Shang

56 minutes ago, ramsbottom said:

I don't think Col-Kaz would be the same player 3 years ago, with more legs I can imagine he'd play more on the last man, looking to get in behind.  I remember he was all about pace when he was younger.  You can see the experience in the way he plays, same with Rooney when he first came in last season.  They just play things differently to younger players.

It is interesting what he would've done with him.  You say he wouldn't stand for the constant falling over at the slightest nudge, but he let's Knight get away with it.  As I said on another thread, we need a few more players with an understanding of the dark arts.  With us being such a young side we can be very naïve at times

I agree, we should be trying to win free kicks and fouls at the moment when our set plays are proving to be extremely productive. Jason Knight and Waggy last night ended up with a ton of grass on their shirts, relieving the pressure and providing an opportunity for us to put the ball into a dangerous area.

It's amazing how much better we've become at set plays, over the past few years we've been useless.

Congratulations to Morgan on his first goal for Swansea. I didn't realise how tall he is, next to the Man City defenders he looks massive.

Sibley and Knight are similar players, they're both dynamic box-to-box ball carriers (as in they prefer to dribble and carry the ball towards goal) but the key difference is that he's a naturally selfish player, which isn't a negative thing.

He's more inclined to work to play himself into a position to shoot, and run off players to get into a scoring position. Knight on the other hand is more likely to bring others into play.

Sibley would run past CKR more, which would leave gaps in our midfield when defending a counter attack. This used to happen quite a lot when he was getting regular games.f Knight tends to be slightly behind the forwards.

I personally think that Rooney will either bring Beni into midfield to partner up with Shinnie and move Knight up, or drop Waghorn in favour or a more productive player (Sibley or Roberts). I don't think Rooney trusts Sibley to defend in midfield.

Playing LWB tonight 

This guy has barely played any first team games in his career, I doubt Everton want to keep him around. He apparently signed a new deal 3 years ago after playing a few games under caretaker manager Unsworth, wasn't played by Allardyce and hasn't been seen since.

I think we're most likely trying to get this guy in on a permanent, wouldn't actually surprise me if the Everton end his contract early by mutual consent and he signs on a free.

He's our main backup striker, don't think Waggy is favoured as the middle of a front 3 by Rooney. We'd need to have a plan B striker signed before he goes out surely.

He seems like a player that would play very well in a back 3. From the little footage we have from YouTube highlight reels it's clear he can dribble and pass the ball extremely well, but I would be concerned if that were to happen without other defenders around him covering for his forays forward.

Wouldn't surprise me if he was eventually used for Bielik cover in a CDM role if Bird doesn't work out as he has a similar style of winning the ball and quickly starting a counter attack.

I think his priorities would be a striker, mobile CDM type and a winger as I don't think Waghorn is good enough cover for Joz and Lawrence, even Knight gets put on the wing before him.

31 minutes ago, Anon said:

I read a bit about the alleged bullying. I'm not sure I believe it. Modern football fans and pundits are the biggest drama whores on the planet. I am, however, struggling to understand why Rudiger would be selected ahead of Tomori. Eranio was bang on the money about Rudiger being a rubbish defender, he just picked a stupid reason as to why.

Yeah I'm 50/50 on it too, I think it's clear there's some strong personalities in there and it kind of makes sense why Frank shipped off a bunch of players who were doing well for him. He desperately needed to thin the squad to have less options. 

Players like Barkley were playing relatively regularly for him (and quite well) before he was loaned off to Villa, Ampadu is really highly rated and Loftus Cheek was doing well before injury. Impossible job to juggle all these players.

I've been reading some of the Chelsea forums still trying to figure out why he wasn't being played ahead of Christensen and Rudiger. There's claims of "bullying" in the dressing room with a lot of older heads in there creating discontent that Mason Mount, Tomori and James were being played ahead of them. I think Frank decided to pick and choose his battles and decided that Mount and James were winnable but Tomori unfortunately had to be sacrificed so he could still play those two.

According to the Athletic it's due to the fact a lot of players on the sidelines ain't happy with him and he can't get Werner and Havertz to play to their potential. He's only had half a season with them!

I'm interested to see why AC Milan were so keen to bring him in, seems like a massive risk for a team who are potentially close to winning the league for the first time in forever. I did a quick google search on the Milan manager and he was apparently a very fast ball playing defender in his playing days and wants defenders to push high up the pitch and join in with the attack.

Sounds tailor made for Tomori, wish him all the best.

In my opinion we won't be selling him to "balance the books" or to pay wages. The sale of Gordon and any other outgoings is to give us financial space to play within FFP. At the moment we have little wiggle room, especially with COVID. 

If this goes through along with the sale of others, it means the owners have a few incomings planned that they need to clear up money for.

If Kaide Gordon is truly the best 16 year old in the country and he knew it then he probably wouldn't sign for us on pro terms anyway. At least we'd get a fee for him now.

Lowe had a very good game, loads of chances from his passes... I wish we were playing with wingbacks

I just watched the highlights of this game, Bristol City look like a proper footballing team... Martin isn't playing his traditional hold up role, he's also dropping into midfield and using his vision to thread some good passes forwards. Imagine Rooney in his later years at Man Utd.

It's pure speculation something bad happened during the negotiations, his Instagram post says otherwise.

As I mentioned before, our U23s are currently first place in PL2 against Chelseas U23s at 2nd.

Why in the world would we get a loan to develop their U23s when ours are as good or better?

Watched the match, Chelsea played very well and clearly set up to exploit Liverpools weakness that Norwich highlighted over the weekend.

Pushed 4 players onto the right side of Liverpools defense, outnumbering TAA and Gomez and then switching the ball out to the other side. Looked so much more solid with Kante on the pitch, he was immense.

I must admit, the production values coming out of the club on social media and these channels are top top quality. From a designers perspective it's fantastic.

23 minutes ago, reveldevil said:

I'd imagine it would be hard to design for these without trying lots of the product first,  purely for research purposes!

Oh there's been a lot of drinking for sure.

1 hour ago, RamNut said:

Thats a bit more like it.....

what do you design?

Anything to do with spirits at the moment, print, strategy, events, packaging interiors etc. Clients that I've worked with include Glenfiddich, Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire, Grey Goose, The Savoy etc etc...

I'm a designer so have to stick with the minimalist cliché. Ordered this from a small Scottish brand, made in a limited edition of 150.

http://www.instrmnt.co.uk/01-mnk

Pro Evo 2016 looks good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcIR_0qqCQI

I'm still playing Pro Evo, mainly on career mode because PC community isn't that great. I enjoy it a lot more than FIFA, players feel different and play in certain ways better. Chris Martin is definitely a pivot type player and Russell and Ince cut in and run past him a lot. Worth giving it a go over FIFA.