I’d enter next season with Bradley, Frimpong and Stephenson as our RB depth personally. I like the idea of continuing to show to players that if you do well on loan we will at least attempt to give you a chance in the first team - and given the injury record of the other two Stephenson would see the field.
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Unfortunately Sweeto, they’ve got someone else in charge, someone who preferred to play Jones at RB even with Frimpong and Gomez available.
I really hope Bradley comes back with a vengeance, that would make a huge difference to the balance of the side, but it remains to be seen.
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I’d take Kayode in a heartbeat. He’s been brilliant all season and is so fast and strong. A proper defender but can make runs too. Rio got nothing out of him at weekend. He and Bradley can divvy it up between them. Two strong options instead of one RB an ‘anyone who can fill in’ which isn’t the way we do things normally.
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That might be more to do with Gomez’s lack of fitness and the need to use Frimpong as a midfield option though?
No room for rationality here!
I was under the impression that we’d bought Frimpong as a right back, and protecting Gomez right up to the end of the season didn’t seem all that ‘rational’.
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Frimpong was signed to provide cover for both roles.
Gomez’s body cant be trusted. He has featured in several games this season where he comes off after just 20 or 30 minutes playing time, so he isn’t going to put together a run of consecutive games.
Well, the basic point that we’ve been playing midfielders at RB and thus are light in that position stands, doesn’t it?
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Well that wasn’t your basic point though.
You are effectively saying that Arne has chosen to play Curtis at full back because he doesn’t trust Frimpong there and so is unlikely to play him there next season.
Now that might be true, but we don’t really know for sure yet.
It all depends on the budget for me. Bradley, Frimpong and Stephenson might be enough, but if we want to be more sure, we need to sign a right back.
Kayode is a great shout, although I would imagine he would cost a pretty penny, so we are back to budget and priorities.
Easy.
Sell Frimpong.
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I hated it when we had Szobo at RB with Frimpong at RW in a few games. Galatasaray away was the first one when it happened.
I actually think Frimpong might become more of a backup RW. Still able to be used at RB, especially if we need a more offensive option, but more used as a RW.
There were definitely stretches of the season where there were good explanations for not starting Frimpong at RB, especially around his injuries. But there were stretches where he was available, had been back for long enough to expect he’d be ready to go and he sat on the bench while a midfielder played RB. Given Jerry is one the few players Slot explicitly criticized this season (his lack of defending on Palace’s winner in September) I think there is plenty of reason to view his limited starts at RB as being due to Slot not fancying him.
Sometimes you look at a group of players like our 2 RBs, Gomez, Endo, and maybe one of the kids and think you have enough to do it by committee. But sometimes, with some managers, when you end up multiple options rather than a clear owner of the shirt, it is because the manager doesn’t trust or want to use any of them
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In an ideal world for me.
GK: Ali, Mama, Jaros. (if Ali goes, move all players up one on the list and add Woodman as 3rd choice) (Pesci to be loaned).
RB: Bradley, Frimpong, Stephenson.
RCB: Konate, Janquet, Gomez?
LCB: Virgil, Leoni
LB:Kerkez, Kostas
RDM: Grav, Macca (Nyoni, McConnell, Bajectic to be loaned)
LDM: New DM?, Jones, Endo
RW:New RW, Elliott (Morrison to be loaned)
AM: Szobo, Wirtz
LW: Rio, Gakpo (Koumas to be loaned)
ST: Isak, Hugo, Danns
God, seeing it visualised like that really shows how awful the situation is.
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Would Angelo Stiller be a good fit for us?
I don’t think so. Ramsay, Chiesa and Endo will go, leave space to add non-homegrown players.
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Are we using Frimpong improperly? Or is he simply neither good enough for either RB or RW? We’ve had pace merchants before who didn’t work out before like Gonzalez and even Babel (who had far more promise). I can see we can get Milo’s to work but I’m very disappointed in Jeremie.
I meant how poor our squad is rather than the homegrown issue.
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