Football 19/20

[rock the clock]

4 hours ago, jyoung said:

That said, what separates Liverpool from the rest of the league is their back line. Trent and Robbo are unmatchable, Virgil is the leagues best and Gomez / Matip do the job alongside him. Signing attackers is great but I would imagine we need to strengthen our back four before we could mount a serious title challenge.

Aye Chels really need a LB and a CB to become really solid, but I guess Havertz isn't someone you'd pass up on. 

Even if they could get Tagliafico it would probably make a huge difference, with Azpi being added to CB rotation. I much prefer Tagliafico to Chilwell anyway, but reports make it seem like Frank really wants the latter. 

[lost]

Most of the top teams outside Liverpool seem to need defenders and there don't seem to be too many decent cb's kicking about apart from Koulibaly.

I've been watching the German football restart and I really don't see the fuss about Upamecano, I'm not sure why £80m has been talked about.

[DareToDibble]

57 minutes ago, lost said:

I've been watching the German football restart and I really don't see the fuss about Upamecano, I'm not sure why £80m has been talked about.

He's turned into an absolute beast of a defender on my Football Manager game. It must be that.

Edited June 9, 2020 by DareToDibble

[jyoung]

4 hours ago, Wooderson said:

Did Abram not drop 240-odd million into your coffers in the last while? Whats this "think we could afford it"? 

Same way you lot could afford big Virg and Alisson. I've just explained how the club's finances are balanced and outlined how they can afford it. Our net spend since 2018 is something like 25m. If we spend a lot, I'm sure we'll sell a few too. 

3 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I think Trent and Robinson have a club/, manager that get the most from them. I don't think their talent is unmatchable.

Robbo is unforgiving in my opinion. Exactly what you want from a player. As for Trent, he's obviously class going forward and if he knuckles down on the defending could easily be head and shoulders above anyone else in the league that position.

[jyoung]

3 hours ago, rock the clock said:

Aye Chels really need a LB and a CB to become really solid, but I guess Havertz isn't someone you'd pass up on. 

Even if they could get Tagliafico it would probably make a huge difference, with Azpi being added to CB rotation. I much prefer Tagliafico to Chilwell anyway, but reports make it seem like Frank really wants the latter. 

Agreed I would rather us not pay 80m for Chilwell and instead go for Tagliafico. Especially if we move Emerson on, that would essentially fund the Tagliafico deal. I trust Frank tho.

[Wooderson]

27 minutes ago, jyoung said:

Same way you lot could afford big Virg and Alisson. I've just explained how the club's finances are balanced and outlined how they can afford it. Our net spend since 2018 is something like 25m. If we spend a lot, I'm sure we'll sell a few too. 

We spent the Coutinho money on those two players.

 

[jyoung]

9 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

We spent the Coutinho money on those two players.

Et voila.

[mjsell]

5 hours ago, lost said:

Most of the top teams outside Liverpool seem to need defenders and there don't seem to be too many decent cb's kicking about apart from Koulibaly.

I'm excited to see Saliba at Arsenal next year.

You are right though, not many top cb's exist anymore. Due to the way the game has developed I get the sense they are far more reliant on a team system to stand out these days and can't dominate a game by themselves much anymore. 

[pink_triangle]

3 hours ago, jyoung said:

 

Robbo is unforgiving in my opinion. Exactly what you want from a player. As for Trent, he's obviously class going forward and if he knuckles down on the defending could easily be head and shoulders above anyone else in the league that position.

How much of their performance is down to talent, how much is down to tactics, how much down to teammates and manager. Look under Ferguson loads of the players overperformed in relation to talent and looked worse when they left. Could you put Trent and Robertson in the Man u or Arsenal teams and get similar performances? I am not convinced.

[DareToDibble]

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

How much of their performance is down to talent, how much is down to tactics, how much down to teammates and manager. Look under Ferguson loads of the players overperformed in relation to talent and looked worse when they left. Could you put Trent and Robertson in the Man u or Arsenal teams and get similar performances? I am not convinced.

It’s a fair point. Our system is certainly setup to be fairly dependent on the wingbacks but I’d probably flip your comment and argue if you put any other LB/RB in the league in place of Robbo or Trent in our system/team you would notice how far ahead of the others they are.

Edited June 9, 2020 by DareToDibble

[pink_triangle]

6 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

It’s a fair point. Our system is certainly setup to be fairly dependent on the wingbacks but I’d probably flip your comment and argue if you put any other LB/RB in the league in place of Robbo or Trent in our system/team you would notice how far ahead of the others they are.

On day 1 possibly, but given time to adapt I don't believe these full backs have skills that nobody else could develop in the right environment. There are certainly full backs as good at Robertson when he left Hull.

Look at Man U in recent years, a lot of their purchases have been scouted and there was logic that they could succeed, but very few really have. I struggle to believe that is because they were all mediocre players.

[zahidf]

 

[DareToDibble]

23 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

On day 1 possibly, but given time to adapt I don't believe these full backs have skills that nobody else could develop in the right environment. There are certainly full backs as good at Robertson when he left Hull.

Look at Man U in recent years, a lot of their purchases have been scouted and there was logic that they could succeed, but very few really have. I struggle to believe that is because they were all mediocre players.

I guess we’ll never know. But you look at Trent for example and his range of passing, especially crossing, is unlike anything I’ve seen in a fullback in years. He is without doubt a generational talent.

[kaosmark2]

33 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

I guess we’ll never know. But you look at Trent for example and his range of passing, especially crossing, is unlike anything I’ve seen in a fullback in years. He is without doubt a generational talent.

Bale?

[Neil]

11 hours ago, jyoung said:

As for Trent, he's obviously class going forward and if he knuckles down on the defending could easily be head and shoulders above anyone else in the league that position.

he's not so great on defending, but I reckon he's pretty good during a game at working out how he's getting had and adjusting his play to try and stop it happening. He tends not to get had continually by the same player in the same game.

[zahidf]

8 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Bale?

Bale could have been world class, but his last few years stuck in real madrid limbo has killed it really. Especially as it seems it's going to go on for a other 2 years until his contract runs out.

[eastynh]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

he's not so great on defending, but I reckon he's pretty good during a game at working out how he's getting had and adjusting his play to try and stop it happening. He tends not to get had continually by the same player in the same game.

Leroy Sane says hi.

[DareToDibble]

8 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Bale?

Bale didn’t really hit his full potential until he was moved further up the pitch to become an attacker though. If I remember correctly he was nearly sold?

And this is coming from a Welshman who loves Bale  

Side note: Big fan of how he loves playing for Wales so much more than Madrid. He’s like an opposite Giggs!

[jyoung]

12 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

How much of their performance is down to talent, how much is down to tactics, how much down to teammates and manager. Look under Ferguson loads of the players overperformed in relation to talent and looked worse when they left. Could you put Trent and Robertson in the Man u or Arsenal teams and get similar performances? I am not convinced.

Very true. Alonso at Chelsea always performs well at wingback (particularly under Conte's tactics) with three cbs covering him but in a back four he struggles. Is also true that Fergie got an awful lot out of some players who were not world class but Trent for instance has way more going for him than Ashley Young / Antonio Valencia (in my opinion anyway).

[TheGayTent]

12 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Bale?

Isn’t Bale a different generation? Plus, as has been mentioned, he hasn’t been a wing back let alone a full back for a decade. 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, TheGayTent said:

Isn’t Bale a different generation? Plus, as has been mentioned, he hasn’t been a wing back let alone a full back for a decade. 

Actually yeah, he probably is a different generation. But when he was a young full back I'd say his attacking was better than TAA (hence the move up the pitch). 

[Wooderson]

19 hours ago, jyoung said:

Et voila.

What your head of finance says when he spots the fucking enormo-IBAN from Roman arrive in the coffers.

[eastynh]

CAS hearing over, verdict in July at some point.

[Neil]

3 hours ago, eastynh said:

CAS hearing over, verdict in July at some point.

I wonder why it's taking a month to consider no evidence?

[eastynh]

14 hours ago, Neil said:

I wonder why it's taking a month to consider no evidence?

Are emails evidence something happened? They are evidence an email was sent, but they are not evidence that an actual event has taken place. Thats what you need bank statements and an audit trail for.

With you being an expert on CAS, you will know that judgements usually take 3 months. It is highly irregular to have a judgement in 3 weeks.

Edited June 11, 2020 by eastynh