Smirking_Saint

Jesus Palace going into the season a tad light eh ?

Genuinely if we don't beat these two we are in all sorts of problems in the latter rounds

He's a young player thats technically proficient and isn't really there to provide attacking quality considering we play the double pivot I like him, has something about him and feel like he has plenty to offer. Of course he isn't a guaranteed starter right now, but he is good enough for back up

This is a fair point too Awful

Dykes could be the worst player Ive seen this tournament

In all fairness.... they do have the 3rd richest owner in the prem... and he seems happy to stick his hand in his pocket to an extent

Fully agree with this, and understand why Ralph says a DM is not a priority..... the centre of the pitch is probably our only position where we have starting quality AND depth..... If we have a tight budget, we need to focus elsewhere

Don't sell yourself short.... we signed the European footballer of the year in 1980

I think it was more the times Ché was dropped for him... I actually like Ralph as a coach but the guy seems blinkered at times. I think I said on twitter at the time, Adams seems a real confidence striker (more than most) and had one of his purple patches covering Ings, then scored for Scotland and was rewarded by being dropped for Redmond... odd I do get your point regarding Tella, but I still didn't see an awful lot of difference in the way either effected the game. We were playing the unorthodox wingback game that we both discussed previously at the time, and were mathematically safe but still persisted with Redmond I still didn't really see much from him that would make me continue with that experiment 'Perhaps' it was a case of Ralph giving players enough to hang themselves..... we'll see

Yeah I really didn't get that.... my thoughts were maybe he thought he could rely on him to track back.... but every time he did he gave a foul away somewhere I still think there is talent in there but he obviously has no idea how to release it consistently

Germany always grind it out, I agree its probably their worst squad since we battered them 5-1 but they still seem to always do well. Which is the opposite of us really, who always seem to underperform. Does seem a very strong tournament this year though, Portugal/France/Belgium are all very very strong and some of these smaller teams look good, I think you can add Denmark and Sweden to that list too, they have a solid chance to push on this year Spain and Italy I'm not convinced with though, we'll see

Danny didn't do enough this year and we're carrying enough fitness concerns to overlook another in Danny (say what you want but his fitness isn't reliable) so I think the next options would be Watkins or Bamford despite Danny being a better striker than both. Prowse again I think is a symptom of the issue Southgate has taking too many fitness risks, once Henderson decided he was fit then it put the coffin nail into JWP's chances. I don't think your prediction is wrong though, Kane is our leading light and if we find ourselves without him I think we're in trouble.

I mean.... I am club before country, but I still don't want Che or Armstrong scoring against us... it adds nothing to us as a club. If they do well over the overall tournament than great... but no I don't want Che to knock us out just because he wears the red and white

Everyone gave Hojbjerg so much shit but in reality he was/is a very good DM... if not slightly limited. We probably asked a bit too much of him but if you want a guy that wins the ball, breaks up attacks and recycles then he is in that top bracket in the prem IMO I think even Diallo is a better option overall than Reed, Reed to me feels again like a pure DM, technically lacks a bit.. I think Diallo has the higher ceiling. Its a shame for Reed, that he didn't make it for us, but glad to see him doing well elsewhere

Its pretty rough however we finish our group Effectively we are odds on to meet France/Portugal I think

Unfortunately the pathway for Reed was always blocked by better players, and I think personally he still at this point wouldn't make the side

Its batshit to me honest He needs to make a decision on who his 'favoured' keeper is, neither are good enough in my opinion BUT Forster, for me, is the better of the two.... marginally Rotation does no favours for the defensive block at all

I’d comfortably go out on a limb and suggest if we sell JWP and Ings we’ll be relegated regardless of incomings As for Targett, he has been fantastic this year for Villa but never looked like pulling those performances for us, even with game time. Plus we had Bertrand in his way, 20m was good money at the time Reed, Sims, Hesketh were never good enough. Reed didn’t get going this year, despite being in a side that predominantly defended his stats aren’t groundbreaking there. Diallo is a better player technically. Sims is a pace merchant with nothing to offer and Hesketh is made of glass. Im not hugely impressed with Taki... but he’s better than both

Sounds promising Thanks for posting

I think towards the end of the season he started to utilise Bertrand more of a defensive FB or 3rd CB and eventually moved to using Salisu or Stephens at LB that created an unorthodox 3 atb when in possession. It likely shows that he had less and less faith in his defensive unit as the season progressed to be honest, but I would imagine we will move back to the more rigid 4222 in both transitions when he has his preferred midfield pairing and a left back that he can rely on to carry out both sides of the game

There is zero point taking these snapshots and trying to decipher how we've set up, as tactics are transitional. I expect I can find pass maps that show us set in a 4222 out of possession. For instance, during Koemans time we set up in a 4231 yet in possession pushed into a 3 atb form as one of the DMs dropped back to allow the FBs to push forward... this is just transitionary This isn't just symptomatic of us, it will be exactly the same with any side.

I'm not suggesting we are in the same position as last year, we aren't, we are far from it. I'm just pointing out that jumping the gun when we have a timeline to follow has failed before, and the risk is not worth the reward for trying it again. I don't have the data, I'm only surmising that should we open before the critical mass of the populous is vaccinated then we stand a chance of reintroducing the virus back into the community. That could, through no fault of their own, threaten those that are clinically vulnerable and 'could' (although unlikely to overwhelm) put the NHS back on the back foot. I imagine they have used the time of low infections in order to catch up with those delayed that required treatments for a range of other conditions, and a rise in infection rates would likely further put this program back at risk. Again, we are around 3 weeks from hitting the critical mass (apparently), at which point the risk level is significantly lower for all. So it makes perfect sense, from a risk mitigation POV to follow through with it

I like lemina, there is a good player in there, but his application is off and considering he was effectively dumped out of the club last year I don't see us repairing any relationships there any time soon These sorts of graphical stats based images can often be quite hard to digest properly as well as often it highlights tactical insufficiencies as much as how well the player has performed. The fact that I can see more Fulham players in that graph as a percentage per team more than any other leads me to believe it was more of a case of Fulhams inability to control possession and generally be on the back foot that makes the above look more positive than it actually is What exactly did Lemina do in possession ? Seasonal stats say not a lot, 1g, 0a and 1 big chance created over 28 games

I like Gilmour, he is a very very good young talent but to be completely honest DM/CM isn't a position we need to be worried about moving forward, we have JWP, Romeu, Diallo, Armstrong, Smallbone, Jankewitz that could all do a good enough job there I'd rather we went to Chelsea and asked about the likes of CHO or Abraham

I wasn't necessarily averse to it, and I am being pedantic It just felt like a necessary change at the time enforced by a lack of options as opposed to a tactical progression moving forward. Unless Ralph goes with a 3 back formation incorporating two full wingbacks in KWP and AN OTHER (Perraud ?) then I think he'll drop back to a 4222 set up with inside forwards We'll see Back on topic I see Perraud as a very interesting talent, not entirely sure of how hard he will be able to hit the ground running considering the disparity in quality between Ligue1 and the Prem but its certainly a position we need to fill and he has the attributes to make it work