Worst? The worst has to be the window we signed Sinclair, Rodwell, Maicon, Nastasic and Javi Garcia. That's as bad as it gets.
Ake and Torres alone blow that one out of the water. But the window so far has been poor, no question. We need a Bernardo, Mendy, Walker, Ederson type of window to get us back to the top IMO.
Or does there come a time when you have to modify tactics?I very much think this is the real problem with our defence.
We have decent players that would look comfortable in other team’s systems. What we need for our system is someone with the experience of the most seasoned A lister CBs coupled with the speed and energy of the very best youngsters.
Why? Because we play an extremely high line while in possession and we have not retained the ball as well recently and don’t press as much consistently when we lose it.
Makes us very susceptible to a quick ball over the top.
Maybe the CB we are looking for isn’t out there.
Maybe the academy should be grooming the specific type of player we need. Shape a youngster that we see the potential in. I do get the impression more and more that, that isn’t the main purpose of our academy.
There seems to be an assumption that a contract extension automatically involves improved terms. Whilst that may be very much the norm, it surely doesn’t have to be that way.I'm not sure what the Stones chat is all about. He was always going to stick around once Garcia said he wasn't renewing. Is anyone even advocating that we sell him? Giving him another go this year is the smart and obvious thing to do.
That said, the idea of giving him another contract to protect our investment is actually absurd, we definitely, definitely should not do that. Even is he's the best centerback in the world this season there's no one outbidding us on contract terms next summer when he has a year left. There's no risk at all in letting him play on the current deal.
Lastly though, we still need to sign another centerback, even if it isn't Koulibaly. "Do we even have any scouts" is an overused trope on here, but really, we have 60 or 70 million to spend, and the only centerbacks in the world we can find worth pursuing is either a guy who plays for Napoli or a 27 year old with one season of top level experience and a 70m release clause? This is a year after the only one we could find was Harry Maguire. This is a crazy problem to have.
How do you know?Still nothing on Koulibaly? This deal is dead meat.
Think the 2nd wave of this virus has a fresh sympton, verbal diarrhoea, qute a few on here seem to be suffering with it.How do you know?
Stones did nothing wrong there. That was a blatant push in the back that should have been given as a free kickAnfield in Jan 2018 when Firminho nudged him off the ball and scored . Stones is too nice and not dominant enough imo
You are completely ignoring the significant signings of Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood.That wasn't post losing the league. We've notoriously been bad at strengthening after winning the league, but very good at strengthening upon falling behind. No LB, Koulibaly not agreed yet with 10 days to go, no midfield option, no new forward.
Disagree, Firminho nudged him off the ball and Stones lack of physical presence let him down.Stones did nothing wrong there. That was a blatant push in the back that should have been given as a free kick
Stones did nothing wrong there. That was a blatant push in the back that should have been given as a free kick
Stones did nothing wrong there. That was a blatant push in the back that should have been given as a free kick
Rumours that a club last week contacted Sevilla over Diego Carlos and his release clause i hope its not us i really do.
I know loads of our forum hang onto your every word but think you need to make clear what is ITK info, what is unsubstantiated hearsay and what is home-spun opinion.
He's got no fight in him. Remember last season when that non-league mug claimed any striker would score a 40 a year past Stones just before we played them in the cup? Any player with any kind of fight or pride would have turned up and absolutely battered that amateur, but Stones got pushed around, and eventually he scored.
Stones is broken mentally. His personal life is a state, he looks like shit, I disagree with @tolmie's hairdoo that his passing regressed because of Rodri, it's been getting less and less adventurous and penetrating since 2017/18 ended.
Maybe he's fixable, maybe he can get over everything and get the swagger back, but I've got no faith in it, I think he's just got too many mental scars from high profile cock up after high profile cock up and the Nations League killed him off. There's no way the john stones of 2019 or 2020 would do this -
I'd love to see him hit the gym, go through a transformation like Leon Goretzka at Bayern, who put on about 10kg of muscle and went from talented but not that effective box-to-box midfielder to a completely dominating physical presence. That would help him a lot IMO, if he could just learn to relish the physical fights the way Kompany did, VVD does, Koulibaly can, it might give him a confidence boost if he has more to rely on than passing.
Rumours that a club last week contacted Sevilla over Diego Carlos and his release clause i hope its not us i really do.
If we’re not willing to pay €75m for Koulibaly, I would be very surprised if we would then go and pay the same to buy Carlos.
Too many hang onto his every word and most information is more fun all the videos etc etc i find it repetitive but others like it so that's fair enough. I wouldn't take his information that serious i'd take it as hearsay..I know loads of our forum hang onto your every word but think you need to make clear what is ITK info, what is unsubstantiated hearsay and what is home-spun opinion.