The Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread (Part 2)

Only by idiots. Sensible fans can see he is showing outstanding potential and developing just fine

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Yeah, I didnā€™t mean it was my priority based on my wishes, but what I thought/think the club would do. Sell one of Matip/Gomez and get a good, fit player who can battle with Konate at RCB to be Virgilā€™s partner.

This player will cost only 20 million and so at that price there is no risk

Elliott cost less than 4 million but isnt good enough and that is a problem that requires to go and sign additional players.

I am not capable of connecting these dots

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I find the R vs L CB thing possibly one of the most overblown issues in modern fandom.

It is true that left footers being less common most teams will need to find a right footed one who is comfortable playing on that side and that is an added challenge. But you take someone like Virgil who plays on that side because he can, not because he has to. You pair him in a back 4 with a naturally left footed player like Ake and he switches over to his natural side with no issue just as he would if we brought in someone like Nā€™Dikia or Gvardiol.

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Heā€™s shit for the Netherlands though :grinning:

Virgil could do it in theory, even if I donā€™t know if I saw him much playing there. I said a few posts above that thereā€™s a possibility Virgil could shift from LCB ro RCB whether heā€™s partnered with Nā€™Dicka or Konate. Maybe we want new protection around Trent (new RCB whether itā€™s Virgil or a new guy, someone who would compete/operate at RCM), who knows. But what Iā€™m also pretty sure is that the coaching staff doesnā€™t want that to flip CBā€™s positions from right to left too much.

I donā€™t think itā€™s overblown, I see that a lot of the fans/media donā€™t even pay enough attention to it. Sometimes it smells like trouble, but it turns out to be fine (like Morocco going far at the WC with two lefties at CB, from practically game one right until the end). But thatā€™s rare to see in football. Nobody is saying Virgil cannot play at RCB, but that if we really want Nā€™Dicka, that is interesting. Either Virgil is going to swap sides at CB more or Nā€™Dicka wonā€™t even play much initially but act as backup and wait for his chance.

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Nope but I donā€™t think either of us want to be here all day discussing that.

Elliott wasnā€™t a risk either if that helpsā€¦and no him not being good enough doesnā€™t mean we go and sign additional playersā€¦an underperforming team requires us to go and sign additional players.

Forget it, Jake. This is Chinatown (where we dont connect dots)

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Mainly by you , it has to be said.

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Le Fee is very strong defensively for a midfielder, I think he could be a really useful player for us.

However, we need more size and strength in there also. Le Fee can work but not if heā€™s playing next to Elliott and Fabinho.

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Whatā€™s the fee?

Whoever gets him, thereā€™s a good song for him!

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Because as most footballers are right footed he almost always plays with a partner who is also right footed, and so his comfort in making that switch means that is invariably the best choice for the team he plays on the left.

So, if we buy a CB who is left footed weā€™re faced with the prospect of switching Van Dijk to the right side when partnering the new guy and switching him back if we partner him with one of the other two guys. Yes that means switching Van Dijk around, but it also means switching your partnership which is something you want to limit anyway. So there issue there is the lack of consistency more than the lack of positional consistency for one player.

But what happens if we dont and we go for someone who isnt comfortable playing on the left side? What happens if we want to or need to play without Virgil? What happens in a year or twoā€™s time when we want to evolve to the next generation? Weā€™ll then have an entire corp only comfortable playing on the right?

Virgil being comfortable on the his less natural side is a bonus that allows us to go and find the best CB we can find without concern for which side heā€™s most comfortable on, with lots of reasons to prefer a left footed player. It certainly doesnt pigeon hole us into avoiding a left sided player.

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Gomez (if he stays out of him and Matip) and Konate have both played LCB when Virgil wasnā€™t available, out of the (main) CBā€™s we have left. Only Matip has only played RCB for us.

If we sign a RCB, he could also have the ability to play LCB. Then it would be up to us to judge who is Virgilā€™s replacement on the day out of the 2-3 options we have who can do a job there. Our last left footed CB was Klavan, so itā€™s a situation that is not unknown to us.

How tall are Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez?

Maybe not as harshly as me no but a lot have expressed their concerns on his position and where he fitsā€¦for me if youā€™re a good enough footballer you should be able to fit somewhere in any system.

I have the same take on him now as I did Jones a few years ago, I questioned the hype to all those who hyped him up to be something heā€™s notā€¦take away the fancy shit that gets produced once a month and what is there?

Makes sense, but also that leaves Virgil playing most games, which is my worry.

A young guy playing in a struggling team and not in his favoured position isnā€™t going to shine too brightly.

Put Kelleher in midfieldā€¦problem solved