Not yet. And in Phillips case probably never. Lovren would make random horror mistakes but 90% of what he did was Ok, good or even great. He’d then unexpectedly make a mistake he never should have. Phillips and Williams may not be making those mistakes (at least yet) but they aren’t as good yet. It’s important not to build them up too much.
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Just like take that is it?
Id always pick williams over degsy.
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Difficult to compare a career starting out with one coming to a end.
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Agree, so the preference is who do you prefer…the one who is coming to the end of his career, that is known to have major brain malfunctions at the most crucial of times and will not get better, or the youngster who is doing well and has the ability to improve.
Either way, its a moot point. We need a new CB and Lovren ain’t coming back.
Its just waiting to see what card Edwards has up his sleeve this time.
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Fingers crossed the club are actually doing their best to get one in this window, if not the title could be heading up the M62.
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We all know that Lovren had his issues, and he was injury prone himself.
But he was first choice in his position for his national side, a side which got to a World Cup final, and he put in many superb performances for us.
He was instrumental in getting us through the CL QF 2nd leg at City, and largely had Ronaldo covered in the final that we lost.
I would say that Philips and Williams are no better than Klavan, who was ok as an in and out player, or occasional run of a few matches.
But no way are either good enough for a sustained run in a side that is getting sustained results, as we have done many times with Lovren in for a run of games.
Lovren has gone, it was time, but it’s no coincidence that we were getting more consistent results when we had four senior centre backs, so nearly always could field two of them.
Let’s see what the club does, and hope it does what’s needed.
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I want Botman.
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This is correct and a valid argument for getting rid of Lovren for awhile. As a 4/5th choice (think Fabinho would have always been ahead) he was both too good and expensive a commodity whilst also being unavailable due to injury too much and being error prone so not reliable. Do you blood a youngster who will A be available more often when needed whilst B being young enough to learn from his mistakes and improve. Or use an older more expensive Lovren who, when available, can usually be relied on to a high standard but still occasionally make awful errors that hurt you. I think we’ll end up with similar situation regarding Matip next season, without the errors but even worse on injuries and an expensive commodity to have as 4th/5th choice.
How is Botman’s pace? I am not sure he is quick. We need pace at the back with the high line we play.
Lovren was fucking shite what is wrong with people.
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Not an expert and it’s sometimes hard to tell as CBs don’t often go flat out especially the good ones. And taller players can look slower than smaller/compact players even when matching speed. VvD is one of our quickest players but a lot don’t realise it. You’re right it’s an essential attribute for our set up.
@Barnestormer likes Bowie and never saw him play. Same with Botman.
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It’s been a while, mate. Welcome back. 
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Sorry meant Batman, my bad. I have seen him.
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@Barnestormer and Batman
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Have said before the best CBs look smooth almost languid. VVD, Rio, Gomez, Sammi, Hansen… partly athleticism & partly reading the game so they do not rush.
So Sepp for me never did, Lovren never, Sakho never.
So I judge on that. How effortless are they? I should call Edwards!
Hard to quantify but anyone else see the same?
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I did say unlikely, not won’t lol. That’s a difference…
Or to put it another way, if we win the league with two of our three centre backs out for the season, and the other likely to be out at least half the time remaining, that would be something else.
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Would probably need an asterisk.
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Plan A was to not sign a CB but in the background they should have already identified someone as Plan B.
And when do we turn to Plan B?
For example if Matip gets injured again.
And/or if Rhys and or Nat are getting found out.
It’s time to realize Plan B. Someone should be presented by the end of next week if the homework was done correctly.