It's Quiet 16 - Txiki grinders

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Rice is much more than a dm I'd call him an 8 and at this moment in time probably has not got the discipline to play dm. A cracking player who is only gonna get better though and it might be worth us buying him as a long term replacement for gundogan and stop 1 of our rivals strengthening if signing him.
 
I don't understand this talk of back up. We have 2 players for each position that compeat against each other.

Would you call Laporte a back up to Ruben/John?

Would you call Gundogan a back up to Bernardo and KDB

2 players of equal quality or more in one position is brilliant. They both improve each other. Pep uses the entire squad and wants them to compeat against each other for the 1st team position.

Rice is quality. Would improve Rodri with Rice breathing down his neck. CDM is very important position in a Pep team. You need to get the right player. Rice is perfect.

We don't have back ups. Pep uses the entire squad.
this is a terrible comparison, there's exactly 1 place for a CDM in every lineup, there's 2 places for CB's and 2 places for number 8's.

In comparison, we have 1 place for a gk, and guess what, we're not buying a 100m backup goalie either!

We absolutely have back-ups - fernandinho is a backup. we don't need to spend so much money on a player who would be second fiddle, this is greedy.

I also reject arguments in the vain of "well what happens if X player gets injured" - well what happens if Ederson gets injured? you play steffen. what happens if rodri gets injured? You play the very capable CDM that you've gotten as a backup. 30m. 35m. That is a completely reasonable amount of money to spend on a backup, not more.
 
this is a terrible comparison, there's exactly 1 place for a CDM in every lineup, there's 2 places for CB's and 2 places for number 8's.

In comparison, we have 1 place for a gk, and guess what, we're not buying a 100m backup goalie either!

We absolutely have back-ups - fernandinho is a backup. we don't need to spend so much money on a player who would be second fiddle, this is greedy.

I also reject arguments in the vain of "well what happens if X player gets injured" - well what happens if Ederson gets injured? you play steffen. what happens if rodri gets injured? You play the very capable CDM that you've gotten as a backup. 30m. 35m. That is a completely reasonable amount of money to spend on a backup, not more.
Using the word greedy is absolutely ridiculous is almost every context.

The logic you apply works for most clubs, but not for us. We have less squad depth than our rivals because we don’t work on typical “backup” definition. Is Fernandinho a backup? Currently yes, but he’s a unique figure in the squad for historical and leadership reasons, one you can’t take as an example for anything. Yes, Steffen is a backup goalkeeper and Ake is there for when needed. But no one in the rest of the squad is a backup of any sort. Which is why usually we wouldn’t spend excessive amounts on specific players but rather a lot on all of them as they’re all necessary. That’s why I just don’t think we would ever end up with a player like Zakaria or Douglas Luiz who are most definitely beneath the level of the squad, whereas a player like Rice is someone that walks in on the level of our squad. Unfortunately, I don’t think Pep’s attitude towards squad depth will change, which also means he won’t be taking players beneath a very top level. (And if the attitude towards a player saying he wants to leave and immediately being allowed also means everyone in the squad has to be up for the job) And us getting Grealish for the amount we got and then attempting to get Kane (and you can add Lukaku the previous season) for very high amounts signify we understand the market and won’t be scared of it. I think it’s more likely that we sign Rice for 90M or 100M than we sign someone else of a lesser level for 30M for an unrealistic backup role. Even someone like Kamara, who I think is an great player who would do well in the PL, might not even be it (despite on a free).
 
this is a terrible comparison, there's exactly 1 place for a CDM in every lineup, there's 2 places for CB's and 2 places for number 8's.

In comparison, we have 1 place for a gk, and guess what, we're not buying a 100m backup goalie either!

We absolutely have back-ups - fernandinho is a backup. we don't need to spend so much money on a player who would be second fiddle, this is greedy.

I also reject arguments in the vain of "well what happens if X player gets injured" - well what happens if Ederson gets injured? you play steffen. what happens if rodri gets injured? You play the very capable CDM that you've gotten as a backup. 30m. 35m. That is a completely reasonable amount of money to spend on a backup, not more.

CDM is not a position in a Pep team that you half arse with a 30 to 40 million player that may be able to have qualities to play the role.

CDM is the most important part to Peps gameplan it's where possession is recycled and where most of our attacks start. Rodri is the lynch pin to what gives us control. It's why teams target him so much he's the link between defence to attack

You want a "Back up" in that position to slot in straight away and do the Job Rodri does. You won't find one for a cheap price. With similar qualities to Rodri. Frenkie de Jong maybe but does he have the physical attributes that Rice has.

Plus with Rice you are not just buying a CDM, he seems to have been playing more box to box this season adding goals to his game.

80 to 90 mil would be a bargain for what we would gain in the long run.
 
I’d be surprised if we were going to throw another 100m (which is what West Ham would be asking) at a player who would in effect be an understudy to Rodri.
I’d also be surprised if Rice would be happy with that role at this stage of his career.
Doesn’t seem plausible this one to me.

I agree, there is no way that Rice is going to settle for an understudy role. He is in demand and will end up going to a club who can offer Champions League football, a regular starting berth and guaranteed to be in the hunt for honours each year.

My guess is that he will be nailed on for the Rags, wait a minute, maybe not then.

I can see him following the same path as Lampard and going to Chelsea.
 
We already spent £60m on Rodri, we aren’t gonna spent best part of £100m on his backup.

Look how many minutes Rodri and Ferna respectively have racked up going back 5 years, Pep almost never rotates the CDM.

If we spend more than £30m replacing ferna I’ll be amazed.
And yet he fucked about with it in the Champions League final, I still can't believe he did that.
 
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