That’s true. And the extra irony is last season our next opponents Liverpool went from August to January with only three recognised centre backs and proceeded to lose all three to injury.
I’d say most have 4, but the problem is Cathcart is awful and Kabasele is injury prone. Given Troost is going away for ACON I think this was idiotic squad management.
Looks like it's about 4 or 5, although Brentford have 8 because of course they do. I'd say we have the weakest set of centre backs in the league apart from Norwich though.
Think that might be a little harsh on Sierralta and WTE, not harsh on Cathcart though. Hard to judge Kabasele because he's so damn inconsistent, but he's probably standard Premier League 3rd/4th choice fare, and the jury is out on Nkoulou
Genuinely, which other team in the Prem other than Norwich would you even say has as bad a first-choice pairing as WTE and Sierralta (other than the aforementioned Norwich)?
Yet we were totally outplayed and have lost by more on Saturday with the first 2 in defence or was that more due to the midfield not being good enough ? Or weren’t set up the right way to counter Leeds’ style of play .
I definitely don't think the defence was the issue on Saturday, more our tactics which meant we were getting overrun in midfield, I think many Premier League defences would have struggled with that. Plus, you know, this whole passing out from the back doesn't suit us
It's not hard to judge Kabasele at all, he's been with us since 2016 and hasn't looked like a Premier League defender. Cathcart isn't at this level anymore, Sierralta who knows but he looks like he's struggling and WTE is barely passable. Nkoulou is the only one we can't judge yet. Apart from Norwich they are the worst set of centre backs in this league.
No I fully agree and don't understand the thinking behind it. Cathcart aside, we can't go in to a Premier League season with a centre back that has injury problems, one who is very likely to go the AFCON and another that's only ever played half a season of football no matter what we think of him. I get the sell on fees are probably not as good for defenders as midfielders but staying in this league must surely make more money than any transfer fees. I like Gino for what he's done for this club but this just seemed idiotic
Well, Brentford (minus probably Ajer), they've conceded the same amount of goals as us (admittedly with harder games, but also without the puzzling tactics we used under Xisco) and conceded more than us last season. I don't follow the other teams in this league religiously, but there are plenty of defenders that are worse than Sierralta and WTE
Well, why does Sierralta look like he's struggling? I'd say van Dijk would have struggled under Xisco. Let's see how they get on under a competent manager who doesn't leave the defence exposed constantly
Yes agree on that. Taking too many risks and as we know Leeds like to press high so that was playing into their hands .
Brentford possibly fair play, given that we can't fully assess Ajer properly yet, but apart from that I honestly don't think there's a team in the league that you would swap either of their starting centre backs for WTE or Sierralta, and I'm not sure on what basis you would do so either. Obviously, here's hoping that N'Koulou's experience tells and he gets up to speed very quickly, whilst Sierralta adapts wonderfully to the league now Claudio's here, but that's very much hope rather than any immediate reality.
When someone makes a call like that they should get an automatic 1000 likes. Looking at the like leader board some of the names on there are nothing short of a disgrace.
Anyone tried this wine? I tried it a year ago and it was surprisingly good, I’ve struggled to find it in the shops this year though, and when I have it’s been somewhat underwhelming:
Having just prompted me to check, I'm still annoyingly chasing after a position on the board like a dog after a passing car. My ratio is pretty undefeated, though.
You're chasing a deceased poster so will get there soon enough. You're right though, it's all about the ratio and those in the upper echelons have laughable ones. Apart from Steve Leo Beleck. He is untouchable. He is the poster we all aspire to be.
How do I see this leaderboard? If I'm not in the top 10 it's a f**king disgrace and I demand a re-count.
We're neck and neck in 14th and 15th, although admittedly you do have a far superior post to likes ratio. I've been a member since 2006 though, and I think likes were only bought in around 2015 or so, so I'm just going to assume I've had roughly four likes per post since, putting me right up amongst the likes gods.
He was, yes, although he's only actually ever made two appearances, both in international friendlies outside tournaments or qualifiers, the second of which was in 2017 - since then he's only been in the squad for a sum total of four games, and played not a minute in any of them - the last of those coming in 2018. He may have had the anomaly of being called up to Belgium squads as the last possible choice for a while a few years ago whilst essentially never getting played (taking into account the fact that in that same period, a player of the calibre of Dedryck Boyata has made 27 appearances), but I'm still not entirely sure how relevant that is to the point RS2 is making. We've all had the pleasure of watching him with us, mostly in the Premier League, over a period of five years, and it's entirely true - he has never even had a period of looking convincing at Premier League level without the same propensity for mistakes and calamities, and he's 30 at this point - it's not like his talent is just waiting to take off - this is him.
Imagine being so charismatic that people literally like every single thing you've ever written. Mind blowing stuff.
Belgium may have had a golden generation over this past decade, but in terms of depth I'm not convinced they've ever been blessed in that regard, it's hard to envisage a similar calibre player getting capped for England (apart from possibly Chalobah, and in fairness he was a top talent who had a good U21 career with Southgate at the helm)
You're probably right - I guess the closest in a similar time frame might be something like the way Conor Coady could have gone, but obviously he didn't and his trajectory is basically the opposite to Kabasele - even then, he was a Liverpool youth who had to leave and find himself again, rather than a provincial Belgian club's striker who switched positions during his actual adult career... As you say, nowadays/in recent times it's probably hard to see even a player of Boyata's level getting anything like the amount of caps/appearances for England.
According to The Athletic, Sierralta has signed a new 5 year contract, which will activate in the summer, keeping him at the club until 2027. Very pleased the club sorted this out. Top secret again though. Fans do not need to know. Hush, hush. We also still retain an interest in Josh Doig from Hibs, as cover for when Masina goes to the AFCON.
Great news. He walked past me in the SEJ on Saturday and he is one sexy *******. Which is probably why he had three beautiful women armed with handbags over their forearms and mobiles in the other hand with him. Legend.