I don’t know about that I used to defend him but after watching him with the Dutch team yesterday in their warm up game he played 90 min but with no end product and they lost the game.
Well if it’s based on performance last season then we should sell everyone but Szoboslai.
Or, having got a new manager because everyone looked shit last year, we should give him the opportunity to return to the player he was the two years before that.
1 Like
Scored 18 goals in Slot’s first season, 16 the year before and 7 the year before that (having signed in January).
He had a down year because everyone had a down year. He’s not elite by any means but he’s perfectly fine.
As with most of this squad I think he will enjoy being freed up to go and press high and win the ball again rather than dropping in as a traditional wide midfielder that he had to do for most of the season. I expect he’ll be used to support Isak next season.
16 Likes
Exactly.
I’ve been guilty as anyone for criticising Cody. He was painful to watch at Anfield.
But so was Macca when he lost the ball and couldn’t get back.
So was Szobo who tried to do something fancy and lost the ball in a bad spot and ambled back.
So was Ryan when he turned out of pressure like a boss but passed the ball back to the opposition like a blind person.
I could do this for each and every player.
Of a squad that were defending champtions.
The problem is systemic.
We already have a number of spots that need filling/bolstering after Mo, Robbo, Ibou left. There may be more unwanted departures.
We need to add to what we have which is pretty bare bones. Not give us further turmoil of even more new players than we need.
6 Likes
What Slot’s game morphed into seemed to put a lot of reliance on attackers having to create something individually. The system was less about creating openings, but putting players in positions where they can isolate a defender and beat them to create something. I think Cody particularly struggled with that because he isnt a traditional winger who is good with the ball at his feet.
5 Likes
That is EXACTLY how PSG played in the final, except Arsenal were largely able to neutralise their wingers which meant they looked toothless.
1 Like
I’m not sure if that was an intentional development or a result of his constant dropping into low and mid blocks leaving massive amount of work to do for wingers to get up the pitch and effect the game.We were tactically so misguided, every part of the team just seemed completely seperated from the next.
I spent a lot of this season confused about the very vertical midfield set-up. A number of times I called out the weird system that would see Mac Allister picking i up from the defence, Gravenberch 15-20 yards ahead of him in an almost vertical line and then Wirtz ahead of Gravenberch again in the same shape. It completely destroyed any semblance of build up in midfield and was one of the reasons they were constantly out of position… anyway I just watched a video about Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton and realized he did a very similar set up. I have to wonder if we just tried to steal that idea and use it without this becoming part of an overall consistent theory of how to play… and were we doing this with other position groups too?
God I’m glad he’s gone.
2 Likes
There was a really sharp analysis the Athletic did about both men having a focus on trying to coax opposition payers towards the ball and then beat them with short quick passes. We struggled once teams backed off us. It seems one of our solutions was to get our mids to almost mark the opposition midfielders which I think is why you saw some of them take up a lot of weird positions when in possession, especially Mac
And then the irony of that was our shape meant we were often completely ill equipped to deal with a team that actually decided to press us.
3 Likes
£70m with one year left on his contract, Spurs are welcome to him. Nowhere near good enough to justify that kind of fee.
3 Likes
That’s just the price of a footballer thesedays - although given that we walked away from Guehi for being over our valuation I doubt we would go that high for van Hecke. It’s funny looking back at that Barry transfer story that @Mascot posted and we were worried about spending 12m on a player. The market has just ballooned and shows no signs of stopping.
100m used to laughed at as nonsensical for a transfer, now it’s pretty routine.
I remember LMA Manager 2001 you could enter a cheat code to give yourself 500m and that would be more than enough to sign Zidane, Figo, Buffon, Shevchenko, Cassano, Maldini and have about 300m left over. Now it would barely cover a single transfer window.
4 Likes
I get the point that Slot was a poor influence and didn´t help. You are right.
But I really don´t agree with this modern obsession or over-emphasis on manager and tactics. Usually the best 11 players wins. Why? Football is, even now, still a lot about 11 players (alright plus squad) putting in good individual performance and playing well with each other. (not that a manager has no impact of course)
If a guy doesn´t know how to pass and move, no tactics will ever make them be able to. Of course, you can play to your strengths through tactics, but it´s not tactics that make Vitinha the best midfielder in the world for example. It´s the fact he understands football. You could never make Connor Gallagher that player with any tactics.
You have to move the ball quickly, make space for others with your movement, draw out opposition players, play the ball through the lines to get your attackers on the ball in good areas, be positive and take a little risk rather than going sideways and back. In terms of technique he´s probably not a better passer than Mac is, but he understands midfield play on a totally different level.
Gakpo is a bit of a Huntelaar on the wing. He´ll score a solid amount of goals but the rest of the team won´t thrive and you´ll get nothing else because he doesn´t understand football on that deeper level. He doesn´t know how to create for others, to work with his full back and to stretch teams.
2 Likes
If we got a good offer for Gakpo this summer, I’d be taking that honestly.
Same for Mac.
5 Likes
You could say that for any of them. There aren’t many players that I think we could turn our nose up at big money for.
With Gakpo, he can perform when used properly, there are no contractual issues to worry about, and there is business to do where we actually have no players before we start thinking about upgrades.
Basically, Gakpo can wait until next summer. That’s when I’d be looking to move him on.
4 Likes
Indeed we could say that for most of our squad. That is where we are at.
If we can sell them for decent fee (not even massive) and get a better player in (fairly likely), lets do it. Have the rebuild now.
We´re going to need every pound we can get to rebuild.
1 Like
But there is a limit to how much business we can do, and the World Cup doesn’t help. I think we need five players before we can even look at replacing the ones already here.
2 Likes
We only have 3 attackers left. 1 is 17 years old, 1 is well known for being injury prone, and you guys want to sell the other one 
6 Likes
Ah yeah I mean we do need those 5 or 6 players and ideally we get those before we upgrade backups.
But then, do we have the money for them without selling a few players?
I think we have discussed this briefly before but I really think we have very few players who would be a huge loss if we sold. The new players from last year get a pass, especially being young, but I think a lot of the players were shown up for their real level to be honest.
1 Like
It´s not like we don´t want to buy any. I want us to buy 3.
One right winger, one left winger and a guy who can play both to a good level.
1 Like
If you sell Gakpo, you need three attackers. It’s a World Cup year, and we have 3-4 other positions that need strengthening. It’s a bullshit plan.
2 Likes
Ah lets give up then shall we.
It´s a World Cup year.
1 Like