verlaine1979

Wasn't Rogers initially celebrated as the inventor of the Premier League high-press?

If he turns out to be very good, but still not quite good enough for Barcelona, I wonder if there's a clause that prevents them buying him back for what is presumably a fairly low fee and then selling him on immediately?

Loftus-Cheek was the best player on the pitch when he came on against Sweden, yet didn't start. For his delivery from dead balls alone JWP should have started ahead of Chalobah & Forster-Caskey - stupid selection in midfield, effectively decided to go 4-4-2 with Ings and Kane (albeit handing in a team sheet that pretended Ings was going to be a withdrawn #10).

When I looked a few hours ago as this rumour was breaking, there didn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for him from Arsenal fans on Twitter. Most seemed to think there's nothing between him and Coquelin, and that £25m would be a rip-off.

He's been playing more or less as a striker for Brazil in the Copa America I think - maybe they're replacing Suarez a season late.

Bearing in mind your staunch defence of another player most of those criticisms can be levelled at, I find your dismissal of JWP rather odd.

Loftus-Cheek looked by far our best midfielder when he came on against Sweden. Both Chalobah and Carroll were pretty dire, so RLC and JWP should start ahead of them, but seeing how conservative Southgate's selections are, I doubt it'll happen.

If 6 assists and 1 goal in 25 appearances as an attacking midfielder is a horror show, what would you call 2 assists and no goals in 35?

Presumably asking price is fluid if other teams like Roma are interested and want to compete for his signature.

Curious - why not? Do you watch a lot of Sporting's games?

I wonder if one of the things that has held back JWP's development (and, if I'm being charitable blunted the contribution of Davis as well) is our conservative, keep-the-ball-at-all-costs tactical approach. Young players like Grealish tend to get attention by doing extravagant things - 40 yard passes with the outside of the boot etc - which carry a much higher risk of losing possession. I have no idea which of those two (or Barkley etc) will turn out better, but between JWP's temperament and our tactics, it's no surprise that some of these other players catch the eye more, even if their teams are less successful as a unit.

Not really a regular scorer, though last year was his best with 4 league goals, all of which he seemed to get by either driving into the box from midfield, or arriving on the edge of the area as the cross comes in. No idea if he's the one to do it, but would be nice to have a central midfielder capable of scoring those kind of goals.

Judging by how loathe he was to drop Pelle during his bad run of form and experiment with a more mobile front three, Koeman definitely seems to prefer sending out a team with a genuine target man. Juanmi definitely doesn't fit that bill, and I don't think contesting high balls is really JRod's game.

Not bad at all - Pelle's average for the league was 270 last season going by the same data (Transfermarkt). Juanmi doesn't look like he sets up many though - 2 assists last season, none the season before. I note Pelle only got 2 last season as well - considering Lambert got into double figures the season before, it perhaps explains a bit about why we sometimes looked a bit disjointed in attack.

Goal every 269 minutes over the last two seasons in La Liga.

I didn't say anything of the sort. I just said that recently we've been extremely lucky to have two top class DMs in the team, and it's unlikely that we'll replace MS like-for-like in order to maintain that when most clubs seem to make do with one. If he goes, he'll be replaced by someone from a lesser league, with a lesser price-tag who will hopefully go on to increase their value. Expensive DMs are a luxury only the very richest clubs can afford.

Assuming we don't also sell VW, I can't see the club thinking that spending in the mid-to-high teens for a defensive midfielder is going to give us the best return. Would expect us only to go above that 10-12m level in pursuit of an attacking/creative player.

Can't see us spending more than 10-12m max to replace MS if he goes.

The methodology as described in the article uses the word 'calculate' several times when what they actually mean is 'speculate'.

Definitely right about JRod's finishing. He's capable of the occasional exquisite shot (last season away against Fulham for example) but as a one-on-one finisher in particular, he's never filled me with confidence.

Isn't Elia's fee supposed to be around £3m? Not sure how much more quality you'd pick up for that price now, even shopping in some of the less glamorous European leagues. Not a bad addition to the squad, even if he hasn't set the world alight during his loan.

Yeah, that was a sublime flick during the one-two with Mane - Tadic the only other midfielder in the squad who has that kind of touch and invention. Not had enough game time to warrant meeting the reported buy-out fee though.

Great result and some great finishing, but that's one of the all-time awful defensive displays from Villa.

You've got the wrong end of the stick I'm afraid. I'm not 'blaming' Davis for anything (well, apart from a handful of specific balls-ups he's made of late, most notably the three misses against Spurs & several defensive lapses). The reason I single him out instead of anyone else is, in many many years of reading this forum, I've never seen such a limited player receive such ludicrously undeserved praise. He's deeply, deeply average in all phases of play, yet for the last year all I've heard is how 'essential' he is to the team. As another poster said earlier, can you really imagine Davis being the keystone player for a genuine top six side? He's a decent squad player, but the only thing Davis has ever been instrumental to is our attacking mediocrity over the past two seasons.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is some elaborate piece of performance art you're doing; it's the only explanation for the weird combination of paranoid accusation & illiterate defence of a player everyone else can see fading before their eyes. Davis has been ineffective most of the season, and absolute cack since the new year. I'm sure some will quibble over the first assertion, but it's becoming difficult to find anyone (aside from you, in the throes of your art) who'll disagree with the latter.