He was like this at Villa more times then most people think. I ended up watching him v Derby Play off final...meant to be his best game..to me he just drew foul after foul and went on a couple of runs...V Derby!! Nice bloke he seems, but doesn't improve us at all regardless as the odd price tag..Pep must have see something else, but he doesn't seem a Pep playerIt's not just about lack of pace, it's the fact that Grealish and Mahrez are seemingly devoid of playing with any urgency. They hold onto the ball for too long and slow things down.
If you want to create chances at the highest level you have to move the ball quickly and with purpose. At the moment both of them put their on the ball, take two or three touches before playing a square pass. At this point the opposition defence has reset.
Neither of them are also willing to run behind the fullback, which in turn makes us totally one dimensional.
We've played many a game with Bernardo and Gundo and no KDB. It's never been a problem. No need to run him into the ground. The guy was just dog tired and you could see it from the go. Still dropped a dime on Stones head that would have put this game to bed before HT.Kev is getting older, he has hardly had a rest in two years, and IMO asking him to play three games in a week is unreasonable. The guy is fucking knackered. But he is a quality player and if you leave him out you have to work out how to replace him.
Than Fernandinho in his prime? Absolutely not. Dinho was as good as they come in that role...I am a huge rodri fan and rate him really highly. He is not and never will be better than Fernandinho though.
rice is shit sorry. man literally hides from the ball. that last person to think of as a pep midfielder.
For £100m you expect something truly dynamic - a game changer. 2 seasons in and he doesn't look anything like. Decent enough squad player - average, but nothing more - which is exactly what I thought he'd be. I hope he can reinvent himself but can't see it happening.He was like this at Villa more times then most people think. I ended up watching him v Derby Play off final...meant to be his best game..to me he just drew foul after foul and went on a couple of runs...V Derby!! Nice bloke he seems, but doesn't improve us at all regardless as the odd price tag..Pep must have see something else, but he doesn't seem a Pep player
I have a really bad feeling that if both Bernardo and Gundogan go one of their replacements might be Maddison of Leicester. The way Pep talks about him is the same way he talked about Grealish when Grealish was at Villa.
rice is shit sorry. man literally hides from the ball. that last person to think of as a pep midfielder.
I'd be happy with that. Maddison is the best available, has great vision, passing and dead-ball delivery.
Why would you not be happy with that; what gives you a bad feeling about him?
Hated it since the first day of the season. Adds fuckall and makes us so slow and ponderous. Even with Walker back just ends up having him in midfield doing fuckall passing it sideways or backwards.I'm not a fan of this inverted FB either. I personally think it's a needless gimmick. Pep is hell bent on doing this so get used to it. Call it whatever but it basically amounts to playing a FB in midfield in a 3-4-3 or a 3-2-2-3. If you're going to do that why not just play a real midfielder as the extra guy in the middle of the park? Teams have seen it and it doesn't seem to have troubled anyone with any great effect. It has kept us from keeping clean sheets, that I can say...
You just ruined my day, lol...Bernardo is the only one going from that trio, the best player at that.
Grealish and Mahrez know they are on a good thing, on long- term, incredible money.
Mahrez will be here longer than anyone!
He's a very good player.
Agree. The only one who adds something in there is Cancelo because he can be so creative. Obviously his form has since fallen off a cliff. An extra man playing square passes in a midfield we already dominate is pretty pointless. When it’s Walker it’s even more bizarre as we then lack his pace at the back and he’s pretty average on the ball. There were games he was seeing more of the ball in midfield than our creative midfielders.Hated it since the first day of the season. Adds fuckall and makes us so slow and ponderous. Even with Walker back just ends up having him in midfield doing fuckall passing it sideways or backwards.
Attitude that's the only thing, Leicester fans say his head drops alot. Has a lot of quality but how much would he cost that's the problem
I'd be happy with that. Maddison is the best available, has great vision, passing and dead-ball delivery.
Why would you not be happy with that; what gives you a bad feeling about him?
Griezmann has 2 - 3 years left in him. Imagine having him in his new box to box 'French' role for a couple years - will really help bridge the gap. Would be good if we could develop a genuine midfielder from our academy...U23'S....I think the Midfield position is an easier one to develop..don't need to have a mad genetic make up that CF's and CB's now have to have to be at the very top.. surely we should focus on developing a ball playing midfielder from our U23's / Academy - sort of sacrifice other positions. It's the easiest option for any academy - full back aside perhaps. Brentford looked at academy stats realised that for prem level they are nigh on a waste of time and scrapped theirs. I think we should create the first ever specialist position academy. Why develop lots of decent players for say Burnley - I know we are catching Chelsea academy with some of our trfs but a bet it cost a fortune sending kid son flights / hotels / tournaments etc around the world which we doPep is a big fan and Estiarte has also spoken to him about him.
Mahrez still had this year on his contract. It had nothing to do with Gabby and Raz. They just made an inexplicably bad decision in extending his deal. The fact that Pep insists on playing him so much only makes it worse.The only reason we gave Mahrez an extension was due to letting both Raz and Jesus leave in the same window, we should have had the balls to let all 3 go, but we shit out and handed him a contract he didn’t deserve.
considering he's out of contract in the summer, do brighton accept 25m for trossard right now? Not too bad a shout.
PMSL...Dont need another haircut with a full sleeve.
Lets sign some horrible fuckers. Caicedo from Brighton. The Georgian from Napoli. The big Croatian monster.
No harm in discussing the shortcomings of the squad though.We’re currently second on foot of an extremely disjointed season and we happen to be up against an Arsenal side that has hit their straps early and are full of confidence but doom and gloom levels are off the charts.
Seems like a lot of supporters have short memories, Pep has constantly changed our team as other clubs have adapted to us. He has so far always managed to stay well ahead but there are far too many on here who seem to know better.
We lost to Brentford while our entire squad was looking at Qatar, we dropped points to Everton, playing poorly in miserable conditions. I see KDB is being moved towards the knackers yard for a poor game despite the fact he should have had 2 assists (Stones and Rodri).
Our team is in a bit of flux at the moment, we miss Dias leadership, Walker’s pace, we have few players in the departure lounge and so far haven’t mixed control with intensity but we’ve been champions 4 times in the last 5 seasons. We have the muscle memory of winners, we just need a little spark. Hopefully that comes on Thursday.