Go on then, find someone who’s actually been an England international, someone who doesn’t mind bench time as long as he gets enough starts, and someone who has the quality Jones has.
“Find more academy players”
As if they grow on trees.
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I think Jones is closer to a 5th or 6th choice MF. Ideally, we’d have Wirtz/Szobo/Macca/Grav + ahead of him. But his biggest asset is his versatility. He can credibly offer you something in every midfield position. That’s valuable in its own right.
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I’m not convinced Wirtz is a midfielder in a 3. He certainly doesn’t seem robust enough to me.
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Perhaps we are modelling ourselves on Dutch teams of the past.
Unfortunately its seems we are closer to the 1990, 1996, and 2012 Dutch national squads. Of internal conflict, cliques, and elite players not performing.
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We wish we had players of the quality those teams had!!
Err Arne,what did we spend 450m on last summer? You were the HC as I recall.
What is your plan? spend twice that for dross.
Why not admit you haven’t a clue?
That would certainly explain it!
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Where would you play him, if not as a midfielder?
It certainly looks like it though and it is not helped by our Head Coach who seems to be clueless in using the players correctly and practices favouritism…
Now, that’s how the Wirtz transfer fucked up our previously functional system inherited from Klopp.
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You do realise that apart from Szoboszlai, Jones was the one midfielder that kept his head above the ground right? Playing as an RB as well.
If you think that Jones should be sold, then what should we do with Mac Allister and Gravenberch? Hang, draw and quarter them?
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Big few days for the fans now. Reading lots of news that Etienne Reijnen is being added to the coaching staff. We need to prepare ourselves to be set back years now as it seems Slot is probably staying if this happens.
We are so far from winning the league (or anything frankly) and another season of regression due to poor coaching with all our legends slowly going out the door and nobody remotely good enough coming in behind them, I fear that we’ll be back to where we were pre Klopp - ie largely also rans. Get a top manager in this summer and we still have a spine of players who won the league, so the right tactics and motivation could see us challenge again and then keep building. But another year of this and Ali will be gone (Virgil also not getting any younger and coming towards the end here) , plus the likes of Hugo and Dom might get their heads turned if they perform well but no chance of winning anything!
This is a pivitol few days.
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False 9 between Hugo on the left and Isak on the right. That’s the best spot I can find for him without making the midfield weaker defensively.
And your question also brings to light the other question of “is he really the player we needed? For that price?”
Rayan Cherki (similar profile) has settled much better at Man City for a fraction of the price.
Again, still not convinced either was what we needed.
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I’m expecting “some” news about the coaching staff in the next few days.
If I look on here later and find 536 new posts, I’ll know that Arne has been spotted on a beach somewhere…
I think Rafa himself would say no. His age means he won’t be able to put in the energy that this job needs.
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Millie has played his last match for Brighton. Thiago has left his assistant manager post at Barca. A Thiago-Millie management team. Millie manages the physical prep and man-motivation and Thiago does the tactics and coaching.
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Please no…
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I’m just imagining for a moment what it would have been like if Wirtz had worked under Pep and Cherki under Arne—that surely would have made quite a difference, IMO. I’m still of the opinion that we won’t be able to truly evaluate these players until we change coaches. And I say this partly because I know just how differently Florian plays when he is utilized properly.
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I agree, Flo would absolutely be fantastic under a high quality manager.
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