Frimpong would do as hes told, as would Mo. Mo has always had an overlapping player available, sometimes an underlap.
I named a couple of players that are better at that than someone like Quansah. I dont care too much for the name that comes in to be honest, as i trust Hughes (and Edwards) to run things well and therefore bring in who they think is best.
But what I mean is that Frimpong doesn’t appear to be do overlapping or underlapping, based on his heatmap, he just has a really high starting position that is more of a winger than a FB pushing up. So I’d question how that works if both Frimpong and Salah are pushing high on the right hand side. We could say that Frimpong is expected to play deeper and defend more than he does now but I’d be surprised if we had enough evidence that he can actually do it. It would be a bit of a leap of faith to bring him in, in my opinion, and mean that we were signing him to do something different than he does at Leverkusen.
He’s a non-factor defensively for Leverkusen and I’d be a bit concerned that he would take Salah’s space naturally.
I just don’t think this one has legs but we’ll see.
Perhaps. But Mo also is looking like he is on the cusp of needing to have pkay less, not to mention ACN duty
I personally felt that while he was solid defensively, that we lost something in attack when he was playing there. But it’s just a feeling, I’m not sure if there’s actual evidence to back it up…
I think it was precisely this that made me think that he’d be a Salah replacement, nlt an Alexander-Arnold replacement…
But any players heat map is by design…thats what i am getting at. He played full back when at City and Celtic, in the more tradtional way. Just because hes an attacking wingback now, doesnt mean he cant do full back. The fact he can play as an out and out attacking winger is a good thing too.
Have you not seen Bradley play?
Is it? We’ve got Diaz, Gakpo, Chiesa and Salah as out and out wide forward options. Jota, Nunez and Elliott have also all played there when needed.
Do we really need another option there who could also fill in at RB or are we more in need of someone who is a right back first and foremost?
Wide right the options are limited to Mo (lost a yard of pace), Chiesa (not yet got into the team), Elliot (lacks the pace that Slot seems to want), Szobozlai (whos pressing is better utilised centrally) and Doak (unclear if he will make it, for me hes a bit one dimensional).
Bradley gets up and down well. Frimpong does the same, but appears to be more attack minded.
For the price/clause, it all seems a no brainer.
Players who do a job at full back as equally (or similarly) as on the wing is much more 00’s to me, you don’t see a lot of that these days.
The days of the added/second defensive midfielder when facing a tough opponent or an away fixture, doubling up on the sides (it can be useful for a more defensive approach or aim towards the end of matches, but we’re a protagonist club and team), etc.
Not saying it’s impossible, certain things just change in circles in football. Trends and counter trends. You see it with man marking in certain teams and certain phases of the game.
I don’t know what “RM” in the title means, but he was mostly a RWB, though a very high positioned one (basically Salah’s zone). I even saw he played in one of the two positions around the striker, when Leverkusen still mostly used a 3-4-3 (or 3-4-2-1) shape.
I know these days you see a player like Gvardiol (not many of them though) arriving and being very dangerous when he plays as a LB, but arriving and starting from a certain zone is very, very different.
We know that our “angle” from full back to winger has changed a bit from Klopp to Slot (the way we used our full backs changed also under Klopp though!). Klopp wanted more wide forwards, Slot positions his full backs a bit narrower and wingers more wide (closer to how Pep does it).
I saw him in some early Leverkusen games in Europe (also when I fell in love with Wirtz, before his big injury) and I really liked his ability in small spaces and speed, looked interesting. Though also a bit wild defensively, don’t know if he has matured or improved. Or what is his potential in the context of evolving into a full back for a top club.
I see some advantages that can look like a no brainer on paper, but for me it’s not (like, I don’t know, to pick one of our most recent transfers… Mac Allister was for me a no brainer). There will be questions, also in coleration with whatever our move turns out to be at LB. And providing that those two players prove that they start early, that’s also an if.
I’ll just have to wait, discuss and follow with interest what we have in mind here.
Why are options limited to those you mentioned?
If we really wanted a right footer there Gakpo or Diaz could both be options. There’s probably good reason they don’t get used there which is because we ideally want a left footer on that side which then negates the benefit of the flexibility Frimpong may offer.
We are going to have to plan for Mo’s absence during the AFCON but if we’re not also insistent on them being a left footer, we’ve a bunch of options in the squad already.
Not really sure that flexibility Frimpong offers gives us anything we don’t already have in those forward positions or the defensive solidity you’d hope from a right back.
Recruitment team will obviously know a lot better than me so I fully appreciate I may be entirely wrong on this if indeed he does come in.
Because they are the players that are more natural on the left. No doubt Gakpo and Diaz can play across the front 3, but they are not as effective.
I dont disagree with yours or others views as such. Macca is a different level of no brainer, but when it comes to opportunistic options, Frimpong seems to fit that.
As per an earlier post, i dont care too much, beyond thinking we could do with some reinforcement in that part of the pitch. Its certainly a lower priority than LB, CF and CB.
Are we ready to start a fight over whether Núñez is effective in that position?
I guess my point is that there is little evidence that he can do the defensive side of the game. He’s been in Germany 5 years and every season he has, statistically, been one of the worst defenders in Europe. I get that we need attack minded players because we spend the majority of the game attacking but I’m not sure we can get away with that same level of poor defensive play in this league.
I can actually imagine him back at Man City and them switching to some sort of hybrid 3-4-3. Just saw today they are rumoured to be looking at him too.
Personally, don’t think he’s what I’d be looking for if I was signing a RB. If we do sign him I’ll trust the club as they’re rarely wrong on these things.
This is the main thing, as I’ve said in my own posts
Part of the reason Macca was a no-brainer was because we needed reinforcements in midfield.
£30m on someone who, on the surface, doesn’t really seem to be a strong natural fit in either of the roles he could fulfil for us isn’t opportunistic in the way the likes of Chiesa, Mamardashvili, Diaz, Gakpo, Gravenberch would be.
Just scored vs Dortmund
But can he do it on a cold and wet Tuesday night in Finsbury Park?
Very good goal it was as well, on his weaker foot too, Bayern are getting some player in Wirtz next season. Him and Musiala in the same XI is a joke.
Should be about 3-1 now, Kobel bails them out twice there, Dortmund defence parting like the red sea.
Now Dortmund’s RB on the scoresheet, another well taken finish, Xhaka weak as kitten there.
