He's a nice player to watch at times, with good ball control and a few tricks. But he can't shoot, can't pick a pass through the middle, can't take on defenders at pace, doesn't whip the ball in to danger areas. He just sort of loiters around the opposition box. He also tends to disappear from games for large periods of time. He will simply never terrorise a Premier League-quality defender. I don't mind having him in the squad, but he needs to fall down the pecking order by at least two places.
Isn't that the experienced, older type of player we should be after? With the clear lack of leadership at the back, I would take Evans or Dawson at this point.
I am basically ignoring his existence for now as he won’t be back until after the World Cup you would imagine.
We need pace and power in every position. I am fed up with the ease with which so many of our players are brushed off the ball, fed up with seeing good opportunities lost because we have too many average paced players that can’t take advantage of a breakaway and fed up with players being too slow to get back to defend. Purchases absolutely must be starters not just “one for the future”. And a genuine “Ten” and a “****housery” specialist would be preferable.
Rumours are that Everton are offering Tarkowski 120k a week. And that is not factoring in the likes of Newcastle and Villa We can pretty much rule out signing anyone from a relegated club I would expect
Forster off to Spurs then, yet no news of (apparently signed) McCarthy's extension. Why are the club not announcing it, seems really odd to me.
Generally fed up then? I get it totally, but on all honesty I'd be more fed up if Gao was still the owner and penning this with us in The Championship next season.
The original rumour originated from the Athletic was based on an FA annual report which reported a new contract for Alex. But this simply means some sort of agent fee was involved. There are no other details available. It may have been a contract extension which would indeed make no announcement a bit odd. More likely it was a minor variation of terms - possibly a small pay rise to persuade him to see out the season with us rather than leave in January. That said it looks like Fraser is off to Spurs (makes sense). We would still need one of Alex or Willy to provide cover for next season.
I have always been in the “not sure” camp about Adarma, and have been critical of him in the past, but in his defence I don’t think we have played to his strengths. With his pace we should be playing him in a style similar to Vardy, quick, early balls through or over the back four for him to run on to. All too often, with our pitter patter passing game, by the time we do release the ball for him to chase, there is no space and the ball is met by the keeper first. Our current style of play just doesn’t suit him but it would be interesting to see if we can work out how to get more out of him. His goals against Everton and Villa were top quality finishes, as was the disallowed goal at Brentford, especially so when he had been ignored for weeks by Ralph. Unless we get an outrageously good offer for him, in the summer, I would be happy to see how he gets on with, hopefully better players to spot his runs and release the ball sooner.