Pray he’s not another Yoro.
There’s a huge difference in their physicality, at least.
And all the PEDs he was on.
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Loan spells can be like that and not mean anything long term though to be fair. The club are intentionally looking to push and challenge players at a competitive level and sometimes they get thrust into roles they aren’t quite ready for.
I wouldn’t have Koumas here as a backup yet but another year away from the club and who knows?
Norwich and Leicester fans can attest to the fact that Harry Kane was fucking awful for both of them. I saw him at Leicester because I was at Uni there at the time. You’d never have thought there was a PL player in there nevermind one of the best strikers in the game.
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I know Koumas has recently spoken of seeing himself develop into a central striker, but I thought he looked quite lost on Wednesday. This is where Bellamy has been playing him recently for Wales, although less out of fit and more out lack of other options, but the fact he’s done ok made it an intriguing idea to keep him as an auxilary forward given Hugo’s injury and the need to find players to take some of the burden from an Isak we’re going to need to manage. He just really struggled to get involved though, either being in completely the wrong place when someone was looking to get the ball forward or completely unable to hold the ball up when it came to him. It’s one game, and maybe wasnt helped by the lack of support he got from the rest of the front line. But it seems an unlikely solution for this coming season
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Heard it said that he has a lot of heart.
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Agree, and its also important to remember with him that he is literally developing as a striker - he was a midfielder until U18s when he switched to CF and since then has had two loans where they’ve used him as a winger. He hasn’t had a good run as a striker yet at an adult level.
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Paris St-Germain have stepped up their pursuit of Ajax winger Mika Godts, who is valued at £52m, with Premier League sides Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham all being informed of the 21-year-old Belgium forward’s growing interest. (Teamtalk)
Shame it’s a crap source but this would be a good move. Better than Barcola imo.
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Probably opens the door for Barcola.
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They can be. I thought Hull really used him badly but it is also true he wasnt great and the fans don´t rate him at all.
I would not be so confident in him being ready.
On Kane. Maybe. He only played 3 games for Norwich though. He wasn´t ready to deliver for Spurs the next year anyway.
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For me he´s clearly a central attacking midfielder or perhaps a second striker at best.
But I don´t think he will make it in the PL long term.
I agree with you I wouldn’t keep Koumas next season but I’m not ready to write him off yet either. He needs another loan.
Kane played 5 times for Norwich because he couldn’t get into their team, terminated the loan and then played for Leicester and was terrible. The next season he played 19 games for Spurs and the season after that he was their starting CF. You’d be hard pressed to find a single Leicester fan who thought 20 year old Kane had a big future - he was basically a lesser version of Chris Wood at the time.
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Yeah, he only got 4 goals that next year at Spurs.
One thing I’m sure of is that Iraola is a better manager for Koumas (and all the other youth players) than Slot.
Im expecting a return to the use of younger players in games. Its pretty exciting, albeit if the PL season kicked off today I’d be concerned at our lack of depth.
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Most likely.
Slot really didn´t want to use them at all.
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PSG seems to be linked with every winger under the sun this window.
At first it looked like they hijacked us for Diomande but then Real Madrid scooped their deal so they are hunting for a replacement, especially since Barcola has now favorably reacted to Liverpool’s advances.
Godts is more of a finesse player in a lower tier Dutch league. I don’t believe his physicality profiles well in the Premier league where he will encounter much more physical and rugged challenges.
Barcola would still be my preferred target even though he is primarily a left winger.
Barcola’s GA in the stronger French league has been an overall .76 at age 22.
There’s no reason to think Barcola won’t blossom into a star player under Iraola in a leading role for Liverpool.
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By this time last summer we’d brought in Ekitike, Wirtz, Frimpong, Kerkez with just Leoni and Isak arriving in August.
Since we agreed a deal for Munoz in mid-June we’ve had a bid for Diomande turned down a week later and then some rumours around Barcola and that’s it.
With a new manager coming in and a World Cup I thought we might see business come a bit later than usual but the window close four weeks tomorrow, we’ve just two more pre-season games and three weeks until the season kicks off.
There’s an awful lot to do in very little time. And that’s before we even talk about possible outgoings. Starting to get twitchy and we certainly can’t let Barcola drag on like Isak did if we’re banking on getting that over the line so we know what other business we can do.
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I don’t think there is a massive amount to do.
I said before a CB and a winger is a minimum. I don’t think we are seeing a CDM we haven’t for 7 years now.
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What´s the goal here?
Amount to do what exactly? Out of interest.
Edging your bets…
Tottenham have held positive talks with Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo, but the Reds have no intention of selling the 26-year-old Dutchman. (Teamtalk), external
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