Jules Koundé

[cookster]

Reminds me of a modern day Des Walker.

For the younger members that's a huge compliment ;)

 

[oldius]

I've not heard much about him, but he looks very good in the YouTube clips. He looks quick which is something we desperately need and can read the game. I like the look of this lad and it goes without saying now that we absolutely should never deal with Napoli again. I also like it that he is French and should pick up Laporte pretty quickly.

I'm just glad we've brought someone in who looks class and hopefully it will free some of the cash up to bring in some more players.

We only need to strengthen left back, central midfield and a striker now before the season starts....!

We haven't brought him in.

 

[RayCTID]

Very similiar to Lilian Thuram?

More Puyol

 

[Larry Stranger]

This is not a problem for us.

Since the Everton game in Pep's first season, we have stopped putting Centrebacks on the target man.

Instead the 6 is the person who competes for that ball. Fernandinho, Rodri or Gundogan. And they often lose because none of them are great in the air, but they fix the target man in place and then the 2 centrebacks pick up the flicked on header and mop up.

The key thing about those situations is there's never more than 2 runners going after the flicked on header, 90% of the time it is 1. So we almost always have a numerical advantage after the header.


Pep explained this in a press conference about 2 years ago, and we have conceded almost none of those long ball to big man goals since.

Set pieces are the one time our lack of height really makes us vulnerable, but there's solutions to that too.

Very true. Incidentally one of the worst games we played post lockdown in the league was against Bournemouth even though we won. We had Stones and Otamendi as our CB's who you'd think would be best dealing with long balls.
However, for one they couldn't play it out from the back as Bournemouth was high pressing well. They could only back to Ederson who was forced to hit it long causing us to lose possession.

Consequently Bournemouth went long every time and put 3 or 4 big forwards up top which we couldn't deal with. We had Gundogan as the #6 in that game along our CB's who were constantly put under pressure in the air. Maybe people don't think much of it, but having ball playing CB's is a big deal. They help keep possession, start the attack and limit the amount of actions in your own half. Of course they need to be able to defend, but playing out from the back is just as essential.

 

[eastmanc]

Reminds me of a modern day Des Walker.

For the younger members that's a huge compliment ;)

I said that.

 

[BamberBridgeBlue]

I've not heard much about him, but he looks very good in the YouTube clips. He looks quick which is something we desperately need and can read the game. I like the look of this lad and it goes without saying now that we absolutely should never deal with Napoli again. I also like it that he is French and should pick up Laporte pretty quickly.

I'm just glad we've brought someone in who looks class and hopefully it will free some of the cash up to bring in some more players.

We only need to strengthen left back, central midfield and a striker now before the season starts....!

So, you’ve assumed that something that hasn’t been completed, has been completed. You also want three massive pieces of business done by 20.15 tomorrow.

I think you are my boss, Bernadette and we both work for Telford’s answer to Wernham Hogg. Congratulations on the decree absolute in your divorce from reality.

 

[HaalandEffect]

Diffrent values are in the papermill.

 

[blue aura]

Reminds me of a modern day Des Walker.

For the younger members that's a huge compliment ;)

" You'll never beat Kounde "

 

[LesBleuMiserable]

Reminds me of a modern day Des Walker.

For the younger members that's a huge compliment ;)

that would be a huge compliment and worth blowing any reasonable budget to acquire! Walker was a beast in his prime and a great all round defender. Was great at Forrest and later at Wednesday

 

[LesBleuMiserable]

" You'll never beat Kounde "

sounds familiar except not being sung by Forrest