Yes, I must admit he was less present in the second half. Nonetheless, he’ll definitely be worth keeping an eye on this season.
I think Ndukwe has all the attributes Quansah doesn’t and more imo.
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I noticed Tuchel was there to watch him I think yesterday.
Or hes vastly overrated and he has now found his level.
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If you throw in the fact that he didn’t make the World Cup squad, having a hangover from a summer of disappointment seems plausible. If that is the case, I hope he’s able to find his feet again as he’s an excellent player.
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Yeah also. Still just 3 games and he was injured for the summer as well (after the WC) so could be some fitness but he definitely looked well off the pace and his levels last year.
Had AI look at Palace forums and they were saying he´s been poor so far, for their best player, and their midfield lacks mobility with his current partner.
Either way, if he continues like this I´d be thinking twice about bothering. He´s never been quick but he looked very sluggish.
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Slot had basically messed up the entirety of Klopp’s kids within 2 seasons. Hope that Iraola will do better.
But, on top of Academy players, it is good to have a few senior English players who can set standards and influence the young lads.
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Anything is possible of course, but using his performance over the past 3 years as an indicator of his level feels more logical than using a dip in form that has lasted for 3 games..
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Ah, didn’t know he was injured.
If Liverpool did buy him they would need to partner him someone who is able to cover lots of ground really quickly.
17 posts were merged into an existing topic: The Central Midfield Thread
Yeah, “nippy” is probably what my eyes were seeing.
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I’m curious, which academy kids did he mess up?
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The only one coming through who could have got more game time last season was Trey and maybe Rio in regards to how the players were performing in their respective positions.
There was the Caraboa Cup 2024 alumni that had blossomed under Jurgen, Quansah, Elliot, Bobby Clarke who Slot were discarded regardless of circumstance fairly quickly.
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Quansah and Elliott, plus Morton who was on loan that season but returned in the next season.
Bradley was more fortunate that he had more opportunities to progress with Trent’s occasional injuries and eventual departure.
Its not Playstation…Players ultimately have to take their opportunity. As you can see, both Slot and Iraola have reached the same conclusion on the young prospects.
We need to do better with the academy. I look at Barcelona and La Masia and its like night and day
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Compared to Barca pretty much everyone’s academy looks bad but I don’t think we do too bad a job compared to most.
Chelsea obviously have a really good set up, it just seems they’d rather buy players than give many of theirs a chance. City have a great academy when it comes to producing players but most of them seem to move on and make their careers elsewhere. Watching Palmer and Rodgers playing for Chelsea whilst you’re buying Ndiye and Enzo for nearly £200m on deadline day must hurt.
Kelleher, Trent, Quansah, Bradley, Neco Williams, Jones, Morton Nyoni, Ngumoha, Elliott isn’t a bad list of recent graduates of the academy. Sure, some we bought in but that’s a reasonable set of Premier League level players. Does feel like the local talent pool has dried up a bit. Dunno what Everton’s young lads are like but the Scouse pipeline seems a bit dry.
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There’s obviously multiple factors at play here including the structure of academy football as compared to Segunda…
However I’m looking at the technical side of player development and I think that there’s considerable room for improvement
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Lewis Hall will be an improvement for our LB position. The same can also be said with Neco Williams.
Would definitely take Hall
Would be very expensive though I think