Smirking_Saint

100%… if I catch him on a bus I’ll let you know These comments made me laugh, under another of the loons Le Tissier retweeted

Well I suppose they probably aren’t desperate in similarity to Leicesters financial doom but I think their intentions are to shift some of their duff players so they can ‘rebuild’ Frankly though… after spending 600 (or 700 depending on when the Nkunku deal is accounted) last year I find it mental that the media is happy to hype up this years ‘chelsea rebuild’

Not since City and by the looks of it Everton proved it was nonsense 😂 Laughable really

Loaded doesn’t matter, they’re too close to FFP thresholds

Pretty much bang on.. when teams started to realise they could play deep and play over our press it was often Stu that had that extra bit of ability to play through them, without him we seemed (and still do) lost He hasn’t been the same for a while and certainly had his poorest season last year, Im assuming we saw Aribo as the player to replace that, he has the ability but absolutely zero application

Now that you ask yes, I got up to FA level 2/Uefa C before I realised the pathways into a significant career were infinitely small even though I know a few Ex prem and England coaches that could help me along… it simply wasn’t enough, so I got another job Now I’ll stop being a patronising prick but honestly these terms aren’t anything new really.. when you press you want the furthest forward player towards the ball to ‘trigger’ the rest of the team that should notice this and close down opposition players/passing lanes accordingly A double pivot is basically two DMs (No.6s) which tend to have slightly different roles but effectively are just there to provide defensive cover for attacking FBs and provide passing lanes from deep… we’ve used them pretty much since Ralph arrived

Probably because Ive consistently said as poor as Che is at finishing off moves, he was pretty integral to how we played over the last two years, initiating the press, disrupting the back line and being a focal point in attack.. his touch, back to goal play and passing is very good… so were between a rock and a hard place… either we put up with his 50/50 finishing or our build up was non existent…. Im not expecting you to understand that intricacy though Diallo just didn’t do what you suggested anyway, and effectively we employed a double pivot, so neither were expected to play a proper ‘box to box’ role, with the furthest we’d expect either to progress forward would probably be between halfway and the oppo box

Apart from the fact he was a woeful passer of the ball and frequently got dispossessed in possession you’re spot on 🙄 As a ball winner he wasn’t completely horrible, the issue was if anyone expected anything progressive from him at all

I think ultimately he looks like a wasted talent, I thought he could potentially flourish into a decent PL DM but he never really improved (maybe even regressed since the purchase) Its a shame really but his move to Qatar shows where his motivation lies as a young player Nice to see us starting to move on the deadwood Heard we’d likely lose the ‘french contingent’ from the end of last year, him, Perraud and Mara were all making noises about moving on, I’d imagine Perraud will be next out the door

Thing is if its a choice of 40m this summer OR next summer, I.E - We don’t get an improvement on the 40m buy back next year Id hope they’d be happy to go into this season with a vastly superior midfield and tell the likes of the scousers to jog on Ultimately it sounds like Klopp has done the usual tapping up, so Id hold firm

Hopefully we’ll tell them to get fucked then Realistically we need someone like Arsenal to come in and help drive the price up

Agree with the last statement 100%, and actually most of it… but pleading poverty probably does have a place IF Saints were financially needing to sell (we don’t) OR Tella was pushing hard for the move (he isn’t) which is why I don’t think you will see much of an escalation of this transfer before, probably the start of our season.. if at all As per young Trafford I think he is a terrific young keeper, and its probably realistic to say that right now in world football that keepers are much rarer than wide forwards, hence why a lot of their budget went there.. funnily enough they’re after another keeper so shows were Kompany is looking to strengthen Edit - Coulibaly is also a CB… so I guess in a way ‘yes’ they have extra cash… but Im assuming they still need a CB, they’re obviously trying to stretch their budget but if 17.5m is too much then im not convinced they’ll push the boat out for Tella (who historically never looked much in the prem) FWIW I think Burnley are down anyway

Maybe.. plenty of noise going around footballing circles saying exactly that though… they’re being very particular in their buys due to budgets

We could see Liverpool ramping up the Lavia chase now, they previously missed the signing of Tchoumeni due to their delay Im not convinced they’ll let a further top talent in RL slip through their grasp.. its up to us to push for the best possible fee

The Coulibaly deal fell through because they can’t afford him The whispers going around the media is that Burnleys budget is incredibly small this year… Im not sure, if we stand fast on our fee, that he’ll be going anywhere

Yeah I think Smallbone could look v good in a 3 man possession based midfield

Yeah IM not getting hung up on the quality of opposition and how we get on, it’s important to see how these players perform under pressure For instance, as suspected Stephens is an awful player but Smallbone looks good on the ball… Tino doesn’t look too comfortable but this is match 1

Benfica are doing an exceptional job pressing us and hemming us in, a lot is due to the fact we don’t really have enough options moving the ball forward So we have nowhere to go with it

Great first signing and great work Saints 👏🏻 As suspected SR aren’t hanging around and are comfortable funding a promotion project, quietly excited about this year More to come too

He’s wanted out since the end of last season So I imagine it won’t be long

Its only indicative that the player/club relationship hasn’t broken down… there’s not a lot to it really but, for instance I wouldn’t expect Salisu to feature in much of the clubs PR pieces

I imagine he’d have to come back in ? Unless they’re assuming that Baz and Macca are enough with Bycroft as back up ?

Not really no, press resistance is generally players with decent strength and dribbling, or effectively enough to avoid the press and get the ball away without losing it, so the likes of Pogba, Verratti, Lavia etc I loved Wanyama but he was effectively just a bully

Barcelona can’t afford him, Real don’t need him, Bayern is possibly a mix of the two, PSG are getting Ugarte.. that only really leaves Chelsea, Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal

Press resistance has been a tangible way to describe midfielders capable of emerging from tight spaces with the ball for ages What rock have you been under ?