Coincident with what? Besides, an asset is only worth what you can actually get for it, not what you (or the newspapers) say it is worth. Everton were taking a gamble with him as he was not performing at Watford. See my other post above.
The positive from yesterday was it highlighted to Gino the dire need for a quality no 9. Pretty tippy tappy footie with 2 shots on target despite our dominance and 2 goals in 4 games shows how poor we are. It’s not the quality of midfield, they didn’t have an outlet.. Deeney, Gray, Perica, Murray, Welbeck, Success, new signing (Mario ? lol), it’s season defining decision time for the Pozzos before the window shuts.
Its amazing that four games into the season we haven't really played with a striker and yet still have seven points.
This easy argument-clincher. I met a bloke in the pub once whose aunt had met the manager of the fellow who cleaned the boots of Stanley Matthews and once had a kick-around with the great man in the car park. Therefore I know more about football than you do.
Yes, and Sheffield Wednesday. But this is the Championship and they don't. Neither do we , sadly. Where is our new Marlon King?
A correct assessment from Chalobah here. We were lacking a no.9 yesterday. https://www.hertfordshiremercury.co...alobah-pinpoints-problem-area-watford-4573599 But, you've got to say, even though it's true, he's either having a pop at Ivic for not playing Murray or suggesting Murray is not good enough to play, even when we don't have any strikers. Take your pick on which.
People conveniently forget a few important things when to comes to Doucoure. Firstly we did actually turn down £35m for him, since that point he has been poor and inconsistent for us. How can we possibly ask for more than we turned down for a player who is both now older and had declined? People are saying we should be valuing him on what he could do for Everton, but surely that cuts both ways? Yes, he could be brilliant for Everton, but as evidenced by the last 18 months he could play well for them to start with, then go completely off the boil in the exact same way he did for us. That’s surely why his price could only ever be south of the last offer we got? Suggesting we could/should have sold him for £40m is pure fantasy. The other convenient thing is that Everton offered him £120k p/w, over doubling his wages and obviously the opportunity to continue to play at the top level. Once that happened he was effectively rendered useless to us. At that point Everton had all the power, and in the absence of any other interested parties (because he’d been crap for 18 months so nobody else wanted him) we had to sell him to Everton and hence they effectively got to set the price What do people think would’ve happened if we’d said to Everton it’s £40m or nothing? We basically have a player who we’ve denied top flight football to and a £120k p/w contract who would in all likelihood refuse to play for a us and if he did absolutely stink the place out. We’d have an unmotivated crap player on relatively high wages and no cash for him either.
Latterly I had no idea what our plan was to score a goal. We played football without any intent to get the ball into dangerous positions. The only times we looked close to threatening was when Reading made an error and we intercepted the ball in their half, but it was quickly snuffed out as we didn't know how to hurt them after an initial barrage.
He's a pace man. Like a lot of players who rely on speed he makes a lot of mistakes. If we are going to be playing against packed, well-organized defences, sitting back deep, he is going to struggle. Liverpool treated us with disdain and left space at the back, which he exploited to great effect. I doubt many teams in the Championship are going to do that and I expect lots more like Reading just choking the life out of our flimsy attack. Forgive me for blowing my own trumpet but when he first arrived I posted that we would often find him very frustrating.
We've looked toothless up front for years. Even in the ace Cup final season we relied on loads of wonder goals.
Yes, because Gino has always acted sharply on any shortcomings in our squad, plugging gaps with tailor made, upgraded solutions as soon as the problems become apparent. At no point has it become clear that he actually just stuffs our playing squad with hopeful punts who might increase in value so he can turn a profit, combined with dross from his network that no sane club would sign or loan. I'm being sarcastic, by the way, because the second paragraph is exactly what he does.
Indeed. Chris Sutton was ace but I consider his opinions only slightly less informed than a ******** duck's.
Some nice passing and possesion football but as ever utterly clueless up front but no real surprises there. Formation probably needs changing, using Sarr and Pedro on the wings with someone in the middle. Won't take much to change it.
Yes. We have the Mane and Salah positions covered but are desperate for a Ferminio who glues it all together.
No arguments here. Dom was amazed we’ve got to seven points and I was suggesting this was as much to do with the opposition being poor up front
Quick note - here's the cup team we used when we played them in 2018. Not sure how their team compares, but ours is probably better than it was, it's very similar at worst. Why doesn't Success get a look in? https://bit.ly/3d4yJYA
