The Next Manager?

[Gundalf 804]

57 minutes ago, lucio said:

You need someone who is also great on the ball at the top level.  Rice is ass 

[Gundalf 804]

Rice would make a good completion to Enzo in midfield. His strengths are Enzos weaknesses and vice versa. Would be a very balanced midfield pairing.

[Pizy 18,368]

The stuff about Poch being a maniacal training and fitness guy are what excites me most. These soft players are terribly unfit. They need a massive kick up the ass.

If he can emulate the exact same style here that he had at Spuds were in for something special. A super fit team that presses all over the pitch AS A UNIT whilst also playing neat, tidy football.

[TheHulk 1,855]

41 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

As I remember Kante has always been a pure box to box even at Leicester Drinkwater was always the deeper of the two, I'm not saying rice is the only midfielder we should get, but people saying he's crap haven't a clue what they are talking about. 

Yeah they haven't got a clue just like they didn't got a clue Potter was utterly shit, Declan is average England and West Ham prove this, thankfully he wants CL and won't happen.

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

10 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

Yeah they haven't got a clue just like they didn't got a clue Potter was utterly shit, Declan is average England and West Ham prove this, thankfully he wants CL and won't happen.

And there we have it..... 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

Let the death sprints begin!

[Superblue 6,370]

57 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

As I remember Kante has always been a pure box to box even at Leicester Drinkwater was always the deeper of the two, I'm not saying rice is the only midfielder we should get, but people saying he's crap haven't a clue what they are talking about. 

The only thing I've noticed watching West Ham a few times this season (my brother in law is unfortunately a hammer) is that Rice does seem to play a similar role to this also for West Ham. I find he's regularly more of a box to box and Soucek ends up sitting more like Matic used to in our midfield.  They interchange a little but West Ham do seem to like to try and utilise Rice as the more dynamic of the two to push on at times when they counter attack. 

My biggest worry with Rice is that evolution in a team that are regularly set up defensively to try and hit on a counter attack against higher lines, compared to a top team playing with much more of the ball and looking to break teams down. I know this will be primarily Enzo's role to dictate play from deep but Rice still needs to prove he has that part of his game in his locker. There are times I watch him and he looks like he has that and other times he can look very limited in that area of his game.

Whether it's Rice or someone else though, I would like to see a physical presence in that midfield which Rice definitely would provide. We've become such a small team over the past few seasons that just looks like it could end up getting bullied by some teams (and I feel at times that's what happens). 

[lucio 5,418]

1 hour ago, YorkshireBlue said:

As I remember Kante has always been a pure box to box even at Leicester Drinkwater was always the deeper of the two, I'm not saying rice is the only midfielder we should get, but people saying he's crap haven't a clue what they are talking about. 

Isn’t soucek their more defensive mid? 

[lucio 5,418]

1 hour ago, Gundalf said:

Having a good passing accuracy % on who scored doesn’t make him a great passer.  It also lists passing as a major strength of kante and it definitely isn’t 

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

30 minutes ago, lucio said:

Isn’t soucek their more defensive mid? 

Maybe at club level time to time at West ham, but I'm fairly sure in an England shirt he sits deep and allows, the likes of Bellingham to play further forward.

[Gundalf 804]

2 hours ago, lucio said:

Having a good passing accuracy % on who scored doesn’t make him a great passer.  It also lists passing as a major strength of kante and it definitely isn’t 

What makes a player a great passer then?

[Vegetable 830]

7 hours ago, Gundalf said:

What makes a player a great passer then?

I guess he refers to one creative, dangerous pass being worth 100 properly executed random backpasses to the defender and it's hard to reflect this in stats. 

[lucio 5,418]

7 hours ago, Gundalf said:

What makes a player a great passer then?

Someone who passes quickly and efficiently especially under pressure. River doesn’t have the composure , skill or intelligence to be a number 6 at the highest level. Better of using him as a box to box charging around the pitch if anything 

[Reddish-Blue 2,345]

20 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

Maybe at club level time to time at West ham, but I'm fairly sure in an England shirt he sits deep and allows, the likes of Bellingham to play further forward.

Put it this way, Declan Rice would be a luxury signing at the price tag West Ham want.   

Feel like there are plenty of other positions on the pitch that need to be looked at (e.g. a good goalkeeper, a good finisher up front) before we go and get mugged off by West Ham and end up paying them 120 million for Declan Rice (even though the nearest other offer would be from Arsenal at 70 million). 

No different to Mudryk (apparently Arsenal's offer was only 50 million + add-ons) and yet they somehow got us to spend 70 million on him...

[lucio 5,418]

Maybe pochettino would like him. He used a similar big English blockhead at Spurs (Dier). But really, caicedo and lavia are clear, especially at the price 

[Gundalf 804]

13 hours ago, lucio said:

Someone who passes quickly and efficiently especially under pressure. River doesn’t have the composure , skill or intelligence to be a number 6 at the highest level. Better of using him as a box to box charging around the pitch if anything 

I dont care about a passing DM. Thats literally Enzos job. We need someone that relieves pressure from the back 4. Someone that blocks attacks, intercepts balls before the opponent can run torwards them. Someone that just adds security for the attacking players to do their thing. How many years have we conceded goals now bc our midfield has been overrun time after time. We dont need another Jorginho, Kovacic, Enzo type of midfielder, we need a defensive minded DM that stays in position and breaks and absorbs the opponents attacks. And Rice is that. He is leading the PL statistic for interceptions by quite some margin. The first Chelsea player on that list is in P66 (Thiago), so our squad is massively lacking that skill and quality that Rice could add.  

Its also a myth that Rice only does backward and sideward passes. He is outperforming Caicedo in terms on forward passes and created chances btw.

I would be fine with Caicedo also but name me a DM that offers the needed defensive stability and adds more passing creativity that is actually a realistic transfer target.  

[Gundalf 804]

14 hours ago, lucio said:

Someone who passes quickly and efficiently especially under pressure. 

So you basically want Jorgi back 😂

[Jype 6,398]

On 15/05/2023 at 12:49, Vegetable said:

Can Rice do what Kante can't though?

He can stay fit, yes.