Who would you buy? (Part 2)

The Albert
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Me too.

He’s a quality player. I know it’s a lazy comparison to make, but signing him in the summer would’ve had shades of our Mane signing. Semenyo probably hadn’t quite reached the level that Mane had at the time of signing him, but not far off.

Doesn’t just score and assist goals, works hard off the ball and leads the league in duels won by attacking players. An element we’re missing a bit without the likes of Bobby, Mane or Diaz.

We’ve probably missed the boat on signing him now unless we’re willing to spend big again. Excellent player, think he’d go straight into our side on left.

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I think we’ll need a player for our right side first, judging by this season.

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Yeah, priority is a decent right back.

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We definitely need another CB. Guehi would be nice but if he can’t come, maybe a guy like Diomande could come in to shore up that defence.

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Slot would rather play anyone there than Frimpong. Don’t blame him on these early showings.

Looking like a particularly poor signing that one.

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out of interest, does Slott have any say on signings?

Frimpong not getting played, same with Chiesa,

makes me wonder

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I wondered how long this would take to crop up.

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Buy a central defender, hopefully Guehi in January. And change the system to let the talent we brought in come to the fore. Salah should not be guaranteed 90 week in week out.

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Frimpong hasn’t been bad defensively it is on the ball that he has struggled, he doesn’t get beaten as he has the recovery pace to challenge

450

I am more inclined to a 3 5 2, if Guehi comes in especially as then both our FB’s become wingbacks, 2 solid Center midfielders with Wirtz behind the front 2 of Ekitike and Isak.

We then have cover wide and less space through the middle.

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Slot was pissed with him last week for his lack of defending on palace’s winner

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Yeah there are more players that I would be pissed with when it came to defending, also, why come out in the media rather than have a word in his ear.

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You may disagree with slot over his evaluation of what went wrong (although it’s pretty hard to) but it doesn’t change that the man who picks the team was scathing about his defending in his last appearance at RB

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1 comment and 1 aspect, if you can’t advise and coach that, then you are struggling.

Although, Arne may think he lacks the mental capacity to do that, then if so why buy him

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Look, Trent left, and he was replaced by the likes of what, Bradley and Frimpong, none of whom are world-class. The replacement should have been at the minimum, say, prime Cancelo, who was about 80-90% of TAA.

At least Kerkez was much more defensively solid than Bradley/Frimpong.

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Was Trent world class in defending?

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No.

As for Frimpong the version before his injury was decent this one looks poor but bar say a couple of players like Alisson and Hugo who hasn’t?

Do like after buying half a squad people want to buy another half again.

Stick to fixing the defence next summer. Though start it in January.

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Yeah. I really hope we don’t go the path of throwing money at the problem to solve it unless it’s really necessary. Especially the newer players. CB and maybe a Midfielder to bolster us further. Let’s see how good Slot can coach the current set of players as the talent is definitely there except gaps in certain areas like CB.

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Of course that there’s a general drop from Trent (form at a given period aside, talking about quality and all the aspects of a footballer) to the options we have now.

Bradley had to (and still has to) prove he can: a) stay fit for long(er) periods and b) start and play the majority of the game or 90 minutes in 3 or more games in a row.

Certain rotation is fine and needed, but at some point you “need to” have a starter, especially in defence. You don’t want to have this dynamic where it’s Bradley, Frimpong or Szoboszlai all in the space of a few games in a row. That’s too inconsistent in terms of selection.

When Szoboszlai, our best presser without the ball and one of our best performer so far this season, is used at #10, right sided #8, double pivot and RB, you know that something isn’t how it should be. Luckily, he seems really professional and motivated to do a job anywhere for the team. But that might not last forever and it shouldn’t.

Also, our build up from the back shouldn’t depend that much on a player with special skills like Trent. There are teams who do it more than well enough that don’t have the likes of Alves, Alaba, Marcelo, Trent or whoever of that calibre in defence.

I had questions this summer over the choice of players we went for at full back (and not only, but overall). For me, the argument of “we’ll just offensive players more on the inside, so these two little dynamos will simply provide width and bomb up and down their sides” was a bit lazy, there’s more in a game of football than that.

With some players and questions, I’m willing to wait more to see how it develops. That doesn’t mean we cannot talk about it in the mean time, we’re fans on a forum, what we say doesn’t influence anything on the pitch. We’re not the ones giving players more or less time, the club is.

It’s tricky for the team now as there is little time for training and some players and parts of the team needed more of a pre-season.

It’s also still early to say what we’ll aim for next summer, but as things stand now, it seems like defence (+ maybe a little bit in deeper midfield) really should be an area of focus.

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Something else you’d spotted with your football genius, that the rest of us mortals couldn’t comprehend?