive half of the pitch. 

[Superblue 6,331]

1 minute ago, Reddish-Blue said:

None of the players listed provide an immediate solution to our central midfield/pivot problems.   Gallagher & Mount won't survive playing in a pivot as they want to be on the ball higher up the pitch, not recycling possession/breaking the opposition's play in the defensive half of the pitch. 

I think with the current absences we have at present, it would make more sense to look at a 4-3-3 that included Jorginho, Kova and one of the above to fill that midfield 3. A back 4 then would consist of Azpi, Chalobah, Silva and Cucurella/Chilwell.

At the moment the two biggest areas of weakness I see in our team is being overrun in midfield and teams playing direct against us into wide positions and a lot of that is a result of the personnel we have trying to play currently a 3-5-2/3-4-3. 

I don't mind what Potter is trying to do but you need the players for it. Reece James in that formation is almost a cheat code for us because he's elite on both sides of the ball. It allows us to be a bit more creative on the left side because in a defensive shape at worst Reece can tuck in to make a back 4, which is something neither Sterling nor Pulisic will do. Being so threadbare with defensive options currently and having no true DM to anchor the team leaves us incredibly unbalanced in that set up at present. 

The frustrating aspect is that Potter has at times used a back 4 during his short time here and it's looked significantly more effective than when we played back 4 systems under Tuchel, so I'm a bit perplexed why he hasn't gone back to that as an option with the defenders we currently have out injured.

Hopefully he finds the right formula quickly because Arsenal and Newcastle are two sides on current form that could exploit those same weaknesses.

[YorkshireBlue 2,830]

20 hours ago, manpe said:

We have been a project (or in "transition", whatever you call it) since I don't know when, but many years have passed where the same things have been said. In that case our project management is horrible as we're only getting worse. Over the years there have been very few signs that we should be trusting or having faith in said "project". A project where we still sign past it old players as stop-gaps

Difference now is we have new ownership which has basically chucked all the old out and starting new, we was never under a project under Roman, he wanted instant success and when it got abit stale the manager was gone. It did work for a time but also a huge part of why we are where we are now.

[bigbluewillie 1,807]

2 hours ago, Superblue said:

I think with the current absences we have at present, it would make more sense to look at a 4-3-3 that included Jorginho, Kova and one of the above to fill that midfield 3. A back 4 then would consist of Azpi, Chalobah, Silva and Cucurella/Chilwell.

At the moment the two biggest areas of weakness I see in our team is being overrun in midfield and teams playing direct against us into wide positions and a lot of that is a result of the personnel we have trying to play currently a 3-5-2/3-4-3. 

I don't mind what Potter is trying to do but you need the players for it. Reece James in that formation is almost a cheat code for us because he's elite on both sides of the ball. It allows us to be a bit more creative on the left side because in a defensive shape at worst Reece can tuck in to make a back 4, which is something neither Sterling nor Pulisic will do. Being so threadbare with defensive options currently and having no true DM to anchor the team leaves us incredibly unbalanced in that set up at present. 

The frustrating aspect is that Potter has at times used a back 4 during his short time here and it's looked significantly more effective than when we played back 4 systems under Tuchel, so I'm a bit perplexed why he hasn't gone back to that as an option with the defenders we currently have out injured.

Hopefully he finds the right formula quickly because Arsenal and Newcastle are two sides on current form that could exploit those same weaknesses.

I agree 4 3 3 this is the team I picked, what do you think..

Kepa

Dave Chalobah Thiago/KK Chilly

Jorginho Kovacic

Mount

Sterling Broja ????(I really don't know)

4-2-1-3

The only reason Sterling is in there is because we have no one else

[manpe 10,857]

On 31/10/2022 at 08:43, Reddish-Blue said:

Where would you start?   That would mean replacing everyone other than James, Mount, T.Silva, Kante, Kovacic, J5, Chilwell and the new signings this season. 

The only consistent players we have are Silva and James. Kante too if you count him being consistently injured. But Mount, Kova, Jorginho and Chilwell are the definitions of inconsistency.

[Reddish-Blue 2,225]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

The only consistent players we have are Silva and James. Kante too if you count him being consistently injured. But Mount, Kova, Jorginho and Chilwell are the definitions of inconsistency.

Harsh on Kova & Jorginho, they might not be at their best this season but they've been solid in midfield in previous seasons.  Probably part of the reason why we haven't even bothered to re-invest into our midfield as the trio of Kante - Kova - J5 were getting the job done on most occasions. 

Massive transfer window coming up at the end of the season, it may set us up for the next 5+ years or put us down to scrapping/fighting for a Europa League spot. 

[MoroccanBlue 5,200]

Define solid and getting the job done. 

If the job was to retain possession against the elite clubs in Europe, then yes. They've done a very good job. If it was to offer both defensive and attacking influence, as central midfielders should be doing, then they've both done poorly and it isn't their fault given that isn't part of their game. 

Kova and Jorginho should be bench players next season. 

[ZAPHOD2319 3,880]