At this rate, if we sign Isak as well then maybe Virgil will only need to be partnered at the back by a deck chair. Doesn’t seem like we’ll be needing to defend much and Virgil can get some Z’s.
He’ll probably get away with telling Jeremie and Milos to shout if him and Alisson are needed.
Think this is all related to longer term planning around when we no longer have Salah. We can’t replace him, so we need to replace his goals and assists and do that by adapting the front line. You can’t always replace like-for-like, so you have to change.
agree wonder is it a case of getting Mo’s replacements a year before selling him.
I don’t believe you spend £70m to sign a player who has almost never before played the role you’re buying him to play.
I don’t get the comparison to Mac at all I’m afraid, he’s a CM who always played CM who is playing CM for us.
Well, maybe Isak would be replacing Nunez and Ekitike for Jota. We had two centre forwards and we will have two centre forwards.
If Isak isn’t being run into the ground as the only option up top his injury record might improve.
I dunno, just being optimistic.
Mo was almost certainly going to be sold after this year. I’ve suspected that he was only given a two year deal so that we’d be able to sell him for a modest fee next summer, rather than losing him on a free this summer.
The same can be said for Virgil, FWIW, but I also think he’s more difficult to replace.
In any event, we had a rotation of five forwards last year - Diaz, Gakpo, Nunez, Jota, and Salah. Chiesa barely played and Szobo and Elliott offered some backup on the front line. But for the bulk of the year, we played primarily with Gakpo - - Diaz - - Salah.
Adding Isak gives us a lot of options in terms of formation and gives us versatility in terms of accounting for injuries and AFCON. It also replaces two strikers - Nunez and Jota - with two strikers in Ekitike and Isak. I recognize those who feel that Isak/Ekitike are not like-for-like with Diaz. But I believe we’ll be seeing Rio on the left, and Wirtz can certainly play there as needed.
I’ll let see what Slot is planning before complaining.
Not linking daily heil, so Reddit link to the daily heil story. Craig Hope, reliable Newcastle journo who started the whirlwind off today says we’re gonna bid an English record, formal approach coming very soon
I have the same thought, but I think VVD could play 3-4 more years at a top level with us.
Its also challenging from a “Sesko is actually pretty shit” perspective.
Seems that Bruno G has a clause which allows his contract to be upgraded to the max salary if Isak’s gets upgraded to say 250k a week.
Oh I don’t disagree, and I think the club will be disinclined to sell him unless they can find a high quality replacement (which is hard to do with how good he still is). But a two year extension does give them the option.
Didnt he play a more advanced role at Brighton than he does here?
It’s an imperfect example but i think that was the point of the comparison.
The point on Ekitike might be that his starting point might differ to where he has played previously (depending on formation) but Arne is more focused on which spaces he is moving into and that might not differ too much from where he played before?
He’d also played at DM and CM, he’s not done anything for us he hadn’t already done.
He was always in the double pivot
What do you think our formation looks like with Isak?
I’m guessing we’d be shift between a 4-2-3-1 with Isak leading the front line, and a 4-4-2 with Ekitike/Isak up top when we want to give Salah more time off so that he’s fresher for the second half of the campaign.
1-3-2-4
With virgil in defense expecting people to call him up when they need an extra body in attack.
